Daschle Leads Thune by 13 points in South Dakota

[mobuto]

U.S. SENATE: Tom Daschle (D), incumbent
Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for Sen. Tom Daschle (D). May 11-12, 2004. N=506 likely voters statewide:

General Election Trial Heat:

Tom Daschle (D)
John Thune(R)
Unsure
ALL 55 42 3
Republicans 29 68 3
Independents 54 43 3
Democrats 91 7 2

Sen. Daschle -- Favorability Rating:

Favorable 58
Unfavorable 31

---
Sorry for the ugly formatting, but I'm far too lazy to fix it.

http://www.pollingreport.com/sub/sd2004.htm#SENATE
(Subscription Required)

[senseandsensibility]

1. What do you want to bet

that he still isn't willing to expend any political capital by standing up to the * administration?

[mobuto]

2. Or here's another question

If Greenberg Quinlan Rosner polled 506 likely voters statewide, were there any South Dakota voters they didn't poll?

Just how many likely voters are there in South Dakota?

[senseandsensibility]

3. Beats me!

I wish I had a subscription to polling report! :)

[Awsi Dooger]

4. That's why Tim Johnson's late comeback was so amazing

He was trailing Thune by 2000-3000 votes for hours. It had been a miserable midterm election and there were seemingly just a few of us on DU staying up all night to root in Johnson.

Still, it seemed hopeless given the margin and the certainty of few remaining votes. Then someone posted that 2 of the 3 precincts yet to be counted were Indian precincts! It was the first good news in hours, and sure enough Johnson overhauled Thune by slightly more than 500 votes.

Daschle will never beat Thune by double digits, due to the Republican tilt of that state and Thune's organization/name recognition. But Bush probably can't afford to waste too many trips to South Dakota and he didn't exactly do Thune much good in 2002, anyway.

[dusty64]

5. I never really thought

this race was in jeopardy. Hopefully after Daschle wins another term he will step down as Minority Leader and let someone more willing to fight the extreme rightwing become the next Majority Leader.