JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Two polls conducted on different sides of the state reveal that less than a week out the governor’s race is still too close to call.
Both KSDK, the St. Louis NBC affiliate state, and the Springfield News-Leader commissioned polls of the Republican gubernatorial primary and they give each candidate something to be optimistic about.
The KSDK poll, conducted by SurveyUSA, shows former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens as the lead dog with 25 percent of likely voters supporting him, but businessman John Brunner is at 21 percent. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and former House Speaker Catherine Hanaway each have 18 percent of the vote.
However, the OnMessage Inc. poll provided to the News-Leader flips the script. Hanaway leads with 25 percent of the vote in that poll, Brunner has 23 percent, Greitens has 21 percent and Kinder has 19 percent. The poll also showed that Hanaway was gaining among the “very conservative” voting bloc.
The margin of error for the SurveyUSA poll was 3.6 percent and 4.4 percent for OnMessage Inc. The latter means that in the OnMessage Inc. poll Hanaway, Greitens and Brunner are in a virtual tie for first, and Greitens, Brunner and Kinder are in a virtual tie for second.
Greitens has led in past polls from Remington and Public Policy Polling with both Hanaway and Brunner hot on his heels. With these results, Brunner remains competitive and Hanaway has broken to the top of the race for the first time this year. Kinder still trails the candidates, but he has made gains.
In each poll, nearly 20 percent of likely voters have also indicated they are still undecided, meaning Election Day could lead to a surprising result that the polls have not yet predicted.
