McConnell Up 11 Points In Internal Polling

By Josh Kraushaar

(The Politico)  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) holds an 11-point lead over his Democratic opponent, businessman Bruce Lunsford, according to the McConnell campaign’s internal polling released today.

The poll shows McConnell leading Lunsford 50 to 39 percent in a head-to-head matchup, The numbers are unchanged in McConnell’s internal polling since Lunsford won the Democratic primary this month.

“This is remarkable since the survey was done at a time that Republicans were slipping nationally, and at a time that Lunsford was spending significant sums of money on advertising,” McConnell’s pollster Jan van Lohuizen wrote in the polling memo. “So no movement at a time like this is good news in my opinion.”

The poll also shows McConnell holding a strong job approval rating: 57 percent of respondents said they approved of McConnell’s job performance while 30 percent disapproved.

Fifty-five percent of voters had a favorable impression of McConnell, while 32 percent had an unfavorable impression. Lunsford had a lower net favorability rating: 34 percent held a positive impression of him, while 20 percent had an unfavorable impression.

The poll surveyed 600 likely voters between May 21-22, and was conducted by the GOP firm Voter/Consumer Research. The poll has a four percent margin of error.

It contradicts the numbers from a newly-released automated Rasmussen poll, which shows Lunsford leading McConnell, 49 to 44 percent. 

Lunsford handily won the Democratic nomination this month, and is able to partially self-fund a bid to help him catch up with McConnell’s sizable campaign warchest. McConnell ended April with $7.7 million cash-on-hand.