Steve Kent trails Randy Simms in race for Mount Pearl: poll

A new poll from Abacus Data suggests Progressive Conservative incumbent Steve Kent is lagging behind Liberal challenger Randy Simms.

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In apollcommissioned by VOCM News, Simms has a 17-point lead over Kent with 54 per cent of decided voters. Kent has 37 per cent of the support from decided voters polled.

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The Abacus poll, released Thursday morning, surveyed 500 eligible voters in the Mount Pearl district.

Both Kent and Simms are former mayors in Mount Pearl, with Simms recently resigning the role to run in the Nov. 30 general provincial election.

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The twocandidates are well known in the district.Simms has been mayor of Mount Pearl since 2007, and Kent was the mayor from 2003 to 2007.

NDP candidate Cameron Mercer-Maillet was in third spot with nine per cent of the decided voters.

Ofthe total 500 people polled, 22 per cent remained undecided.

The poll was conducted from Nov. 12-16.The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Thepoll is the third in a series of district polls that Ottawa-based Abacus has done for VOCM News. Earlier this week, prior polls suggested that PC Leader Paul Davis is behind in his district of Topsail-Paradise, and that former Liberal MP Siobhan Coady is leading both NDP Leader Earle McCurdy and Tory cabinet minister Dan Crummell in St. John's West.

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