SALT LAKE CITY — Erin Mendenhall has a slight lead over Luz Escamilla in a new poll released on the mayor’s race.
But a lot is undecided.
The poll, conducted by Dan Jones & Associates for the Salt Lake Chamber, found 42% favor Mendenhall to Escamilla’s 37%. However, 21% of those surveyed said they were undecided.
The poll was of 350 people with a margin of error of +/- 5.23%.
Neither campaign was willing to accept the numbers at face value. In a statement on Wednesday, Mendenhall said it was “encouraging” but she predicted a closer race than the poll indicated.
“I trust our internal numbers and those numbers say it’s a lot closer than this. It feels like we have the momentum and this poll seems to confirm that it’s still growing, but it’s not going to change how we campaign,” she wrote. “We are going to run our race tomorrow the same way we did yesterday and just like we did in the primary: like we’re down and working as hard as we possibly can to earn every possible vote.”
Escamilla’s campaign manager Rudy Miera also believed there was a long way to go before Election Day.
“With 21% undecided, we feel good about our ability to win those undecideds and looking at the dailies on that 7-day poll, which was a few weeks ago, the momentum changed toward the end. Had they kept polling we feel confident it would reflect what we’re seeing on the ground, which is a surge of support,” he said. “That surge is due to our field campaign and our message which is resonating. It may also be that the real story of the Inland Port has started to hit voters.”
