Last week, Gov. Kay Ivey’s campaign released an internal poll, done by the Tarrance Group, showing her in the lead with 57% support among likely Republican voters.
The survey was conducted April 18-20 via telephone interviews of 600 likely Republican primary voters, with the results holding a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1%.
One of Ivey’s opponents in the race called the poll “100% bogus.”
Thursday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program,” gubernatorial candidate Lew Burdette discussed why he believed Ivey was doing much worse than recent polls suggest.
“I’ve traveled this state top to bottom,” he said, “rarely does anybody passionately come up to me and say, ‘Kay Ivey’s a great governor, and I can’t wait to vote for her again.’ I’ve never heard that comment.”
Because of what he has heard on the campaign trial, Burdette said he believed the polls must be wrong.
“There’s no way she’s at 57%,” he exclaimed. “That’s a 100% bogus internal poll, and the question that I hear across this state is, ‘How far can she fall? How low can she go in the polls?’ The only one that matters is on May 24, and I think there’s going to be a big surprise.”
He also used Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida as an example of the kind of leader he wants to be for the Yellowhammer state.
“Ron DeSantis is a great template of how to get things done,” he argued, “because what was the first thing he did in education? He took out Common Core, Common Core’s got to go, he beefed up school choice, had real school choice for parents, and child’s educational savings accounts so the parents have the money in their child’s account, they can’t play games with it, it’s not for the parents it’s for the child, goes directly to the schools, and have parent choice, school choice that really works.”
The candidate said Alabamians want something different, and that’s why he has a path to victory.
“It’s been the pleasure of a lifetime to travel from corner to corner, top to bottom,” he explained, “and seeing Alabamians who tell me every day, ‘Lew we’re so hungry for change. We want to see change in this state,’ and it’s got to be a political outsider like me that doesn’t owe favors. Nobody’s got influence over me. I can’t be bought and paid for, and our campaign is the only one with momentum, is the only one rising in the polls and we’re going to win!”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
