EXCLUSIVE POLL: Hofmeister, Cox In Dead Heat For State Superintendent

It's down to the wire in Campaign 2014 and our new, exclusive News On 6 poll shows the race for state school superintendent is neck and neck.

Thursday, October 30th 2014, 7:14 pm

By: News On 6

EXCLUSIVE POLL: Hofmeister, Cox In Dead Heat For State Superintendent

It's down to the wire in Campaign 2014 and our new, exclusive News On 6 poll shows the race for state school superintendent is neck and neck.

Democrat John Cox is trailing Republican Joy Hofmeister by two percentage points, but that's within our poll's margin of error of 3,2 percent.

The race is a dead heat and the candidates are at Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, working to sway last-minute undecided voters.

Hofmeister and Cox only have five days to convince undecided voters who don't appear to be loyal to their party in the superintendent's race.

10/28/2014 Related Story: State Superintendent Candidates More Critical Of Each Other At Recent Debate

"This race is a lot of the reason why straight party voting is not that much of an issue this year as it was four years ago," said News On 6 pollster, Bill Shapard.

In our exclusive News On 6 Poll, 14 percent of Fallin supporters plan to vote for Cox, but 14 percent of Dorman supporters said they will vote for Hofmeister.

10/3/2014 Related Story: EXCLUSIVE POLL: Hofmeister, Cox Even Again In State School Superintendent Race

We asked early voters, like Mary Francis, why people are willing to cross party lines.

"John Cox is a great candidate and getting a democrat elected in Oklahoma is really hard, and since they are in a dead heat, it shows how the community is and how everybody is positive about him," she said.

Shapard said education ranks as a top issue for Democrats; in this case gender may also play a big role.

"Most women are more engaged with education issues than men are, typically. They typically prefer a woman superintendent, but now we are having a little havoc here because the Republican is a woman and the Democrat is a man," Shapard said.

Cox and Hofmeister are tied when it comes to support from women, each with 40 percent.

Our pollster said Cox's current job could hurt his chances.

“He runs such a small district and has such a high salary as school superintendent and many look at him as someone who represents what's wrong with education in the state,” Shapard said.

In this case, teachers influence may go beyond the classroom and affect the ballot box.

“There's four or five teachers in my family, I consider them subject matter experts. I tend to defer to what they say, and based upon the issues what we looked at I think Hofmeister is the best choice for me,” said Tulsa voter Jared Hahn.

Our poll shows 40 percent of voters are leaning towards Cox, 42 percent are for Hofmeister and 17 percent are still unsure.

Complete Poll Results

The forum at Charles Page begins at 6:30 and the candidates will take questions from the public.

The survey of 949 likely voters was conducted Oct. 25-29 by SoonerPoll.com, using a dual frame of both cell phones and land lines. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.18 percentage points. Results are weighted by age and party, stratified to Oklahoma likely voter demographics.