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Friday, October 22, 2010

Noem's lead widens...still too close to call

Rasmussen Poll conducted Wednesday shows Republican Kristi Noem's lead over Democratic incumbent Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin widening...ever so slightly. You can read it here. The Rasmussen score: 49-44, advantage Noem with 6.4 percent preferring "some other" candidate. Three percent are undecided.

Obviously, this has become the race to watch in South Dakota (and around the country for that matter.) Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy ride!



The post below describes a flier Noem sent. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has released an ad (above) suggesting that Noem's rotten driving record placed children in harm's way...the message...elect Kristi and she'll run over your kids at a school crosswalk. Wow. Better to have found a nice Minnesota biker to cross a rural intersection.

In the post below I questioned whether the Noem gun flier would have much effect on the race. It apparently hasn't.

But, the DCCC and Herseth-Sandlin's insistence upon continuing to make this campaign about traffic tickets appears to be a mistake.

NOT SO BOLD PREDICTION: The last-minute ads from both sides will be about abortion. Noem will hammer Herseth Sandlin on her support by pro-choice group Emily's List. Herseth Sandlin will try to scare the undecideds about Noem being anti-abortion. And, in all likelihood, nobody's mind will be changed.

To quote President Bill Clinton: "It's the economy, Stupid." Nothing else matters. And given the current political wind...Stephanie will have a great deal of difficulty overcoming Noem's efforts to tie the Democrat to Nancy Pelosi and President Obama's economic disaster. Noem would be wise to stick to that theme. South Dakota voters have on several occasions made clear their opinions about the abortion issue.

2 comments:

Troy Jones said...

My prediction:

The first candidate who pulls the abortion trigger will be met with this reaction:

"WTF?"

Michael Sanborn said...

Troy,

You're right. The trigger's been pulled. Right wing groups, (not Noem's) campaign briefly ran an ad on Stephanie's support from abortion proponents.

Stephanie would be absolutely crazy to bring up Noem's pro-life stance. And Noem has no smart reason to bring up Stephanie's opposite stand.

Someone will do it. And in a race this close, doing so could cost either the race.