Poll: GOP Ahead in Races in Penn., Colo., Wis.

Yet another new poll shows Republicans are ahead in the polls in three key U.S. Senate seats, now held by Democrats, this time in the battleground states of Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, USA Today reported Thursday.

Just recently all three GOP candidates were behind or running neck and neck. But now the McClatchy-Marist Poll shows GOP’s Ken Buck 8 percentage points ahead of Colorado incumbent Michael Bennet whom President Barack Obama has campaigned for. In Pennsylvania, Republican Pat Toomey is running 9 points ahead of Democrat Joe Sestak. Perhaps the biggest surprise is GOP’s Ron Johnson now beating veteran U.S. Senator Russ Feingold by 7 percentage points.

“Right now the GOP is poised to pick up a seat in each of these three seats,’’ said Lee Miringoff, director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “It doesn’t deliver the majority in the U.S. Senate but they don’t get there without these seats in the win column.”