CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A poll of likely voters in West Virginia’s Democratic primary shows the gubernatorial race between Sen. Minority Leader Jeff Kessler and Greenbrier owner Jim Justice is statistically tied.
The interactive voice response poll of 900 informed voters shows 28 percent for Justice and 26 percent for Kessler. The margin of error was 3.21 percent.
“Those ones presented with positions concerning our respective backgrounds, our philosophies and our platforms, I seem to have grabbed a great deal of those folks,” Kessler said.
Kessler was aware of some of the criticism surrounding him, but acknowledged that political races can involve a lot of mudslinging.
“They paint me as a liberal; I’ve supported gay marriage, I’m a tax-and-spend liberal, I’ve been for tobacco tax,” he said. “They throw all kinds of negatives out to see what sticks. At the end the day it’s a statistical dead heat and folks need to know more about (both candidates).”
While Kessler’s spending can’t match that of the billionaire Justice, he said he could raise enough money to make it a competitive race.
“I believe we’ll have enough money to run an effective media campaign. That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “If it’s a money-counting contest, I lose. There’s no question about that. The millionaires and billionaires win the darn thing. But I don’t think the folks in this state are willing to hand it over that quickly.”
The poll, conducted by Prism Surveys on Aug. 21, sought voters who said they intended to vote in next May’s Democratic primary and whose participation was deemed likely by historical data.