BOSTON -- A poll released today shows Elliot Richardson holds a comfortable lead over two other contenders for the Republican nomination to fill the seat being vacated by Sen. Paul Tsongas, D-Mass.
The telephone poll of 600 GOP and independent voters found Richardson with 38 percent, businessman Raymond Shamie with 29 percent and anti-abortion activist Mildred Jefferson with 3 three percent.
The survey found 29 percent undecided.
The poll, with a margin of error of 5.8 percent, was conducted Feb. 11 and 12 for WHDH-AM and WCVB-TV in Boston.
Richardson held several cabinet posts in the Nixon and Ford administrations. Shamie, who ran against Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1982, was seen as the likely GOP nominee until Richardson announced.
Tsongas, 43, a popular liberal, announced Jan. 13 he would not run for a second term because he is suffering from cancer of the lymph system.
The crowded field on the Democratic side includes Reps. Edward Markey and James Shannon and Lt. Gov. John Kerry, a founder of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
