by Ed Naile

Remember the NH Primary Election way back in September? I took a look back recently.

WMUR had a poll released on August 30 that measured the candidates for governor.
Granite State Poll

Here is the opening paragraph:

August 30, 2016

TWO WEEKS FROM PRIMARY AND NH VOTERS ARE STILL UNFAMILIAR WITH GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES
by: Andrew E. Smith, Ph.D.
andrew.smith@unh.edu
Zachary S. Azem, M.A.
603-862-2226
UNH Survey Center
http://www.unh.edu/survey-center

DURHAM, NH – In one of the most wide open races for governor in recent history, most Granite State voters are unfamiliar with candidates of both parties heading into the September 13th primaries.

These findings are based on the latest WMUR Granite State Poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Five hundred and fifty-nine (559) randomly selected New Hampshire adults were interviewed by landline and cellular telephone between August 20 and August 28, 2016. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 4.1 percent. Included were four hundred and thirty-three (433) likely 2016 general election voters (MSE = +/- 4.7%) and three hundred and thirty seven (337) likely 2016 primary election voters (MSE = +/- 5.3%).

And in the race for governor the WMUR’s polling two weeks out looked like this:

NH Gubernatorial Candidates Most Likely To Vote For – Likely September Primary Voters

Among respondents to the August 2016 Granite State Poll, 337 said they planned to vote in the September 13th state primary. Likely primary voters were asked which of the gubernatorial candidates from both parties they would be most likely to vote for. One in five (23%) chose Chris Sununu, 14% chose Ted Gatsas, 10% chose Colin Van Ostern, 5% chose Steve Marchand, 5% chose Jeanie Forrester, 4% chose Frank Edelblut, 2% chose Mark Connolly, and 36% were unsure. When asked if they had a second choice, 11% chose Sununu, 6% chose Gatsas, 4% chose Connolly, 3% chose Marchand, 3% chose Forrester, 2% chose Van Ostern, 1% chose Edelblut, and 68% were undecided or didn’t have a second choice.

Now we know the results of the NH Gubernatorial Primary it might pay to compare with our informal CNHT Straw Poll taken on July 9th 2016:

CNHT 2016 Straw Poll Results:

GOVERNOR
Frank Edelblut – 113*
Chris Sununu – 46
Ted Gatsas – 24
Mike Gill – 4

US SENATE
Kelly Ayotte – 79*
Jim Rubens – 78
Aaron Day – 16

CD-1
Frank Guinta – 81*
Rich Ashooh – 77
Brendan Kelly – 13

CD-2
Jim Lawrence – 112*
John Babiarz – 15
Jack B. Flanagan – 13

Could it be the Granite State pollsters don’t call taxpayers?