Rasmussen poll: Could Roy Barnes be fading in race for governor?
This just posted by Rasmussen Reports:
Three out of the four top Republican candidates are now slightly ahead of the Democrat one of them is most likely to face in this year’s race for governor in Georgia.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds all three Republicans earning 43% to 45% of the vote, while Democrat Roy Barnes picks up 36% to 37% support.
This marks a fallback for Barnes from last month when he was in virtual ties with the three GOP hopefuls, all earning support in the low 40s.
John Oxendine, Karen Handel, and Nathan Deal are the three GOP candidates polling above Barnes. Eric Johnson, the former Republican senator, ties the former Democratic governor.
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50 comments Add your comment
Port O' John
February 22nd, 2010
5:39 pm
They are having a governor’s race this year? In Georgia?
Well. I’ll be dipped. After 8 years of Sonny, why bother?
Hard to top that [non]performance.
GOP Lost in space between there ears
February 22nd, 2010
5:41 pm
Rasmussen is a arm of the GOP!
GOP Lost in space between there ears
February 22nd, 2010
5:42 pm
Rasmussen is a GOP polling arm!
Garry
February 22nd, 2010
5:46 pm
Roy can’t win… he proved it in 2002 with $23 million in the bank against Sonny and his $3 million… he’ll prove it again in 2010 unless we prevent it and nominate David Poythress… the only Democrat that can gain across the board support to win in 2010.
Rasmussen is in the tank for the GOP
February 22nd, 2010
5:50 pm
Garry is probably on Poythress staff.
Republican Dawg
February 22nd, 2010
5:53 pm
When people begin paying attention, Oxendine and Handel’ will fade. Oxendine makes Bill Clinton look like a man of integrity, and Karen Handel makes Cynthia McKinney look competent when she doesn’t have her talking points in front of her. Republicans need to take a close look at Deal-he is the only one with the experience, knowldege base, and fire in the belly to beat Barnes in November.
Wiregrass Willie
February 22nd, 2010
5:53 pm
We will vote 60-40 for the Republican nominee even if he dies six months before the general election. Call Dr. Redwine, we are going to do it to ourselves again. (Apologies to Ferrol Sams)
GoAwayOx
February 22nd, 2010
6:12 pm
Barnes is gonna smoke your man Ox like a blunt. This is gonna be easy.
Daisy Duke
February 22nd, 2010
6:21 pm
It’s obvious Barnes can’t win against the Republicans. He is going down the tubes fast. If Barnes really cares about Georgia, he will get out of the race now so one of our other good Democratic candidates can take on the Republicans and actually have a shot at winning.
Reagan Conservative
February 22nd, 2010
6:23 pm
Ox is still the strongest candidate against Barnes. He has the name recognition, the vision and the plan to get Georgia back on track.
Steve
February 22nd, 2010
6:25 pm
holy sock puppets, batman
Darren
February 22nd, 2010
7:19 pm
Hopefully, the Republicans have loused up education enough to where there will be plenty of people stupid enough to vote for them for years to come.
Keep the tax cuts coming, baby!
TW
February 22nd, 2010
7:26 pm
Isn’t ‘Reagan Conservative’ an oxymoron?
After all, he’s the clown who introduced irresponsible spending to the GOP.
Come to think of it, Clinton had more fiscal conservative sense that Ronald Reagan.
Oh, and Oxendufus supports secession – there’s a real American for ya! Suppose bin laden is bankrolling his campaign?
Keith
February 22nd, 2010
7:34 pm
Watch Eric Johnson. He has a lot of cash on hand to make the big push down the stretch
Rev. Vidalia/GY
February 22nd, 2010
8:40 pm
Please! Eric Johnson is mean as a South Georgia rattlesnake. He makes John Oxendine look like Norman Vincent Peale or Dale Carnegie. He probably thinks that Kathy Cox actually knows something about public education. Next thing that he will be telling us is that Sargeant Edmond Heatley and Alieka Anderson are Savior Tag-Team partners for the Clayton County School System. Please! Eric Johnson, are you going to promote Beverly Hall to your educational staff? Glenn Richardson left; is it time for Eric Johnson to hang up his political cleats?
I bet half of these posts are from staffers
February 22nd, 2010
9:11 pm
It’s funny to see campaign staff and interns for the candidates come on this blog and pretend to be real people
Warbler
February 22nd, 2010
9:13 pm
“Oh, and Oxendufus supports secession – there’s a real American for ya!”
