BUCKHANNON — Mayor David McCauley leads Councilman Robbie Skinner by 2.7 points, according to the first poll published in the Buckhannon City Election.
The April 2, 7, Mountaineer Journal survey of registered city voters found that 49.3 percent said they would choose McCauley while 46.6 percent said they would pick Skinner. 4.1 percent of respondents said they would vote for Mike Bodnar.
McCauley’s 2.7-point lead was inside the poll’s 5 percent sampling margin of error.
In the survey, McCauley had his strongest support among registered Democratic voters. He led Skinner by a 68.42 to 31.58 percent margin among Democratic voters.
In contrast, Skinner did his best among registered Republican voters. He led McCauley by a 62.96 to 33.33 percent margin among Republican voters.
McCauley also performed strongly with registered Unaffiliated voters. He led Skinner by a 57.14 to 28.57 percent margin among Unaffiliated voters.
Mike Bodnar collected votes from the Republican and Unaffiliated respondents, receiving 3.70 percent of Republican support and 14.29 percent of Unaffiliated voters.
In the 2016 Mayoral election, McCauley won by approximately 40 votes: McCauley obtained 563 votes and Michael Cowger received 523 votes. Using the same margins as in 2016, this election could be decided by as little as 21 votes. The percentage we discovered in this poll resembles the close proximity we saw in 2016.