Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Josh Kraushaar

Politico’s The Crypt Blog

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) holds an 11-percentage 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 percent 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.