Sneed: Kennedy poll leader, but will jolt of J.B. change that?

Poll dancing …

Chris Kennedy has been the guy to beat among Democrats running for governor — but will the entrance of fellow big bucks candidate J.B. Pritzker change all that?

Sneed is told a poll conducted in early March by the Democratic Governors Association — which has no horse in the Illinois gubernatorial race except its desire to beat Gov. Bruce Rauner — showed Kennedy with 40 percent of the vote.

After this information was published Saturday, the Democratic Governors Association contacted Sneed to say it had not conducted a primary election poll in March using pollster Jill Normington, as Sneed had reported.

“The DGA did conduct a poll using Jill Normington, but it was a general election poll in January – and did not even test the names of potential Democratic candidates,” DGA communications director Jared Leopold said in an email.

Leopold called the information that Sneed reported “inaccurate” and “false.”

But Sneed stands by what she was told about the existence of a more recent survey, including that Pritzker won just 10 percent.

Pritzker only officially entered the race on Thursday — a month after the poll was conducted. Pollsters surveyed 600 likely voters through live telephone calls from March 6-9. Kennedy had already been in the race for nearly a month at that point.

Pritzker was tied with Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who also got 10 percent. Madison County schools superintendent Bob Daiber had 5 percent. Not included in the survey was state Sen. Daniel Biss, who launched his campaign later in March.

The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The numbers are not that different from a poll conducted around the same time for City Treasurer Kurt Summers, who is also considering jumping in the race. That survey put Kennedy at 44 percent, Pritzker at 11 percent and Summers at 7 percent. It found 34 percent of the electorate undecided. Pawar, Biss and Daiber were not included in that poll.

Summers’ poll was conducted March 2-6, sampled 500 likely primary voters and had a margin error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points.

The big question is whether the pop Pritzker got this week with his high-profile campaign launch will change those numbers. Since Pritzker is worth an estimated $3.4 billion, odds are he’s spending some money on polling.

Hello, J.B. ….