Poll results released for 2nd Congressional District

While not as closely watched as the 3rd Congressional District race by those in the Fort Smith area, Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District (central Arkansas) race is garnering nationwide attention.

The seat fully opened when U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, announced he would not seek re-election.

In Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District GOP primary, there are only two challengers – Tim Griffin and Scott Wallace. The open seat drew five Democratic candidates and two Republicans. On the Democratic side are John Adams, David Boling, State Rep. Joyce Elliot, Patrick Kennedy and Arkansas House Speaker Robbie Wills. Tim Griffin and Scott Wallace are vying for the GOP bid.

Two surveys conducted recently by Talk Business provide some insight into the minds of primary voters in the respective races. Talk Business surveyed 738 voters who declared their intent to vote in the May 18 GOP primary. The poll, conducted April 6-7, 2010, has a margin of error of +/-3.6%.

• Survey results for the GOP primary
20% Tim Griffin
20% Scott Wallace
60% Undecided



Roby Brock, owner of Talk Business, offered this analysis of the survey results: “The relatively small size of the 2nd Congressional District and the dominance of the Little Rock media market still make this race ripe for Tim Griffin’s fundraising advantage to win out in this election. Scott Wallace has seemingly held his own from a grass-roots perspective of networking with GOP primary voters. This poll reflects a similar large number of undecided voters from an internal poll released by Wallace last week.”



With support from national Republicans and a fundraising advantage, Brock said he expects Griffin to soon “turn on the spigot of his paid media campaign.”


On the Democratic side, Talk Business surveyed 446 voters who declared their intent to vote in the May 18 Democratic primary.  The poll, conducted on April 6-7, 2010, has a margin of error of +/-4.6%.

• Survey results for the Democratic primary
21%  Joyce Elliott
16%  Robbie Wills
11%  Patrick Kennedy
7%   David Boling
4%  John Adams
41%  Undecided

Brock posted this analysis of the Democratic primary: “Joyce Elliott, State Senator from Little Rock, is clearly benefiting from respectable name identification from her elected office in Pulaski County, which makes up nearly half of the votes in the district. House Speaker Robbie Wills has solid name ID at this juncture from his earned media presence in the Little Rock TV and radio market. Clearly, there is a large undecided vote remaining among Democratic voters. Who can persuade the 41% of unknowns? Expect money to be a major factor in moving numbers. Robbie Wills and David Boling are expected to post the most impressive fundraising numbers for the first quarter, but Elliott has also had success and it looks like the others will be trying to catch her at this point.”

Link here for Brock’s full report on the 2nd District GOP primary, and link here for the report on the 2nd District Democratic primary.