New Rasmussen Poll Shows Mark Kirk Over Alexi Giannoulias, 46% to 40%

The first Rasmussen poll taken after the primary election results were in shows Congressman Mark Kirk with a nice six point lead over Democrat banker Alexi Giannoulias:

The first post-primary Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 telephone survey of the Kirk-Giannoulias race finds just four percent (4%) of likely voters in the state prefer some other candidate, while another 10% are undecided.

Among voters not affiliated with either of the major parties, the Republican holds a sizable 59% to 22% lead.

In December, Giannoulias was up by three points over Kirk. In October, the two men were tied at 41% each. In mid-August, Kirk held a modest 41% to 38% lead over Giannoulias.

The two men, as projected in previous Rasmussen Reports surveys, defeated several challengers to win their respective party primaries on Tuesday. But while Kirk holds a six-point lead for now in the race for the Senate seat held by Barack Obama, he may still face an uphill struggle in a state that trends Democratic.

Kirk, a U.S. congressman, leads Giannoulias, Illinois’ current state treasurer, by a wide margin among male voters but trails his Democratic rival by 13 points among female voters.

What is it with Sexi Lexi, anyway? He doesn't do it for TA, that's for sure.

The Dems' concern over Alexi's weakness as a candidate was worrying even the White House weeks before the election results were in. Right now, the local Dems are more concerned about revelations regarding their new Lt. Governor candidate Scott Lee Cohen to put a lot of energy into the Kirk-Alexi race. That'll come as soon as their current crisis is dealt with. And let's not forget that the next big story will be the Blago trial this Spring (Capitol Fax Blog is reporting that Balgo was just re-indicted this afternoon (I believe to clean up the statutory basis for his indictment)) .

I actually read some Dem spin the other day that labeled Alexi as the "underdog" in this race. Ah, folks, this is still Illinois, a blue state will all constiutional offices held by the Dems, who also have a lock on the General Assembly. (And the prior Rasmussen poll had Alexi up by three points, so we have a long way to go, yet.) But please don't embarrass yourselves by trying to get pity points (or is it managing expectations for a Dem loss so that Obama isn't shamed by the failure of the Dems to hold this seat?) by calling Alexi an underdog. Gag me.