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JULY 28, 2010                                                                                             This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Brandon Maitlen, 907.771.9090

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POLL: PARNELL HAS 60% OF THE PRIMARY VOTE

Governor’s Opponents Have Just 15%, 13% Respectively

Anchorage, AK – Sean Parnell has a 45 point lead in this year’s Republican Primary contest, according to a new poll out today from Hellenthal and Associates. The poll shows Sean Parnell as heavily favored to defeat Bill Walker and Ralph Samuels, who are neck in neck for the second place spot.

In the three-way matchup for governor between Sean Parnell, Bill Walker, and Ralph Samuels, Parnell would defeat Walker 60% to 15% and Samuels 60% to 12%. The poll, taken July 22 to July 25, sampled the attitudes of 312 voters likely to vote in the August 24 Republican Primary. The margin of error is 5.5%.

“Walker and Samuels are in a dead heat for 2nd and 3^rd place, but neither has been able to make up the ground they would need to win in August.” said longtime Republican pollster Marc Hellenthal.

Hellenthal’s poll also shows that 72% of likely Republican Primary voters view Governor Parnell positively. 29% of likely Republican Primary voters view Samuels positively, and 28% have positive views of Bill Walker. Among likely Republican Primary voters who consider themselves very conservative, fully three quarters support the current governor. 

Despite running television ads through over the past several months, both challengers have serious name identification deficits, with 44% of likely voters unaware of Samuels as a candidate, and 39% of voters who weren’t aware that Bill Walker was a running for Alaska’s top job.

“It’s clear that these numbers are great for Parnell,” said Hellenthal, “but we’ll see this race tighten with the deluge of television ads coming in August. I don’t anticipate a major change. This race is the governor’s to lose.”

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More information available online at: http://www.parnellgovernor.com. Follow campaign news on Twitter: @parnell4gov. Marc Hellenthal of Hellenthal & Associates can be reached 907-276-1001.