An internal poll commissioned by 6th Congressional District Democratic nominee Hank Eng's campaign shows Eng within 5 percentage points of Republican nominee Mike Coffman.

That's much closer than most observers of the race have been forecasting in the heavily Republican district. Coffman manager Dustin Zvonek said his campaign's latest poll, taken three weeks ago, showed a 21-point Coffman lead.

But Eng spokesman Aaron Cohen said negative publicity garnered by Coffman over alleged voting irregularities -- as well as the economic crisis -- are driving voters Eng's way. Eng's TV commercials,, which have been airing on cable since Oct. 17, have also helped, he said.

"The more they read about the issues and understand what's at stake, the more they're gravitating towards Hank -- as an agent of change, really," Cohen said. "When your name, as a public official, is constantly being brought up and tied to things like lawsuits, purging voters, illegal activity, people are going to speak up."

The poll, which showed Coffman leading Eng 45-40, was conducted Oct. 25-27 among 609 registered 6th Congressional District voters by Zenmango Media, a Democratic polling firm from Centennial. In the poll, voters were contacted by phone asking if they wanted to participate in a survey; those who accepted were then sent the survey via email to fill out and send back, Cohen said.

The poll's margin of error was +/-3 percentage points, Cohen said.

An Eng press release also stated that "shockingly," the poll found Eng in a 41-41 tie with Coffman in GOP-heavy Douglas County.

Zvonek questioned the legitimacy of Zenmango's poll, saying the way the survey was conducted "doesn't sound like a very legitimate polling method." He added an online survey disproportionately excludes elderly voters who don't use email.

He also said the Coffman campaign's last internal poll, taken about three weeks ago, showed Coffman with a 53 percent to 32 percent lead over Eng. The Coffman poll, conducted by the Tarrance Group, also showed Coffman with a 31-point lead in Douglas County, Zvonek said.

"It seems hard to believe for somebody who is so new to the state and who really hasn't been aggressively campaigning to make up that much ground in that little time," Zvonek said of Eng, who moved to Colorado in 2005 from Appleton, Wis.

In a statement, Eng's campaign defended the poll.