Poll shows Lorraine Hunt would defeat Rose McKinney-James

The poll shows Hunt the favorite among 43 percent of the Republicans polled, with former Virginia City, Nev. prostitute Jessi Winchester running second with 15 percent. Physician Fuller Royal is third with 9 percent.

The poll shows Hunt also leading Democratic candidate Rose McKinney-James 37 percent to 24 percent. Another 35 percent remain undecided in that match-up.

Winchester's support increased from 6 percent in a June poll. The poll conducted from July 29 to Tuesday showed she would be evenly matched against McKinney-James, the president of a nonprofit solar development company.

McKinney-James is trailing Hunt by 13 points. While 37 percent chose Hunt, 24 percent chose McKinney-James, 4 percent chose none of the above and 35 percent were undecided.

There is a 5.5 percent margin of error in either direction in the telephone poll of 334 likely Republican primary voters statewide.

And in the questions pitting Democrats against Republicans, the margin of error was 3.5 percentage points in the larger group of 837 registered voters.

Hunt said the polls confirm her personal campaign experience: "It feels good out there."

She is concerned that her opponents are using an ethics complaint to campaign against her. The Ethics Commission in May dismissed the complaint, which pertained to the awarding of an airport concession contract.

McKinney-James said she is testing the ethics issue by asking voters whether they would feel differently if they knew Hunt "faced an Ethics Commission investigation for her role in tampering with ... contracts at McCarran International Airport."

That sort of questioning is a test method used to find political vulnerabilities, but Hunt said it is spreading false information about her. She said McKinney-James pollsters were using the term "convicted" of ethics charges, but McKinney-James said that was not true.

Winchester is also "spreading rumors and gossip" about the ethics complaint, Hunt claimed.

The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research based in Columbia, Md.

McKinney-James said the large numbers of undecided voters - 35 percent - showed the race is "clearly wide open and the undecided voters obviously will make the decision."

Winchester ran as a Democrat for Congress two years ago, but lost, attracting 21 percent of the primary vote.

The poll was conducted for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and KTNV-TV Channel 13.

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