Hewes Offers an Explanation for Why He Trails by 33 points in the Race for Lt. Governor

We thought Billy Hewes’ statement yesterday trying to explain away a 33-point deficit was so amusing that we are sending it to you again in case you missed it. Over the last four months the Hewes campaign has been obsessed with polling in the Lt. Governor’s race:

February 8th:

The Hewes campaign released an internal poll: “State Treasurer Tate Reeves has a 41% to 22% name identification lead over State Senator Billy Hewes...But Hewes’ early media campaign has clearly helped his name awareness with voters.”

April 30th:

In an email to supporters the Hewes campaign claims to have “caught our opponent.” And: "As a result, the race is now a dead heat – and WE HAVE THE MOMENTUM!"

Last week:

The Hewes campaign urged supporters to vote in an admittedly unscientific Magnolia Report online poll and then trumpeted the results as showing “the tide has turned.”

Now when a respected national pollster shows Tate Reeves with a 51%-18% lead the Hewes campaign claims it is “much ado about nothing.” However, their statement is short on facts:

“When you get down to the real analysis of the numbers it clearly shows the only lead our opponent has is in name ID.”

Tate Reeves has a 48% favorable rating and just a 4% unfavorable rating among likely Republican primary voters. This shows wide spread support for Tate’s conservative message.

(Referring to Tate Reeves Name ID) “… a surprisingly low number for someone who has held statewide office for two terms”

Tate Reeves’ 48% Favorable, 4% Unfavorable, 49% No Opinion/Never Heard Of closely matches Lt. Governor Phil Bryant’s 50% Favorable, 13% Unfavorable, 37% Not Sure.

Billy Hewes’ 78% No Opinion/Never Heard of matches up more closely with Gubernatorial candidate Hudson Holiday’s 76% No Opinion.

“Most voters are undecided”

Only 31% of voters are undecided according to the survey.

“The sample was taken from targeted districts across the state, which skewed the poll providing manipulated results”

The survey sample consisted of Mississippi Republican Primary Voters statewide proportioned by past election results, the way legitimate polls are conducted.


Tate Reeves Campaign Release
6/3/11