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NEW YORK (AP) - A day after one poll showed Eliot Spitzer in a tie with rival Scott Stringer in the Democratic primary for New York City comptroller, another has the disgraced former governor sporting a sizeable lead.
The unpredictable race, in which Spitzer chose to launch his political comeback following a prostitution scandal, took another turn when a poll released Friday by Siena College and The New York Times showed that Spitzer was the choice of 50 percent of likely Democratic voters.
Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, was at 35 percent. The poll of 505 likely Democratic voters, conducted between Aug. 19 and Wednesday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
But a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows Spitzer and Stringer tied at 46 percent. That survey of 602 likely Democratic voters, conducted between Aug. 22 and Monday, also had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The Quinnipiac poll came two weeks after a pair of surveys showed Spitzer with a huge lead, and it was immediately seized upon by the Stringer campaign as evidence of a tightening race. Political analysts suggested Stringer got a boost from a wave of endorsements from newspapers and politicians.
The two campaigns sniped at each other all day on Twitter and that continued Friday when a Spitzer spokeswoman accused the Stringer team of taking a premature "victory lap" over the tied poll.
The bad blood between the campaigns has escalated in recent weeks, punctuated by a trio of testy debate showdowns between the candidates.
The primary is Sept. 10. The winner will face the Republican nominee in the Nov. 5 general election.
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