Poll shows Jean Schodorf tied with Kris Kobach as she raises more funds

Democratic Kansas secretary of state hopeful Jean Schodorf pulled into a tie with Republican incumbent Kris Kobach with the election a week away, a new poll showed.

A survey for KSN Television in Wichita found Schodorf and Kobach tied at 45 percent, with the balance undecided.

The poll by SurveyUSA comes a day after new campaign finance reports showed that Schodorf had raised about $80,000 more than Kobach in the last three months.

Pollsters at SurveyUSA said that Kobach is in “the fight of his life.” They said Kobach is particularly at risk if Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback also lose next Tuesday.

The new SurveyUSA poll was markedly different from recent polls that indicated Kobach was surging ahead of Schodorf.

A poll out Oct. 13 from Public Policy Polling showed Kobach up 47 percent to 41 percent for Schodorf. Twelve percent of respondents were undecided. That survey was done Oct. 9 through Oct. 12.

Another poll out last week from Gravis Marketing showed Kobach with 48 percent to 40 percent for Schodorf and 11 percent undecided. The Gravis poll was done Oct. 20 through Oct. 21.

New campaign finance reports out Monday show that Schodorf raised $213,684 to Kobach’s $133,680 for the last quarter.

Overall, Kobach has raised about $424,000 for his re-election effort, versus about $324,000 for Schodorf.

This past quarter, Kobach reported receiving $10,000 from the Kansas Republican Party and another $2,000 from Gov. Sam Brownback’s affiliated Road Map political action committee. Kobach also received another $2,000 from his own Prairie Fire political action committee.

He also reported receiving $2,000 each from the Kansas State Rifle Association and the Republican National Coalition for Life. He also received $1,000 from the U.S. Immigration Reform political action committee.

Meanwhile, Schodorf reported receiving contributions from across the United States, some as small as just a dollar.

Some contributions were in uneven amounts, such as $3.34 from Linda Rudolph in Houston, $1.67 from John Manning in Lake Helen, Fla., and $8.34 from Jerry Ogawa in Memphis, Tenn.

Contributions came from more than 25 states, including Hawaii, California, Vermont, Tennessee, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, Florida and Virginia.

Schodorf did receive healthy support from unions, including $4,000 from the Kansas National Education Association and $2,000 from the AFL-CIO.

The national contributions came as a result of an endorsement from the liberal website the Daily Kos, which published stories with a request for donations to be sent to Schodorf, campaign spokesman Marcus Williamson said.

“Nearly all of those small contributions were given online from people who are familiar with Kobach’s national reputation, and wanted to support his opponent,” Williamson said in an email.

This story was originally published October 28, 2014 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Poll shows Jean Schodorf tied with Kris Kobach as she raises more funds."