COLUMBUS, Ohio--Republican Troy Balderson's lead over Democrat Danny O'Connor in the special election race for Ohio's 12th Congressional District has slipped to just five percentage points - at least, according to a poll from O'Connor's campaign.

The survey, conducted between July 10 and July 13, shows Balderson, a state senator from Zanesville, with 48 percent support among probable voters in the Aug. 7 special election. O'Connor, the Franklin County recorder, polled 43-percent support. The remaining 5 percent of those surveyed favored Green Party nominee Joe Manchik.

A previous poll taken by O'Connor's campaign in June showed Balderson with a 7-point lead, 48 percent to 41 percent.

O'Connor's campaign, in a memo, trumpeted the polling as evidence that he is gaining ground on Balderson despite a flurry of attack ads from Balderson and allied Republican groups.

"O'Connor is in better shape now than he was a month ago," the memo stated.

The July poll also showed that among 12th District residents who stated they are "almost certain" to vote (as opposed to just "probable"), O'Connor is beating Balderson 49 percent to 46 percent. Those who reported the highest interest in voting (ranking themselves a "10" on a 0-10 scale) favored O'Connor over Balderson 51 percent to 47 percent.

O'Connor was seen in the July poll as favorable by 32 percent of voters, compared with 23 percent who had an unfavorable view of him. Balderson's favorable and unfavorable ratings were 28 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Robert Blizzard, Balderson's campaign pollster, didn't appear too worried by the O'Connor polls.

"Maybe we should start calling him 'Desperate Danny O'Connor,' as it can only be a sign of desperation for your own pollster to release a poll showing you're losing," Blizzard stated in an email. "Congrats on closing the gap since June! At that rate, the O'Connor campaign will be leading the August special election campaign sometime in September."

Though the special election is only about three weeks away, there has been little public polling done on the 12th Congressional District race. The Republican-leaning Central Ohio district has been vacant since Republican Pat Tiberi stepped down in January.

Both of O'Connor's polls were conducted by GPA strategies. The July poll was taken among 600 likely voters via land and cell phone lines; it has a margin of error of +/- 4.0 percentage points. The June 9-12 poll involved 500 likely voters and had a +/- 4.4 percent margin of error.