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Daub sees real shot to be mayor(Omaha World-Herald (NE) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 8--Hal Daub wants another shot at being Omaha's mayor and is promoting himself as having the firepower to take on all comers, including the man who narrowly beat him -- incumbent Mayor Mike Fahey. Daub has circulated a memo from his pollster to potential supporters that contends he would be a formidable candidate. A survey by prominent national Republican pollster Neil Newhouse shows Daub leading Fahey by 5 percentage points in a hypothetical head-to-head contest for mayor, if the race were held at the time of the survey. "We disagree with those findings," said Paul Landow, Fahey's chief of staff. Landow also disputed Newhouse's assertion that the survey uncovered strong sentiment for change in the Mayor's Office. Daub announced last month that he was running for mayor. Fahey has not said whether he will seek a third term. The mayor has done his own polling, but, as with other polls taken for Fahey, the results are private and will not be made public, Landow said. The Daub results also were shrugged off by two other potential mayoral candidates -- former Mayor P.J. Morgan and City Councilman Jim Suttle. Neither has announced a candidacy but both are mentioned in the memo summarizing the Daub poll. The survey of 400 Omaha registered voters was conducted May 20 and 21. Some of the findings noted in the memo: --Fahey had the highest favorable rating of the four men mentioned in the memo, at 55 percent. --Two-thirds of those surveyed had an opinion about Morgan, who hasn't been on the ballot for 15 years. --Suttle generated enough name recognition to be mentioned in the summary memo. Several other council members and community figures who have been talked about as mayoral contenders were included in the survey but did not draw enough response to be mentioned in the one-page summary. When asked about the poll, Daub said that he paid for the 34-question survey to show his wife and supporters that he has a real shot to be mayor. He said he wanted to reassure his wife, Mary, that a campaign would have "a decent chance of success." The results also let his friends, colleagues, potential contributors and vendors know that "there is a credible opportunity here," Daub said. "I am encouraged by it, and so is my wife." Daub said he intentionally waited to do the survey until after the controversy surrounding the new downtown stadium had settled down. Daub rejected any suggestion that he is jumping the gun, saying the next city election is only 11 months away. But Fahey, Suttle and Morgan said they see no reason to push up their decisions because Daub has started his campaign. "I think it's way too early," said Morgan, whose decision to leave the Mayor's Office in 1994 opened the door for Daub to win a special election. With so much attention on the presidential race, Omahans shouldn't be expected to think about the May 2009 city election, Morgan said. He said he plans to wait until after the November election or even into next year to decide whether to run. Suttle, in his first term as a councilman, said he plans to make his intentions known in the fall. "I'm comfortable with that time frame for a go or no-go decision," Suttle said. If Daub's poll results are accurate within the statistical margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, public attitudes toward Daub have not significantly changed over the past eight years. A World-Herald poll in the fall of 2000 found 45 percent of Omahans viewed Daub favorably and 37 percent unfavorably. In Daub's poll from this May, 50 percent rated him favorably and 39 percent unfavorably. --Contact the writer: 444-1125, [email protected] To see more of the Omaha World-Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.omaha.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Omaha World-Herald, Neb. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |