Figured I'd keep up the good news in terms of polling today. You have nothing to worry about in two big races in Minnesota. First the Governors race:
http://www.wdio.com/...
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton has slightly expanded his lead over Republican challenger Jeff Johnson, according to a new KSTP/SurveyUSA poll.
Dayton leads Johnson 51 percent to 39 percent. Since our last poll in late August, Dayton has added two points and Johnson has dropped one. Independence Party candidate Hannah Nicollet is far back at 4 percent, but that's just one point from the 5 percent threshold needed for her party to retain "major party" status in Minnesota. Only 4 percent are undecided.
"It definitely matters that Gov. Dayton has the advantage of having more resources, both his own campaign resources and resources from outside groups," said University of Minnesota political scientist Kathryn Pearson.
Dayton's campaign and an outside group, Alliance for a Better Minnesota, have flooded the airwaves with pro-Dayton and anti-Jeff Johnson television ads for more than a month. Meanwhile, Johnson has only responded with one TV ad of his own. He's had little outside support.
Pearson also says Dayton is aided by a recovering Minnesota economy.
"Incumbent governors tend to win around 80 percent of the time and they win an even greater amount when the economy in their home state is strong," she said. The strong economy also seems to be overshadowing all the problems with MNSure that Republicans hoped would hurt Dayton. Our poll indicates only 24 percent of Minnesota approve of the performance of MNSure, while 52 percent disapprove and 24 percent are "not sure."
One reason Dayton is doing better is he's turned a three-point deficit among independents into a 10-point lead (43 percent to 33 percent). Pearson says those voters are critical because nearly 90 percent of Democrats and Republicans vote for the candidate of their own party no matter what. - WDIO, 10/6/14
This poll contains 577 "likely voters" and was conducted between Sept. 30 and Oct. 2. Now onto the Senate race:
http://thehill.com/...
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has widened his lead over Republican challenger Mike McFadden to 18 points, according to a new SurveyUSA/KSTP poll.
Franken leads McFadden 55 percent to 37 percent in the poll of 577 likely voters released this week, double the 9-point lead he held in the same poll last month.
Both candidates have strong support within their own party. Among Republicans, McFadden draws 84 percent support while Franken enjoys 94 percent support among Democrats. Franken, though, holds a 17-point lead among independents, the poll found.
Franken has 15-point lead among men and a 21-point lead among women. The incumbent senator is also posting double-digit edge in every part of the state. - The Hill, 10/7/14
The SurveyUSA poll used a blend of automated home telephone calls and cellphone surveys from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. It has a 4-percent margin of error. All in all, good news but if you want to donate and get involved with Dayton and Franken's campaigns, you can do so here:
http://markdayton.org/
http://www.alfranken.com/...