Democrat Conner Eldridge, who’s loaned about a half-million in personal money to his campaign for U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent John Boozman, is emphasizing the positive against the new Arkansas poll which showed him trailing Boozman by a wide margin.
Eldridge notes — correctly — that the Arkansas Poll showed respondents gave Boozman a lower favorable rating than they gave President Obama. Boozman scored 35 percent against Obama’s 37 percent. Some 40 percent had no opinion of Boozman. while 25 percent had an unfavorable rating. Obama’s unfavorable mark was 56 percent.
Eldridge also respun the 60-38 preference for the Republican candidate in the Senate race.
The Arkansas Poll’s head-to-head numbers, including the undecided numbers in the Senate race, are 42% Boozman and 27% Eldridge, while 32% remain undecided, meaning nearly one third of Arkansas voters remain undecided in the U.S. Senate race, including many Republicans and Independents. When including those in the “undecided” category, which is customary in analyzing polls, the U.S. Senate race is shown to have tightened significantly from previous polls taken months ago.
Eldridge has my unreserved support. But I’d be the first to acknowledge I am not an Arkansas bellwether.