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Before he announced his re-election bid Monday, Ward 1 D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham launched an exploratory committee to poll on his chances. In an appearance this afternoon on WAMU’s The Politics Hour, Graham touted what he says were the very positive results of that poll: a 54 percent approval rating for the incumbent, with Graham pulling 37 percent of respondents against opponents who are mired in the single digits.
Still, Graham apparently didn’t like the poll enough to include it on the list of campaign expenditures filed Tuesday with the Office of Campaign Finance. Though Graham acknowledged conducting the automated poll in an interview with the Washington Post on Oct. 18 and again on WAMU today, the expenditure is nowhere to be found on his filing.
That discrepancy caught the eye of Graham opponent Brianne Nadeau, whose campaign released a statement today calling it the “first ethical lapse” of his campaign.
Graham didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from LL about the disappearing poll. But the Post‘s Mike DeBonis was apparently able to wrangle an explanation: Graham, who apparently hired the most patient polling firm in town, said his campaign treasurer just forgot to write the check.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery