LA Times Poll: Kerry- 32, Dean 19, Clark 17, Edwards 14

[DJcairo]

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The Times Poll, supervised by polling director Susan Pinkus, surveyed 1,176 likely Democratic primary voters from Jan. 20 through 23; it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

It included 260 interviews Friday — the day after the last candidate debate before the primary — and found the forum had relatively little effect on voter attitudes. Although most respondents said they watched the debate, only 9% said it changed their preference — and they scattered among the candidates about evenly.

The Iowa contest appears to have had a stronger effect: 20% of the likely New Hampshire voters said the caucus results influenced their decision, while 79% said they did not.

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Kerry also led comfortably when voters were asked, regardless of which candidate they supported, which of the contenders they believed "is most qualified to serve as commander in chief."

Kerry was picked by 37% while Clark, who has built his campaign around his military and foreign policy experience, was tabbed by 25%. Just 11% selected Dean and only 6% named Edwards.

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Incidentally, ABC's The Note, refers to this poll as "solid" as compared to the "maw" of somewhat questionable tracking polls which are reporting widely varying results, all however have Kerry in the lead.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-poll24jan24,1,5730437.story?coll=la-headlines-politics