Discuss: The Zeese factor
New internal polls (conducted on October 22 and 23) from the Steele and Cardin campaigns either show the two running neck and neck or show Cardin with a decent lead.
Here are the results of the poll sponsored by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (margin of error 3.9%)
Cardin (D) 41
Steele (R) 39
Zeese (G) 4
Undecided 16
And here are the results from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. (margin of error 4%)
Cardin (D) 52
Steele (R) 40
Undecided/other 8
The undecideds are clearly an important factor in each poll. The Democrats lumped undecided and other (Zeese) together.
So, is this race Cardin's to lose?
If Zeese does pull in 4% or more, will that throw the outcome either way?
I'm interested in your thoughts.
Comments
Greens are polling well among independent voters in a number of races across the country. In the Illinois Governor's race, the Green Party candidate is actually running ahead of the Republican among independents. He gets very few Democratic or Republican voters so overall he's only at 14% but the breakthrough among independents is impressive.
In the New York Senate race and the Maine Governor's race the Green Party candidate is running a strong third among independents.
In Maryland, in the few polls that have had crosstabs, Both Kevin Zeese and Ed Boyd are pulling in double digits among independents. Unfortunately, in this state independents make up a smaller proportion of the voters than in some states. But the trend is the same.
We may be reaching a point where these independents are so fed up with the two main parties that the term "spoiler" is no longer an accurate description of what's happened. These people are leaving the two main parties behind.
For good--I hope.
Tim Willard
Maryland Green Party Co-Chair
Posted by: Tim Willard | October 30, 2006 05:11 PM