A new poll conducted on behalf of the reelection campaign of 9th District congressman Steve Cohen purports to provide evidence that Cohen is running well ahead of all challengers, including attorney Nikki Tinker, his principal foe in the August Democratic primary.
The poll, conducted of 400 likely primary voters by Lake Research Partners in late April, shows Cohen with a lead of 52 points over Tinker in a candidate preference poll. The congressman is the choice of 63 percent of those polled, with Tinker selected by 11 percent and state Representative Joe Towns laying claim to 5 percent. Undecided voters add up to another 20 percent.
In its summary, the Lake poll says that Cohen “wins nearly six-in-ten African Americans (59 percent) and more than eight-in-ten white voters (83 percent). The congressman leads among black men, with 70 percent; black women, with 54 percent; white women, with 81 percent, and white men, with 86 percent. Tinker’s support among black women, her strongest group, is presented as 14 percent.
“Even after voters are introduced to positive information about both Steve Cohen and Nikki Tinker, including explicit references to the candidates’ races, Cohen continues to garner majorities of both the black and white vote,” says the Lake group’s summary.
Cohen’s approval rating among all voters is pegged at 40 percent “excellent” and 38 percent “good,” with only 1 percent rating his job performance as “poor.”
The “bottom line” according to the poll: “Voters express strong satisfaction with Steve Cohen’s leadership and are in no mood to replace him. Cohen enjoys enviable support on every metric of electoral might: favorability, job performance, re-elect [sic], and ballot strength.”
A more detailed version of the poll is scheduled for release by the Cohen campaign on Tuesday. Weighted, as is the district, toward black voters, the poll is aimed at those voters considered to be certain to vote, and its findings touch upon voters’ attitudes toward a variety of subject matters.
One poll feature asks voters to express favorable or unfavorable opinions about Cohen, Tinker, Towns, and, for comparison’s sake, a number of other well-known public figures, both local and national. Cohen’s favorable ratings are in excess of those for any other person mentioned; his unfavorable ratings are lower.
(More details will follow upon official release of the document at 11 a.m., Tuesday.)
