Barr down by five points to Chandler in new internal poll

A new survey from 6th Congressional candidate Andy Barr’s campaign shows Barr in a holding pattern from June and Chandler losing ground with some voters.

The election campaign for Republican Congressional hopeful Andy Barr is touting an internal poll from June showing that Democratic Congressman Ben Chandler has lost favor with some Kentucky voters.

A survey of 400 likely voters in the 6th Congressional District taken between June 24 and 26, had Chandler at 49 percent compared to 42 percent for Barr, a Lexington lawyer. Barr lost to Chandler by 648 votes two years ago.

The poll has a margin of error of 4.9 points, according to the memo. The Barr campaign received that memo from its polling firm, Public Opinion Strategies, on July 9th.

Barr’s campaign released the polling memo showing Chandler up by five points but still below the crucial 50 percent mark. Barr remains at 42 percent from February to June. Chandler went from 49 percent in February to 47 percent in June.

The partisan breakdown of the survey of 400 likely voters was 33 percent Republican and 59 pecent Democratic, in an attempt to match the registration statistics of the district, according to the memo.

“Further, when voters are asked if Ben Chandler has performed his job as Congressman well enough to deserve reelection or if they think it’s time to give a new person a chance, a majority (51%) say they would support a new person, while just 41% say Chandler deserves re-election,” the memo says.

Barr’s poll showed that the new 6th District doesn’t favor Obama in the presidential election.

“Mitt Romney has moved over 50% and maintains his lead over President Obama. Over the past few months, Governor Romney has kept his eight point lead over the President, illustrating the challenge Ben Chandler faces with Obama on the top of the Democratic ticket,” the memo for Barr says.