State Sen. Kyle McCarter got some good news last week when he the deep-pocketed Club For Growth backed his primary campaign against longtime Republican Rep. John Shimkus. However, Public Opinion Strategies is out with a new poll arguing that Shimkus isn’t in any danger in this safely red seat. POS gives Shimkus a 65-13 lead, almost identical to an unreleased October poll, and he posts a strong 67-14 favorable rating with GOP primary voters. This poll looks like it was taken for Shimkus (POS lists him as a client on their website), but Capitol Fax's Rich Miller doesn't make that explicit.
The primary is March 15 so if POS is anywhere close to accurate, McCarter and his allies don’t have much time to convince Republicans that they need to dump the incumbent. Though as we’ve said before and will say again, if McCarter has numbers showing that primary voters really are tired of Shimkus, he should release them before anti-establishment groups decide that this contest isn’t a good use of their money.