Trib Poll Shows Giannoulias, Kirk Lead Senate Race

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jan 25, 2010 7:00PM

We're closing in on next week's primary election and in the race for U.S. Sen. Roland Burris' seat, the expected leaders are at the front of the pack but there are still large numbers of undecided voters on both the Democratic and Republican side of the fence, according to a new poll from the Tribune and WGN. For the Dems, Alexi Giannoulias garnered a healthy 34 percent of those polled with Cheryle Jackson coming in at 19 percent and David Hoffman at 16 percent. Overall, though, the "undecided" vote still accounted for 26 percent. For Republicans, State Rep. Mark Kirk has a healthy 47 percent of the vote while 10 percent is split up among a smattering of candidates and Patrick Hughes has eight percent. But even with 35 percent of the potential voters polled answering "undecided," Kirk's lead seems pretty safe. The Trib has a pretty detailed breakdown of the poll's details as well as how the GOP voters polled support the Tea Party movement.