Posted on 05/01/2010 8:02:17 PM PDT by Falcon28
New poll in the IN Senate race's GOP primary!
Done yesterday. Out today. It was commissioned by SC Senator Jim DeMint's PAC...the Senate Conservatives Fund. Wenzel Strategies Research out of Columbus OH did the work. Here are the results:
Undecided 30%
Dan Coats 28%
John Hostettler 18%
Marlin Stutzman 18%
Richard Behney 3%
Don Bates Jr. 3%
The survey was of 801 like Republican primary voters...again all spoken to yesterday over the phone. The margin of error for this poll is plus/minus 3.43%.
REPORTER INTERPRETATION: Coats...the best known candidate is out in front outside the margin of error. But...and this is a huge qualifier..."Undecided/Not Sure" was ahead at the time of this poll...which was yesterday...5-days before primary day coming up on Tuesday, May 4th.
The poll is also commissioned by DeMint's PAC and is solidly behind the Stutzman campaign. The Senate Conservatives Fund has reportedly poured in $200,000 into the Stutzman campaign (via internet donations) in the final two weeks of the primary contact.
There is a good argument to make that Stutzman is the candidate with the momentum now. The question is whether he can make up the gap in the last four-plus days of the campaign.
The undecideds apparently could throw this race is any direction.
(Excerpt) Read more at liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com ...
Eric Edwards on RedState makes the point that perhaps it’s time for Hostetler to drop out..throuw his support to Marlin..
James Dobson is backing Dan Coates while Ron Paul is backing John Hostettler. Looks like Mark Levin and Huckleberry are also with Stutzman.
Republican elites are the ones pushing Coats. The last damn theing we need right now is a DC insider, former Senator turned lobbyist to run for this seat in November. Makes me wanna PUKE that he’s even on the ticket.
Unless something big is brought to my attention ... I’m going with Stutzman.
None of them are really taking the TEA Pary vote into account. Richard Behney (RichardBehney.com) is founder of the Indiana TEA Party, not an experienced politician. Richard “gets it.” We the People have had ENOUGH! The undecideds can swing this vote.
MY quandary is whether to stick with Dan Burton or try one of his 5 opponents.
I am voting for stutzman
I'm not trying to dismiss your candidate, but any candidate stuck at 3% with three days left to go is just playing spoiler at this point. We need to keep the RINO Establishment pick Dan Coats out of the Senate. We've got enough RINOs in DC. That's why I hope people will vote for Stutzman on Tuesday. He's our best conservative shot at this point in the race.
Indiana Right to Life gave Behney a bum deal this week over a statement he made....
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs075/1101123446980/archive/1103342329753.html
he rebutted this on a local radio show but I cant get the link to play the audio so I won’t post it.
In a nutshell....He IS quite sincerely Pro-Life and frustrated that so many in high positions seem willing to accept the lack of progress in the movement. Just not a polished politician and tends to say what he thinks, regardless of the undue scrutiny that every word gets.
He also said he wasn’t even aware that he HAD their endorsement until they so publicly rescinded it.
It would be a shame for the RINO Coats to get the nod because the vote is split among the real conservatives. I was leaning for Hoesettler, but I’m beginning to think Stutzman is the better of the two.
Stutzman and Hostettler are apparently splitting the votes of the good people. This happens way too often that we are our own biggest problem, not the rinos, not the media. They don’t win. We lose.
30% undecided with 3 days to go? Since Coats is best known will he get the lion’s share of that vote? Or since he is best known is the 30% “anyone but Coats” and they can’t make up their minds which non-Coats candidate to support? If that 30% goes 2-1 against Coats (10% for Coats; 10% for Stutzman, 10% for Hostettler, Coats still wins).
Bottom line, we need to learn how to unify around one opponent and have a 2 person primary.
With all due respect, he is neither the most conservative nor the best candidate. He is simply the best funded. If you haven’t listened to his ICaucus interview (http://icaucus.ning.com/group/indiana/forum/topics/indiana-us-senate-candidates), you should. Some of his views are scary.
I saw most of a recent debate on CSPAN. They all came off as conservative (I really liked Bates, who obviously has no chance).
Coats’ RINO tendencies werent evident, and I dont know how many people remember them the way we do. I suspect he is gonna take this one and we’re just gonna have to be happy to have the seat in the GOP column again. One step closer to taking back the majority.
One of the problems is not conservative v liberal but establishment oligarchy v inclusiveness.
Over time organizations tend to become closed little country clubs at the top. People are excluded, not because they are too liberal or too conservative or too Black or too female. They are excluded because they are not already insiders.
To a large extent the conservatives are rejected by the insiders, not because they are conservative, but because they are not insiders.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.