Romney campaign manager Rich Beeson said that the campaign’s internal polling shows a much closer race in Ohio than the public polls suggest, according to a BuzzFeed story Tuesday. On Tuesday, a Washington Post poll showed Romney trailing Obama by 8 points in Ohio.
“The public polls are what the public polls are,” Beeson said. “I kind of hope the Obama campaign is basing their campaign decisions on the public polls… I have great faith in our data.”
Their data, he said, shows Romney “by any stretch, inside the margin of error in Ohio.”
Beeson added that Obama campaign manager Jim Messina is “sort of spiking the ball at the 30-yard line” in the Buckeye State.
BuzzFeed points to one possible reason for the discrepancy:
A campaign aide told BuzzFeed that their internal Ohio polls use a sample of “D+5” — meaning, Democrats represent five percentage points more respondents than Republicans. Most public polls are closer to D+8, or D+9. This could explain why the campaign believes the Ohio race is closer than is being reported.
