SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Rising Democratic star Barack Obama is poised to trounce latecomer Alan Keyes for Illinois' open U.S. Senate seat by an unprecedented 3-1 ratio.
Obama, a state senator from Chicago, currently enjoys a 45-point lead -- 68 percent to 23 percent -- over Keyes, according to new polling figures released Sunday by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KMOV-TV.
Keyes is a conservative radio talk-show host and one-time presidential hopeful, who recently moved from Maryland to seek the seat vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald,
"I can't remember the last time you had a gap like this between two newcomers. Usually, when you have this kind of gap, it's the popular incumbent against a sacrificial lamb. This may be unprecedented," said Del Ali, head of Research 2000, the Maryland-based firm that conducted the poll of 800 likely voters. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.
