Begich trails in new Alaska polls

Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) trails former Alaska Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Sullivan (R) in two new polls, the first nonpartisan live-caller surveys of the race.

Sullivan leads Begich 50 percent to 44 percent in a survey from CNN and ORC International. In a Fox News poll released Wednesday night, he leads Begich 44 percent to 40 percent.

Those surveys are the first live-caller numbers in Alaska, a state that is notoriously difficult to poll accurately and where pollsters often miss the mark by wide margins. But they’re in line with a pair of recent live-caller surveys conducted by Alaska Republican pollsters and a pair of automated surveys, all indicating that Begich has fallen behind Sullivan in the key Senate battleground.

The CNN poll of 875 likely voters reached on landlines and cellphones was conducted from Oct. 1-6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.