KELO-Land television is reporting on the results of a new Argus Leader/KELO-Land poll. It's a shocker:
Daschle 49%
Thune 47%
Amazing. As I've noted, Daschle's $8 million in ads haven't worked. And Thune hasn't even run an ad! As previously noted, Daschle had a bad April. To add to Daschle's problems, Senator Frist is coming this weekend to highlight Daschle's obstructionism.
UPDATE: Note this additional information from the KELO-Land report:
We also asked voters how they perceive each of the candidates. This is where Thune comes out ahead. 54% of voters polled feel favorable about him. That's compared to 51% favorability for Daschle. That's about how voters have felt about Thune all along, while Daschle's numbers have slipped some in the last few months.
This is doubly amazing. Daschle campaign spokesman Dan Pfeiffer has been spinning the bad polls in recent months as no big deal and saying the advertising blitz was boosting Daschle's favorable ratings, even if it didn't boost his head-to-head numbers that much. So much for that line of spin. In February, Daschle's favorability was 57% in another Mason-Dixon poll conducted for KELO-Land/Argus Leader. Down from 57% to 51% without any Thune advertising.
UPDATE II: The 10 PM KELO-Land report had more on the poll, including a very disturbing development for Daschle--his biggest selling point, or what he thought was his biggest selling point, isn't that big of a deal:
55 percent of people in our poll said the top leadership post had no effect on their vote. 32 percent said it makes them more likely to support Daschle. 12 percent said it makes them less likely to vote for him. Political analyst Jennifer Duffy says, "I'm surprised at the 55 percent that said it had little or no effect, simply because that's one of the key messages in Daschle's reelection campaign, that the state benefits from the leadership position."
Ouch. That was also one of Ernest McFarland's messages.
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