In NH, Palin’s endorsement a boon in primary, a risk in the general
Kelly Ayotte, former NH attorney general and now candidate for the U.S. Senate
Like Karen Handel here in Georgia, Republican Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire has been endorsed as a “Mama Grizzly” by Sarah Palin in Ayotte’s campaign for the GOP Senate nomination.
That endorsement is likely to help Ayotte considerably in the primary, according to a new poll by Public Policy Polling. In their survey conducted July 23-25, 48 percent of New Hampshire conservatives said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Palin, while 18 percent said a Palin endorsement would be a turnoff.
Last week, I questioned how much credit Palin should be given for pushing Handel to her first-place finish in the Republican gubernatorial primary here in Georgia (Handel still faces an Aug. 10 runoff with Nathan Deal.) The polling results out of New Hampshire suggest that I might have been mistaken — Palin may indeed have been a difference maker.
However, if you dig a little deeper into the PPP crosstabs, you find that Palin’s endorsement cuts both ways. Overall, 51 percent of NH voters say that a Palin endorsement would make them less likely to vote for a candidate, while just 26 percent say a Palin endorsement would make them more supportive. Among self-described NH moderates, just 14 percent see a Palin endorsement as positive, while 65 percent see it as a problem. And according to PPP, moderates make up 47 percent of the NH electorate.
In April, well before the Palin endorsement, Ayotte’s favorable/unfavorable numbers among NH independents stood at 35/23. By last week, they had fallen to 33/38. Ayotte still has a lead over Democrat Paul Hodes, but according to PPP it has closed from 47-40 in April to 45-42. (As of July 12, Rasmussen put Ayotte up over Hodes by 49-37%.)
PS: Here’s the gender breakdown on the effect of a Palin endorsement question:
…….More likely……Less likely
Men…….30……………..48
Women…22……………..53
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511 comments Add your comment
Saul Good
July 28th, 2010
8:45 am
“Why not? It’s such an easy read and doesn’t take very long to do.”
Oops…for a second I thought you were talking about the book that Sarah “wrote”… yeah..she WROTE it all right… with crayons.
Normal
July 28th, 2010
8:46 am
@@,
…Doing laps in your pool…
Maybe it’s the oxy, but that phrase made me flash back to GooseCreek S.C., 1981.
I was stationed at Charleston Naval Base and had just bought a house. There was a really cute neighbor who, every morning, would take a swim in her pool. She has a cantelope sized rear end and grapefruit breasts partially covered by the minumum cloth modesty would bear. She would stand on her tip toes, arch her back and wave at me, then dive in the pool. At that time I would go in and ravish my wife (Granny always said it don’t matter where you get your appitite, so long as you eat at home).
Anyway one morning, she dived in then came up screaming. I vaulted two fences to get to her yard and saw her in the corner of the deep end facing a gator around eight feet long and swiming toward her. I grabbed her and pulled her up and out. We called the fire department (they handled that sort of thing) and they got the gator out.
That was the last of the daily morning show for me though. She had the pool filled and planted with roses, I think. Damn gator!
Anyway, thought I’d share that…have a great swim…
finn mccool
July 28th, 2010
8:47 am
Where’s ma tux cut, jay? Ma left front quarter panel needs a new coat of gray primer!
Dave R.
July 28th, 2010
8:55 am
Completely off topic, but on a thread this old, so what:
Have you been reading about the hoopla surrounding the now senior senator from Massachusetts, John Forbes Kerry, and his $7 million yacht and his dodging of taxes in Mass.? Seems he’s tried to avoid paying both excise taxes in his town and state taxes of almost $500k for luxury goods by mooring his New Zealand-built (what’s the matter, John, U.S. manufacturers not good enough for you?) 70-foot “Isabel” in neighboring Rhode Island, where they have no taxes on luxury items such a yachts.
After he tried to throw trust-fund wife Theresa Heinz under the bus for being the owner, he finally agreed to pay up the owed taxes.
But the more interesting thing is what Howie Carr of the Boston Herald wrote regarding the luxury boating industry thriving in Rhode Island, largely due to a favorable TAX policy. He writes:
“At least for the maritime industry, Rhode Island has embraced trickle-down economics. As a friend of mine who knows a lot about boats says, Rhode Island’s no-tax policy “has encouraged the development of a marine industry that earnestly caters to yachts and commercial vessels, centered around the Town of Middleton on the western shore of Narragansett Bay… sail makers, caterers (sailors have to eat) marine mechanics, radio-servicing companies and the like….
“Mass. has a few good yacht marinas, like McDougall’s down in Hyannis, but these businesses are few and far between… Were I Kerry, I would never be able to find the quantity or quality of marine professionals in Massachusetts that are available in Rhode Island. This is pure Reaganomics – a great economy that is a direct result of a sound and easy taxing policy.”
Imagine Kerry coming clean and explaining that indisputable truth – that Rhode Island’s maritime industry has forged ahead of Massachusetts’ because they’ve rejected his – and his party’s – crackpot confiscatory tax policies, at least for one industry.”
As Carr so aptly writes: “Why the long face, Sen. Kerry?”
TaxPayer
July 28th, 2010
8:58 am
people – particularly women – calling men “ladies” as a derogatory … that must take some spectacular kind of self-loathing
Well, she is a Republican.
USinUK
July 28th, 2010
9:03 am
taxpayer – like a chicken voting for Col. Sanders. s’all I’m sayin.
Saul Good
July 28th, 2010
9:04 am
http://www.ajc.com/news/soccer-mom-burglar-makes-580059.html
Sarah?!
John Kerry
July 28th, 2010
9:04 am
Who among us has not defecated bigger than Howie Carr?
Saul Good
July 28th, 2010
9:07 am
http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-bargain-hunter/2010/07/13/back-to-school-shopping-goes-on-without-georgias-sales-tax-free-holiday/
I thought the REPUBLICANS (who control this Red State) are all about “lowering” taxes?
What about the “trickle down” effect it would have had for all the businesses in the state? All that extra cash the companies could have used with increased sales? Nope…
Seems to me some Republicans in GA let some “tax cuts” expire….
jt
July 28th, 2010
9:07 am
Normal
I call BS on your 8:46.
Sorry.
It’s the contin talking.
As ya’ll were.
Bosch
July 28th, 2010
9:42 am
“Have you been reading about the hoopla surrounding the now senior senator from Massachusetts, John Forbes Kerry, and his $7 million yacht and his dodging of taxes in Mass.?”
No, I haven’t because, really, who gives a crap?