Michael Bennet

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has climbed into the lead in the Democratic primary for governor, according to a new poll released June 11.

Weiser leads U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet 41% to 34% in the survey from Colorado Community Research, which pointed to voters “disillusioned” with the state’s Democratic Party as a possible source of the lead.

The text-to-web survey of 796 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted by inviting respondents to complete an online survey from May 22 to May 28. It had a 4% margin of error.

Mark Van Akkeren, co-founder of Colorado Community Research, said in an email that the firm did not have a client for the poll. It decided to do the survey because of the lack of independent public polls in major races in Colorado. And he said it was not a push poll, where voters were provided with information about the candidates’ biography or positions before asking for their preferred candidate.

The sample is the same one that gave incumbent U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper a surprisingly close 41% to 34% lead over State Sen. Julie Gonzales in the Democratic primary for the seat he holds.

Why might Phil Weiser lead in the Democratic governor’s primary?

The biggest division highlighted in the poll release was if respondents thought the Colorado Democratic Party was effective.

Voters calling Democrats “ineffective” support Weiser over Bennet 48% to 23%, with about 29% remaining undecided. By contrast, 51% of Democrats calling the party “effective” supported Bennet, compared to 29% supporting Weiser and 20% being undecided.

Mail ballots for primary voters were sent out June 8.

Previous Colorado governor polls

Bennet has led in all previous public polls.

Bennet led Weiser 36% to 30% in a survey from Public Policy Polling released earlier in June.

That poll also showed 34% of respondents undecided.

The survey was conducted for Fighting for Colorado, a super PAC backing Weiser, and showed a much smaller lead than a pair of earlier public polls by other groups.

Nate Trela covers trending news in Colorado and Utah for the USA TODAY Network.