Grant StarrettA little over two months before early voting starts in Tennessee's Aug. 4 GOP primary, U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., says a new poll commissioned by his campaign shows him with a big lead over his Republican challenger, Grant Starrett.
The South Pittsburg physician's campaign released the poll Thursday of what it says are 400 likely Republican voters. It shows DesJarlais with 61 percent support versus 8 percent for the lesser-known Starrett in the state's 4th Congressional District.
Twenty-seven percent were undecided, while another 3 percent split among other GOP primary candidates.
DesJarlais' campaign says the three-term congressman's 61 percent favorable rating is his highest ever.
Twenty-five percent of the Republicans polled held unfavorable views of DesJarlais, who scraped out a 2014 GOP primary win over Jim Tracy by 38 votes.
The 2014 squeaker came after late 2012 divorce record revelations that before running for office DesJarlais had had affairs with patients, urging one who said she was pregnant to get an abortion, and had gone along with his then-wife's two abortions.
The May 3-5 telephone survey was conducted by Meeting Street Research. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.9 percent.
"These numbers clearly show that Congressman DesJarlais has the support of the people of Tennessee's Fourth Congressional District," campaign spokesman Robert Jameson said in a statement.
Jameson said DesJarlais' "independent, conservative approach, which includes voting against [then-U.S. House] Speaker Boehner, against raising our nation's borrowing limit and against President Obama's unconstitutional executive amnesty, has been well received in Tennessee."
The spokesman also called the poll "proof that folks across the district are rejecting Grant Starrett's dishonest attacks and see him for what he is: a rich kid from Beverly Hills with no ties to Tennessee's Fourth District."
Starrett, a Vanderbilt University Law School graduate, moved into the district last year to challenge the congressman. Early voting begins July 15 in the sprawling, largely rural district. It stretches from Cleveland west through Murfreesboro and down to Columbia south of Nashville.
Tommy Schultz, Starrett's campaign manager, meanwhile, said the challenger commissioned his own poll in recent days "and the results we found weren't quite as happy for Congressman DesJarlais. Our polling predicts a statistical dead heat between Grant Starrett and Scott DesJarlais in August."
Schultz said the survey of 401 Republican primary voters found 60 percent of "voters are angry about Scott DesJarlais' vote for $700 billion in food stamps."
DesJarlais' campaign says that misrepresents what happened, that he voted to cut the program in the House and when U.S. senators altered the legislation he cast a no vote.
Starrett's campaign also was conducted recently, Schultz said. The campaign has pollster Wilson Perkins Allen, which worked on Republican Ted Cruz's presidential effort. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.9 percent.
Schultz said the campaign isn't content with just polling but "talks to a few thousand people every week at their doors. We've recently recorded over 13,000 conversations" and found Scott DesJarlais' "enthusiasm" to be in the "single digits."
"In contrast, more people are signing pledges to vote for Grant Starrett every single day and we're going to keep on fighting to earn every vote until August 4," Schultz said.
Of the $1.23 million the 28-year-old Starrett has raised for his effort, personal loans or in-kind contributions accounted for nearly $500,000.
DesJarlais, never a barn -urner in the fundraising department, has raised far less but is seeing a number of contributions from district residents who backed Tracy in the last election.
But Starrett's cash on hand as of March 31 was $908,000, giving him ample resources to wage an expensive television, radio, direct mail campaign to make himself known and/or attack the incumbent in a district with Chattanooga and the far more expensive Nashville media market.
The congressman had $346,000 in cash on hand as of March 31.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com, 615-255-0550 or follow via twitter at AndySher1.