LEWISTON — Details from a Maine GOP door-to-door survey suggest support for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner in the race for president is weak among swing voters, according to Jason Savage, Maine Republican Party spokesman.
Savage said Wednesday that the survey included more than 1,000 face-to-face interviews with voters who were identified as being crossover voters. He said the mix included Democrats, Republicans and unenrolled voters, and the results suggest Clinton is struggling to win them over.
Republicans announced the survey results in a fundraising email message to party members from Rick Bennett, Maine GOP chairman.
The message includes a copy of a memo from Savage to Bennett highlighting the survey results and suggested Clinton is “underwater in Maine.”
“Among ‘Independent’ swing voters, there are almost 2.5 voters opposed to Clinton for every one voter in support,” the message reads. “Among Republican swing voters, there are about 12 voters opposed to Clinton for every one voter in support. Among Democrat swing voters, Clinton is barely at 1:1, with almost as many Democrat swing voters opposing her as supporting her.”
Savage said Wednesday that the survey also suggests Maine voters of all stripes are largely opposed to so-called “dynasty candidates,” meaning candidates whose family members have previously held the White House, namely Republican Jeb Bush and Clinton.
But the Maine Democratic Party’s executive director, Jeremy Kennedy, said he was skeptical of the Republicans’ findings, given they did not release any of the hard data from their survey.
“My gut reaction to it is it is pretty disingenuous to send out an email like that under the guise that we have scientific polling saying this says something about the state of our election here, without the actual data to back it up,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy also said that so far no substantial presidential polling data has been released, but in other states, the Democratic candidates seem to be trading the lead back and forth and party faithful and others have yet to settle on which candidate they like best.
He and Savage said their respective party’s presidential candidate fields were igniting intense interest with their members.
Both also praised their candidates while panning the other side’s.
“I think if you look at the candidates we do have as Democrats, I’m very proud of each one of them, I think they are giving voters a really good choice and options,” Kennedy said. “On the Democratic side you have a group of people that are really looking at what kind of leader they can be to move the country forward. And on the Republican side I think they are scrambling to find whatever divisive issue they can to build a coalition around them.”
Savage disagreed, saying Republican candidates were largely keeping their messages positive, “aside from a few little jabs they are throwing at each other.”
He said, for example, Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson, was touting CNN’s decision to amend criteria for the GOP presidential debate Sept. 16 in Simi Valley, Calif., possibly allowing Carly Fiorina to participate.
“I think their conduct largely is positive,” Savage said. “They are telling the voters of the country what they want to do for America.”
Kennedy and Savage also said that whoever their respective party’s nominee is, they believe their Maine party members will unite behind that candidate when the time comes.
“My gut reaction to it is it is pretty disingenuous to send out an email like that under the guise that we have scientific polling saying this says something about the state of our election here, without the actual data to back it up,” – Jeremy Kennedy, Maine Democratic Party Executive Director.
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