Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill has a lead over his Republican opponent heading into next week's election according to our latest survey.
The poll, conducted by Dan Jones and Associates, finds Gill with a 9-point cushion over Republican Steve Nelson – 51-42%
Nelson is only getting the vote of 76% of Republicans, while Gill scores 20% support from GOP voters. Gill wins Democrats handily (97-2%), plus he gets a majority of independent voters (55-32%).
Gill also is attracting the support of moderate voters by a 63-34% margin.
Gill has been very high-profile in the last few months, including his investigation into a couple of police officer-involved shootings and ordering Salt Lake County employees to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples following a court decision striking down the state's prohibition on same-sex marriage. Those controversies don't seem to have hurt him among voters.
In 2008, Gill beat Republican D.A. Lohra Miller by an 8-point margin.
The survey was conducted October 20-23 among 342 active voters. It has a margin of error of +/- 5.3%.
