Emmer camp disputes new MPR poll

Posted at 1:51 PM on October 28, 2010 by Tim Pugmire (2 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

Republican candidate Tom Emmer is insisting that the race for governor is a dead heat between him and DFLer Mark Dayton.

Emmer's campaign released some internal poll numbers today to try to back up the claim. The internal poll had both Emmer and Dayton at 40 percent, with Independence Party candidate Tom Horner at 13 percent. Additional data was not provided. The Emmer campaign is also trying to discredit the results of a new Minnesota Public Radio/Humphrey Institute poll that shows Dayton ahead by 12 percentage points.

Here's the campaign news release:

In past election cycles, results from the MPR/Humphrey Institute have been wrong and have given voters across the state bad information. The most recent poll released today by MPR and the Humphrey Institute follows this dramatically wrong yet predictable pattern.

To make sure voters have more accurate and statistically reliable information about the Minnesota Governor's race, the Emmer Campaign today is releasing results from its own internal poll conducted on October 24th and 25th by Public Opinion Strategies. The poll of 500 likely voters shows the race for Governor tied: Dayton 40, Emmer 40, Horner 13. The poll has margin of error +/-4.38% and is more in line with recent results from Survey USA and Rasmussen and in stark contrast to the ridiculous polling done by the Star Tribune and MPR.

"All polls are snapshots in time," said Cullen Sheehan, Emmer Campaign Manager. "The new MPR/Humphrey Institute results are an unfortunately predictable snapshot in absurdity. The HHH poll's track record rivals only television weather forecasters for accuracy. Four years ago this same poll predicted that Mike Hatch would beat Tim Pawlenty by six percentage points. Minnesota should be as confident in this poll's prediction as Governor Hatch was during the last gubernatorial campaign."

Comments (2)

Hmm. Emmer doesn't like the MPR poll, so he released some made-up "internal numbers." And, of course, he refused to release the crosstabs of his own poll, because they would show that the poll just a PR stunt. Sounds pretty desperate.

Posted by Jeff Rosenberg | October 28, 2010 3:44 PM

hmm....someone got party ID right tonight...and it wasnt Emmer's poll

Posted by Peter Tharaldson | October 28, 2010 10:28 PM

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