Rasmussen MN: Kerry 50, Bush 41

[Dickie Flatt]

New Rasmussen state poll today. Kerry leads by nine points. That's four points higher than last month.

[trotsky]

1. That's more like it.

MN was only close last time because of Nader. Give his 5 or 6 percentage points to Gore and it's solidly "blue." No way in hell does * have a shot at winning MN.

[AlinPA]

2. What if its Bush*-Powell? Will MN switch to Bush*?

[no name no slogan]

4. I highly doubt it

The MN GOP is currently run by rabid right-wingers. The moderates have effectively been purged from the party. Many of the moderate Repubs (even elected officials) have either joined the Independence Party (Jesse Ventura's party) or have joined the DFL in recent years.

In fact the current Majority Leader of the State Senate (Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar) was once the Senate Majority Leader for the REPUBLICANS over a decade ago. As he has said, he's stayed pretty much the same, but the GOP has gone very far to the right.

Even our last Republican governor, Arne Carlson, has been very critical of the current GOP governer, and has become an independent. In fact, rumour has it he may back Kerry this year.

Yes, the days of the Harold Stassen Republican have sadly come to an end here. Instead of a fiscally responsible, socially conscious yet tolerant party, the MN GOP has turned into a haven for rabid pro-lifers, clandestine John Birchers and bigots of all shapes and sizes (and one color, of course-- WHITE).

The only reason MN was pegged as a "swing state" in 2000 was because Gore won by 1%, and Nader got over 5%. This year, Nader is a non-factor locally, as the MN Green Party will probably either get behind Cobb or else urge its members to vote for Kerry/Edwards.

However, it's still great to see Shrub expending all his $$ on negative campaign commercials, as they do more to turn MN voters away from candidates than to win them over.

[AlinPA]

5. Thank you. I sense that the snarling, bigoted right wing is driving

away the moderates in PA too. Santorum and Toomey are two examples in PA.

On the negative commercials, three recent races here started with negative ads and all the candidates that stayed positive won. Hopefuly people are waking up.

[MidwestTransplant]

3. You should make clear this is for MN in the subject