Pollster: Jindal has taken off in Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS - If the first GOP presidential candidate debate was held today, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal might not make the cut.

However, his campaign says its internal polling shows Jindal's ramped up efforts in Iowa exposing him to potential caucusgoers and producing 'a plethora of positive earned media” are increasing his ballot share, according to his pollster Wes Anderson.

'Jindal has taken off in Iowa,” Anderson said. 'No other candidate has seen as much positive movement as Jindal.”

Internal polls often are disregarded because campaigns rarely share them unless they show good news and feed a narrative that a candidate's support is growing or puts him or her ahead in the polls. Anderson didn't release the full questions or cross tab that are important to judge the accuracy of a poll and determine whether the questions were designed to 'prime the pump” or encourage respondents to answer one way or the other.

Anderson defended his internal polling, saying it is in line with public polls such as those conducted by Quinnipiac and Monmouth universities. Also, he said the poll of 600 Iowa GOP caucus attendees done July 19-21 is more representative than many national polls of self-identified Republicans without regard to their caucus participation history.

'If the numbers were in stark contrast to what's being seen out there publicly, you would have every right to say it's an internal poll and discount it,” he said. 'But it's not.”

In Jindal's case, the internal poll showed his growth in support was matched only by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Both saw their ballot share increase 5 percentage point. Jeb Bush's support grew 1 percent. All other candidates showed no growth or a decrease.

Walker tops Jindal's internal poll at 23 percent followed by Donald Trump at 13, Bush at 9 and Jindal fourth at 8 percent - tied with Ben Carson, Anderson said. In a July 17 ABV/Washington Post poll, Jindal was 13th at 1.4 percent.

Jindal also is in second place on the second choice ballot, which Anderson said 'suggest his ballot share is likely to continue to grow at a significant rate in the coming months.”

He cautioned 'it's clear this field is so crowded the chance of making overnight jumps is fairly muted.”

Jindal faces a deadline of sorts. Fox News, which is sponsoring an Aug. 6 GOP debate in Cleveland with Facebook and the Ohio GOP, said it will include only the top 10 candidates.