Lautenberg Leads in Polls

A poll of likely voters released Friday night shows Frank Lautenberg ahead of Republican Douglas Forrester by 12 points.

The CBS-New York Times poll puts the Democrat at 48 percent to Forrester's 36 percent.

Lautenberg replaced Senator Robert Torricelli on the ballot when Torricelli dropped out of the race September 30th because of ethics problems.

Lautenberg enjoys much of his current lead from women and independents.

Female voters favored Lautenberg by 19 points. Independents, who make up a third of New Jersey voters, favored Lautenberg by 12 points -- 44 percent to 32 percent.

The poll of 772 registered voters was taken October 19th to 24th. It has an error margin of plus or minus four percentage points.

Author: NBC10/AP