The Eric Stewart campaign for 4th District Congress claims the Democratic state senator is now in a "dead heat" with incumbent Scott DesJarlais.
The campaign cited a poll conducted by Myers Research on Monday and Tuesday.
A memo from the pollsters says:
"According to the findings of our recent survey of 400 likely November voters in Tennessee’s 4 th
Congressional District, embattled Republican incumbent Congressman Scott DesJarlais finds himself locked in a statistical dead heat, leading Democrat Eric Stewart by just 5 points, 44 to 49 percent.1 Notably, DesJarlais significantly underperforms both the top of the ticket, where Romney bests Obama by an 18-point margin, 38 to 56 percent, and in a generic Congressional matchup where a Republican candidate also leads by double-digits, 39 to 52 percent. Make no mistake about it -- DesJarlais is in serious trouble in this strongly pro-life, pro-values district.
"Just one example that reflects the trouble DesJarlais has created for himself here is the trend among voters who attend church weekly or more than weekly. Among these voters, who favor Mitt Romney by a 30-point margin (33 to 63 percent), DesJarlais leads by just 11 points today, 41 to 52 percent. After these voters are presented with the fact that DesJarlais urged his patient/mistress to get an abortion and they hear DesJarlais’ response, the contest narrows even further among them to 40 to 48 percent.
"Indeed, in other signs of the free-fall DesJarlais has seen since last week, DesJarlais’ personal standing has fallen dramatically from our baseline survey in June and today his cool, or negative impressions have more than doubled to 29 percent, while warm, positive impressions of him have remained frozen at 26 percent. Consequently, his overall mean personal feeling thermometer has taken a remarkable tumble, from 56-degrees in June, to a tepid 46-degrees today, as measured on a scale from 0 to 1002.
"Importantly, just six in 10 voters today report having read, seen or heard something about Congressman DesJarlais in the past week, and by a two to one edge, these voters report that it has made them less likely to support DesJarlais for Congress. Clearly, as more voters learn about the Congressman’s scandalous behavior, this contest is likely to close further.
"Bottom line, DesJarlais is in serious jeopardy today and if Eric Stewart can harness the resources necessary to press his case here, Democrats have a great chance to put this district in the win column Election Day."