Yesterday, we brought you the poll that had Treasurer John Kennedy in a commanding lead in the U.S. Senate race. Well one of the candidates has responded to that poll.

Former U.S. Air Force Colonel Rob Maness blasted the poll as a “push poll” to benefit the Kennedy campaign because it was funded by Lane Grigsby who has donated money to Kennedy. Here’s some of the press release:

The campaign for Retired Air Force Colonel Rob Maness is dismayed by the Kennedy campaign’s blatant dishonesty in touting a recent poll commissioned by their campaign’s biggest donor as “independent” and is questioning its validity.

Andy Surabian, Campaign Manager for Col. Rob Maness said, “Are we really supposed to buy that Treasurer Kennedy’s numbers magically rose by 10 points with no real advertising to speak of and no campaigning anywhere aside from smoke-filled rooms with Baton Rouge insiders, based on one faux “independent” poll, commissioned by one of the biggest benefactors to his Super PAC no less?

Kennedy has not been “campaigning” per se. But he has been doing a great job attracting earned media due to the budget crisis in Baton Rouge. Kennedy has been all over the media since he is one the biggest critics of how Governor John Bel Edwards has been handling the budget. A 10% rise in a name ID test is entirely plausible given those circumstances.

If this poll were even remotely accurate, the pollster would have released the entire set of questions asked, along with the cross-tabs, like they did when they released their previous poll of the race back in February, which showed Kennedy at 22%. Not only that, but the most recent poll done by Kennedy’s own Super PAC in March showed him polling at 21%. These are hardly impressive numbers when you take into account his near universal name ID  resulting from his years as a career politician and explain why the Kennedy campaign is so desperate to use a clearly bought and paid for poll to push the false narrative that he is unbeatable.”

That’s up to Lane Grigsby and Bernie Pinsonat to release that data. For what it’s worth, I think they should. The Maness campaign has a point here.

But the better question for the Maness campaign is why couldn’t they keep Lane Grigsby? Grigsby maxed out to Maness’s first campaign in 2013. This seems more like a case of a jilted candidate than an actual complaint.

However, Grigsby tends to give all Republicans running for Federal office money. There maybe hope for Maness in the end.

Links to previous polls of the race that show Treasurer Kennedy stuck between 21-22% of the vote and consistently show Col. Maness with the second highest favorability ratings of all the announced candidates can be seen below.

–March Kennedy Super PAC Poll

–February SMOR Poll

–December Kennedy Super PAC Poll

Why is Maness complaining? The guy who had the biggest movement in favorables was John Fleming. Again, this is expected because Fleming is rolling out TV and billboards statewide. Today, I met with Fleming’s campaign staffers who are putting out signs in Jefferson Parish. Fleming is campaigning with a media blitz so his name ID will go up and so will his favorables.

Here’s the better question for the Maness campaign? Rob Maness ran for statewide office two years ago. Why is his name ID so poor right now?

Maness wanted a free media play, that’s why he sent out this press release. From that standpoint, this press release makes sense and was smart. But the complaints of the press release are weak, at best.