A citywide poll conducted earlier this month shows D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray ahead of Mayor Adrian Fenty by 8 percentage points, with 21 percent of voters undecided.
Gray had 42 percent of the voters’ support and Fenty had 34 percent, said two sources who have seen the poll conclusions. It’s not clear what the margin of error was. The Washington Examiner has not seen the poll sponsored by Buds PAC.
The sources said the poll also gave Gray a favorability rating of 72 percent, compared with Fenty’s 49 percent.
That’s an improvement for Fenty. A Washington Post poll conducted in January found 42 percent of District residents approved of the job the mayor was doing.
Buds PAC is the legacy of D.C. parking lot king Bud Doggett, who ran the Greater Washington Board of Trade and had strong ties to the business community. Polling company Successful Capitol Strategies made about 1,175 calls across the city earlier this month to conduct the poll, the sources said. Buds PAC paid the polling company $15,000 for the work, finance records show,
Two other sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Buds PAC performed a similar poll in April that found Gray ahead of Fenty by 17 points, 47 to 30.
If that’s the case, the latest poll shows that the $2 million Fenty has spent on door-knocking and advertising has helped him close the gap.
Either way, it has become increasingly clear that both candidates have been unable to win over undecided voters.
A poll sponsored by Council Chairman Jim Graham in June found the candidates nearly tied for the support of Ward 1 voters, but with nearly 20 percent of them undecided. The Washington Post’s January citywide poll also found about 20 percent of voters undecided.
On Tuesday, Fenty will try to convince some of those voters to come to his side when he receives an endorsement from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg outside D.C.’s newly opened Carmine’s Italian Restaurant.
If Fenty can’t win over undecided voters, his plan for using this year’s two-week voting period to roll out a massive get-out-the-vote effort could backfire: His campaign could end up giving rides to residents who vote for Gray once they’re behind the curtain.
