A WHAS11/Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll is giving a first look at the frontrunners in the primaries for Louisville mayor.
In the video above, WHAS11 Political Editor Joe Arnold takes a closer look at the numbers and what they mean for Kentucky Republicans.
Real estate developer and builder Chris Thieneman is in a statistical dead heat with real estate investor and Metro Councilman Hal Heiner in the first WHAS11/Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll of the Louisville mayor's race. Small businessman Jonathan Robertson is a distant third.
Mayor: Republican Primary
449 Likely voters
Chris Thieneman 34%
Hal Heiner 30%
Jonathan Robertson 6%
Undecided 30%
Margin of Sampling Error +/- 4.7%
"Polls this early in the race are really more about starting gate position and name I-D," Heiner said.
"We've been walking the neighborhoods," said Thieneman, "and getting all the phone calls, making a lot of calls and they have all been positive. It really was exactly what I, I kind of thought it would be a little bit more ahead, to be honest with you. We're going to continue doing what we were doing yesterday and the day before and work even harder now."
Thienemen and Heiner are both competing for a pool of undecided voters nearly as large as their own base of supporters.
"We've been really encouraged. The percentage of this county that I've run in, in the past, is really only 4 percent of the county," Heiner said referring to his Metro Council district, "So, on a countywide basis to have a third of the voters, I'd say Hal Heiner's got the right message, 'we've heard of him, we like what we see.' It's a great starting point for this campaign."
In an aggressive move out of the gate, Heiner has bought $100,000 in television commercials to get his name out there. Thieneman put out a plea for campaign donations today - saying he's getting outspent 4 to 1. But he tells me, he'll have enough.
"I think we'll be able to compete very well," Thieneman said,"We're fundaising, we're going to be doing a lot of those types of activities as well. But a lot of our supporters are writing us checks for $25 to $1000."
You know an interesting part of this poll is that so many candidates are within the margin of error," Heiner explained, "in our race we're in a statistical dead heat."