Secession IS a truly American idea. Please read the Declaration of Independence that your gov’t school did not introduce you to. But don’t stop there. Read the Kentuckey and Virginia Resolutions. Then read your U.S. Constitution. Then read U.S. History from Andrew Jackson thru Abraham Lincoln; then read………
Scott
February 22nd, 2010
9:40 pm
Rasmussen polls are highly suspect because they poll ‘likely’ voters and I’d say some democrats will be more likely to vote here in GA. Lets look at where we are. Sonny is about as bad as any governor in this county. His hands off style has us in the mess we are in, and that’s going to hurt republicans. Ox is being implicated in a growing scandal involving his call to Rep Westmoreland, Deal…a birther, come on even the yahoos in this state aren’t that stupid. Handel is going to suffer as Sonny’s choice. Roy Barnes, for all that was wrong, had a good transportation plan that Sonny the moron promptly gutted. I’d say quality of life in GA would be better had he won instead of Sonny. Single party rule in the gold dome and the governor’s mansion isn’t serving anyone very well in this state, and the fact the they are going to have to raise taxes because of it aint gonna help either
Lewis
February 22nd, 2010
9:43 pm
Roy Barnes has the best chance of being the Demcratic nominee for guv, but he has no chance in November. Unless Ox is the Repub nominee. In which case, all of us need to leave what little will be left of Georgia after the election.
Warbler
February 22nd, 2010
10:43 pm
If a republican is elected, the Christianphobes and capitalistphobes will be pissed off;
If a democrat is elected, the socialistphobes will be pissed off;
If a constitutionalist is elected, then……… well, the constitutionalist believes in the right of everyone to be pissed off, including constitutionalists!
Chris Mathews is covered in his own spittle because he is drinking, again and becacuse he is a racist
February 23rd, 2010
12:53 am
It is crazy how Rass. uses likely voters and is the most consistently accurate polling org. It seems that polling those that are most likely to vote gives ya a pretty good idea how election day may go. Scott is a horses arse. He thinks that GA is bad territory for democrats. I bet ya a wooden nickle he also believes that it is Bush’s fault that Scott Brown won the Kennedy seat. I think that our delusional President actually said that. The libs are in full blown lib denial crack-up stage of post hopey changey hooey syndrome. It is funny and sad at the same time. More funny than sad, though!
Check out this crazy fun video of an effing R-word liberal being a racist pig.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/01/27/msnbcs_matthews_on_obama_i_forgot_he_was_black_tonight.htmlid that. Libs are crazy fun.
Johnny Dodds
February 23rd, 2010
1:06 am
People need to wake up to Oxendine. Talk about a career politician/criminal. The guy is dirtier than my college-aged son’s dorm room. He’s shady, doesn’t know squat about gun safety, and employs too much of the Gwinnett political machine in his own office (aka Commisser Shirley Lasseter, Charles Bannister’s hand puppet). And Deal, this is the moron who still thinks President Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii. He might have experience, but so did Jimmy Carter when he got to the White House, and look how that turned out!!!!.
Johnny Dodds
February 23rd, 2010
1:09 am
OXENDUFUS! Good one!!!!!!! Or how about, “Oxendine for governor. He’s no Ox, he’s just as dumb as one.”
The Late Maynord Jackson
February 23rd, 2010
6:39 am
The Ox, Johnson and Deal are the Jackson Machine’s boys. Our only problem is who is the bigger crook. They all can fit in to the Jackson Machine, a little more graft is the real definition of bipartisanship.
Vote Roy Barnes EARLY & OFTEN
Old Hippie
February 23rd, 2010
6:55 am
Point, the first: Rasmussen and Insiders’ Advantage are both GOP tools and have never been as accurate in their “polling” as most of the other firms; Point, the second: polls this early aren’t worth the pulpwood they’re printed on – no one is campaigning yet; Point, the third: Roy Barnes (and several of the other Democratic candidates) make the GOP alternatives look like intellectual and moral pygmies (with due apologies to pygmies).
GoKaren
February 23rd, 2010
9:02 am
Handel has to be happy with this poll, she’s moves into first place vs. Barnes, and she has the best Very Favorable vs. Unfavorable results. Here’s the fav/unfav from Rasmussen site.
Twenty-six percent (26%) of Georgia voters have a very favorable opinion of Barnes, but 22% view him very unfavorably.
For Oxendine, very favorables are 12% and very unfavorables 11%.
Deal is seen very favorably by eight percent (8%) and very unfavorably by the identical number (8%).
