Politics & Government

Poll Shows Post-Primary Gains for Toft

WPA Opinion Research released results of a poll of 5th Legislative District voters conducted earlier in September.

This story has been updated to include the funding source of the poll.

State senate candidate Brad Toft climbed nearly six percentage points from the August primary according to a political poll published last week.

A poll conducted by WPA Opinion Research, a national public opinion firm based in Washington, D.C. that conducts polls for GOP candidates, was released Sept. 16, showing Toft with 38 percent and Mullet with 35 percent. The Toft for Senate campaign commissioned the poll.

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“Toft has a three-point lead over Mark Mullet,” reported Byron Allen in the findings issued from the Sacramento, CA office of WPA, “The GOP has a built-in advantage in the 5th Legislative District as the Republican performs well on both the generic state senate ballot and the gubernatorial ballot.”

According to a press release announcing the results of the poll, the new 5th District boundaries established after redistricting, Republicans are now favored 46 percent to 42 percent for Democrats, with 12 percent undecided. This is a 2 percent increase from previous polling data. Precincts in fiscally conservative Black Diamond, Maple Valley, Carnation and Duval joined the district, while neighborhoods in Sammamish moved to the 45th district.

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“These new data show my messages of economic growth, funding education first and responsible tax policy are catching on with the voters,” Toft said in a press release announcing the poll results. “Although the opposition has spent a good deal of time and money tossing unsubstantiated claims toward me and my family, the electorate is dismissing the tactics as mere politics.”

The senate race in the 5th Legislative District is proving to be one of the three hotly contested races in the state. The final election results could determine the leadership and control of the upper house in the legislature.

The survey comprised more than 300 likely general election voters in the 5th District between September 5-6. The margin of error is equal to 5.7%.

Editor's note: Information from the Brad Toft campaign, which paid for the poll. A spokesman for the campaign said to achieve a smaller margin of error, such as one sees in national polls, would have required a much larger sample, less common in polls for state races.


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