St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger holds a significant lead over his Democratic primary election opponent, according to a poll released Saturday.
The survey, conducted by Remington Research Group on behalf of nonpartisan Missouri Scout, showed Stenger leading challenger Mark Mantovani, a lawyer and former CEO and chairman of the marketing firm Ansira, by 35 points — 50 percent to 15 — with Bill Ray, a real estate agent from University City who recently withdrew from the race, pulling in 7 percent and about 28 percent still undecided.
The poll surveyed 564 likely 2018 voters over two days last week, with a margin of error at 4 percentage points.
The survey question read: The candidates in the 2018 Democratic primary election for St Louis County Executive are Steve Stenger, Mark Mantovani and Bill Ray. If the election were held today, for whom would you vote?
Another poll question asked perspective voters if they thought St Louis County is heading in the right direction or if it is going off on the wrong track. About 39 percent said it was heading in the right direction, 28 percent said it was on the wrong track and 33 percent were still unsure.
Some 38 percent of female voters said the county government was on the right track while 24 percent said it wasn’t. Forty two percent of male voters, meanwhile, agreed it was going in the right direction with 35 percent disagreeing.
In another St. Louis County race, 46 percent of voters said they are ready to reelect St Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch.
Wesley Bell, McCulloch’s challenger, garnered 28 percent of the vote in the most recent poll and 26 percent are still undecided.
Bell is an attorney, professor at Florissant Valley Community College and a former municipal court judge in Velda City who beat Lee Smith in a contest for Ferguson’s Ward 3 Aldermanic seat, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson, in April 2015.
The poll also asked voters about one of the more controversial propositions appearing on the August ballot, Proposition A.
Senate Bill 19, better known as Right-To-Work, was passed by the general assembly in 2017. Proposition A will either ratify or strike down the right-to-work law signed by former Gov. Eric Greitens in February 2017, will go before voters in statewide primary elections in August. A “yes” vote is for keeping the legislation, while “no” is a vote to repeal it.
Seventy percent of voters said they would vote to reject Senate Bill 19 in the poll while 18 percent were in favor of adopting it.