Two Republican candidates vying for the 5th Congressional District seat are feuding over poll results released Monday.
Jeff Crank’s campaign released results from a joint poll conducted in May that show him leading retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Bentley Rayburn by a double-digit margin.
The campaigns agreed in May to conduct the poll to see who stood a better chance of defeating incumbent Doug Lamborn. They agreed that if either candidate polled more than 4 percentage points ahead, the other would drop out.
While Crank’s campaign said Rayburn should honor the agreement, Rayburn’s campaign is refusing, saying errors were made in the polling.
Mike Hesse, a spokesman for Rayburn, said the agreement stated that 400 people were to be surveyed by May 30, the day of the 5th Congressional Assembly.
But the day before the deadline, the polling company had surveyed fewer than 200 voters, and the campaigns suspended the effort, he said.
But the company continued surveying voters over the weekend.
Alan Philp, Crank’s campaign manager, said the company, Western Wats, didn’t get the message and made an honest mistake.
Now, the agreement is voided because of the error, Hesse said.
Amber Glus, a Crank spokeswoman, said the two camps are negotiating what to do next. She said the campaign is confident Rayburn will drop out.
“I’m pretty optimistic. . . . With all of his experience in the military, he knows what honor is all about,” she said.
However, Hesse said negotiations are off the table at this point because of lost confidence over the agreement.
The poll “got screwed up,” he said. “It’s like going to the doctor to get your liver worked on, and they cut out your pancreas, so you don’t have confidence in the doctor anymore.”
Early polls have shown that both candidates don’t stand a chance in a three-way match with Lamborn.
Both candidates lost to Lamborn in 2006 during the primaries. Crank finished second, while Rayburn pulled in third.
Bob Loevy, a professor of political science at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, said a three-way race for the seat would strengthen Lamborn’s position as an incumbent
“Incumbents are difficult enough to challenge to begin with, and now to have two challengers — and both of them credible challengers — makes it all the more difficult for one of those challengers to win,” he said.
Christopher Sanchez: 303-954-1698 or csanchez@denverpost.com
