In Wisconsin SD-10, the Shelly Moore campaign released the results of a new poll by the Mellman group, which showed:
For those who voted in Supreme Court race, Moore is +2; for "all likely recall voters", she is -3. The poll internals have not been released, except that 350 people were interviewed and the margin of error is +/- 5 points.
We also had some fireworks at a debate today...
The polling results come from an email received by me as well as the Hudson Patch - New Poll Shows Moore Gaining Ground on Harsdorf
In a email newsletter to supporters, Shelly Moore said a new poll "shows us in a dead heat with Senator Harsdorf going into the Aug. 9 recall election."
According to the email, the Democratic Party poll shows Moore three points behind Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R-District 10). The poll was conducted on a sample size of 350 likely recall voters from July 21-24 by The Mellman Group. The poll has a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
A PPP poll late last month showed Hardorf with a five-point lead.
"After Moore's repeated lies to seniors it's tough to believe anything coming out of her campaign anymore," said Harsdorf campaign spokesperson Nathan Duerkop. "Considering this poll was paid for by the Democratic Party and it had a five point margin of error the results are questionable at best."
Harsdorf's spokesman Duerkop is a real piece of work, by the way.
The Debate.
The debate was sponsored by the River Falls Chamber of Commerce. It had to be moved to the local University of Wisconsin campus due to high interest, even with the $15 admission charge (you got breakfast).
Things got a bit testy. Uppity Wisconsin has a pretty good summary:
Many admonitions were made to the audience to avoid outbursts, and this was well-respected by the crowd with two exceptions. At one point late in the morning Harsdorf brought up the issue of Moore having used her email account at school to send an email with a political viewpoint. Harsdorf said she did not know whether it was worse to have a candidate who does not believe in laws and rules, or to have a schoolteacher that will teach a lack of respect for laws to her students. (my emphasis) Much of the crowd turned on Harsdorf at this point, and calls of "shame on you" came from the audience. Later when Moore stated that she thought Wisconsin government would be more transparent if Harsdorf simply took tax dollars and gave them directly to "her friends at M&I Bank" some of the audience applauded.
You can hear Harsdorf going reptilian about 48:30 of the audio on the Uppity Wisconsin link. BTW, Moore has been cleared by her school district of any impropriety in this.
Harsdorf also stated that keeping tax loopholes was necessary, closing them was increasing taxes. Moore pointed out that by elimination of the state's Homestead Credit Harsdorf has increased taxes on the poorest.
Harsdorf is not a good debater. In two debates so far, she has looked wooden, often stumbling with her words. Moore has looked far more relaxed and far sharper.
This is going to be close. We always knew it was going to be hard. Harsdorf has been in office for most of the past twenty years, with her brother holding her Assembly seat before her. She's always had the reputation as the "good local farm girl", and either plays the victim or plays the naive good girl in campaigns. Moore isn't letting her do either.
As always - You can donate money here to any of the Wisconsin Recall candidates!