Poll: Early gauge has Sheila Simon in strong position in Illinois Attorney General race

A new poll provided to the Sun-Times puts Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon in a strong position for a run for Illinois Attorney General — particularly if she better publicizes her family lineage.

Simon is running for attorney general if Lisa Madigan makes a run for Illinois Governor, the Simon campaign said Monday.

The poll, conducted by Lake Research Partners (the same pollster used by Lisa Madigan), shows that likely Democratic primary voters have a 43 percent favorable rating of Simon (7 percent unfavorable, the remaining no opinion or unknown) and 73 percent of Democratic voters have a favorable opinion of Sheila Simon’s late father — U.S. Sen. Paul Simon.

However, the poll is clear that there are enough undecided voters — 50 percent — out there that the race could shift dramatically once it is underway.

As of today though, the poll shows this if there were a primary for Illinois Attorney General:

On the initial ballot, Simon garners 26% of the vote, with

all other likely candidates in the single digits

David Hoffman draws 5%,

Kwame Raoul 4%,

Jesse Ruiz 2%, and Jack Franks 1%. Fully 50% of the electorate is undecided, underscoring the room for movement in this race.

Fully 58% of the primary electorate is female, including 66% of the undecided vote. This

demographic profile obviously benefits Simon as the only woman in the race.