Donoghue surging, poll says

Five days before voters head to the polls, Democratic candidate Eileen Donoghue appears to be closing the gap with front-runner Niki Tsongas, according to a WBZ-TV poll that was released last night.

Tsongas still has a double digit lead, with 40 percent of likely voters saying they would check the box for her if the vote was today. But Donoghue has gained 13 points since the previous poll was taken two weeks ago and now has 29 percent of the vote.

Among voters who identified themselves as liberal, Tsongas is down 12 points from two weeks ago, while Donoghue is up 22 points.

The poll, which was done for the TV station by SurveyUSA, was conducted Monday through Wednesday and includes 459 likely voters. It has a margin of error of 4.7 percent.

A second poll, which included 146 likely voters, found that Jim Ogonowski has a dominant lead in the Republican primary, with 72 percent saying they would vote for Ogonowski and 12 percent saying they would vote for his opponent, Thomas Tierney.

Here's the full rundown of the Democrats, and how they've shifted:

WBZ-TV Poll (Aug 27-29)
Niki Tsongas - 40%
Eileen Donoghue - 29%
Jamie Eldridge - 15%
Barry Finegold - 9%
Jim Miceli - 3%

WBZ-TV Poll (Aug 11-13)
Niki Tsongas - 39%
Eileen Donoghue - 16%
Barry Finegold - 14%
Jamie Eldridge - 13%
Jim Miceli - 4%