MD: Sarbanes well positioned for re-election

DSCC reports that:

Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D) is “very well-positioned” for re-election should he choose to seek a record-shattering sixth term in 2006, an independent poll has found.

Fifty-six percent of the 402 Democrats surveyed by an independent polling firm said they would vote to re-elect him. Only 10 percent said they would vote to replace Sarbanes, while 34 percent said they would consider someone else.

The poll was conducted Jan. 3-8 by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies of Annapolis and had a 5 percent margin of error.

Sarbanes, who is already Maryland’s longest-serving Senator, has not said whether he will run again in 2006, when he will be 73 years old. But the poll predicted a spirited Democratic race to replace him in the event that he retires.