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Exclusive poll: Barnes way ahead in Georgia Democratic governor's race

May 26, 2010 — Former Gov. Roy Barnes has a commanding lead over the rest of the field in the Democratic gubernatorial primary contest in Georgia and would win without a runoff if the election were held now, a new InsiderAdvantage/WSB-TV poll shows.

Half of the white voters surveyed and nearly three-fourths of the black voters said they would vote for Barnes.

The poll was conducted May 26 among 428 respondents who said they were likely Democratic voters. The poll was also weighted for age, race and gender and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Respondents were asked: “If the election to determine the Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia were held today, which candidate would you vote for?”

The results:

Barnes, 64 percent
Porter, 8 percent
Baker, 6 percent
Camon, 5 percent
Poythress, 1percent
Mangham, 1 percent
Bolton, 0 percent
No opinion, 15 percent

At this point, the black vote which is crucial in Democratic primaries was not a major source of support for the black candidates in the race, including Attorney General Thurbert Baker. Barnes was the runaway favorite of black voters with 72.6 percent. DuBose Porter, who, like Barnes, is white, was the choice of 8 percent and Baker had 2.3 percent.

However, InsiderAdvantage CEO and pollster Matt Towery said on WSB-TV that Barnes' decision to go up early with ads was a big factor in his showing and he cautioned that the race isn't over yet.