New poll shows Turner, Weh closest to Denish

Domenici counters with his own poll showing him leading in the GOP primary

An independent poll released this weekend shows all five Republican gubernatorial candidates trailing Democratic candidate Diane Denish in potential head-to-head contests, with only Doug Turner and Allen Weh holding Denish under 50 percent.

Meanwhile, following the release of the Rasmussen Reports poll that wasn’t favorable to Republican hopeful Pete Domenici Jr., Domenici’s campaign released its own poll showing him leading the other GOP candidates in the primary race.

The Rasmussen poll had Denish leading Turner 43-34 percent, Weh 45-35 percent, Domenici 52-35 percent, Susana Martinez 51-32 percent, and Janice Arnold-Jones 52-30 percent.

The survey of 500 likely voters was conducted March 24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Denish hasn’t released a statement about the poll. But Turner, on Facebook, was quick to tout the poll, saying it “shows me as the top GOP candidate to defeat Denish in the general election.”

And Weh put out a news release stating that the poll shows that “candidates who are viewed as political insiders and career politicians ‘have a long way to go’” while he and Turner “are within striking distance of the well-known and well-funded Democrat Lt. Governor.”

With his “political insiders and career politicians” remark, Weh is referring to Domenici, whose father is a former U.S. senator; Martinez, Doña Ana County’s district attorney; and Arnold-Jones, who is a state representative.

“In this poll, the lieutenant governor stays above the magical 50-percent mark when the voters only have a choice between her and other elected officials and politicians,” Weh said in the release. “Denish is very beatable when the voters have a real choice.”

Republican Darren White, the former Bernalillo County sheriff and a vocal Martinez supporter, was quick with a response on Twitter, pointing out that Weh was the state GOP chairman for years.

“Allen Weh for Governor campaign say new poll shows NM voters favor businesspeople like Allen, not political insiders,” White wrote in one tweet. “Man, they better hope the voters don’t confuse him with the other Allen Weh who was the NM Republican Party Chair for 5 years,” he wrote in a second tweet.

It’s noteworthy that, of the GOP gubernatorial candidates, only Turner and Weh have run TV ads (watch Weh’s here and Turner’s here.)

The poll also tested the favorability ratings of each candidate in the governor’s race, and found that Denish had by far the highest number of people say they have a “very favorable” view or her – 28 percent. Those surveyed most often had opinions about Denish and Domenici – which some pollsters have said is largely due to his father’s long career as the state’s senior senator – while somewhere between 36 and 43 percent of those surveyed said they weren’t sure about the other candidates.

Denish also had the highest number of people say they have a “very unfavorable” view of her – 19 percent.

Domenici touts his own poll

Domenici didn’t put out a statement in response to the Rasmussen poll. Instead, he released his own poll that shows him leading in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Domenici had 30 percent of support in the poll to Weh’s 21 percent, Martinez’s 17 percent, Turner’s 8.5 percent and Arnold-Jones’ 4.5 percent.

The poll was conducted by Dialing Services, LLC of Roswell. It surveyed 2,250 likely Republican voters statewide on March 22, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.04 percentage points.

Fewer than 20 percent of those surveyed were undecided.

“This is the largest survey of likely GOP voters to-date in this race,” Dialing Services’ Chris Kolker said in a release from the Domenici campaign. “… Pete Domenici registered support in more counties throughout the state than any of the other candidates.”