Istook Faces Poll Gauntlet

Congressman Ernest Istook faces a gauntlet of polls in the next five days that likely will show, as previous polls have, that Governor Brad Henry has a substantial lead over him with less than two weeks before voters cast their ballots.

Polls in the final days of elections often become "self-fulfilling prophecies" even if they don't agree on the percentages for each candidate. For a campaign waging a come-from-behind effort, such polls can take the wind out of volunteers, hamper fundraising, frustrate the candidate and his family and generally wreak havoc on the campaign.

If new polls that are due Sunday (Tulsa World/KOTV-Channel 6 "Oklahoma Poll") and Monday (TvPoll.com for KWTV-Channel 9) show Henry with anything like the latest SurveyUSA poll for KFOR-Channel 4, it could be a painful period for Istook. The SurveyUSA poll showed Henry at 64 percent, Istook at 32 percent.

It was a SurveyUSA poll four years ago in the governor's race that first spotted Henry's surge to victory.

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