By TODD STACY, Alabama Daily News
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Two new polls show a competitive race for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, with Katie Britt or Mo Brooks leading, depending on which one you wish to believe.
Brooks held the lead over Britt and Mike Durant in a recent Club for Growth poll conducted by WPA Intelligence. That survey showed Brooks as the choice of 35% of GOP voters, while Durant had 30%, Britt had 25% and 10% were undecided.
Club for Growth is supporting Brooks and has released multiple polls favorable to his candidacy. Read their polling memo HERE.
But Britt held the lead in a recent internal poll released by her campaign this week. The survey, conducted by Deep Root Analytics on behalf of the campaign, showed Britt leading the field with 29%, while Brooks had 28% and Durant had 23%.
Read the Britt polling memo HERE.
It is common for campaigns and political groups to release polling data favorable to their interests. It can help with fundraising or shore up support from key constituencies.
Just because a poll is done on behalf of a candidate or for a group supporting a candidate doesn’t mean its results are skewed. Surveys are expensive to conduct and most campaigns don’t like to spend thousands of dollars for bad information that only generates a good headline. At the same time, survey spiking does happen, which is why it is generally best to look at multiple polls to get a sense of the trends and averages.
By all accounts this Senate primary is very close.