Nation: Polls

Pollster Sam Lubell, conducting a door-to-door survey of eleven Michigan precincts, found that one of every five voters who went for Democratic Governor John Swainson in 1960 now plans to support Republican George Romney. Those figures, if projected, would indicate a sizable Romney victory. But a new Detroit News poll reported that Romney’s lead over Swainson was narrowing, now stood at a breathless 49.7% to 49.5%.

— California’s Field poll, surveying the gubernatorial race between Republican Dick Nixon and Democrat Pat Brown, cautiously concluded that either could lose. With Brown ahead in northern California and Nixon leading slightly in populous southern counties, a poll of the 80% of registered voters “most likely to vote” showed 48% for Brown, 44% for Nixon —and 8% still undecided.

The Minneapolis Tribune’s Minnesota poll showed Incumbent Republican Governor Elmer L. Andersen with a slim edge in his bid for a second term over Democratic-Farmer-Labor Lieutenant Governor Karl Rolvaag. After lagging well behind Rolvaag in August, Andersen now had support from 50% of the state’s “most likely voters,” to Rolvaag’s 47%.

The Gallup poll, sampling opinion in congressional races throughout the U.S., found the Democrats ahead 57% to 43%. In the 1960 congressional elections, the Democrats took 55.3% of the actual vote, won 263 House seats; Republicans got 44.7% and 174 seats.