Kentucky Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jack Conway
Kentucky's gubernatorial race is only a little more than three months away, but there's been a dearth of polling here so far. But SurveyUSA comes to our rescue and finds a tight race, with Democrat Jack Conway
posting a 45-42 lead against Republican Matt Bevin. SurveyUSA's last poll from mid-May gave Conway a
stronger 48-37 edge, but it's not too surprising to see a shift now that the ugly Republican primary is over.
When independent Drew Curtis is added to the mix, Conway's lead increases to 43-38, with Curtis only taking 5. Curtis, the founder of the website Fark, leans to the left, but so far he seems to be attracting more conservatives who may just not be sold on Bevin yet. Curtis is still collecting signatures, and we should know around mid-August if he'll make the general election ballot.
We've only seen one other independent poll since the May GOP primary, a late June PPP survey that gave Bevin a 38-35 edge. One important difference between the two surveys is outgoing Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear's approval rating: PPP gave him a good but not great 43-35 score, while SurveyUSA gives him a much better 51-33 mark. PPP usually gives elected officials lower ratings than other pollsters so there may be nothing else to this. However, Conway will definitely benefit if more conservative voters see Beshear's tenure as a success and are willing to pull the lever for another Democrat.