Posted on 10/24/2004 12:57:12 PM PDT by okstate
Jim DeMint's commanding lead the U.S. Senate race has evaporated during the past month, a new independent poll shows.
The Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. poll shows the Republican U.S. House member at 47 percent and Inez Tenenbaum, his Democratic opponent, at 43 percent. That's within the 4 percentage point margin of sampling error for the telephone poll of 625 likely voters statewide interviewed Tuesday and Wednesday by Mason-Dixon for The Post and Courier of Charleston.
The paper reported on Oct. 3 that a Mason-Dixon poll had DeMint at 50 percent and the two-term education superintendent at 38 percent in the race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings and help decide control of the U.S. Senate.
"DeMint is still ahead," Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker says. "It was going to be a pretty easy victory, but he certainly has made the race harder than he had to."
The past three weeks have been marked by Tenenbaum and independent groups pouring money into ads that question DeMint's support of a bill that would replace personal income and payroll taxes with a 23 percent national sales tax.
In the poll, about 62 percent of respondents opposed that plan and 25 percent supported it.
DeMint also surprised voters by saying in a debate he supported a state GOP platform plank barring gays from teaching in public schools. A few days later, DeMint defended that remark by telling a newspaper that single pregnant women with live-in boyfriends should be barred from the classroom, too.
But 52 percent of the people responding to the new Mason-Dixon poll oppose the Republican Party's plank and 34 percent said they supported it.
Coker says DeMint's best chance for victory is to ride hard on Bush's coattails and to not "put his foot in his mouth again."
With Tenenbaum's negatives pretty high among voters, "Bush might get him over the hump," Coker said.
DeMint has aired a spot featuring President Bush supporting him in his 2002 bid for a third U.S. House term. But Tenenbaum is trying to clip the coattails, frequently criticizes DeMint for spending too much time linking his campaign to Bush and not standing on his own. She describes herself an independent and has not courted public support from U.S. Sen. John Kerry in the presidential race.
Ping!
Boy they are desperate. The CHANGE is less then the gap yet they claim his "lead has evaporated" Boy they are just desperate.
lookin good
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Senate.html#sc
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Posted by upchuck, trying to live up to the Swampmeister's standards for a week or so.
I live in SC and DeMint will win by double-digits. Like Kerry, Tananbaum is trying to pass herself off as a pro-defense, tax cutting conservative. It's quite embarrasing.
Praying for a Republican victory at any cost, the combination of Lindsey Graham with a Democrat (especially as it was with Ole Imbibin' himself) is totally counterproductive for South Carolina.
Those with perception see Inez as a Total Disaster.
She had been assigned to take over the rock bottom Allendale County pathetic and troubled school system a couple of years ago, as the head of State Education, to try to 'fix' it.
She made it infinitely WORSE - it is located just below my county, within 15 miles or less, and I had a neighbor across the street from me teaching there.
He was a Christian young man in a wheelchair, driven to and from by his wife in a special van, teaching SC History to 7th graders.
NO enforced discipline, and the students ruled the territory, publicly (in school and out) threatening him with bodily harm.
He said the school administration gave him ZERO support, looking the other way, being "PC" and afraid to try to get control of the students and/or their parents.
Be afraid - VERY AFRAID - if she should win, liberal to the core.
Watched the two debate on Columbia television last night, and Jim acquitted himself well in explaining his stances and voting, and the advantage of two Republicans working TOGETHER to move SC forward for a change.
Now those numbers are looking better, upchuck!
Jim DeMint is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Why couldn't the White House have looked for a better candidate?
If Republicans wins this (which is more likely than not), it will be in spite of the nominee, not because of it.
The Democrat was easy to spot at a distance when she arrived. During an informal discussion after the event, she said she would continue wearing red until Election Day. Monday, she said, will mark her third week of wearing the color-coordinated wardrobe.
The red dress, it seems, has become Tenenbaum's trademark.
"I'm not even 5 feet, 2 inches and I stand out in a crowd," she said. "It makes me feel energetic."
How do you figure that? The previous Mason-Dixon poll had DeMint ahead 50-38. That's a 12 point lead. The current Mason-Dixon poll has DeMint ahead 47-43. That's a 4 point lead. So they're showing an 8-point move, from 12 to 4.
Disingenous claim. Ketchup Boy is radioactive to Southern RATS.
Can't believe that Tenenbaum is actually this close....she's a liberal nutcase! Will she be elected in South Carolina? NO WAY!
I believe DeMint will win this race. However, he is a poor candidate in many areas in South Carolina because of his rigid stand on free trade.
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