Poll: GOP Sen. Pat Roberts down by 5 points in Kansas

Republican Sen. Pat Roberts continues to trail in his re-election bid from the deeply Republican state of Kansas, in the newest poll from SurveyUSA.

The poll, conducted for the local NBC affiliate in Wichita, shows independent candidate Greg Orman with 47 percent, compared to Roberts with 42 percent, plus 4 percent for Libertarian nominee Randall Batson. The survey of likely voters was conducted from Oct. 2 to 5, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

Orman was aided significantly in this race when the Democratic nominee, Chad Taylor, dropped out of the race, helping to consolidate the anti-Roberts vote in a state that has only sent Republicans to the Senate since the 1930s.

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For his part, Orman has played coy on which party he might vote with in the Senate, if he were to find himself in a position to determine the majority itself — even saying that he would keep the option to switch his alignment after several months if the Senate isn't being run correctly.