Jones, Pantele release polls favoring campaigns

Richmond mayoral candidates Dwight Clinton Jones and William J. Pantele released dueling polling numbers yesterday suggesting the five-person race is largely a contest between the two of them, with about one-third of voters undecided.

A memo released by a supporter of Jones indicated that a recent survey done by his campaign shows Jones leading Pantele 34 percent to 17 percent among a citywide sample of likely voters.

In response, Pantele's campaign released its own set of numbers indicating Pantele holds a statistically insignificant lead -- 26 percent to 23 percent -- over Jones.

Neither survey attempted to test the candidates in each of the city's nine districts. To be elected mayor, a candidate must win at least five districts.

Both sets of numbers showed the three other candidates -- Robert J. Grey Jr., Paul Goldman and Lawrence E. Williams Sr. -- well behind, with one-third of voters remaining undecided.

The polls, by Pantele and Jones, respectively, put Grey at 12 and 8 percent, followed by Goldman at 6 and 7 percent, and Williams at 1 percent.

The polls put Grey at 12 and 8 percent, followed by Goldman at 6 and 7 percent, and Williams at 1 percent.

"This race is boiling down to a two-candidate race" between Jones, a member of the House of Delegates, and Pantele, the president of Richmond City Council, said Craig Bieber, campaign manager for Pantele.

Neither Jones' nor Pantele's campaign would release a complete copy of their questions or findings. The Jones campaign released some of its results on paper; Pantele's spokesman only described the poll results. Both insisted their numbers were from a question that objectively gauged the candidates head to head.

Kevin O'Holleran, campaign manager for Jones, said a poll testing district-level support would have been expensive and logistically difficult.

"Overall, we're happy where we are," he said, "but we're going to run like we're behind."

Bieber said, "We feel, based on our poll, that we are obviously ahead, and we feel very, very good about our chances of winning."

The other candidates dismissed the numbers.

"Pantele and Jones give Richmonders more of politics as usual by worrying about popularity contests and grandstanding in the newspaper instead of problem-solving for our citizens," said Lisa Fulton, Grey's campaign manager, in an e-mail.

Goldman suggested the Jones campaign memo was released to undermine an appeal of last week's vote by the Richmond City Democratic Committee to endorse Jones. Goldman is challenging the vote on the basis that proper notice wasn't given to committee members.

Williams said he's courting voters who are undecided, not those who are swayed by candidates with familiar names.

"We've got to get beyond name-recognition issues and get onto professional leadership," he said.

Jones' survey was conducted Sept. 11-17 by Myers Research & Strategic Services of Springfield. It polled 500 likely voters and was augmented by a "regional oversample" of 204 voters. Its margin of error was plus or minus 4.38 percentage points.

Pantele's survey of 403 likely voters was conducted in early September by Cooper & Secrest Associates of Alexandria. Its margin of error was plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or .