As South Dakota takes its place as possibly the most interesting Senate race in the country, a Republican polling firm has found the Democratic candidate within striking distance.
A Harper Polling survey released Monday found Democratic candidate Rick Weiland (pictured) trailing former Republican Gov. Mike Rounds, 33 percent to 37 percent. The independent candidate, former GOP Sen. Larry Pressler, whom both sides are attacking, takes 23 percent.
Three-way races are notoriously difficult to predict, but recent polling has showed Rounds struggling to pull away in what was thought to be an assured GOP pick-up with Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) retiring. A SurveyUSA poll from last week put Rounds at 35 percent, followed by Pressler at 32 percent and Weiland at 28 percent.
TPM’s PollTracker average has Rounds at 35 percent, Pressler at 29.3 percent and Weiland at 28 percent.
The Harper Polling poll, conducted Oct. 9 to 11, surveyed 630 likely voters. Its margin of error is 3.9 points.
I hope this isn’t just an effort by the GOP to get voters to rally around Rounds.
For those who were wondering, SD has primary runoffs, which apparently are useless as the loser just runs as an independent, but no general election runoff. Plurality wins. Go figure.
Aw, c’mon. A democrat and South Dakota? I know McGovern and Daschle were from there but give me a break. That’s like class getting out of the Palins’ stretch Hummer.
No, it is an example of voters overall dissatisfaction with both political parties. The problem for the Democrats is what do you do? Do you spend money trying to drive votes away from the independent or do you try to drive votes to the independent hoping that he is likely to causes with the Democrats in the Senate if your candidate ends up not winning?
The movement in the race has not been from Republican to Democrat but from Republican to the Independent. My bet is Rounds has a solid 35-38% vote, so that doesn’t leave any room if both the Democrat and Independent split the anti-Rounds vote.
Is there any effort underway to get the Native American’s to vote for Weiland?