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Vince Gray‘s campaign thinks they’re winning big in Ward 7— and they love showing it off. The campaign’s latest poll, the third to be commissioned by Gray or his supporters in his race against Yvette Alexander, purports to show Gray beating the incumbent by 31 percent.
The automated phone poll, conducted on Tuesday with 268 people likely to vote in June’s Democratic primary, found Gray with 53 percent of the vote. Alexander received 22 percent, according to Gray’s campaign, while challengers Delmar Chesley and Grant Thompson were tied with 3 percent each. The poll has a 5-percent margin of error.
A poll commissioned by Gray’s campaign in April showed roughly the same numbers for the two lead candidates, with Gray then showing a 29 percentage-point lead over Alexander.
The numbers have stayed essentially the same, despite a flurry of slams exchanged between the Alexander and Gray campaigns. This week, Gray’s campaign complained in an email blast that Alexander has been slow to respond to the ward’s jump in murders, then linked Alexander to patron Muriel Bowser cursing out D.C. Council chairman Phil Mendelson. For her part, Alexander’s campaign touted Gray’s illicitly funded 2010 mayoral campaign SUV.
The new poll numbers are more bad news for Alexander, who has enough of it already. Gray, Alexander’s former patron, is lapping her in endorsements from unions and other groups. Meanwhile, Bowser’s Green Team crew is mostly absent from the race. On WAMU last week, At-Large Councilmember and fellow Green Teamer Vincent Orange practically refused to say Alexander’s name.