Poll reaction

Posted at 7:26 AM on July 17, 2006 by Mike Mulcahy (3 Comments)

The Star Tribune has come out with the first local polls of the campaign season.

The Minnesota Poll published Monday on the Senate race shows Amy Klobuchar at 50 percent and Mark Kennedy at 31 percent.

As you might expect the two campaigns had widely differing reactions to the numbers. The Strib reported the Klobuchar camp said it was pleased but not surprised. And the Kennedy campaign's reaction was to take a shot at the messenger:

Heidi Fredrickson, Kennedy's press secretary, said on Sunday that "given the Star Tribune poll's long and consistent track record of getting it wrong, we weren't exactly expecting good news. We're confident about where we're at this point in the campaign. We're hopeful the Democrats actually believe this stuff."

For those of you keeping score Independence Party endorsed candidate Robert Fitzgerald garnered 3 percent in the poll, two points lower than IP gubernatorial candidate Peter Hutchinson in the previous day's poll on the governor's race.

That polls showed incumbent Republican Tim Pawlenty (43 percent) in a statistical dead heat against DFL endorsed candidate Mike Hatch (41 percent).

In a head to head matchup with DFLer Becky Lourey it was Pawlenty 47, Lourey 28. But in a press statement Lourey said she's not discouraged:

“The results of the Minneapolis Star Tribune Minnesota Poll are not surprising. The poll only reinforces what we already know: the two most well-known statewide politicians are still the most well known. Early name recognition alone doesn’t determine the outcome of an election nor does it indicate who is best suited to lead Minnesota over the next four years.

“It is early in the election process and most Minnesotans are still learning about the candidates in this race. Any conclusion about the outcome of this race based largely on name recognition poll is premature and unwise.

“History has told us that Minnesotans decide on leadership based upon a vision for Minnesota - not because a candidate is widely known eight weeks before the election.

That's eight weeks before the primary. The general is still nearly four months away.

---

Comments (3)

What strikes me is the 18-24 demographic. 63% for Kennedy? Only 16% Klobuchar? Is there some trend I am not aware of, or is the sampling smaller because younger people are more likely to have cell phones.

Posted by Dan | July 17, 2006 9:08 AM

---

There's a little bit of discussion on this issue at both MNPublius and MNCR

Posted by MN Campaign Report | July 17, 2006 9:59 AM

---

While I doubt that it is 63-16 with Robert Fitzgerald also doing very well among young voters, I think it's safe to say young people see nothing in Klobuchar, while at the same time older people see very little in Mark Kennedy.

Young people don't hold Kennedy accountable for his complete lack of independence, older people see right through Kennedy and already see him as completly untrustworthy. The real story here is that there is no force driving either of these campaigns. They might not be strongly disliked, but people are not the least bit excited about either Kennedy or Klobuchar, nor are they excited to vote against either.

Posted by Mike Grimes | July 17, 2006 12:41 PM

---

Post a comment

The following HTML tags are allowed in your comments:
+ Bold: <b>Text</b>
+ Italic: <i>Text</i>
+ Link: <a href="http://url" target="_blank">Link</a>
Fields marked with * are required.

Name*:

Email Address*:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments*:

Comment Preview appears above this form upon pressing the "preview" button. Edit your comment and press "preview" again, until you are satisfied with your comment.

Your comment may not appear on the blog until several minutes after it was submitted.

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Save to Delicious
• Submit to Digg
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories

Become a Sponsor