An Emerging Gender Gap?

Is there a gender gap in Missouri's U.S. Senate race?

Senator Talent was in Springfield Saturday to tout his Women for Talent coalition. His campaign said they have about 1,000 female volunteers signed up across the state to rally troops for the election. About 150 people, mostly women, attended Springfield's event at Bass Pro. Springfield state senator Norma Champion and Talent's wife Brenda, introduced the junior senator for his speech.

"It's important to outreach to them," Talent told me. "After all, they are half the voters."

The June 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch poll done by Research 2000 shows Talent trailing Democrat Claire McCaskill among women voters.

The survey of 800 likely voters shows that while Talent and McCaskill basically split the men's vote . . . McCaskill holds a 13-point lead among women, 52% to 39%.

But the June SurveyUSA tracking poll found that Talent actually had a slightly better approval rating among women (49%) than men (46%).

Talent said he couldn't remember whether he won women against Jean Carnahan, but said he probably didn't. "If I had, we would've probably won by more," Talent said.