RAYBURN CAMPAIGN RESPONDS TO THE HBA POLL

Michael Hesse, campaign manager issued the following statement regarding the Colorado Springs Housing and Building Association Poll:

Several weeks ago, after the Bentley Rayburn campaign released scientific polling data indicating that Bentley Rayburn had the best chance of defeating Doug Lamborn in the August primary election, the campaign was approached by the Colorado Springs Housing and Building Association (HBA) about the possibility of conducting another scientific poll with input from both the Crank campaign and our campaign in order to mutually agree on a candidate to move forward against Lamborn.

While our polling data has shown and continues to show that we can win in a three-way race against Lamborn and Crank-a two-way race is certainly preferable.

While our campaign has always opposed a "good ol' boys" backroom deal, we felt that scientific polling data might provide a better indication of support among the rank and file Republicans in the Fifth District.  Too often our party has allowed a small group of "kingmakers" to make the candidate decisions that resulted in our party's loss of elections on all levels. 

On the Wednesday prior to the assembly, we entered into an agreement with the Crank campaign and the HBA for a poll to be jointly conducted by Rayburn's pollster, Wilson Research Strategies, and Crank's pollster, David Hill Research.  The understood agreement called for the completion of the poll prior to the Fifth Congressional District Assembly.  It was agreed upon that 400 voters would be contacted and the resulting poll would be provided to each campaign Friday evening, May 30th.

Unfortunately, the implementation of this poll was a disaster.  Interviews were not completed in the timeframe agreed on by all parties.  By Thursday evening, only 106 interviews were completed and the call center was instructed to stop polling until further notice.  All parties were expected to talk again on Monday to discuss how to proceed.  Unfortunately, over the course of the weekend without consulting either Rayburn's campaign or the HBA, David Hill Research instructed the call center to increase the number of interviews.  On Saturday, the day following the Fifth Congressional Assembly, the call center, without coordination with the HBA and either through an internal scheduling error or some other outside direction, resumed the interview process.

This gross violation of the fundamental operating procedures has led our campaign to lose confidence in the entire effort, recognizing that the three-way race for the nomination is all but inevitable.  We look forward to proceeding with our positive message that in a time of war our district, our state, and our country desperately needs military experience in Congress-experience that only Bentley Rayburn can provide.

The internal scientific poll commissioned in April by the Rayburn campaign through Wilson Research strategies yielded the following results and clearly indicated that Rayburn is the strongest candidate to face Lamborn in the primary election.

In a Lamborn-Rayburn contest:

Lamborn 42%

Rayburn 32%

In a Lamborn-Crank contest:

Lamborn 46 %

Crank 27%