KING 5 poll gives Herrera a 13-point lead

A post-primary election poll commissioned by Seattle’s KING 5 TV shows Republican state Rep. Jaime Herrera entering the general election campaign with a healthy lead over Democrat Denny Heck in the 3rd Congressional District race.

The SurveyUSA poll,the first head-to-head comparison between the top two finishers in the Aug. 17 primary, sampled 700 registered voters in the 3rd District on Aug. 23 and Aug. 24. It found 54 percent favored Herrera to 41 percent for Heck.

According to the poll, Herrera has a broad constituency and enjoys an early advantage among both men and women and young and old. Moderates polled favored the Democratic candidate by a 5:4 ratio, but Independents favored Herrera 5:3.

The margin of error was plus or minus 4.2 percent.

Heck was the top vote-getter in the primary, winning 31.4 percent of the vote to 27.9 percent for Herrera. Heck also outspent all other candidates, contributing $350,000 of his own money to his $1 million campaign chest.

But the combined tally for all three Republican candidates was 53.7 percent, while Heck and Olympia peace activist Cheryl Crist, the other Democrat in the race, together attracted 42.5 percent of the vote.

Not coincidentally, those breakdowns mirror almost exactly the results of the KING TV poll.

Kathie Durbin