Williams Touts Internal Poll

An internal poll conducted for the gubernatorial ticket of Senate President David Williams and Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer gives the slate the lead in the GOP primary with 47% of the voteThe poll places Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw and her running mate Bill Vermillion in second place with 10%. Louisville businessman Phil Moffett and his running mate, state Representative Mike Harmon, trail with 9%.CN2 has the response from the Holsclaw and Moffett campaigns. Both criticize the numbers, either by dismissing them or pointing out that Williams and Farmer have support from less than half of those polled.On the Democratic side, incumbent Steve Beshear is running unopposed with Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson sharing the ticket.Independent Gatewood Galbraith is also running with Dea Riley as his running mate.There is a lot of debate over the accuracy of internal polls. Often, campaigns only release the results when they're favorable--sometimes inaccurately so. However, politicians will frequently argue that internal polls are at least as reliable as media-commissioned polls, because campaign polling firms rely on their accuracy to protect their reputation. In the end, this is an early poll in a primary where the field was only recently set, though Williams and Moffett declared their candidacies months ago.