Jeff Crank's campaign manager said Monday CO-5 GOP candidate Bentley Rayburn should drop out of the race after both campaigns signed a written contract last month stating that the loser of a jointly commissioned poll would leave the race.

Crank manager Alan Philp said the poll results showed Crank with a 17-point lead over Rayburn -- meaning under the terms of the contract, Rayburn would have to drop out.

But on Monday, Rayburn manager Mike Hesse said the agreement was "dead in the water," saying the implementation of the poll was "a disaster" as the stated deadline for the poll results wasn't met.

Both campaigns agreed on May 28 to the proposal, put forth by the Colorado Springs Home Builders Association, Rayburn manager Mike Hesse said in a press release.

Under the written agreement, Rayburn's pollster, Wilson Research Strategies, and Crank's pollster, David Hill Research, would jointly survey 400 voters before the CO-5 GOP assembly on May 30.

If the poll showed a "conclusive" lead by one candidate over the other, the losing candidate would drop out, the agreement stated, said Crank manager Alan Philp. "Conclusive" was defined as a lead of more than four percentage points, Philp said.

But, by the evening of May 29, Hesse said in the release, "only 106 interviews were completed and the call center was instructed to stop polling until further notice." The two campaigns and the HBA agreed to talk on Monday about how to proceed, Hesse said in the release.

David Hill Research, though, told the call center during the weekend of May 30 to restart the calling, Hesse said in the statement, although neither campaign nor the HBA told them to do so.

However, Philp disputed that story, saying the polling firm took no such action.

The call center was instructed to refrain from calling over the weekend and resume calling on Monday, Philp said, but for reasons he didn't know the call center restarted calling that Sunday.

The poll, finished by the following Thursday, showed Crank with a 17-point lead over Rayburn, Philp said. Philp declined to release the exact poll numbers or questions, other than to say the margin of error was +/- 4.0 percentage points.

Lamborn was included in the poll, Philp said.

Philp said while Hesse had indicated concerns about the poll to him during the CO-5 assembly; Philp said he called and e-mailed Hesse later that day, but got no response. Only this week, when the poll was concluded, he said, did Rayburn's campaign talk about abrogating the deal.

"It sounds like what has happened here is they made an agreement, (but) they only intended to abide by it if they want," Philp said. "And the data's come back clearly indicating that Jeff is the strongest candidate. And so they've changed their mind, and they've gone back on their word."

Hesse said he hasn't seen the results of the poll, and countered that the failure of the pollsters to finish the survey by the CO-5 assembly "was just one of the many things that was a problem."

Asked about Philp's statements about the contract still being valid, Hesse questioned what law school Philp has attended (for the record, Philp does not have a J.D.).

"If he has gone to law school, he might go to a refresher course on contracts," Hesse said, "There's a reason that the HBA chose not to release this poll, and that was because their assessment was this agreement was broken by the failure of the vendors to do the poll properly."

Hesse said the HBA owned the poll; Philp disputed that, saying the campaigns paid for the poll.

The contract did not specify who paid for or retained ownership of the poll.

The HBA did not return phone calls seeking information and comment Monday afternoon.

Asked what the next step was, Philp said, "I should hope that Bentley Rayburn and his team will man up and negotiate here," as provided for in the contract.

Asked if the matter could end up in court, Philp said, "I can't imagine that as an outcome would be good for anybody."

Hesse said the likelihood of another agreement being concluded "is very slim."

"I think it's very likely going to be a three-way race," he said.

Lamborn manager Robin Coran said she hadn't heard about a potential agreement between Crank and Rayburn until she overheard Rayburn talk about it on "The Richard Randall Show" Monday morning on KVOR-AM.

Coran declined further comment.

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