A Kansas gubernatorial candidate is touting a new poll that shows he has expanded his lead, saying that negative ads against him have backfired.
Paul Davis, a Democrat running for governor against Republican incumbent Sam Brownback, has broadened his lead in the race, according to new data from Public Policy Polling. The poll, conducted from Sept. 11 to 14, reached about 1,300 voters via landline phone and over the Internet. Brownback lagged behind Davis, 38-42, a gap outside the poll’s 2.7 percent margin of error.
The same pollster found Davis with just a two-point lead over Brownback last month.
Davis trumpeted the change on Twitter.
“In August Davis/Docking led #Brownback 39-37, so he spent millions attacking me in misleading ads,” he tweeted. “We’re now at 42-38.”
If Davis’s theory is right and his expanded lead is due to negative ads’ backfiring, Brownback wouldn’t be the only incumbent this cycle whose ads came back to bite him. Eric Cantor, then the House majority leader, significantly raised the profile of his long-shot — and successful — primary challenger by running TV spots saying he was a “liberal college professor.”
And in his 2012 Texas Republican primary contest against now-Sen. Ted Cruz, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst drew ire from conservative activists by running ads calling his competitor “Red Ted” and suggesting he prioritized China over America.
An attack ad from the Republican Governors Association, which Davis may have been alluding to, didn’t go so far as to call him a communist. But it highlighted his support for President Obama and labeled him “an Obama liberal.”
