The first independent political poll of Vermont's top three races created quite the buzz this week, especially the numbers that showed Democrat Scudder Parker making inroads into Republican Gov. Jim Douglas' lead and Republican candidate Rich Tarrant doing the same to Independent Bernie Sanders' lead in the Senate race.

The poll by American Research Group of Manchester, N.H. took hits from unhappy backers of Douglas and Sanders, who insist their internal polls show their guy with bigger leads than what ARG had. Funny that Sanders and Douglas folks found themselves singing from the same hymnal, eh?

In any case, we asked ARG for a closer look at the "cross-tabs" -- the numbers behind the numbers -- to try to divine what's going on here.

What the data shows is that Tarrant is making headway with the over 65 crowd, perhaps because of those ads alleging Sanders' form of health care reform will hurt seniors, something Sanders adamantly denies. Have a look at how the support breaks down by age group in the Senate race, according to ARG:

Sanders Tarrant Undecided/Other
18-24 67 22 12
25-44 56 36 7
45-64 56 33 10
65 and over 48 44 9

In the governor's race, Douglas seems to be having the most problem with the "boomer" set. To wit,
Douglas Parker Undecided/Other
18-24 47 33 20
25-44 46 37 16
45-64 45 41 13
65 and over 53 27 20

As for the House race, the age group breakdown between Democrat Peter Welch and Republican Martha Rainville shows no pattern, at least as far as we can tell. Here it is.
Rainville Welch Undecided/Other
18-24 47 37 17
25-44 43 41 16
45-64 38 44 18
65 and over 48 40 12

-- Sam Hemingway