Joe McLaughlin's campaign is dismissing a poll that shows that U.S. Rep. Walter Jones is comfortably ahead in the Republican primary in the 3rd Congressional District.

Jones, a Farmville Republican, yesterday released the results of a poll by his campaign that showed him comfortably ahead of McLaughlin, 54-16 percent, in the GOP primary.

Doug Raymond, McLaughlin's campaign director, said a district-wide survey taken Feb. 7 for the McLaughlin campaign found Jones with a 43-41 lead over McLaughlin, reports Rob Christensen.

The survey of 500 likely voters was conducted by Pulse Opinion Research and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. The campaign made the survey available.