Very favorables for Handel total 13%, and very unfavorables are seven percent (7%).
Johnson is viewed very favorably by six percent (6%) and very unfavorably by five percent (5%)
AngryVoter
February 23rd, 2010
9:12 am
I’ve been saying this for months. The Dems look like they’ll make the mistake of nominating someone who is disliked my the majority of Georgia voters, as was proven by his being the first encumbent voted out of office in my lifetime.
While Rasmussen polls have shown a Republican bent sometimes, the polls have never been way off. Given the wide margin by which Barnes loses in these polls, it cannot be written off as polling manipulation.
Barnes starts off being disliked by more than half the electorate. It’s not that he’s an unknown, as are his opponents, it’s that people have already formed a negative opinion of Barnes. While you can introduce a fresh candidate and make people believe he/she is good, it’s virtually impossible to overcome established negatives for candidates the public knows. It requires more than empty campaign promises. It requires working at an elected or appointed position and proving the negative wrong. (see Clinton, Hillary.)
Nominating Barnes would likely enrage enough people to drive them to the polls to vote for the Rep. Any Rep. Even Ox. As much as I dislike Ox, I’d vote for him just to be sure that King Roy regain his seat. The only throne I want Roy on is the one in the watercloset.
tc
February 23rd, 2010
9:30 am
angry, if you would vote for a crook like ox over barnes, you are more than angry….just plain dumb. though far from perfect, i don’t remember all these problems when he was in charge…..
tc
February 23rd, 2010
9:33 am
hey spittle, looks like your senator from MA voted with the dems on jobs bill…….how do you like them tomatoes?
AngryVoter
February 23rd, 2010
9:48 am
tc – Barnes and his cohorts tried to steal our state government from us. But for a Supreme Court decision, which eliminated the multi-member districts and raked everyone involved over the coals, he would have succeeded. Nobody who is part of a scheme to steal our government should ever be allowed to hold public office again. That’s worse than being in the lobbyists’ pockets with one hand and bending over in front of them at the same time. Barnes was in line with Castro, Hussein and Papa Doc in trying to take away basic democracy from Georgians.
The AJC did a horrible job of reporting the mess. Rhonda Cook played it off as a partisan tiff, but the Supreme Court recognized it as violating all principles of democracy. Even then, the AJC reported it as the Reps winning, not as the people of Georgia getting their government back.
Let’s hope we don’t wind up with a Barnes vs. Ox choice. As much as I cannot stand Ox, he would be the lesser of the two evils in that race in my mind, and, apparently, in the minds of most GA voters.
Miss. Peaches
February 23rd, 2010
9:50 am
As a teacher and life long Georgian I can’t imagine why anyone is taking Roy Barnes seriously as a democratic governor. Again. He left the teachers high and dry. Let me tell you he is coming for your job next because he had no loyalty to the people who supported him the first time and he won’t have any this time.
Stop thinking about Roy Barnes as the democratic candidate. Get on board with seeking out other options!
AngryVoter
February 23rd, 2010
9:55 am
For anyone who doesn’t know what Barnes did, he and his legislative goons created multi-member districts to stack the legislature with Dems. They took a Rep district, lumped it in with two Dem districts, and created multi-member districts selectively throughout the state.
Their hope was that instead of electing one Rep and two Dems from this larger area, they would now have three Dems. They were silencing the voters who would vote Rep by stacking the deck against them. They did this in enough districts to change what would have been a solid Rep majority into what they thought would be a Dem majority. One-man, one-vote was not a concept that seemed to concern them. This went beyond gerrymandering, which the unanimous scathing Supreme Court decision noted, and was outright illegal.
Had they done this throughout the entire state the multi-member districts may have been palpable. What they did was an attempt to keep themselves in power even though the will of the people may have been otherwise.
Not only were they criminals, in my opinion, but they were bad criminals, as each of them, including Barnes, was voted out of office in the next election and the Reps gained the governorship and the legislature.
How someone can be part of trying to steal our government from us and even be considered for office again is beyond me. That would be like leaving blank, signed checks in the prison family area and inviting everyone who ever stole checks into the room.
