Posted on 09/22/2006 11:50:41 AM PDT by okstate
MINNEAPOLIS - Democrat Amy Klobuchar holds a commanding lead in the U.S. Senate race over Republican Mark Kennedy in a Humphrey Institute poll released Thursday night, the second poll released this week that gave Klobuchar a double-digit lead.
But Klobuchar's lead of 52 percent to 36 percent for Kennedy was not quite as big as her 24 percentage point lead in a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll published Monday.
Both polls were conducted before a flap surfaced Tuesday over her firing of a campaign spokeswoman who accessed an unreleased TV ad for Kennedy, a case that opened up a new avenue of attack for the GOP.
The Humphrey Institute poll, first aired by WCCO-TV, surveyed 1,023 likely voters statewide Sept. 13-18. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
The poll for the Humphrey Institute, part of the University of Minnesota, was led by director Larry Jacobs and research associate Joanne Miller of the institute's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance.
"Kennedy's campaign is being badly hurt by President George Bush's unpopularity and by deep concerns about the direction of the country and state," they wrote. "Klobuchar is strongly benefiting from extraordinary concern over Iraq and a huge lead among women voters even as she holds her own among men."
The Star Tribune poll showed Klobuchar leading Kennedy 56 percent to 32 percent. That poll surveyed 820 likely voters Sept. 13-15 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Independence Party candidate Robert Fitzgerald had the support of 7 percent of those surveyed for the Humphrey Institute poll, compared with 3 percent in the Star Tribune poll.
MN Trendlines
09-22 Humphrey Institute ... Klobuchar +16
09-15 Star-Tribune ............ Klobuchar +24
08-28 Rasmussen .............. Klobuchar +7
08-27 Gallup ..................... Klobuchar +10
Any poll that has Klobuchar up more than 7 points is absurd.
Why?
I saw a Kennedy/Klobuchar debate on CSPAN. I could not watch it. The thought of Klobuchar as my Senator was sickening. She is simply awful. We need to get her into full public view and ask her a few hard questions so everyone can see how lame she is.
IMHO, Kennedy isn't that strong a candidate, and I personally don't care for him all that much. That being said, the thought of a mediocrity like Klobuchar representing my state in the sanate is scary.
You can throw out both the Star and Humphrey poll as they are proven to be flat out propoganda polls. They haven't even been close in quite awhile up here.
Give it time up here. Klobuchar was awful in the debate and the Kennedy side is finally starting to run hard hitting ads (after some very pathetic intro ads of Kennedy).
The wild card in this is that we have Jason Lewis back on the air and he is really pushing both Kennedy and Pawlenty to run on their records...Kennedy is listening, Pawlenty isn't talking to Lewis anymore.
This race hasn't even started yet.
Mediocrity would be a large improvement over that moron Sen. Dayton... ;)
You'll get no argument from me on that.
Pawlenty's probably just pissed that Jason gave airtime to Sue Jeffers.
Problem is that in none of the "at risk" DEM seats is the GOP candidate ahead. Now only MD still looks competitive
It looks like the GOP will lose 4-7 Senate Seats. Talent, Corker and Allen could pull it out.
Kennedy has also started a series of attack ads, both on television and radio. I've heard the radio one about 20 times today on my talk station. It's a poor ad, and is going to annoy more people than it influences.
Same for the TV ad. Attack ads do not work well in Minnesota. It was a bad move on Kennedy's part.
I don't know why the hell he even got nominated, but it seemed to be a done deal even before the convention. John Kline would have been a far, far better candidate.
That's not surprising. Pawlenty governs only half the state. And I say this as someone who voted for him in the part he doesn't.
The Humprey Institute lol lol lol isn't that like getting an endorsement from the Red Star Tribune.
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