New Poll Shows Soft Support for LG Candidate Hutchison

(NN&V Staff) – Citizen Outreach announced today that in a new automated poll of registered Nevada Republicans featuring three named GOP candidates in the Nevada lieutenant governor’s primary race next year, the only publicly announced candidate, state Sen. Mark Hutchison (R-Las Vegas) – who has been endorsed by Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval – came in third place.

The other two candidates named in the survey were Republican Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Beers and former Republican state Sen. Sue Lowden. In the survey, Lowden received 43.73% of the vote, followed by Beers with 29.54% and then Hutchison with 26.73%. The survey has a margin of error of plus/minus 5%.

A total of 4,921 individuals participated in the survey which was conducted July 11-15, 2013. The regional breakdown was as follows: 2,733 respondents from Clark County, 1,072 from Washoe County and 1,115 from rural Nevada.

A second follow-up call was made July 22-25, 2013 to only those who indicated support for Hutchison in the first survey. In that call, respondents were asked if they’d still vote for Hutchison if they knew he had voted for the $620 million “sunset” tax extension, as well as if they’d still vote for him if they knew he had voted to extend drivers licenses to persons in the country illegally.

Upon learning of each of those votes, 81.71% of initial Hutchison supporters changed their minds and indicated they would not vote for him based on his vote to extend the “sunsets,” and 84.47% said they would not vote for him based on his vote to grant drivers licenses to persons not in the country legally.

The statewide automated survey was conducted by Political Marketing International for Nevada News & Views, an online news publication of Citizen Outreach. PMI is an independent public opinion research firm using automated polling methodology and procedures which has done extensive work in Nevada and around the country for over a dozen years.

(DISCLAIMER: While Citizen Outreach does not endorse candidates in political campaigns, Citizen Outreach President Chuck Muth has been a longtime political associate of both Sue Lowden and Bob Beers, and Citizen Outreach CEO Dan Burdish has worked on campaigns in the past for both Lowden and Beers.)