Former Rep. Parker Griffith (R) decided earlier this month to challenge Rep. Mo Brooks (R) in a 5th district rematch in Alabama. A new poll conducted for Brooks by Rob Autry at the respected GOP firm Public Opinion Strategies showed the freshman Congressman begins as the prohibitive frontrunner.

Brooks took 71 percent to Griffith’s 14 percent in a test of likely primary voters taken last week. Fourteen percent were undecided. Griffith, who switched parties and became a Republican in December 2009, lost in a primary to Brooks in 2010.

Sixty-nine percent of likely GOP primary voters had a favorable opinion of Brooks; just 25 percent had a favorable opinion of Griffith, according to the poll.

“At the end of the day, people just can’t get past the fact that the guy voted for Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] for Speaker of the House,” Autry said.

The telephone poll of 300 likely GOP voters was conducted Jan. 18-19 and had a margin of error of 5.7 points.