Coincidence or good timing?

A day after former Rep. Bob McEwen told the Enquirer that he'll challenge Rep. Jean Schmidt in the May 2 primary election, Schmidt’s campaign released a poll showing that she’s got a 20 percent lead over McEwen.

The poll, from Alexandria, Va.-based Tarrance Group (the same firm used by Schmidt’s predecessor) shows Schmidt leading McEwen 54 percent to 34 percent with 12 percent undecided.

(Of course, Tarrance Group was also the same polling firm that predicted Hamilton County Commissioner Pat DeWine would win the 11-person GOP primary! Schmidt won it with 28.37 percent to McEwen's 26.63 percent and DeWine's 12.45 percent.)

Some 400 registered Republican voters who say they will vote in the GOP primary were interviewed by telephone on Monday and Tuesday of this week for the poll, which has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

The poll also showed that 95 percent of respondents know who Schmidt is, an unusual accomplishment for a freshman lawmaker that her campaign attributes to the national attention (good and bad) she got for telling Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated former Marine, on the House floor that “cowards cut and run, Marines never do.”

According to the poll, 60 percent of respondents approve of the job she is doing and 83 percent backed her position during the Murtha ruckus.

Schmidt Chief of Staff Barry Bennett: “A huge majority of the electorate is standing with Jean and against the liberal anti-war movement. Jean is one of the most well positioned incumbents in Congress as she prepares for re-election”

Also in her release: She’s been endorsed by Speaker Hastert, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican National Committee, the White House, the Ohio Republican Party and various county party committees throughout the 2nd Congressional District.

More Bennett: “These numbers make challenging Congresswoman Schmidt in the primary a fool’s errand.”

FYI, McEwen still hasn’t filed an updated “Statement of Candidacy” with the Federal Election Commission.