Poll favors Mink; Voters will likely give the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink her final election win in November, according to results of the latest Star-Bulletin/KITV 4 News poll.
McDermott says figures
are wrong
Ratings for Hirono rises, dips for Lingle
Dispute rises over televised debate
By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.comThe poll shows Democrat Mink, who died Sept. 28, with 60 percent of vote, Republican Bob McDermott with 19 percent, others with 3 percent and the undecided with 18 percent.
"I look at those numbers and I'm befuddled," McDermott said. "I think my dog, Elvis, can score better than 19."
McDermott said he questions the reliability of the poll. "I don't think they're accurate. Anecdotally, people told me they voted for me. I think we're still going to win,"
The poll was taken by Market Trends Pacific from Oct. 17-24 of 500 randomly selected likely voters in the 2nd congressional district. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percent.
McDermott said that another poll showed Mink at 50 percent, him at 30 percent and the undecided at 20 percent, putting him within striking distance.
He said that despite the poll results, he feels he still has a chance to win, especially if he can get Republicans and independents to vote for him.
"I just don't see people going in and throwing their vote away," McDermott said. "I can understand the hard-core partisans doing that because they don't want the seat to go to Republican control but other than that it doesn't make any sense."
Democrats have urged voters to cast ballots for Mink in the general election as a tribute.
If Mink does posthumously win the Nov. 5 general election, a special election will be held Jan. 4 to serve the new two-year term.
A special election will be held Nov. 30 to fill the rest of her current term.
Mink garnered the most votes across all ethnic, age and other demographics groups, according to the poll.
"We start advertising next week buying some radio and television ... to get my name out there. I think a lot of people still don't know who I am," McDermott said.
He also said that he suspects those voting for Republican Linda Lingle for governor will also vote for him. "I'm hoping that Linda will have some pretty big coattails for us."
