A new poll has Republican Chris McGrath leading in the race for Dean Skelos' former state Senate seat, but Democratic candidate Todd Kaminsky is disputing the poll's accuracy.

The Siena College poll of likely voters within the 9th District has attorney McGrath with an eight-point lead for 51 percent over Kaminsky's 43 percent. Green Party candidate Laurence Hirsh was not included in the poll.

The results are significantly different than last month's results, which had first-term Assemblyman Kaminsky leading by 2 points.

Kaminsky's office is blasting the latest poll as "bizarre," and a "ridiculous outlier." Kaminsky's campaign released a press release accusing the Siena poll of showing "impossible levels of movement."

Kaminsky's campaign says its own internal polling conducted last week gave the Democrat a three-point lead and strong favorability numbers.

Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg says the new results simply reflect the campaigns' effectiveness. "Campaigns are all about educating voters, and what it appears to be right now is that the McGrath campaign has done a better job of educating voters from their perspective," he said.

As News 12 has reported, both sides have hit voters with a barrage of negative ads. Democrats have worked to tie McGrath to former Sen. Skelos, who was forced to vacate the seat after being convicted of corruption. But the GOP has argued that if Kaminsky is elected, he'll help Democrats raise taxes on Long Island to benefit New York City.

Voters in the 9th District will elect their choice for the seat on New York primary day, April 19.