The GOP congressional incumbents are doing just fine in their re-election campaigns this year, a new Idaho Politics Weekly poll shows.
Pollster Dan Jones & Associates finds in a new survey that U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo has a 37 percentage point lead over his Democratic opponent.
U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador has a 32-point lead in his 1st District.
And Rep. Mike Simpson has a commanding 36-point lead in his 2nd District.
Idaho is a very Republican state, with all of the elected statewide offices and all four members of Congress being Republicans.
Here are the matchup results:
- U.S. Senate – Crapo favored by 57 percent of voters; Democratic challenger Jerry Sturgill, 20 percent; Constitution Party Ray Writz, 4 percent; Idahoans voting for someone else, 4 percent; and don’t know, 15 percent.
- 1st U.S. House District – Labrador, 61 percent; Democratic challenger James Piotrowski, 29 percent; don’t know, 10 percent.
- 2nd U.S. House District – Simpson, 62 percent; Democrat Jennifer Martinez, 26 percent; don’t know, 12 percent.
Labrador is the more conservative of the two House Republicans, belonging to several conservative groups in the House.
He gets 93 percent support from Republicans in his district, only 8 percent support from Democrats.
Simpson, however, does better among those of the opposing party – getting 22 percent of Democrats and 93 percent support from his own Republicans.
Martinez gets 30 percent support from female voters, while only 22 percent of men – so gender plays a small part in that 2ndDistrict race.
Still, Simpson – like all the other GOP incumbents seeking re-election – seems to be sliding easily into another term in office.
Most Idahoans don’t even have an opinion on the Idaho Supreme Court race, which shows they don’t know the candidates.
A retirement on the non-partisan Supreme Court has two fresh faces coming out of the primary, Rupert attorney Robyn Brody andCurt McKenzie, a Republican state senator from Tampa.
Jones finds that among all Idahoans, 20 percent favor Brody, 21 percent like McKenzie, and 59 percent don’t know.
This is a nonpartisan race, but McKenzie serves in the state Senate as a conservative Republican and raised a few eyebrows in the primary by playing up GOP legislative endorsements.
Still, Republicans are split like other Idahoans in the race: 22 percent like McKenzie, 13 percent like Brody, and 66 percent don’t know.
Democrats like Brody 30-16 percent, with 54 percent don’t know.
Independents are 25 percent for Brody, 21 percent for McKenzie and 55 percent don’t know.
Jones polled 601 adults from July 5-16 for the statewide U.S. Senate and Supreme Court races, margin of error plus or minus 4 percent.
He polled 324 adults in the 1st District, margin of error plus or minus 5.44 percent.
Jones polled 265 adults in the 2nd District, margin of error plus or minus 6.02 percent.
