Dueling polls show challenge for Gov. Hickenlooper

Two new polls offered starkly different assessments of the Colorado governor’s race.

One shows Republican challenger Bob Beauprez jumping ahead of Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper by 10 points and the other shows the contest deadlocked.

A Quinnipiac University poll found Beauprez leading Hickenlooper 50 percent to 40 percent among likely voters – the first time an independent survey found the governor so far behind.

In contrast, a poll from Suffolk University finds the race statistically tied among likely voters, with Hickenlooper ahead 43-41, within the poll’s margin of error.

“We might be a little bit ahead,” Beauprez said. “Or the governor might be a little bit ahead. But it looks like the trend is moving in our direction. And, naturally we’re encouraged by that by it’s a long way to the finish line. We’re going to continue to make our case for Colorado to have better leadership, decisive leadership and a plan to make this a better state, a stronger state.”

The governor believes the Quinnipiac poll is an outlier.

“We’re going to have a lot of polls with a lot of different conclusions,” Hickenlooper said. “I don’t think the poll is right. Anybody can have a magic 8-ball, you turn it around, it comes up with a different number. We’re trying to get the word out on what the state has done, where it’s going, what the vision for the next four years is.”

Quinnipiac assistant poll director Tim Malloy said the big shift in the polling numbers may be because likely midterm election voters tend to favor Republicans.

Republicans have spent months blasting Hickenlooper for granting an indefinite stay of execution to a death-row inmate Nathan Dunlap.