Poll again finds Reid, Angle about even

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A new poll in Nevada has found a marquee U.S. Senate race remains about even between Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican candidate Sharron Angle.

An opinion poll released Friday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and KLAS-TV in Las Vegas put Reid at 46 percent and Angle at 44 percent - well within the sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The telephone survey of 625 voters was conducted statewide Monday through Wednesday by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C. A similar poll by the same group two weeks ago had Reid at 43 percent and Angle at 42 percent.

The new survey found just 5 percent of voters undecided about who they'll vote for in November, with 3 percent saying they want neither Reid nor Angle, and 2 percent wanting someone else.

Fifty-one percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of Reid, 40 percent had a favorable opinion, and 9 percent said they were neutral.

Angle drew a 45 percent unfavorable ranking, with 37 percent giving her a favorable opinion and 17 percent neutral.

By 51 to 45 percent, respondents said they didn't believe Reid's seniority and influence in the Senate was too valuable for Nevada to lose. Four percent said they weren't sure.

Three questions focused on themes common to campaign ads running since Angle emerged in June as the GOP nominee and tea party favorite to challenge Reid in the Silver State.

Forty-one percent of respondents said Angle's views were too extreme, while 36 percent said Reid was too extreme. Six percent said both were too extreme, and 6 percent said they weren't sure.

Almost three in four respondents said they didn't care if a candidate had a different religious background than them, and another 15 percent said it wasn't too important.

Almost half said it was appropriate for Reid to have encouraged banks to keep funding the $8.5 billion CityCenter project when it faced shutting down during construction last year on the Las Vegas Strip. Thirty-six percent Reid's action inappropriate, and 16 percent said they weren't sure.

CityCenter is credited with creating 12,000 jobs since opening in economically distressed Las Vegas, where Angle ads blame Reid for a highest-in-the-nation unemployment rate of 14.2 percent.