Penry more popular than Norton

Colorado Republican Senate front runner Jane Norton has hired the party's leader in the State Senate, Josh Penry, as her campaign manager. When you look at their respective poll numbers though you're left wondering who should be the candidate and who should be the staffer. Our polling in the state has found Penry to be more popular than Norton.

Last summer when Penry was still running for Governor we found that he had a +3 net favorability rating with 23% of voters viewing him positively and 20% negatively. With Republicans he was at +30 with 37% holding a favorable view of him to 7% with an unfavorable one.

When we polled the Senate race in the state last month we found somewhat less favorable numbers for Norton. 25% of voters saw her favorably to 35% unfavorably for a net rating of -10. Her numbers within the GOP are worse than Penry's as well with 42% holding a positive opinion to 24% with a negative one for a net +18.

Norton is better known than Penry but their favorables are virtually identical, with her negatives both among GOP voters and the electorate as a whole much higher.

So you have a candidate running for the Senate whose image with voters in the state is worse than that of her campaign manager. Not something you see every day.