Friday, August 19, 2005

New Van Hilleary Poll Raises Serious Questions

Does anyone believe the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate has experienced a 36 point swing a full-year before the actual primary? Well, according to recent polls released by two of the top contenders for the nomination, that is exactly the case.

Today the Van Hilleary camp released a poll that showed Van Hilleary leading Ed Bryant by 18-points and Bob Corker by 29 points in the race to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. This is a complete contradiction of the poll the Ed Bryant campaign released back only in July. In that poll Ed Bryant was found to be the leader of the pack having an 18 point lead over Van Hilleary and a 33 point lead over Bob Corker.

With the huge discrepancy between these two polls, it leads one to believe that someone might be push polling?

So in order to clear up all of the confusion, I think each campaign, the Hilleary camp and the Bryant camp, should release their entire poll questionnaire, not just a summary of the results. It is just hard to believe that any race could swing that much approximately one year before the actual primary. Releasing that information should tell alot about the respective polls and their results.

On a final note, since the release of this poll today, Republicans from all sides have been joining the discussion and making their opinion heard. However, this further demonstrates a point that I made just a few short days ago--Republicans would rather talk about insignificant issues like this instead of the problems that face Tennessee and the nation. That becomes more clear every single day.

Notes and Observations: One interesting thing to note in regard to the new Van Hilleary poll is that the poll was conducted by OnMessage Inc. OnMessage is the firm of long-time Hilleary adviser and current campaign contact Brad Todd.

Also, if Van Hilleary is beating Bob Corker by 29 points, why does his press release about the poll go out of the way to attack Corker? The same can be asked of Ed Bryant's campaign. In recent weeks, the Bryant camp has also taken several swipes at Corker. (See campaign news on the Bryant campaign site) Could this be because he is far outpacing his fellow Republicans in fundraising? Or could it just be that they fear Bob Corker? Only time will tell.