Pete King v. the Automatons

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:13:24 -0400

Pete King has spent the last couple of weeks dismissing the notion that he's in a close race, an impression that stems largely from a poll that showed him leading little-known challenger Democrat Dave Mejias by only two points. He argued that the polling firm, Constituent Dynamics, was unreliable because it used automated pollsters, and that his internal polling, conducted by human beings, had him up by well over 20 points.

The firm defended the accuracy of its data in a discussion last week.

Now, after Constituent Dynamics released another poll earlier today showing King up by a mere 49 percent to Mejias' 48 percent among likely voters, the congressman is even more convinced that the numbers are a fiction.

"There is no credibility to those polls," King said.

By way of contrast, he shared what we said were his internal polling numbers -- from the firm McLaughlin & Associates -- which showed that as of October 18th, he was up 55 percent to 32 percent. A subsequent polling of 400 people taken Friday October 27th showed a 54 percent to 27 percent advantage.

Meanwhile, Mejias is plugging away, releasing another ad today taking King to task for his support of President Bush and the war in Iraq.

--Jason Horowitz

Observer » Pete King v. the Automatons

Pete King v. the Automatons