New poll: Hoekstra, Dillon still lead

A new Epic/MRA poll shows that U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra still leads the Republican candidates for governor, while state Rep. Andy Dillon continues to lead the Democrats vying for their party’s nomination. But it also uncovered something very interesting about the Democratic candidates:

Dillon, who also led in a February Epic MRA poll, was the preferred candidate for 22 percent of Democratic primary voters polled in March, followed by Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero at 15 percent and Washtenaw County State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith at 11 percent. Forty-two percent were undecided.

But when pollsters read a “brief biological description” of each candidate, Bernero’s support grew to 29 percent, besting Dillon’s 24 percent and Smith’s 20 percent. Twenty-four percent of those polled remained undecided.

That suggests that Bernero could overtake Dillon as voters get to know who he is. It will be very interesting to see how that plays out over the next few months.

Among the Republicans, who all have much higher name recognition than the Democrats, the results are more clear:

Hoekstra, who led the February poll, was preferred by 27 percent of Republican primary polled in March. He was followed by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox at 21 percent, Ann Arbor businessman Rick Snyder at 15 percent, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard at 13 percent and Kalamazoo state Senator Tom George at 3 percent. Eighteen percent were undecided. Hoesktra and Cox held on to the same percentages they saw in the February poll. Snyder gained 3 percentage points; Bouchard and George gained 2 percentage points each.

When pollsters read a description of Republicans, Hoekstra held his lead but dropped 1 point to 26 percent. Cox stayed at 21 percent but Snyder jumped by 6 points to tie the attorney general. Bouchard improved by 2 points to 15 percent and George improved by 3 points to 6 percent. Nine percent remained undecided.

That shows an opportunity for Snyder to move up, as he has been doing rapidly since he started airing his “One Tough Nerd” commercials during the Super Bowl.

Unfortunately for Democrats, the poll also shows all of the leading Republicans beating any of the leading Democrats by at least seven points in the general election.