The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) on Thursday brushed off a GOP poll showing Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) breaking away in the Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election, dismissing the survey as amateurish.
An automated survey from fledgling Republican outlet Harper Polling on Wednesday showed Markey claiming a 12-point lead over Republican businessman Gabriel Gomez. Brock McCleary, a pollster for Harper, wrote succinctly that “Gomez trails because there are more Democrats than Republicans in the state.” Harper was launched in December to rival Democratic-leaning robo-pollsters like Public Policy Polling.
But Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the NRSC, told TPM in an email that he isn’t sweating Harper’s findings.
“It might as well have been written in crayon,” Dayspring said of the poll. “Ed Markey and his Democratic friends in Washington aren’t outspending Gabriel Gomez 7:1 because they are confident. Ed Markey isn’t begging Bill and Hillary Clinton to save him because he thinks he’s doing well.”
The PollTracker Average currently shows Markey with a nearly 9-point lead in the race.
