Ryan Frazier
Ryan Frazier says he is the early front-runner in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate primary in Colorado, a wide-open contest to challenge Democrat Michael Bennet.
The former TV political analyst and Aurora councilman released Wednesday that showed him with 18 percent support among likely Republican primary voters, well ahead of the other four candidates tested.
His campaign will report that it raised $200,000 in the seven weeks after Frazier but did not disclose how much it spent or what it will post in the bank to start 2016. Federal campaign finance reports are due later this month.
The survey numbers from GOP firm Harper Polling probably represent name recognition more than anything. The closest competitor in the Harper poll is state Sen. Tim Neville of Littleton at 7 percent and Robert Blaha of Colorado Springs at 6 percent. Neville entered the race Oct. 1, on the other candidates and Blaha — like Frazier — mounted a losing congressional bid that helped introduce him to voters.
Darryl Glenn received 5 percent and state Rep. Jon Keyser registered 4 percent, in a poll with a 4 percent margin of error.
The numbers come with caveats. For instance, the Jan. 6-7 poll tested newcomer Keyser, a potential establishment choice, before he . And the conducted the survey entirely on landlines through a robo-poll. (It did ask the horse-race questions before any other questions, according to the pollster.)
The most important number is this one: 60 percent of the likely Republican electorate remains undecided. It shows Republican voters are largely not paying attention yet — and the field is just beginning to form.
The fact that Frazier release the poll, which campaigns are often reluctant to do, suggests he wants to make sure he isn’t lost in the growing pack of contenders. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but this race is just starting and we’re already making huge strides and in a strong position,” Frazier said in a statement released by the campaign.
So far, Frazier’s favorable numbers are good: 24 percent compared to 10 percent negative. Another 26 percent who know of him have no opinion and 39 percent don’t know him at all. The other candidates are lower with favorable-unfavorable essentially even in the low teens.
