Digital Bulletin

Candidates for governor are locked in a tight race, with Republican Governor Carcieri leading the Democratic challenger, Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty, by 45 percent to 41 percent, according to a poll released today.

The poll, conducted by Fleming & Associates for Channel 12 Eyewitness News, found 14 percent were “not sure” whom they would vote for in November and had a margin of error of about 5 percent.

The results included those who “lean toward a candidate,” and were based on interviews with 401 registered voters Aug. 16-21.

Fogarty’s campaign spokesman, Adam Bozzi, called the latest poll “great news,” saying, “We are right where we need to be at this point. We are seeing Rhode Islanders who want a change responding to Charlie Fogarty’s message.”

Polls conducted by Rasmussen Reports also have shown Carcieri and Fogarty either tied or very close for several months. The most recent Rasmussen poll had the candidates tied at 43 percent. Bozzi said, “All the polls solidify the idea that this race is a dead heat.”

Carcieri’s campaign manager, Kenneth K. McKay IV, said, “We only worry about getting the job done. We’ll let career politicians worry about the polls.”

McKay said the Carcieri campaign relies on its own polls. While he would not release those polls, he said they showed a larger lead for Carcieri.

“We don’t worry about public polls,” McKay said, emphasizing that the campaign’s internal polls focus on likely voters as opposed to registered voters.

But Fleming & Associates said it only interviewed people who passed two screens designed to show that the respondents were registered to vote and were likely to vote in November.