[img_assist|nid=2307|title=Congressional candidate Betsy Markey|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=188|height=213]A new poll of the Fourth Congressional District race by EMILY's List gives Democratic nominee Betsy Markey a nine-point lead over incumbent U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Fort Morgan).

The poll, conducted Sept. 8-10 and released Friday, corroborates a poll taken last month that showed Markey with a seven-point lead.

However, the poll was taken before Musgrave's campaign began airing a television attack ad questioning whether Markey used her position as a U.S. Senate staffer to enrich her company through no-bid government contracts. EMILY's List, a political action committee that seeks to elect women who support abortion rights to Congress, has also endorsed Markey.

The survey found Markey was favored over Musgrave 47 percent to 38 percent. Markey was "strongly favored" by 34 percent of those polled, while 25 percent "strongly favored" Musgrave. Female voters favored Markey 50 percent to 33 percent.

Forty percent of those polled gave Musgrave a "favorable" rating; another 40 percent gave the incumbent an "unfavorable" rating. Favorable/unfavorable numbers for Markey were not immediately available.

Only 15 percent of those polled were undecided about the race, the survey found.

The poll was conducted among 400 likely registered 4th Congressional District voters by Grove Insight, Ltd. The margin of error was +/- 4.9 percent.

Markey manager Anne Caprara said the poll "clearly tells us that voters are responding to Betsy's message of fiscal discipline and positive change for the district, and that they don't trust Marilyn Musgrave and aren't buying into her lies."

Musgrave manager Jason Thielman, though, dismissed the poll as "partisan."

"(Releasing this poll) is a desperate effort by Betsy Markey’s partisan surrogates to distract from the mounting questions surrounding Markey’s ethical problems," Thielman said.

Thielman said the Musgrave campaign has not conducted a poll of the race in the last three months. But he said given the ethical questions raised during the past week, he expects to see increased support for Musgrave.

"Given the evidence that’s out there, it’s pretty clear that Betsy Markey’s campaign is teetering on the edge of collapse," Thielman said.