AngryVoter
February 23rd, 2010
9:57 am
Just realized I left the key word out above – it wasn’t gerrymandering, it was voter suppression. One is legal. The other is just plain wrong on every level possible.
tc
February 23rd, 2010
10:28 am
angry, i appreciate your reasoning for being angry, but look at the results of our current administration and general assembly. lackluster would be an exaggeration of kindness.
amazing how SC could rule well on the this case, but really mess up on the gore v bush decision not to mention the last fiasco regarding corporate funding of campaigns.
anyone who really looks under the hood of ox knows what a buffoon he is.
i love all these angry teachers at barnes, but ask the general public what’s wrong with public education and they cite teacher unions and lack of competitvie zeal as a major contributor. didn’t teachers need a little kick in the rear? doesn’t everyone need one, once in a while?
Real Athens
February 23rd, 2010
10:35 am
Nathan Deal is generally regarded as one of the most corrupt politicians in the country — alongside a few other surprise members (and the usual suspects). Both parties are well represented.
Read here:
http://www.mainstreet.com/slideshow/moneyinvesting/news/most-corrupt-politicians-america
AngryVoter
February 23rd, 2010
10:49 am
tc, that is why it’s my hope that the Dems see better than nominating Barnes. Unfortunately, if they choose to nominate him, we, the voters, will be in a bad position of having to elect Barnes or Ox. Given Barnes’ prior time as Gov, I cannot vote for him. Period. Ever. End of story.
I’d likely bite my lip and vote for Eric Cartman, Maggie Simpson or any of the Real Housewives of Atlanta if that were the only other choice. The Dems need to wake up and realize that’s the sentinment of most Georgians, as the wide margin in the Rasmussen poll indicates.
Instead, most Dems will find fault with the poll and think that they know better. Barnes will arrogantly be nominated, and then the Dems will, again, be scratching their behinds on election day wondering how they lost again. Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. Those that ignore the warning signs drive over open drawbridges and straight into the water. When it comes to Roy, the history and signs couldn’t be any clearer. The Dems need to take off their blinders.
Georgia Born ATL
February 23rd, 2010
10:54 am
The General (David Poythress) is the Dems best shot at winning this election. He has a program that all Georgians can agree with and he would work with the GOP and the southern Dems to get things done.
tc
February 23rd, 2010
11:05 am
well angry, how about poythress? also, look at peach pundit a conservative site for discussions of the ox.
AngryVoter
February 23rd, 2010
11:10 am
Poythress is a possibility for my vote. I haven’t come close to deciding yet, but I do know I don’t want Barnes on the left or Ox on the right.
DirtyDawg
February 23rd, 2010
11:10 am
Between the Poythress, Oxendine and Handel staffers posting here, it’s hard to know just who are the more obvious when it comes to claiming that Roy Barnes doesn’t stand a chance in November. I think Georgians, in their hearts, are ready to admit that we need someone in office that will get us back on track and to, once again, make us proud of our Governor – I mean you can’t even let Sonny out in Republican events without his doing, or saying, something embarrassing. Roy Barnes has got a lot of unfinished work to do…and he’ll get it done, right after he cleans up the Sonny Perdue mess he will have left behind.
Teachers…assuming you are a teacher…don’t blame Roy Barnes for the things that SP did to you and to the education system over these past eight years.
AngryVoter
February 23rd, 2010
11:44 am
DirtyDawg – I am not a staffer on any campaign. I am a regular, independent, unaffiliated voter, capable of reading, analyzing and deciding for myself. Haven’t ever worked for any Georgia candidate, for the State, for anyone in any way working for any of the candidates. I have given a donation to a couple state candidates for the legislature, but haven’t donated to any candidate for Gov.
I work for a very large company that does not do business with the State nor, as far as I know, any governmental entity.
Again, it’s very easy to try to blame the fact that people don’t like Barnes on imaginary forces being puppeted by his opponents. It’s just not true. But you go right ahead and keep up with that storyline in your head. Do you know of specific posters who are part of the candidate, or is that just the way that you deal with any information that doesn’t agree with what you already think?
The bottom line is the people of GA lived through Barnes once and resoundingly voted him out of office. He has done nothing since then to make anyone think another term would be any different. We didn’t want him to do any more damage four years ago, and the threat of “unfinished business” will scare more voters than get any Barnes supporters to the polls.
It’s like the Dems are putting moldy, day-old bread on the shelves and thinking people will buy it now, even though nobody bought it when it was fresh.
One more thing – it never helps your candidate if you accuse someone of something that just isn’t true. It makes it seem that you have no valid reason for anyone to support your candidate, so you have to try to smear anyone who speaks out against your candidate. First line of attack is the merits. If you can’t win on those, you go for the messenger. Your attack on the messengers is seen as an admission you cannot win on the facts.
