A poll commissioned by Sixth District independent congressional candidate Jeff Vanke has him within four points of Republican incumbent Bob Goodlatte.
OK, yes, there’s a catch. The two-question poll, conducted on Tuesday, resembled a push poll, pushing respondents on Vanke’s central campaign message of balancing the federal budget, and taking shots at Goodlatte over campaign contributions from the agribusiness sector and making a claim that Goodlatte backs costly agribusiness subsidies.
The 1,040 respondents to the poll still gave Goodlatte a 46 percent-to-42 percent lead over Vanke. Libertarian Stuart Bain polled at 4 percent.
Vanke will hold a press conference in Roanoke Wednesday afternoon to discuss the results with the news media.
Reporting by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at [email protected].