[private]
Two late polls in the 12th Congressional District race, where public polls have been scarcer than the proverbial hen’s teeth, showed a sharp disagreement on the weekend before the election: U.S. Rep. John Barrow was ahead by four points in one poll and his GOP challenger, Rick Allen, led by four points in the other survey.
The numbers from an independent Landmark Communications poll that were released Friday afternoon showed Allen, an Augusta contractor, ahead of Barrow, a five-term incumbent, by 48-44 percent.
“This poll reflects what everyone in the district has been telling me about Washington; it is time for a change.” Allen said in a news release. “Folks are tired of endless talk and devotion to liberal Washington programs that are economy-killers.”
A “battleground tracking poll” conducted by the New York Times, CBS News and YouGov, on the other hand, indicated Barrow was leading Allen by the same margin at 46-42 percent.
“In a district that was gerrymandered to elect a single party, John Barrow has consistently held the advantage throughout this campaign,” said Barrow spokesman Richard Carbo. “One thing voters are tired of is politics as usual, and with Rick Allen they see just another politician who doesn’t understand how to fight for the people of Georgia.”
The polls were the only independent surveys released for the 12th District race during the fall campaign. The only poll results made public were the topline numbers in one of Allen’s internal polls in September that showed Barrow leading by 44-42 percent. Allen’s campaign has leaked no other internal numbers since that poll.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a statement Saturday that ripped Allen’s campaign for accusing the business advocacy group of supporting “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants.
“Rick Allen is a typical politician who is losing and desperate in the final days of his campaign,” said Rob Engstrom, the chamber’s national political director. “That is why he is falsely attacking the US chamber, the world’s largest business federation.”
“The chamber does not and has never supported amnesty, Mr. Allen should apologize for misleading Georgia voters,” Engstrom said. “We support John Barrow because he stands up to the Obama Administration and puts Georgia first.”
Barrow was one of the few Democrats endorsed this election cycle by the chamber, a conservative organization that usually supports Republican candidates.
The YouGov tracking poll was part of a nationwide survey in which 100,000 interviews were conducted across all 435 House districts – the poll also has a rather large 14 percent margin of error.
YouGov also provided poll numbers for Georgia’s other congressional races, where the leaders are either unopposed or have only token opposition.
Those races included:
1st Congressional District: Republican Buddy Carter leading Democrat Brian Reese by 56-38 percent.
2nd Congressional District: Rep. Sanford Bishop 64-33 percent over Republican Greg Duke.
6th Congressional District: Rep. Tom Price 61-38 percent over Democrat Robert Montigel.
7th Congressional District: Rep. Rob Woodall 59-37 percent over Democrat Thomas Wight.
9th Congressional District: Rep. Doug Collins 74-19 percent over Democrat David Vogel.
10th Congressional District: Republican Jody Hice 51-30 percent over Democrat Ken Dious.
© 2014 by The Georgia Report
[/private]