New poll: Branstad has 60-37 percent lead over challenger Hatch

CEDAR RAPIDS - Gov. Terry Branstad looks 'unstoppable” in his bid for a sixth term, according to a poll released this morning.

Branstad's lead over Democratic Des Moines state Sen. Jack Hatch has grown to 60 percent to 37 percent among likely voters in the latest Quinnipiac University Poll. That includes a 62-33 percent lead among independent voters.

That's the Republican incumbent's largest lead since Quinnipiac started polling in the race and is the first time his numbers have been over 50 percent.

'We still have seven weeks until Election Day, but barring what would be one of the largest turnarounds in American political history Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is on the road to the history books,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. 'Hatch obviously has a long, long way to go.”

The new poll numbers are evidence 'Iowans resoundingly want to see Gov. Branstad and Lt. Gov. (Kim) Reynolds leading this state to an even brighter future,” according to campaign manager Jake Ketzner.

It's one poll, Hatch told reporters after laying out his economic plans before the Des Moines Partnership Thursday morning, and the polls are all over the place.

'Fox News came out and said I was only 13 points down,” Hatch said. 'We know we're behind. Just like Tom Vilsack and Harry S Truman, we'll continue to work and move forward, and get our message out.”

However, Quinnipiac found that 82 percent of those polled said their mind is made up while only 18 percent say they would change their mind before Election Day, Nov. 4.

'Everybody still has options of changing,” Hatch said. 'We just have to work harder and get our name out. There are still a large number of people who don't know me, which is obvious because as the governor said I'm a big-city senator from a small district. We know that that's a challenge.”

In fact, if there's good news in the poll for Hatch it's that the percentage of Iowans who know him is increasing. The percentage who told Quinnipiac they don't know enough about him to form an opinion has fallen from 74 percent in March to 64 percent in June and to 44 percent now.

The bad news in that is he gets a split 29-26 percent favorability rating while the governor gets a 59-33 percent favorability rating.

Other key findings include:

' Voters say 62-32 percent that the governor is honest and trustworthy, compared to 41-25 percent for the challenger.

' Branstad cares about their needs and problems, voters say 64-31 percent, compared to 46-28 percent for Hatch.

' Voters say 75-22 percent the Republican has strong leadership qualities, compared to 40-28 percent for the Democrat.

' Branstad leads 54-43 percent among women and 66-30 percent among men.

' The incumbent leads 95-4 percent among Republicans while Hatch leads 81-17 percent among Democrats.

' Brown finds it ironic that in the hyperpartisan world of American politics 'Branstad presumably will wrest the record for being the nation's longest serving governor from a Clinton, but no kin of Bill and Hillary.” From 1777 to 1795 and 1801 to 1804 George Clinton was New York's governor.

From Sept. 10-15, Quinnipiac surveyed 1,167 likely voters with a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points. Live interviewers called landlines and cellphones.

Rod Boshart of the Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.