A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that Democratic challenger Jon Tester appears to hold a slight lead over Republican Sen. Conrad Burns — 50 to 41 percent — in the Montana Senate race.
Burns’s spokesman Jason Klindt immediately dismissed the poll as “inaccurate.” He then lashed out at reporters at the Great Falls Tribune because they published the poll, telling them he was revoking their credentials to attend Burns’s election night event:
Running a bogus poll on the day before an election to try and suppress Republican voter turnout is irresponsible and in poor taste.
While Klindt eventually restored the paper’s credentials — “so as not to punish the readers” — his outlash was misplaced. There is no evidence that the Great Falls Tribune was attempting to “suppress Republican voter turnout.” The only evidence Klindt offered for characterizing the poll as “bogus” was that the numbers “just don’t smell right.”
The results of the USA Today/Gallup poll are similar to other recent poll results. According to Pollster.com, Burns has not beaten Tester in a poll since April.
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