Left: Former Alabama state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (R) | Right: Ex-US Attorney Doug Jones (D)
By Jim Ellis
Dec. 5, 2017 — Several new developments have occurred in the Alabama special Senate election, now just a week from culmination. Two new polls have been released, one from the Washington Post/Schnar School and one from CBS News/YouGov; also, the campaigns’ latest financial disclosure numbers are now public.
Prior to this weekend, the last six public polls all showed former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (R) regaining a small lead over ex-US Attorney Doug Jones (D). Now, the Post/Schnar poll (Nov. 27-30; 1,304 adults; 1,110 self-identified registered Alabama voters; 739 self-identified likely Alabama voters) reverses the trend (Jones up, 50-47have been released), but a further examination of the respondent universe suggests that this survey is likely within the same realm as the others.
Conversely, the CBS News/YouGov data (Nov. 28-Dec. 1; 1,067 registered Alabama voters, 68 percent of whom say they will “definitely” vote in the special Senate election) finds a much different result over virtually the same time period. According to CBS/YouGov, Judge Moore retains a 49-43 percent edge, with 71 percent of Republicans saying they believe the sexual impropriety allegations against the former state Supreme Court Chief Justice are false.
Therefore, it appears this campaign is at least toss-up or, more likely, one that is slightly leaning Moore’s way as we head into the Dec. 12 election day. The winner will serve the balance of the current term, which goes through 2020. The new senator will be eligible to seek a full six-year term in that particular regular election.
