Coors campaign says poll shows he’s leading Perlmutter

DENVER – Joe Coors, the Republican challenging Congressman Ed Perlmutter in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, says he has a big lead in a new poll.

The survey of 400 likely voters, conducted by OnMessage Inc., a GOP firm, shows Coors with 45 percent of the vote and Perlmutter with 36 percent.

“It goes without saying that Joe’s current lead in the poll is encouraging and confirms that the voters of Colorado’s 7th District are not sold on re-electing Congressman Perlmutter to another term,” said Coors’ campaign manager, Dustin Zvonek, in an internal memo.

But Democrats aren’t taking the poll very seriously.

That’s because the survey was done nearly a month ago — and because Coors campaign, which commissioned it, isn’t releasing any crosstabs, more fine-grained results based on different demographic groups.

“A month old poll without crosstabs is like a guy in Vegas not wearing his wedding ring,” tweeted Laura Chapin, a Democratic political operative.

Perlmutter, who walloped Republican Ryan Frazier by 11 points in 2010, amidst a national GOP tidal wave, doesn’t buy Coors’ poll either.

Coors, whose personal wealth has allowed him to self-finance much of his campaign to date, could benefit from a survey like this if Republican operatives in Washington believe it and decide to allocate more resources to his campaign based on the premise that the race is actually close.

UPDATE: Later Monday, Coors’ campaign released more information about the survey.

Pollster Wes Anderson’s sample of 400 likely voters in the newly redrawn 7th C.D. was made up of 39 percent Democrats, 24 percent unaffiliateds, and 37 percent Republicans with distribution modeled on the district’s 2008 turnout.