So this means I'm going to win the election, right?
The latest poll on the 2014 U.S. Senate Race in South Dakota shows Former Governor Mike Rounds leading Democratic Candidate Rick Weiland by 14 points.
http://www.ksfy.com/...
We're more than a year away from the election, but a new poll shows how the race
for U.S. Senate in South Dakota is shaping up between two candidates.
Harper Polling asked more than 500 likely voters who they were most likely to vote for in the senate race.
52% said they were likely to vote for Republican Candidate Mike Rounds. 38% said they were likely to vote for Democrat Rick Weiland. The Harper Poll says the seat is rated one of the two most likely to flip control in the 2014 mid-term election.
The good news is that this is still September 2013, not September 2014 so Rick Weiland still has plenty of time to continue campaigning and reaching out to voters to increase his base of support.
Something to note: Mike Rounds isn't the only GOP candidate. There are three other GOP contenders he has to deal with, including Physician Annette Bosworth.
Also note, the pollster, Harper Polling, is considered a GOP pollster so important to note that one must not stress too much over this poll as there will be other polls reported in the future by different, more objective-minded firms.
Here's some insight into Harper Polling:
http://www.politico.com/...
The Republican polling community is about to get a shake-up.
With the GOP still reeling from its defeats in the 2012 election, a new Republican polling firm is seeking to help the party bounce back with a fresh stream of data on the state of the electorate.
The outfit, Harper Polling, launches this week with the goal of putting the party on parity with Democrats in the field of IVR polling — a term that stands for interactive voice response polling, commonly known as “robo-polling.”
For several cycles now, Democrats have benefited from a high-volume, relatively inexpensive flow of survey data from the company Public Policy Polling, which takes hundreds of polls in any given cycle checking up on individual races and national issue debates. Some of those surveys are released to the public, while others are conducted for private purposes by Democratic campaigns and interest groups.
Also...
http://www.politico.com/...
Harper Polling isn’t intended as a clone of PPP on the right, McCleary said, but many of the goals are the same: polling races that get relatively little attention from national and media pollsters, getting status updates on topical debates and releasing data for public consumption in order to inform press coverage.
That being said, one thing we can agree on is that regardless of what poll, Rick Weiland cannot by any means take the U.S. Senate Race in South Dakota for granted.
The good news is that Weiland's support is building up and politicians including Former U.S. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and U.S. Senator Tim Johnson, who is retiring from the U.S. Senate after 2014.
Tom Dashle's statement below:
http://peopleforweiland.tumblr.com/...
Dear fellow South Dakotan,
I want Rick Weiland to be our next United States Senator for two simple reasons — because of who he is and what he stands for.
I’ve known the Weiland family from Madison for over four decades. I’ve watched Rick grow up and get married to a wonderful woman. I’ve watched Stacy and Rick raise five terrific children and start two successful small businesses. I’ve seen him move up from handing out bumper stickers for my first campaign to directing a $50 million dollar national trade association, with lots of very challenging stops in between.
Today Rick Weiland is a capable and accomplished man, fully qualified to give our state a strong, hard-working voice in the United States Senate.
But what stands out most to me about this man is not how he changed as he became successful, but rather how he has not changed.
The Rick Weiland I met as a student and the Rick Weiland I know today are one and the same, committed to a fair shake for ordinary folks and fiercely opposed to the hostile takeover of our government by powerful special interests.
That’s why I will be supporting Rick Weiland. Not because he is my friend, but because he is a friend of the things I fought for my entire time in Congress, the things Tim Johnson is still fighting for, and the things all three of us deeply believe will help the ordinary people of South Dakota.
As you and I know painfully well, though, that fight is a hard one. Rick cannot possibly win it without our help. So please, join me in becoming an early supporter of his campaign by clicking on this link and joining the most important campaign South Dakota progressives will wage in a generation.
Rick Weiland will fight with the President to preserve our hard won access to health insurance regardless of pre-existing conditions. He stands with small business and ordinary South Dakota families in our fight to take government back from millionaire political donors and huge special interests. And he is a lifetime fighter for a woman’s right to choose, and for equal opportunity and equal pay in the workplace.
I also know that Rick will be a candidate with the passion, the energy and the drive to take on the establishment and demonstrate to people that we really can take government back from Tea Party extremists.
Please take a stand with Rick and me today by accessing this link and making an investment in a truly, progressive campaign. It is our government and together we can take it back.
I spoke with Rick this morning about Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin’s decision not to run for the United States Senate. He told me, and he is right, that her decision puts an even heavier burden on him to be a strong, effective voice for our state, and our values, in the Senate election next year.
Rick Weiland can be that voice. He is going to win that race the same way Tim Johnson and George McGovern won theirs, the same way Jim Abourezk Dick Kneip, Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin and I did, with hard work, high energy, no apology for our true convictions, and by giving voice to the hopes and dreams of ordinary South Dakotans.
I am going to do everything I can to help Rick. I hope you will too.
Your friend,
Tom Daschle
Senator Tim Johnson on his support for Rick Weiland:
http://ksoo.com/...
“He is smart, hard-working, and perhaps most important, unafraid to take on the powerful special interests that have far too much influence in Washington, D.C. I believe that folks are ready for a new direction in this country, one that places a higher priority on addressing the needs of everyday people, rather than the greed of special interests.”
Fellow Kossack Poopdogcomedy and other Kossacks have done an outstanding job at covering Rick Weiland and his campaign and pointing out that Weiland, even running for office in a red state like South Dakota, is a strong progressive who believes in fighting for the underdog and fighting against Citizens United.
Let's help Rick Weiland get elected in the U.S. Senate and prove the cynics wrong.
Rick Weiland for U.S. Senate in South Dakota:
http://www.rickweiland.com/
About Rick Weiland: http://www.rickweiland.com/...
Rick Weiland's Priorities: http://www.rickweiland.com/...
Rick Weiland on his Progressive Campaign: http://kelo.com/...
The Republicans may have beaten all our Blue Dogs, but we are going to show them a new kind of dog in South Dakota next year: a dog that bites instead of whimpers.
Donate via ActBlue:
https://secure.actblue.com/...
People for Rick Weiland on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/...
People for Rick Weiland on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/...