A new poll conducted by Lewis Consulting Group shows that Bill Hunt's campaign is enjoying a “surprising surge” in recent weeks and now the race for Orange County sheriff is “essentially a dead heat.”
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The results: Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, 21 percent; ex-sheriff's
lieutenant Hunt, 20 percent. For some unknown reason, a specific number
wasn't provided for Craig Hunter, the Anaheim deputy police chief
who is also running.
According to John Lewis, the former
state senator turned campaign consultant, his poll results “suggest a
strong probability that this race is headed for a November run-off,” a
fate Hunt has openly predicted would end with his election to the top
slot at California's second largest police agency.
Lewis, who
worked for sheriff-turned-convicted felon Mike Carona, also noted
that Hutchens and Hunt are susceptible to lose significant support
after voters are informed about alleged negatives pertaining to
character.
Hutchens supposedly had messy finances years ago. Hunt is
accused of giving preferential treatment to Greg Haidl, the son
of an assistant sheriff then awaiting trial for the videotaped gang rape
of an unconscious minor.
RedCounty.com has a more detailed
report on the poll HERE.
–R.
Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.