A post-primary election poll in the 104th Kansas House District and October polling in the 1st Congressional District race are providing campaigns with information leading up to the Nov. 6 election.

104th contest

In the 104th, Paul Waggoner, R-Hutchinson, defeated State Rep. Steve Becker, R-Buhler, by nine votes, 2,045 to 2,036, in the Aug. 7 primary.

According to Becker’s recently filed campaign finance report, his campaign made a Sept. 27 expenditure to Jayhawk Consulting Services Inc., Topeka, for public opinion polling.

Basically, Becker said, those polled were asked: If the election were held today, would you vote for Waggoner or write in Steve Becker? Becker said Monday he would “rather not” release the results, but a couple weeks later, he decided to run a write-in campaign against Waggoner.

There is no Democrat running in the 104th House race.

1st District

Jayhawk Consulting Services also was asked to conduct a poll to measure Democrat Alan LaPolice’s chances against U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Great Bend, in the Congressional contest. The survey was carried out Oct. 22-23 and asked respondents if the election were held today, would they vote for challenger Alan LaPolice or incumbent Roger Marshall.

Forty-two percent said Marshall, 38 percent said LaPolice, and 20 percent were not sure. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.2 percent, so the poll showed it was possible for LaPolice to be leading in the race.

Marshall said earlier this month that a poll showed he had a large lead in his re-election bid. The Marshall campaign did not release that poll, and LaPolice was skeptical about the results.

On Monday, The News requested the Marshall poll, and Marshall's staff provided it.

Carried out Oct. 8-9 by the Remington Research Group, Kansas City, Missouri, the pollster said the candidates in the general election are the Republican Roger Marshall and the Democrat Alan LaPolice. “If the election were held today, for whom would you vote?”

Approximately 60 percent said Marshall; 26 percent, LaPolice; and 14 percent were undecided. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.6 percent.