BTW, what does SP’s performance have to do with what kind of job Barnes will do in the future? Would Barnes only do a good job if Purdue is bad? If Perdue is good, does that means Barnes would be different if elected? I just don’t get how anything SP may have done would have any impact on why we should elect Barnes. Please explain that to me.
BPJ
February 23rd, 2010
11:49 am
I’m still undecided between Poythress and Porter. For a Democrat to win, the election has to be about Republican failures. If Barnes is the nominee, I’ll vote for him, but I suspect he’ll have a harder time because the race then becomes mostly about him.
Poythress would probably have the most appeal to independents. Porter is widely respected in the legislature; it would be interesting to see a race in the fall between Porter and Johnson, the two legislative pros in the campaign.
AngryVoter
February 23rd, 2010
12:22 pm
BPJ, the race does not have to be about Rep failures. It should be about what the Dem candidate has to offer. Running on Rep failures says to the electorate that the Dems have nothing to offer. It says the Reps run things and Dems react.
The reason Obama won is because he campaigned on Hope, not on what had happened in the past and couldn’t be undone. The GA Dems should learn from that and just act like the past doesn’t exist and campaign on positive, meaninful programs for the future.
If I told you to buy my widget because the other widget is bad, you have no way of knowing if my widget is any good. If I show you my widget is the best ever, you already know your present widget isn’t as good and will select it. The Dems need to have some conviction in their widget and the intelligence of the voters who, BTW, are much smarter than most people give them credit.
Chris Mathews is covered in his own spittle because he is drinking, again and becacuse he is a racist
February 23rd, 2010
3:20 pm
Libs are funny. Rass. is consistently the most accurate polling org. There is no disputing the fact. The libs only like polls that make them feel good. Those polls like the ones done by ABC,NBC, NYSLIMES, CBS, WASHINGTON COMPOST and the others, regularly poll a disproportionate amount of democrat voters than Republican. I guess that is why they simply just do not accept losses when the crap out in the polls. You libs are whistling past the grave yard. The nation has rejected (60%) Obama’s liberal agenda. He was only popular when he was vague. When he started implementing his agenda folks started leaving in droves. Libs are not intellectually honest enough to acknowledge this fact. They are going to whine and moan. Jumbo G a the media wh@res will start crying racism or some such, but it doesn’t matter. The American people are going to send a message about liberalism and Obama in Nov.. Like I said earlier, libs are funny and sad at the same time. More funny than sad, though.
Check out his lib being a complete horses arsed and total racist. He works for some seldomly watch cable network… they have local access like ratings. Enjoy the lib crack-up. I am.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/01/27/msnbcs_matthews_on_obama_i_forgot_he_was_black_tonight.html
Bob
February 23rd, 2010
4:18 pm
I think 90% of the posters on here are working for someone’s political campaign. Pretty sad. Ya’ll shouldn’t masquarade as independent thinkers. Post who you work for along with your post.
GOP Lost in space they.would say (no )to Ice water in hell
February 23rd, 2010
4:21 pm
look at this state now . The good ole boys banks failing job lost, D.O.T. in the tank. and you want the GOP to run things?you are more that angry, you are just plain dumb!!
tc
February 23rd, 2010
5:51 pm
hey angry, looks like dems weren’t only ones suppressing voters……For the second time, the U.S. Justice Department has rejected Georgia’s system of identifying voters who might not be U.S. citizens.
A different poll in governor's race, and a different result | Political Insider
March 3rd, 2010
11:51 am
[...] was the essence of the Rasmussen poll: Three-out-of-the-four top Republican candidates are now slightly ahead of the Democrat one of them [...]
Red
March 3rd, 2010
1:35 pm
Here you go geniuses. It is way too early in the campaign to say anything. Right now, there are way too many undecideds out there. This is anyone’s game. It seems both parties’ voters are not thrilled with their choices and there is much room for fluid movement among the candidates. Seeing how ethics is an issue with a few of these, I’d say the numbers will definitely change.
As for Ox’s plan to get the state back on track, it’s not there. He’s running his campaign as if he were a talk radio host going after Obama. His only “plan” seems to be railing against Obama and saying he can somehow stop Obama. Not sure how he can do that and how that gets GA back on track with poor school test scores, record unemployment, etc.
LC
June 5th, 2010
9:21 pm
I love the comment about the republicans messing up education..I believe that belongs to the democrat party. Best I can recall, all seemed well before Obama came into power and spent all that money fixing the economy. Keep on electing democrats and we will all suffer.