(MOUNTAINSIDE, NJ) -- Schundler for Governor communications director Bill Pascoe -- responding to the release of a new poll by Quinnipiac University -- today issued the following statement:
"Wow. More than $8 million spent and Doug Forrester STILL can"t break away from Bret Schundler. How do I know? Not just because there's a new poll out that shows Doug STILL unable to take a strong lead (a lead that's less than one point outside the margin of error can hardly be called a "strong" lead -- and let's be clear and not put this in a footnote: the margin of error on this poll is 5.3 percent, and Mr. Forrester is registering a 6 point lead at 39-33 percent), but because I listen to the radio -- and on the radio I hear a smear campaign going on, with Forrester ads repeating false statements about Bret's record in Jersey City that Doug Forrester KNOWS to be untrue.
"Not only that, but according to the Quinnipiac survey, Bret's support is more solid than Mr. Forrester's -- at this point, 55 percent of those supporting Bret say they are sure they will vote for him, while just 46 percent of Mr. Forrester's voters are sure. When you do the math -- multiply the solid support percentage against the ballot test percentage -- you"ll see that among those voters who have made a definite decision, Bret is actually LEADING Mr. Forrester.
"Most importantly, a full 15 percent of the voters remain undecided. They"ve heard from Mr. Forrester -- how could anyone with a television or radio in the tri-state area NOT have heard from Mr. Forrester? -- but they have yet to hear from us. As we come down the closing stretch of this campaign, our own advertising campaign will ramp up, and we will close strong.
"By the way, a note to our friends in the media: the Forrester campaign spin on this poll is going to be very interesting to see. As you"ll recall, on May 3, the Forrester staff was loudly trumpeting a new "survey" by SurveyUSA (the outfit that doesn"t use live callers to make their polling calls -- they use computer generated voice menus) that "showed" a 42-34 percent Forrester lead over Bret. This, they claimed, was evidence of a Forrester surge. We didn"t even put out a release on that poll, because the methodology was suspect. But in order to remain intellectually honest, the Forrester campaign is now going to have to acknowledge that their vaunted 8-point "lead" of May 3 has now been cut to a 6-point lead. In other words, despite outspending Bret by a factor of five to one, and despite the smear campaign they"re now running in direct mail and radio, they"re actually RETREATING, and they"ve had their lead cut by a quarter.
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