Dr. Blanchard takes a moment to post the results of Nielson Brothers' last poll of the 2012 South Dakota election.
In the U.S. House race, Rep. Kristi Noem still leads Matt Varilek 49.3% to 43.6%. Noem still shows no clear sign of having built on her vote total from 2010. Noem's job approval is at 53.4%, but 28.9% "strongly disapprove" of her performance, while 24.4% "strongly approve." Not quite one out of four voters think Kristi is doing a heckuva job... but that's still one out of four people who can't see through Noem's rodeo tricks and photo ops to realize she hasn't done anything for the last two years.
NBP finds Matt McGovern still hot on Kristie Fiegen's heels. Fiegen leads McGovern 38.6% to 36.5%. Remarkably, NBP finds Libertarian Russell Clarke drawing 8.5% in that race, entirely from Fiegen's slice of the electoral pie. Clarke shows that the margin of error among South Dakota voters is increasing.
NBP continues to find the Public Utilities Commission Race hopeless for Nick Nemec: incumbent Chris Nelson almost doubles him up, 55.1% to 28.7%. NBP found a similar margin for Nelson back in July. Maybe alongside his simple popularity, Nelson enjoys some subtle reinforcement from guilt-assuaging Republicans who picked Kristi Noem over him in 2010 and who suffer under the bumbling ministrations of Jason Gant in Nelson's old chair at the Secretary of State's office.
And of course, Romney is going to win South Dakota. NBP finds Romney ahead by 10%.
NBP will release final numbers on the ballot issues shortly.
Noem is nothing but a gutter politician. She's pathetic.
Chris Nelson was the candidate we should have chosen.
I got my slick post card yesterday from Ms. NOem. On the front of it was the statement that she is "tryin to save Medicare by keeping it the same for 55 and older Americans". South Dakotans need to ask Ms. NOem if this Ryan plan is so damn good to save Medicare, why do the folks 54 and younger get cut out of the herd? No one seems to ask that question and that seems to me a very interesting tell of what a farce the new republican idea machine has in mind for all of us.
Ryan said directly that the new republicans want to privatise Social Security, again, MS. NOem embraced that like the dollars her hunting camp gets from the taxpayers.
She voted for that 3 different times, so it is clear that Ms. NOem has no regard whatsoever about the safety of South Dakota's younger than 54 crowd any more than the over 55 crowd. She has got to go.
This election is simple.
"Kristi's excuses or Matt's work ethic?"
After watching the RCJ debate it was clear to me.
This election is about "excuses or work ethic."
We need to make a change and that slogan would resonate across this state. No one thinks Noem works hard or does a good job outside of the 20% who will vote for her no matter what.
Aberdeen-based NorthWestern Energy calls for re-regulation in Montana:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_de829f81-353f-5b77-a62b-22a321003831.html
RT @ArgusMontgomery: Now McGovern's grandson @MattMcGovern is speaking. Not on the schedule.