(H/T Complete Colorado) My jaw nearly dropped to the floor when I saw Curtis Hubbard’s coverage of the new Rasmussen poll on the Denver Post’s political blog. Likely Colorado voters seem to be demanding another option. Look at the breakdown:
- John Hickenlooper (D): 36 percent
- Dan Maes (R): 24 percent
- Tom Tancredo (AC): 14 percent
Do the math. That means not only has support dropped for all three candidates, but that one in four voters isn’t settled on any of the choices. Add in those who say they are leaning in one direction or another, and it doesn’t get a lot better (in fact, it gets worse if you’re Tom Tancredo):
- John Hickenlooper (D): 40 percent
- Dan Maes (R): 32 percent
- Tom Tancredo (AC): 9 percent
That still leaves one in five voters who are left out in the cold on this one. Frankly, to see such a high level of undecideds in a high-profile race right before Labor Day has to be incredibly rare. Perhaps someone with a longer institutional memory can offer up a comparison.
But in this hyper-information age with the local 24 hour news cycle’s attention to this race, the early barrage of Hickenlooper TV advertising and the minute-by-minute interaction of new media, the low and declining levels of support for all three major candidates sends a strong message of voter dissatisfaction: Maes needs a bold move to sell Republicans on his qualifications and convictions (and money to do it), Tancredo needs to show he is something other than a spoiler (a tall order), and Hickenlooper just needs to hang on.
So yes, Hick the Democrat still is the odds-on favorite in a three-way race, but we might be seeing the dynamics of the gubernatorial showdown reshaping as we head into September and the home stretch.
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