Cox
LANSING, Mich. (Legal Newsline) - The Republican race for governor in Michigan is a virtual two-way tie with just a couple of weeks left before the state's Aug. 3 primary, according to a recent poll.
A Detroit News-Local 4 WDIV poll shows a close race between U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Holland and state Attorney General Mike Cox, followed closely by Ann Arbor businessman Rick Snyder.
The survey of 500 likely Republican primary voters taken July 12-13 has Cox at 26.4 percent, Hoekstra at 25.6 percent and Snyder at 20.2 percent.
Meanwhile, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard came in at 11.6 percent and state Sen. Tom George of Kalamazoo had 1.8 percent. Fourteen percent of voters are undecided, according to the poll.
Chicago-based Glengariff Group conducted the poll.
"Hoekstra and Cox are neck and neck, and Snyder has enough room in terms of building name ID and with his low unfavorable numbers he could pull it off in the last couple of weeks," Richard Czuba, president of Glengariff Group, told the Detroit News.
Cox, the attorney general, may fare well in the most recent poll, but his unfavorable rating among Republican voters is "far higher than those of his rivals," according to the Detroit newspaper.
Cox is rated favorably by 43 percent of voters and unfavorably by 25.8 percent. Meanwhile, Hoekstra is at 48.6 percent favorable and 10.6 unfavorable, and Snyder is at 35.8 percent favorable and 7.8 percent unfavorable.
Asked about Cox's standing in the poll, campaign spokesman Nick DeLeeuw played up the candidate's endorsements from Right to Life of Michigan and the state's Chamber of Commerce.
He told the Detroit News, "Voters are responding to his calls to cut spending and taxes."
Also, according to the poll, 71 percent of Republican primary voters say they're most concerned about fiscal issues.
The margin of error in the telephone survey is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Glengariff Group Inc. is a marketing research firm with offices in Chicago and St. Joseph, Mich., and a call center in Lansing.