tight race between Bayh and Engling

New poll results show Democrat Beau Bayh with advantages in name identification and voter support over Republican Max Engling going into the final weeks of the race for Indiana secretary of state.

The poll, commissioned by the Free Press Indiana news organization, found 43% were likely to vote for Bayh and 35% likely to cast their ballot for Engling. Libertarian Lauri Shillings had 6% support, with Lincoln Party candidate Greg Ballard at 5% and 11% undecided.

Bayh — the son of former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh — also had much better name recognition and favorability ratings than Engling.

The poll results showed Bayh with a favorability mark of 35% to 18% unfavorable. Engling had 12% with a favorable opinion and 17% unfavorable.

But the biggest factor could be that 48% of those polled said they had never heard of Engling, with 27% saying they didn’t know of Bayh.

“Not only does he have a name ID advantage, he’s got almost a two-to-one favorable unfavorable rating, which is almost unheard of,” pollster Christine Matthews told the Capital Chronicle. “The fact that Beau Bayh has driven up his favorable rating, not just his name ID, is, I think, a real testament to why he is positioned the way he is on the ballot.”

Matthews is the president of Virginia-based Bellwether Research, which conducted the poll. Matthews has overseen extensive polling in Indiana, including for former Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

The poll found 85% of Democrats saying they supported Bayh, whose strong fundraising allowed him to start statewide television advertising in August — a month before Engling. Independent voters were giving Bayh 39% support — more than double any other candidate.

Engling had more tepid backing among Republican voters at 68% support. Engling only started his campaign in May as a little-known staffer to U.S. Sen. Jim Banks before defeating current GOP Secretary of State Diego Morales at the state Republican convention.

Other poll results found government corruption as the top voter concern and that 69% oppose the construction of new data centers in the state.

Bayh has pushed both topics in his campaign advertising and denounced what he calls corrupt spending by Morales.

“Corruption has been a big part of his paid media message, so that’s really I think resonating,” Matthews said.

Bayh appears able to continue his advertising push as campaign finance reports filed Thursday show him maintaining sizable fundraising and spending advantages over Engling.

The Free Press Indiana poll surveyed 839 likely voters during Oct. 8-11. It oversampled Republicans, in line with the state’s GOP lean, and has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

The findings showing Bayh and Engling far ahead of Ballard and Shillings follows a poll from Hoosier Leadership for America, a political group associated with Banks, with a similar result.

The Hoosier Leadership for America poll, taken Sept. 27-30, showed Engling with 38% support to Bayh’s 37%. Shillings had 6% support and Ballard 5% with 14% undecided.