This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Two new polls show Republican Rep. Mia Love holding a significant lead over Democratic challenger Doug Owens, as mail-in balloting is already underway in the 4th Congressional District.
A Dan Jones & Associates poll conducted for UtahPolicy.com shows Love ahead by 13 percentage points, 51 percent to 38 percent.
That appears to be somewhere in between what the Love and Owens camps have said their own polling has shown.
Owens, the son of the late Rep. Wayne Owens, is running for the second time against Love. He lost in 2014 by about five percentage points. His campaign has argued he is gaining momentum, since past polls have shown Love with a lead as high as 19 percentage points.
Owens released another poll Monday conducted for his benefit by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The survey, conducted last Thursday, had Love up by 8 percentage points, 49 percent to 41 percent.
Campaigns often selectively release internal polls to show strength. This DCCC poll involved 478 likely voters and had a margin of error of 4.48 percentage points. It included a question on the presidential race that had a more favorable Democratic response than any recent independent poll of Utah.
It found Democrat Hillary Clinton and independent Evan McMullin at 29 percent, while Donald Trump, the Republican, was at 21 percent.
Every other poll showed the three candidates in a statistical tie or had Trump and McMullin up by a few percentage points.
Dan Jones, who also polls for The Salt Lake Tribune and the Hinckley Institute of Politics, conducted his survey from Oct. 12 to Oct. 22. It involved 404 likely voters and had a margin of error of 4.87 percent.