Caprio

PROVIDENCE — A poll commissioned by General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio’s campaign for governor suggests he may have a 17-percent lead over his likely Democratic primary opponent, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch.

His campaign would release the results of only one question in what his pollster John Anzalone described as a 30- to 40-question poll, of 700 likely Democratic primary voters, that was conducted from Jan. 27 to Feb. 1.

The question: “If the 2010 Democratic primary election for governor were held today, and the candidates were Frank Caprio and Patrick Lynch, for whom would you vote?”

Caprio would lead Lynch 48 percent to 31 percent, with 21 percent undecided, according to a one-page summary provided by the Caprio campaign.

The responses to this one question also suggest that Caprio leads Lynch among all major Democratic voting groups, including union members, despite Caprio’s well-publicized recent pledge of money and support to the Statewide Coalition, a citizens group that says it wants to “become a political counterbalance to PSUs [public-sector unions].”

Caprio’s poll indicates union members favor him over Lynch, 46 percent to 37 percent, and that he is in a virtual tie with Lynch for the liberal vote, while leading Lynch 51 percent to 27 percent among moderates, and 64 percent to 20 percent among conservatives. Anzalone Research pegged the potential margin of error at plus or minus 3.7 percent.

Caprio made the results public three days after WPRI-TV, Channel 12 released a poll showing Caprio in a statistical dead heat with Republican-turned-independent former U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee in a general election contest, and Chafee beating Lynch handily if he were the winner of the September Democratic primary.

Asked why the campaign was only willing to release the results of one question, Caprio spokeswoman Margie O’Brien said: “I don’t have that answer. … What you have is what was made available to me.”

kgregg@projo.com