Nebraska Republican up big over Bob Kerrey in internal poll

Nebraska state Sen. Deb Fischer (R) has a huge lead over former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), according to an internal poll released by her campaign.

In the poll she leads Kerrey by 58 to 33 percent. While internal polls are often skewed towards the candidate and should always be taken with a grain of salt, that's a big gap. There have been no recent nonpartisan polls of the race, although the conservative pollster Rasmussen had her with an 18-point lead in a mid-May poll.

The Hill rates the race as "likely Republican."

Kerrey's campaign disputed the poll's numbers, although they declined to produce their own to show they were inaccurate.

"The results announced by the Fischer campaign are so far removed from every other private poll that I have seen — including our own — that I have to describe it as 'wishful thinking,'" Kerrey campaign manager Paul Johnson told The Hill. "It is clear that once voters know a few facts about the record of state senator Fischer, her numbers collapse.  There is a reason why [Americans for Prosperity] and American Crossroads have spent nearly $2 million attacking Bob Kerrey.  They know that their candidate is flawed and not ready for primetime."

The poll of 500 likely voters was conducted by Republican pollster Public Opinion Strategies on June 17 and 18, and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

This post was updated at 3:10 p.m.

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