Republican Jesse Kelly has a commanding lead in the GOP primary of the Congressional District 8 special election, according to a poll commissioned by Citizens United.
After winning a crowded GOP primary in 2010, Kelly came within a few thousand votes of defeating Gabrielle Giffords, who stepped down last month to focus on her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head on Jan. 8, 2011.
The survey of 700 GOP voters, taken on Feb. 15-16, shows that Kelly has the support of 43 percent of the voters, while state Sen. Frank Antenori is in second place with 18 percent. Sportscaster and businessman Dave Sitton had just 10 percent in the poll, while former Air Force fighter pilot Martha McSally had 8 percent and John Lervold had 1 percent.
The GOP primary will be decided on April 17, with early voting starting in mid-March. The winner of the GOP primary will likely face Democrat Ron Barber, the only Democrat to announce plans to run in the June 12 special general election.
Here’s the press release from Citizens United, which has endorsed Kelly:
Wenzel Strategies conducted a telephone survey of likely Republican special primary election voters in Arizona’s currently existing 8th Congressional District regarding the selection of a nominee to fill a vacant congressional seat. The survey was conducted Feb. 15-16, 2012, and included 700 respondents. The margin of error for the poll is +/- 3.68 percentage points.
The survey of voters in AZ CD8 shows that Jesse Kelly is far and away the leader for the Republican nomination for Congress, winning 43% support in a five-way contest. He is far better known than any of the other candidates in the race, and leads by wide margins in almost every demographic category in the survey.
Among self-identified moderates and mainline conservatives, he leads with 38% support, while among conservatives who support the TEA Party movement he wins 46% support.
A distant second place is Frank Antenori, who wins 18% support in the survey.
Another 20% said they were unsure for whom to vote in the special primary election.
The survey also shows that Kelly’s support is much more solid than is the support for the other candidates, as 56% of Kelly voters said they were firm in their choice. Another 34% of his supporters said they were moderately settled on their choice in the race, but that it was possible they could change their mind before they vote. Just 10% of Kelly voters said they were very open to changing their minds before they vote.
Seven out of 10 respondents said they had a favorable opinion of Kelly, while just 16% said they had an unfavorable opinion of him. Just 14% said they did not know enough about Kelly to have formed an opinion about him. Respondents also said they were displeased with the direction in which things in general were heading in the local area. Just 12 said things locally were on the right track, while 78% said things were headed in the wrong direction.
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2012.
Jesse Kelly would be more of a man and more of a legit candidate if he got off the public dole. He needs to surrender his veteran’s entitlements. We taxpayers don’t own him, his wife, or his child a living or health benefits. He volunteered. He got paid. That should be the end of it.
Get off the public dole Kelly.
Quite being a two-faced leech.
Lord have mercy on us all if this guy even gets close to elected
Jesse Kelly, after losing to Gabby in the 2010 election, rather than stay in Arizona and try to make a difference, in a huff moved to Texas. He only returned once Gabby stepped down. If you really want to see what kind of “person” Jesse Kelly is all you have to do is to look at this taken directly from his website several days AFTER Gabby was shot at the Safeway http://j.mp/A5to9a
@RRowleyTucson on Twitter
It did not take long for the lies about Mr. Kelly to begin.
First of all Valiant, recently discharged combat Veterans are eligible for five years of cost-free care and medications for conditions related to combat service. Mr Kelly was honorably discharged in 2004. As a result, his eligibility for any benefits he might have received ended in 2009.
“He volunteered. He got paid. That should be the end of it”
Such compassion you exhibit for returning combat vets however!
“Jesse Kelly, after losing to Gabby in the 2010 election, rather than stay in Arizona and try to make a difference, in a huff moved to Texas.” rrowleyarizona
LOL.. “in a huff”….Managing a construction project for his company for the past six months, I believe he has stated, seems more work-related to me than it does a “huff”.
I also seem to recall hearing Mr. Kelly on KUAZ Radio, I believe the show was called Spotlight Arizona, discussing many issues of importance to Southern Arizona throughout most of 2011.
No lies here about “Mr. Kelly”, only truth. The graphic at http://j.mp/A5to9a was taken directly from his website 3 days AFTER Gabby took a bullet for her constituents. Kelly DID leave Arizona right after losing to her in the last election and has only just now returned just after she stepped down. One wonders, his construction projects start and end dates seem to be a coincidence but, having remained out of state and only just recently returning, does he even qualify to run? What are the residency considerations? Carpetbagger anyone?
Who is Robert Rowley (rrowley)?
Check out his twitter profile and tweets.
http://twitter.com/#!/rrowleytucson
“Freedom Fighter fighting against terrorist & criminal countries, governments, parties, politicians & police worldwide regardless of who they are.
“
He was vocal in his support of the Libyan rebels, going so far as to provide co-ordinates for bombings.
“Nato, Twitter and air strikes in Libya”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguard…
And who are the Libyan rebels that rrowley supports?
“Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/…
“WW2 Heroes – Graves desecrated by Muslim mob in libya.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQWskXeeuf0
I would have expected the candidate who lost to Gabrielle Giffords to have at least said that the shootings were tragic and said some kind words for those who were wounded and to the families of those killed. This self-centered SOB didn’t have the common decency to say a word. But now he’s back to step into the spot that the shooter took her from. Nice, huh?
Kelley’s thinking about government shows he has no sence of history in the 20th century.
His way of thinking would drag us back to the days before the Great Depression when we had super rich and super poor people and no safety-net to help people survive. He needs to grow up and face the truth about history. This nation of 300,000,000 people can’t have the luxury of not combining their efforts in order for this nation to survive. Kelly would have most of us walking the roads and begging for food rather than have a plan for the nation that would include Roosevelt’s “Forgotten Man”. Because of redirecting the money supply in the New Deal, this nation enjoyed the greatest standard of living that any has ever experienced. The Kelley’s don’t see it that way and want to return to the hard times.
Nidan Gojou, here are a few facts that you might want to try and reconcile with your retarded position. Jesse Kelly had announced an event that was scheduled at the Double Tree Hotel on Alvernon on the very Saturday that Giffords was shot. Naturally the event was cancelled as soon as the details of the shooting were made public. How do I know? I received an invitation to the event. So much for not returning until after she was shot. He then waited an entire year after that shooting to make his announcement. And, Anita Cross, you might want to try a verify your comments about Jesse Kelly not having the decency to say a word about the Giffords shooting. Here are his exact words, “We are all deeply saddened by this morning’s shooting. Gabrielle Giffords, the other victims, and their families are in our prayers.” Source: KOLD News Tucson and here’s the link: http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/global/story.…. Doesn’t fit your narrative does it Anita?