Riley Research Associates, a Portland-based polling firm, came out with a poll earlier this week (Tuesday, I believe) that showed the race for President in Oregon all but tied, with Kerry at 46%, Bush at 45% and Nader (who might or might not be on the ballot) at 1% (MoE of +/- 4.35%). I had thought this outfit was a little pro-GOP (their previous poll, in May, showed Bush up by a 45-39 margin), and I hadn't even looked at the poll because it so differed from the Zogby poll of the state that came out at about the same time showing Kerry up by nearly 10 points in the state.

I finally got around to looking at the poll today and found that it actually has a lot of interesting information, even if I don't agree with the Presidential poll. To be specific, the Riley poll has the first public polling in Oregon's Congressional districts I have seen thusfar in the election cycle, even if the MoE for each is +/- 10% (which is ridiculously high).

[There] appears to be little evidence that President Bush’s coattails extend to Oregon’s Congressional races, as the incumbents seem to have clear leads in each district polled.

CD 1
In this contest, with 18% undecided, incumbent David Wu enjoys a significant lead over challenger Goli Ameri (58% vs. 24%).

CD 4
In this southern Willamette Valley district, another incumbent Congressman Peter DeFazio leads challenger Jim Feldkamp 69% to 23%, with just 9% undecided.

CD 5
In CD5, challenger Jim Zupancic has made inroads against veteran Representative Darlene Hooley, but trails 33% to 49%, with 19% still undecided.

There's lots of internals on all of these races, though I'm not sure how relevant they are given the small sample for each district (about 100 voters in each).

The big surprise of this poll is how big of a lead David Wu holds right now. Though he has a lot of money and name recognition, the Republicans have really targeted him with the Iranian-American Ameri (both VP Cheney and Speaker Hastert have done fundraisers for her) and had hoped to pick off the seat in Oregon. This poll indicates they have a long way to even get 40% of the district's vote. Hooley's lead, though smaller, is still encouraging.

If you want more information on these races, check out my "Basie! on Oregon" page for my full analysis of the state's politics.