Republican Fargo legislator Rick Berg continues to garner a majority of support over incumbent Democrat Earl Pomeroy, according to the latest monthly poll of North Dakota's U.S. House race.
Berg leads Pomeroy 51 percent to 44 percent among 500 likely North Dakota voters polled June 15 and 16 by Rasmussen Reports.
Of those polled, 1 percent preferred a candidate other than Berg or Pomeroy, and 5 percent remained undecided in the race. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Berg has consistently secured more support than Pomeroy in each of Rasmussen's monthly polls since February.
But the results are little changed over last month, when Berg led 52 percent to Pomeroy's 43 percent.
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Having less than 50 percent support as an incumbent makes Pomeroy "considerably vulnerable" at this point in the election year, according to Rasmussen's analysis.
Berg's campaign calls the latest poll more good news for the Republican challenger seeking to unseat Pomeroy, a nine-term congressman.
"People across the state are rallying around our campaign, because they understand the importance of this election and know that Rick will bring much-needed North Dakota common sense and leadership to Washington," Berg campaign manager Tom Nelson said in a statement.
Pomeroy's re-election campaign and the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party again responded with skepticism, challenging the validity of Rasmussen's results.
"This is another skewed poll from a Republican-leaning outfit whose methods are so unreliable that many respected media organizations won't publish their results," Pomeroy campaign manager Dianne Mondry said. "We won't be paying much attention to it."
The Democratic-NPL Party called it "another poll aimed at helping North Dakota Republicans gain momentum" in 2010.
Democrats said the results purposely lean in favor of Republicans because of pollster Scott Rasmussen's former work with the GOP.
"Savvy North Dakotans would be skeptical of Rasmussen's skewed results," the Democratic-NPL said in a statement.
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Kristen Daum is a reporter at The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, which, like the Herald, is owned by Forum Communications Co.
