CURTIS/FEENEY RACE IN DEAD HEAT

Zogby Poll Shows Clint Curtis and Tom Feeney in a Statistical Dead Heat for FL-24!

Some staggeringly good news broke today from the good pollsters at Zogby International. It seems that despite redrawing his district to create a Democrat-proof zone, Republican Congressman Tom Feeney is now knee-deep in a fight for his congressional career against underfunded political noice Clint Curtis. This despite Feeney outspending Curtis by literally thousands to one.

The poll of 402 likely voters in the 24th district showed Feeney with 45% and Curtis with 43%, well within the poll's +/- 5% margin of error. Each candidate leads big among their own party members, but Curtis leads among independents, 48% to 37%. This commentary from the ever faithful watchdog of our democracy, The Brad Blog:

Feeney (R), the one-time gubernatorial running mate of Jeb Bush and close friend of the Bushes, carved out what was believed to have been an extremely "conservative" 24th Congressional district for himself while Speaker of the Florida House. Ascending to the U.S. House in 2002, Feeney was not even challenged for the seat in 2004 as he was thought to have been unbeatable. Many Florida papers have continued to knee-jerk report on the race in those terms absent any polling for the contest between Feeney and Curtis until now.

Curtis is the computer programmer and political novice who has alleged, (as we originally broke back in December of 2004,) that he was asked by Feeney to create electronic vote-rigging software back in 2000 when both men worked together for the Oviedo, Florida software firm, Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI). At the time, Feeney was YEI's general counsel and registered lobbyist even while he was Speaker of the Florida House and even while they had multi-million dollar contracts with the state. Feeney has since been named one of the "Most Corrupt Members of Congress" two years in a row by the D.C. ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

He remains the only sitting U.S. Congressman who went with Jack Abramoff on one of the lobbyist-paid golf trips to St. Andrews, Scotland who has yet to be indicted.

Feeney has mounted a costly smear campaign attempting to label Curtis as "crazy" and unfit for office in light of the charges. Yet Feeney's campaign, which has included a number of documented lies, unevidenced claims and attacks, and even a controversial mailing which offended voters when it included doctored photos of Curtis and a Hustler magazine cover — seems to have backfired.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal, which reported on a number of Feeney's ethical lapses over the years, recently endorsed Curtis over Feeney, criticizing the sitting Congressman for "not really talking issues in this campaign" and "choosing to focus largely on denigrating his opponent". Curtis, meanwhile, the paper says, "is an independent thinker" who has "prepared well" for office.

Here's the details:

Feeney - 45%
Curtis - 43
Other - 2
Not sure - 10

The race for the U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 24th District is a virtual toss-up. Incumbent Tom Feeney holds the slimmest of leads over challenger Clint Curtis, 45% to 43%, with one in ten (10%) undecided.