As always, we take all polls with a grain of salt. And two polls -- one released by the Arizona Republican Party, and one released by the Republican candidate for Attorney General, Tom Horne -- are part of the reason why.
The Arizona Democratic Party feels it owes the GOP a "big 'thank you'" for pointing out the tremendous gains Horne's Democratic opponent, Felecia Rotelilni, has made in the six days between the time Horne's campaign released poll results on the race and when the GOP released the results of its own poll.
In Horne's poll, conducted by the Wilson Research Center earlier this month, the GOP candidate touted his 18-point lead over Rotellini -- 53 to 35 percent.
Horne boasted that he had increased his lead substantially since a similar
poll was conducted a month earlier, which gave him an 8-point lead in
the race..
"My message of securing the border, defending S.B. 1070 against the
Obama legal assault, protecting consumers, and creating a positive legal
climate for job creation is resonating very well with Arizonans," Horne bragged at the time.
Six days later, the Arizona Republican Party released its own poll,
which puts Horne's lead at 9 percent -- half the lead Horne trumpeted in
his press release.
According to that poll, Horne only leads Rotellini 46 to 37 percent.
"If the Republicans show Felecia gaining nine points in six days, at
this rate she's a shoo-in for attorney general," says Luis Heredia,
Arizona Democratic Party executive director.
We wouldn't say Rotellini's necessarily a shoo-in -- rather, we'd just say polls are often bullshit.