Ford Bell on the Up
It is hard to deny that mainstream MN Democrats have been marginalizing Ford Bell’s candidacy for Senate. While Democrats have focused on front-runner Amy Klobuchar’s chances of winning in November against Mark Kennedy, Ford has been crossing the state talking to supporters; it may be paying off.
In a recent Rasmussen Poll, Bell leads Kennedy in a hypothetical match up 43%-40%. Now, Klobuchar’s numbers are still much better at 45%-42% against Kennedy and she has a much better favorability rating than Bell. But maybe these new numbers ought to be a hint to Democrats that they can win, even in moderate states, by taking strong positions on the left.
2 Comments:
Bell is running a solid issues driven campaign and Minnesotans seem to like what they hear.
He is the only anti-war candidate.
He wants our troops out of Iraq by December and he want to create a single payer health care system for all like Medicare.
I like Bell because he is saying something rather than running another tired DC poll driven campaign.
Jake, thanks for your poll analysis and all your work on the website-the conversation here seems to be growing and expanding, and I think that's a good thing. . I checked Rasmussen press release, and noticed a few more interesting things about this poll:
-Both Klobuchar and Kennedy's favorability ratings have dipped since last month (5 and 3 points respectively), while Bell's have risen 8 points.
-Bell's ratings are still *significantly* lower than his opponents, but it's interesting that his favorability and head-to-head ratings seem to be rising as he gains more exposure, while Kennedy holds even and Klobuchar sinks.
-It's interesting that Kennedy polls lower against Bell than he does against Klobuchar. This suggests to me that Minnesotans are likely to reserve judgement about Bell until they learn more about him.
-These points may be moot, however, given that Klobuchar still polls 21 points above Bell among Democrats. (I believe) Bell's said that he'll honor the endorsement process, so my final analysis is he'll have to build on his momentum in the past month if he wants to still be in the race in November.