Tennessean poll....Alexander 51 to Tuke's 35

Alexander still leads Tuke in Senate poll

By Jennifer Brooks
THE TENNESSEAN

If the election was held today, just over half of Middle Tennesseans polled said they would re-elect first-term U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander.

In a Tennessean poll of likely voters in eight counties around Nashville, 51 percent planned to vote for Republican incumbent Alexander, 35 percent favored Democratic challenger Bob Tuke and 14 percent remained undecided with less than two weeks to go until Election Day.

Alexander, a former Tennessee governor and former U.S. secretary of education, has raised 10 times more money for his campaign than Tuke, a Nashville attorney and former head of the Tennessee Democratic Party.

By midyear, Alexander had raised more than $7 million while Tuke had raised less than $500,000.

Alexander, a member of the Senate leadership, spent some of his funds on television ads in select Tennessee markets, and he has also diverted some of the funds in his war chest to embattled Republicans in other races — including $175,000 he recently transferred to the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.