State Sen. Ed Murray is cleaning Mayor Mike McGinn’s clock, according to a new KING 5 News poll.

The poll, conducted over the weekend by Survey USA of 503 likely Seattle voters, shows Murray with a whopping 52 percent to 30 percent lead over the mayor. Eighteen percent were undecided. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent.

Also, the poll also found that 40 percent of 652 registered voters approve of the job McGinn is doing while 44 percent disapprove. Murray, conversely, has a 57 percent approval rating and 19 percent disapproval.

Murray’s campaign spokesman Sandeep Kaushik, though heartened by the results, this morning offered this cautionary note, “While it is great to see numbers like this, and while we do think that Seattle voters are responding positively to Ed’s message of providing effective, collaborative, progressive leadership (as opposed to the current divisive approach from Mayor McGinn), we also anticipate the race to be significantly closer than these numbers would indicate.”

Added Kaushik, “The King 5 poll was off in the primary, and as I recall a late October poll showed [Joe) Mallahan seven points ahead of McGinn in the 2009 race. So we would caution the media to take these numbers with a grain of salt.”

Other poll findings:

Forty-four percent believe Seattle is headed in the right direction while 39 percent believe the city is on the wrong track.

Ninety-four percent of registered voters say they are very concerned or somewhat concerned about Seattle’s traffic and transportation issues.

Eight-seven percent say they are very concerned or somewhat concerned about the quality of Seattle schools and 88 percent are very concerned or somewhat concerned about public safety and the Seattle Police Department.

The election is Nov. 5.