You may remember that Rasmussen poll from one month ago that momentarily had everyone in a tizzy when it showed Frank Lautenberg, in the immediate post-primary frenzy, leading Dick Zimmer by only 1 point, 45-44. Rasmussen’s back with another shot at it:
Rasmussen (7/7, likely voters) (6/9 in parentheses):
Frank Lautenberg (D-inc): 49 (45)
Dick Zimmer (R): 36 (44)
(MoE: ±4.5%)
This is very much in line with the June 26 Fairleigh Dickinson poll (Lautenberg 45, Zimmer 28) and the June 11 Quinnipiac poll (Lautenberg 47, Zimmer 38). So what happened on June 9? Well, outliers happen. Even if the best pollster in the world does everything absolutely right — gets a good sample, eliminates all bias from the instrument — 1 out of 20 times, it’s still going to be completely wrong, i.e. outside-the-margin-of-error wrong. That’s what the 95% confidence interval, a caveat buried in the fine print of every poll report, is all about. Happens to everyone, even Rasmussen.