New poll shows Labrador leading Minnick (ID-01)

Idaho Reporter ^ | 6/9/10 | Dustin Hurst

[randita]

New poll shows Labrador leading Minnick

By Dustin Hurst

June 9th, 2010

A new month brings new polling figures in Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, and thing are looking up for Republican nominee Raul Labrador. Idaho’s only local political polling agency, Greg Smith and Associates, released its latest poll, taken Monday and Tuesday of this week, which found that Labrador is leading Democratic incumbent Walt Minnick by 12 percentage points, though about 30 percent of respondents remain undecided as to who they will support in November.

The poll, released Wednesday, was taken among 400 people in Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, which makes up the west portion of the state, and stretched from Idaho’s southern border with Nevada to the state’s northern border, which bumps up to Canada. Smith found that Labrador received support from 36 percent of respondents, as well as an additional 4 percent who replied that they are leaning toward the Republican. About 24 percent of those polled favored Minnick, a number complemented by 5 percent who said they are leaning toward the Democrat. Among respondents, 30 percent said they were undecided and 1.5 percent said they favored another candidate. Two other men running for Minnick’s seat, Libertarian Mike Washburn of Boise and Independent Dave Olson from St. Maries, were not mentioned in the poll findings.

The announcement by Smith and Associates is a reversal from a poll released earlier this year, prior to the Republican primary election. That poll found that approximately 50 percent of those he polled at that time favored Minnick, and only 20 percent said they would support “The Republican Candidate.”

Wednesday’s poll may not necessarily be an indicator of Minnick’s true standing with voters, however. One month before Minnick ousted Republican Bill Sali from the seat in 2008, Smith’s polling among 200 likely voters in the district found that Sali enjoyed a 51-39 lead over his challenger. Minnick went on to defeat Sali 51-49 on election night. In 2006, Smith found Democrat Jerry Brady ahead of Republican Butch Otter by 5 percent in the gubernatorial race. Otter defeated Brady at the polls 52-44.

The poll results drew the ire of Minnick spokesman John Foster, who showed no confidence in the work of Smith and his team. “Usually when Greg Smith promotes one of his rigged polls, he at least tries to make it look real; this one is just a joke,” Foster told IdahoReporter.com. “He is notorious for being inaccurate.”

The Labrador campaign has yet to comment on poll results.

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, I dunno.

I'll grant you, the black is a bit of a goofball. She is four and finally getting some sense. And she lives to hunt -- the mallards are scared to death when they see her highballing off the line. She would rather hunt than eat.

The yellow is only a year-old pup but she has a lot of sense and is shaping well as a retriever. I took her into a hunt test just on a lark and she knocked the test on the head both days.

The choc is 10 and has more letters after her name than a professional student. She has a vocabulary of about 250 words and is titled in Obedience, Agility (two associations) and Hunting Retriever (two associations). In fact, she's probably smarter than your average Democratic voter.

[Conservateacher]

Did I hear that the tea party supports Minninck? I say vote his “obama” out of there. Any vote for Pelosi isn’t a vote for us.

[Newtoidaho]

I really don’t know who Minnick expects to vote for him, the D’s can’t stand him and the R’s finally have someone they can vote for without cringing (for the most part).

[randita]

There was talk of tea party support if Minnich voted against Obamacare which he did. I don’t know where that situation stands now. I thought it was silly for whatever tea parties made this pledge. ID 1 is about as conservative as district as you can get (voted for Bush and McCain in the last three elections by 25-30 points each time) so there’s just no justification for a Democrat to be representing this district.

Check out the Three Year Presidential Voting History for the competitive House races this year at http://www.keyhouseraces.com/content/key-races-three-year-presidential-voting-history-chart.

It’s amazing how many red-red districts are represented by Democrats. How can this be? That is just inexcusable, IMO, and needs to be changed.

[ExSoldier]

LOL, do you get dressed up in period clothes and all that stuff? That really IS a high committment pasttime. If you get really involved it's like "ALL IN" and then some. Do they let you "fan" the hammer? What's your favorite poison when it comes to firearms for that? Do you go really old school with a Colt SAA in 44-40 (huge frong blade sight and grooved rear sight) or are you one of those who uses a modern single action like a Ruger New Model Blackhawk in 45 Colt or 357/38sp? Enquiring minds want to know!

[Impy]

The yellow one looks just like mine.

[Impy]

I worried about this pollster’s apparently weak record.

[AnAmericanMother]

Her name is Katy, she’s away at the Convent School for Wayward Labs but I got to see her today. She’s running 120 yard water doubles and still as sweet and friendly as ever. Very glad to see me and her two sisters - they all fell on each others’ necks, hugged and kissed.

Then her big sister Ruby ran the 120 yard marks, just to show.

[AnAmericanMother]

Oh yeah, and since all the good cowboy names were taken I am an actual historical character, a Crow Indian woman who fought at the Battle of the Rosebud.

I made by hand every stitch I have on, except for the hat (which is 35 years old - bought it out west) and the gunleather which was made by a friend of mine. I did all the beadwork (we estimate about 40,000 beads in the war shirt and a few more on the leggings).

I have two Ruger New Vaqueros in .357/.38, a Rossi copy of a Win '92 in the same caliber, and a Stoeger coach gun in 20 ga. (no reason to beat myself up with 12 when the targets are maybe 7 yards away). Few problems with using the old iron - it's slow to unholster, hard to dump 5 shots in a hurry, and you shoot so much that you would ruin anything nice and authentic. You figure around six stages with 10 rifle, 10 pistol, anywhere from 2 to 6 shotgun, you're putting a lot of lead through the barrels. And you can shoot a match every weekend around here if you feel like it - plus every spring and fall we have a two day match, which means 10 stages and a lot of 'side matches' as well.

"Fanning" isn't allowed - not safe. Since we're shooting at speed in a crowd with live ammo, the safety rules are very stringent.

[Impy]

Wayward? Does that mean not housebroken? ;d

[AnAmericanMother]

LOL!

No, in her case it meant she wasn't force-fetched and didn't deliver to hand.

Force-fetching involves inflicting some pain on the dog, so I prefer to have a professional do it (for the same reason my kids' pediatrician made the nurse give the shots). I force-fetched my first dog myself, and I'm sure I hurt her more than necessary. I sent my second dog to a pro, she's pretty wild and wooly, and she bit him when he started force-fetch. I said, "I bet she only did that once" and he smiled mysteriously. She's always glad to see him when we meet though.