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SALT LAKE CITY — New United Utah Party congressional candidate Jim Bennett is getting a second chance to qualify to participate in the Utah Debate Commission's televised debate.
The commission announced Friday that a second poll will be conducted among voters in the 3rd District after Bennett missed meeting the threshold for participating in the Oct. 18 debate by less than half of a percent.
"The debate commission has demonstrated a great deal of integrity by taking this action," Bennett said in a statement. "It's a smart move, and it will ensure complete confidence in the results."
A news release by the commission stated the poll made public Tuesday "was not conducted according to the prescribed approach" and a new poll following the methodology used in past elections "will produce the most appropriate results."
The poll found that the Republican nominee, Provo Mayor John Curtis, has the lead among the eight candidates in the race to replace former Rep. Jason Chaffetz with the support of 50.17 percent of registered voters in the 3rd District.
Democrat Kathie Allen, a Cottonwood Heights physician, was in second place, with 19.82 percent, followed by Bennett, with 5.59 percent. The only other candidate who polled higher than 1 percent was Libertarian Joe Buchman, at 2.78 percent.
The threshold for participation in the debate is 10 percent, minus the margin of error.
In this case, candidates needed the support of at least 6.02 percent of those polled because the margin of error was plus or minus 3.98 percent. A total of 607 registered voters in the 3rd District were polled Aug. 30-Sept. 8.
The poll for the commission was conducted by Dan Jones & Associates as part of a larger survey on a number of issues for UtahPolicy.com. The commission contracted with Dan Jones & Associates to also do the new poll.
UtahPolicy.com publisher LaVarr Webb said the commission approached the online political news source about adding the poll question, and it was "happy to provide that service to help them save money."
Webb said UtahPolicy.com polls typically use a 600-person statewide sample, so it agreed to "oversample" the 3rd District. He said United Utah Party officials raised concerns about the commission poll not being a separate poll.
"If the debate commission has concerns about the polling methodology, redoing the poll makes sense," Webb said, noting that a few percentage points usually make little difference.
"In this case, it makes a big difference for Bennett," he said. "I think the debate will be more interesting with him in it if he gets a few more percentage points in a new poll."
Bennett's campaign manager, Tim Fullmer, also complained when the poll was released that the number of people polled was higher than in past years, reducing the margin of error and increasing the size of the threshold for participation.
Fullmer said he believed "the discrepancy ought to be enough to get them to reconsider" leaving Bennett out of the hourlong debate being held in the KBYU studios on the Brigham Young University campus.
No third-party candidate has qualified for a commission debate since the group was formed in early 2014. Bennett, the son of late Sen. Bob Bennett, said Friday he will "accept and abide by the commission's final decision."
The United Utah Party was formed earlier this year by disaffected Republicans and Democrats, but Bennett had to sue the state for a spot on the special election ballot in November to fill the remainder of Chaffetz's term.
Chaffetz resigned June 30 and is now a Fox News contributor.
The 3rd District includes portions of Salt Lake and Utah counties, as well as Carbon, Emery, Grand, San Juan and Wasatch counties. Email: lroche@ksl.com Twitter: DNewsPolitics
