To quote Senator John McCain's campaign spokesman, Brian Rogers, "We don't live and die with every poll."
Rogers prefaces nearly every poll-related e-mail with that grain of salt, especially when the poll favors McCain, because pollsters are often biased -- Republican pollster Scott Rasmussen leading the pack.
That said, the first -- and only -- poll conducted for the District Three Congressional race gives Democratic candidate Jon Hulburd a slim lead over his Republican opponent, Ben Quayle.
According to the poll, funded by the liberal Web site Daily Kos, and conducted by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, Hulburd leads Quayle with 46 percent of the vote to Quayle's 44 percent.
According to the poll, 10 percent of voters still are undecided.
The district is highly Republican so the Hulburd campaign is touting the results as a big victory for the Democratic candidate.
The folks at the Quayle campaign probably aren't sweatin' just yet, though. A look at some of the other polls PPP conducted for other races suggest the pollster shows a slight bias toward the left side of the aisle -- not to mention, Public Policy Polling often is viewed by politicos as liberal, so much so that it's been forced to defend its objectivity on its Web site with a blog post titled "Our Liberal 'Bias.'"
PPP also polled Arizona voters about the race for U.S. Senate between Senator John McCain and former Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman. In PPP's assessment of that race, the pollsters gives McCain a 13-point lead.
If you've seen Glassman's latest campaign video, you know 13 points seems generous.
According to a recent Rocky Mountain Poll, McCain's lead is 34 percent.