Over at Red State, they’ve managed to raise over $1000 for John Thune in 24 hours and are well on their way to $2000.
The Democrats had an early lead in online fundraising with the Dean Machine – not that it got them anywhere. Thankfully the right is starting to catch on. It was the conservative movement that pioneered the use of direct mail, and conservatives were a force in the blogosphere long before the left created their echo chamber.
With Thune pulling ahead against Daschle, it’s more important now than ever to help get the Senate out of the Daschle Dead Zone. As we learned from Howard Dean, even small donors can make a big difference. (Well, that and don’t make an ass of yourself on national TV, but I digress…)
It’s interesting how the main poll you use to cite Thune’s lead is…..Zogby, none other than the poll you just disparaged in your last post. And how did Zogby arrive at this Thune lead? By weighting figures in accordance with party registration rates from previous elections. In 2000, South Dakota had an artificially high number of registered Republicans because there were no competitive statewide races which kept Democrats, particularly on Indian reservations, home since they knew Bush would beat Gore in a walk. It’s highly unlikely that the 13-point GOP advantage Zogby weighted his poll numbers by will exist in South Dakota this year with two hotly-contested statewide races.
With that said, Daschle is in undeniable trouble. I hope he’s spending his remaining days in Sioux Falls, because he needs 55% of the vote there to offset his likely deficiencies West River. I would expect a massive Daschle advantage in the northeastern counties where he has represented for 26 years, especially in his hometown of Aberdeen. Couple that with strong margins on the reservations and Thune will have a hard time beating Daschle. Still, Thune appears to have the momentum at this time. I guess if South Dakotans are intent on getting less pork for their massively government-dependent state, Thune is their man.
From what I’ve heard, Zogby actually toned down the GOP advantage from what his initial data showed. I’m always skeptical of Zogby’s SD polls, but when he has a history of understating the GOP leads in SD races, it makes me wonder.
Then again, that poll shows Diedrich ahead of Herseth, which I don’t believe for a second.
However, Rassmussen has the same results, which does provide a level of confirmation on the state of the race, and those numbers match with the internal polls I’ve seen as well.