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Rounds Dismisses Optimistic Poll, Says “Virtually Tied” with Weiland

The GOP spin machine has slobberingly cited Republican pollster Glen Bolger's claim, published Tuesday, that Mike Rounds is leading Rick Weiland 48–24 in South Dakota's U.S. Senate race.

Even Mike Rounds doesn't believe that wishful result. Check out this fundraising e-mail sent by Team Rounds yesterday:

My Obama Democrat opponent has been battering me for weeks with relentless negative ads.

I understand why he focuses on me -- he simply can't defend his own positions.

Like saying Barack Obama's stifling Big Government "is not the problem." Or claiming that the ObamaCare nanny-state healthcare takeover didn't go far enough. But on the strength of so many attacks and distortions, we're now virtually tied in the race for the Senate majority...

With such unexpected tightening, the Harry Reid and company are pouring an additional one million dollars into even more media attacks here, confident they can now pick off Red State South Dakota! [Mike Rounds, fundraising e-mail, 2014.10.25]

Gacckk—let me disinfect my keyboard....

Given how bad Rounds is at math, I suppose it's possible he thinks a 2-to-1 lead is "virtually tied." Conclude what you will—just don't let Rounds or Bolger trick you out of heading to the polls with ten friends and all voting for the man whose numbers always add up, Rick Weiland!

28 Comments

  1. Rorschach 2014.10.26

    It's all just spin - trying to create whatever perception each particular audience needs to get that audience to do what you want. When he wants money he has to convince people it's a real horse race. When he wants votes he has to convince people it's all a done deal and his competition is far behindl. It's all hooey. What's ridiculous is when people like Todd Epp talk to Dick Wadhams then report this 48-24-16 claim as if they think Wadhams is an honest man.

    Rounds is really worried about Pressler. He wants people to think Pressler is a non-factor, because Pressler is his real competition. Out there in SD, Pressler is taking it to Rounds, and no amount of pretending otherwise by the Rounds is gonna change that. But it's a poker game, and they are employing their bluff. Nobody should fall for it.

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.10.26

    Whoo-hoo! Everybody loves teachers, even 51% of Republicans! Now I wonder if they would support a pay raise for bloggers....

  3. toclayco 2014.10.26

    I, for one, am heartily sick of the dog whistle "Obama Democrat" phrase, insinuating that this President is anything other than a slightly left-of-center Chief Executive. Not to mention the further summoning up of all the past racial, religious and ideological dog whistles that this now nearly totally thuggish party has employed since well before he actually assumed office six years ago.
    The GOP candidate had nothing to offer in his eight years as South Dakota Governor other than a penchant for putting friends and family in cushy jobs and failing to exercise a minimum of oversight over his signature program that quickly devolved into a swamp of corruption.
    Bottom line....ANY one of the other three candidates is preferable to this Babbit. At least you'll know where you stand with them. This guy- "slippery as an eel" comes to mind.

  4. Tim 2014.10.26

    "I, for one, am heartily sick of the dog whistle "Obama Democrat" phrase, insinuating that this President is anything other than a slightly left-of-center Chief Executive. Not to mention the further summoning up of all the past racial, religious and ideological dog whistles that this now nearly totally thuggish party has employed since well before he actually assumed office six years ago."

    toclayco, as long as voters continue to fall for this kind of garbage, they won't stop. It's been proven time and again it works on SD's low informed, low caring, will punch R even if it ended the world voters. Until SD voters start voting on the issues and what effects them instead of voting against those damn liberals because, well, they just have to, then nothing changes.

  5. mike from iowa 2014.10.26

    If Obama/Weiland would have sealed the borders and prevented Dutch boy Bollen from coming here and absconding with all those fees meant for the state,we could prolly give teachers a pay raise. Obama/Weiland totally mishandled EB-5 and try to blame me-Mike Rounds for their troubles. I-Mike Rounds-barely knew Kenny Boy Bollen.

  6. John Hess 2014.10.26

    This is an amazing race and you have to wonder how much of the shift is due to Cory's digging and reporting. Pressler thinks power may shift to Independents. The polarization of these two parties has been unbelievably counterproductive. Although Rick's views are more in line with my own it's tempting to vote for Pressler for that reason. Power to Independents might break up this log jam if they're a sensible group of people like we can say Pressler was and mostly likely would be again.

  7. Bill Fleming 2014.10.26

    New Marist poll has Rick down 14 points.
    Rounds 42
    Weiland 29
    Pressler 16

    Maybe now Winston et al will join us in encouraging the Pressler Democrats to vote for their party's candidate instead, and stop trying to shoot themselves in the foot.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/nbc-news-marist-polls-show-tight-contests-key-states-n234136

    P.s. Note the headline identifies 'close' Senate races, and specifically points out that SD's is the only one that's not.

    Not good.

