* Politico…

A new Ogden & Fry poll looking at the Cook County state’s attorney race shows conflicting numbers over support for Anita Alvarez. Of those surveyed, 61 percent approved of her job performance. But when asked whether she should resign because of her handling of the Laquan McDonald case, 61 percent said yes. Since those two answers seem at odds, the poll, commissioned by the Illinois Observer, was “double-checked for accuracy,” and here’s how pollster Tom Swiss explains the results: “It appears the Laquan McDonald case is so emotionally charged that nearly 40% of respondents who initially approved of State’s Attorney Alvarez’ performance thought she should resign in light of her handling of the McDonald case.” Find poll results here: http://bit.ly/1Y7MlCj

OK, first of all, a pretty important fact not mentioned above is that the firm polled Democrats…

Respondents were selected by random sampling of likely 2016 Democratic Primary voters.

Either way, that more than “seems” like a very odd result. I don’t think I would’ve run it if that was my poll.

* But there’s another poll out today from a more established firm. Public Policy Polling released its results of a poll of likely Cook County Democratic primary voters…

If the primary election for Cook County State Attorney were today, and the candidates were Anita Alvarez, Kim Foxx, and Donna More, who would you vote for?

Anita Alvarez 33%
Kim Foxx 24%
Donna More 11%
Not sure 32%

Do you strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove or strongly disapprove of the job Cook County State Attorney Anita Alvarez is doing?

Strongly approve 19%
Somewhat approve 25%
[Total approve 44%]
Somewhat disapprove 26%
Strongly disapprove 24%
[Total disapprove 50%]
Not sure 6%

So, she’s above water in Ogden & Fry among Democrats, but underwater in the PPP poll. Considering the O&F resignation result, I think PPP is probably far more likely to be true, but we’ll obviously need more polling.

The PPP poll was conducted for WGN Radio, Aldertrack and DNA Info Chicago.

* Also, the latest Ogden & Fry poll of likely 2016 Chicago primary voters trumped by Politico had Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s approval rating at a microscopic 18 percent while his disapproval rating was a whopping 67 percent.

PPP has very different results for likely 2016 Chicago Democratic primary voters: 40 percent approve while 56 percent disapprove. That’s still not good for Rahm, but it’s way different than the widely reported Ogden & Fry survey. And, frankly, considering everything that’s going on in the city, 40 percent ain’t really all that bad.

* Back to Politico…

SPIN CITY — CBS/2’s Jay Levine last night gave five reasons why Mayor Rahm Emanuel will survive the CPD crisis. “Reason #2″ struck us as odd. Levine pointed to a recent poll showing just 18 percent approval rating for the mayor and 51 percent of those surveyed said they thought the mayor should resign. “Those polls are misleading. The real drop in his approval rating came after he pushed through a tax increase to balance the city budget. Not as a result of the police scandal,” Levine insisted. He failed to give a basis for that statement, however. It was something Emanuel operatives were pushing earlier in the week. The budget, and massive property tax hike was approved in late October. The poll was conducted on Dec. 2 — a week after the release of the explosive video and after Emanuel canned McCarthy. http://cbsloc.al/1mdRywt

The “basis for that statement’ is pretty clear. Ogden & Fry’s poll from September had Emanuel’s approval rating at 25 percent (not far from Ogden & Fry’s December poll) and a disapproval of 51.

And does it really matter that the tax hikes were approved in October when it was pretty clear to pretty much everyone that tax and fee hikes were coming and that the CTU was extremely angry?

Either way, there is zero doubt that Ogden & Fry was showing lousy Emanuel numbers back in September - long before that video came out. To ignore that is kinda goofy. And to claim that Jay Levine is somehow a shill for Emanuel because he simply pointed out some easily discernible facts is uncalled for.

We’ll have more on the PPP poll later today.