* This poll is “new” only in that the Conway campaign decided to publish it today. The survey was completed eight days ago, so some of the numbers are eleven days old. Press release…

With three weeks left before the 2020 Democratic Primary, a new poll released today shows former prosecutor and Naval Intelligence Officer Bill Conway surging in the race for Cook County State’s Attorney. Conway is now within the margin of error (28% Foxx / 26% Conway / 6% Fioretti / 4% More), narrowing his deficit by more than 20 points after trailing Foxx by 22 in December. Additionally, in a head-to-head match-up Conway leads Foxx by 5 (41% Conway / 36% Foxx).

“Voters across Cook County are tired of Kim Foxx’s status quo, where the politically-connected get one set of justice and everyone else gets another,” said campaign spokeswoman Eliza Glezer. “It’s clear that in Bill Conway they see the change we need: someone with the independence and experience to clean up the State’s Attorney’s office so that it works for everyone regardless of who they know or where they’re from.”

Other key findings include:

By more than two to one, likely Democratic primary voters disapprove of how Foxx handled the Jussie Smollett case. With a majority 57% disapproving and only 25% approving, this promises to be a major problem for the incumbent who has refused to answer straightforward questions on how she handled the case for nearly a year and who shows no signs of stopping, despite special prosecutor Dan Webb’s decision to reindict Smollett.

Democratic primary voters are favorable toward Conway and unfavorable toward Foxx. Indeed, while nearly twice as many have favorable views of Conway as unfavorable (29%/16%), Foxx’s rating is net negative (36%/40%), a major problem for a well-known incumbent whose numbers are moving the wrong direction.

Bob Fioretti (6%) and Donna More (4%) are not major factors in this race, and like Foxx their support has trended down since December.

Frankly, I thought the Smollett disapproval would be higher, but that’s certainly not good.

And the trend doesn’t appear to be Foxx’s friend…

A superPAC supporting Foxx recently disclosed a $2 million contribution.

* Methodology…

The above findings are from a survey of n=600 likely Cook County Democratic primary voters conducted February 13-16, 2020. The poll’s margin of sampling error is +4.0%.