  8. 96Tears 2014.10.26

    Polls are snapshots of what x number people were thinking when the phone rang on a particular night. Call eight hours later, you might well find enough people to show shifts back the other direction. Veterans of the '86 Daschle-Abdnor election may recall wild jumps, depending on what ad got placed at the time, between the two right up to the end. This is a three-way or four-way race with headlines breaking daily with new revelations of corruption in the Rounds administration. Rounds is lying his ass off to throw off reporters (prime example Ellsworth AFB lie). He wants to throw attention to the national GOP anti-Obama theme. The Rounds camp would love this to be the last word, but it won't be.

  9. Tim 2014.10.26

    I have to ask one question, have democrats completely run out of money? I have not seen an ad or heard one on the radio for democrats, any democrats, since I got home from a work trip to east river. Rounds has completely flooded the airwaves with his lies and trash, I can't even listen to the radio anymore.

  10. JeniW 2014.10.26

    From now until the election, there will be numerous polls conducted. One poll, one day will be show to be discouraging of Rick, another poll the next day will show to be encouraging of Rick.

    Are the surveys really a reflection of the people who will vote? I have been getting a number of phone calls, but because I do not recognize the number, or if it just reads the city from which the call is supposedly coming from (for example, Aberdeen,) I do not answer. How many other people with caller-ID ignore the calls?

  11. Bill Fleming 2014.10.26

    True enough about polls shifting daily, but look at whose numbers have been moving. Pressler's and Rounds', not Rick's.

  12. John Hess 2014.10.26

    Exactly JW. Everyone has caller ID now and are totally burned out of these phone calls so who is willing to answer these questions?

    People are just tired of the looney tunes in both parties given too much power stopping any sensible progress. There's a chance for Independents or another 3rd party to become the Party of Reason. Something will have to change soon.

  13. jerry 2014.10.26

    I support healthcare for all, I support less war, I support gay marriage, I support the saving of the American economy and job growth along with long term fiscal sanity, I support clean energy, I support clean water and air. I am sorry but I guess that makes me an Obama supporter, for the good of all America! Certainly the best president in my lifetime (I am also long in the tooth). Too bad Obama is not running again, I would have voted for him in a heartbeat.

  14. Bill Fleming 2014.10.26

    http://fivethirtyeight.com/interactives/senate-forecast/

    Click on 'polls' and scroll to South Dakota. Note that Silver's prediction is almost exactly what the new Marist poll says. I submit that's because so many Dems are thinking of wasting their vote on Pressler. Earth to Democrats, Larry Pressler is not going to win this election.

  15. larry kurtz 2014.10.26

    The NBC/Marist 'poll' ignored Gordon Howie's power West River.

  16. Bill Fleming 2014.10.26

    Note, the Rounds number is wrong on my entry above. He's at 43, not 42. Sorry. Wishful thinking, I suppose.

  17. John Hess 2014.10.26

    People should vote for who they really want which in turn encourages like minded to run and participate. The insincerity of Ronald Reagan and later Republicans courting far right fundamentalists got us this mess. They destroyed a perfectly good party close to America's basic values. We're a middle-right country but almost no one is being served.

  18. larry kurtz 2014.10.26

    KELO/Argus is polling registered voters but no evidence NBC/Marist did.

  19. Bill Fleming 2014.10.26

    Larry, at this point, any poll results worth their salt will be 'likely' voters. People who say they are definitely going to vote. Call lists are usually derived from a list of 'registered' voters, so that's pretty much a given. Here's the footnote on the Marist poll. It's likely voters.

    'The North Carolina and South Dakota surveys were conducted Oct. 19-23. In North Carolina, 756 likely voters were polled (plus-minus 3.6 percentage points), and in South Dakota, there were 730 likely voters (also plus-minus 3.6 percentage points).'

  20. larry kurtz 2014.10.26

    A poll that does not include Gordon Howie is ridiculous.

  21. owen reitzel 2014.10.26

    Rounds is worthless and a liar. He'll do and say anything to win. Sadly there are people that buy his crap

  22. Rae Lynn 2014.10.26

    I got so sick of phone polls I actually decided to lie on all of them. Am I so bad? Can't help but wonder how many are just like me!

  23. Bill Fleming 2014.10.26

    Rae Lynn, if you really want to see all the literature people send out, answer "undecided" on all the questions, and watch how fast your mailbox starts filling up. :-)

  24. Tim 2014.10.26

    72. That is the number of republican pieces of mail that was here waiting for me after a two week trip. I guess they have not noticed I am a democrat now.

  25. Roger Cornelius 2014.10.26

    There seems to be a lot missing from the national media coverage of our senate race. In today's RCJ, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank's article was on Larry Pressler and his supposed comeback. Milbank had one sentence about a "convoluted EB-5 scandal". Absolutely no details of the Rounds scandal.
    I'm wondering if Nate Silver's Five Thirty Eight has the story on EB-5 and how it is shifting Rounds numbers between Pressler and Howie.

  26. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.10.27

    72 pieces of mail? Holy cow, Tim! Feel free to share any juicy ones with us, if you haven't just burned them already. ;-)

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