Clinton Holds Small Lead According To Another Poll

A second poll for the Indiana Democratic primary race for president shows Hillary Clinton with just a 3-point lead over Barack Obama. The poll conducted by several Indiana TV stations shows Clinton leading Obama 49%-46%, which is within the poll's 5%, plus or minus margin of error. A SurveyUSA poll released earlier this week showed Clinton leading Obama by 9% points.

In the hotly-contested Pennsylvania race, Obama is coming under fire from the GLBT media for refusing requests for interviews. The Philadelphia Gay News writes:

Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, said, "Senator Obama's lack of dialogue with the local gay press is disappointing. The local gay press often is to the LGBT community what churches are to the black community."

Despite concerted efforts, Senator Barack Obama has not granted a formal interview to the Philadelphia Gay News. PGN, now in its 32nd year and the nation's most-honored LGBT newspaper, is taking the unusual step of displaying Obama's lack of communication to the local LGBT press, leaving blank space on the newspaper's front page where Obama's interview would have appeared, illustrating his lack of accessibility to the local gay press. Obama has not granted a formal interview to any local gay press in 1, 522 days, when he spoke to the Windy City Times during his Senate race in 2004.

PGN requested an equal chance to interview Senator Obama as with Senator Clinton, given same questions and time limits. PGN has learned that several of his advisors, including his strongest political supporter in Pennsylvania, Senator Bob Casey, two of his super delegates and a major Pennsylvania financial backer supported the newspaper's invitation. Obama's scant respect for the local gay press was discussed at last week's National Gay Newspaper Guild meeting in Boston and at a recent LGBT Obama fundraiser in New York, where the candidate again was personally encouraged to speak to the LGBT press.

The newspaper's editor says he was treated with greater respect from the McCain campaign than Obama's. "It's a sad day when we are treated with more respect from the Republican candidate, John McCain, than a Democratic senator," said Segal. "With McCain, his top press representative called us back within three hours. It took seven weeks for Obama's representative to acknowledge." Locally, Ted Fleischaker of The Word, Indiana's largest GLBT newspaper, has indicated that both Democratic presidential campaigns have agreed to respond to questions for its upcoming May edition.