Va. GOV: Should the GOP have embraced newest poll?

Public Policy Polling put out new numbers giving Republican Bob McDonnell a 6-point lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds in the race for Virginia governor, and within a few short hours the state GOP was touting the poll in an email blasted out to reporters. 

It probably helped that the poll showed all three of the GOP's candidates with comfortable margins. Pat Mullins, the head of the Republican Party of Virginia, was quick to talk about the implications of the poll. 

Here are Mullins' quotes:

“It’s pretty clear that any boost the Democrats may have gotten from the publicity surrounding their primary election has disappeared,” RPV Chairman Mullins said.  “It’s also obvious that the more Virginians tune into the race, the more they like our impressive slate of candidates.”

            “It’s clear that voters are hungry for candidates who have innovative ideas for how to bring jobs to Virginia and inject some energy into the economy,” Mullins said.  “Our Republican candidates best represent those ideas.”

            “While this is good news, we are aware that this campaign is a marathon and not a sprint,” Mullins said.  “We intend to run hard and strong and continue to spread our optimistic message of jobs and economic opportunity for all Virginians.”

But why is the GOP out there touting the poll and does that bestow Public Policy Polling a certain level of legitimacy in this race?  

And could the move force the state GOP into some excruciating mental and verbal back flips on the campaign trail during the fall?   

During the course of the remaining four-months of this campaign, it's probably safe to guess that the very same polling organization is going to offer up some numbers that don't sit well with Mullins and the rest of the GOP.

When Mullins doesn't like numbers in the future is he going to be able to ignore them, because they seem to have set a precedent that the RPV trusts the work done by Public Policy Polling.  

This gets especially tricky when you consider the fact that Public Policy Polling does private polling work exclusively for Democratic candidates - primarily in North Carolina. Just look at PPP's list of clients - if the section on "organizations and unions" doesn't tip you off, then pop the names on the list of lawmakers into Google - hint - they're all Democrats.

No one pays the company to conduct public polls, like the one testing the McDonnell vs. Deeds race. Those public polls are done independently on the company's own dime in races of interest - particularly races near North Carolina, according to the company's communications director Tom Jensen. 

Surely, Mullins and the RPV reserve the right to judge each and every poll in the race on an individual basis. But snatching up the first poll from PPP and blasting it out with an email megaphone makes it harder to scoff at their work down the line. 

Comments

[Salem Republicans]

Was this a "Virginia Democratic Poll?"

http://roanokevalleyrepublicans.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-ppp-poll-virginia-democratic-poll.html