Friday, September 22, 2006

New Poll Figures for Martin/Where Were the GT Dems?


So I guess Jim Martin's internal poll showing him running within the margin of error of Casey Cagle was pretty spot on. The two men are battling to become Georgia's next Lt. Governor. James Salzer of the AJC reports that an Insider Advantage poll shows it to be even closer between the two.

"InsiderAdvantage also polled on the lieutenant governor's race, and found a near dead heat between Republican state Sen. Casey Cagle (R-Gainesville) and Democratic former state Rep. Jim Martin of Atlanta.

The poll put Cagle at 37 perent, Martin at 36 percent, Libertarian Allen Buckley at 6 percent and 21 percent undecided."

I heard two explanations from Republicans over the last few days as to why Martin is running so well 6 weeks before the election: 1) this is Martin's internal poll; and 2) Cagle hasn't gone on TV yet.

Both, of course, were true. But were they really accurate explanations? The Insider Advantage shows Cagle's lead to be even smaller than Jim's poll. And Jim hasn't been on TV yet either. Both candidates have been going around the state doing local appearances and trying to drum up support for their respective parties.

In the process, Jim is reinforcing what Georgians found out about him this summer. He's the guy that you can really believe when he speaks. And he has an excellent record of service to his state and country. Not to mention that he's shown a very good working relationship with people of all political persuasions while maintaining his core Democratic values.

Amy from Georgia Women Vote had some nice commentary on the latest poll.

Side note: Not sure who is dropping the ball. But I heard from some Georgia Tech friends that the Georgia Tech Republicans passed out thousands of "Jackets for Sonny" stickers at the game last night with most people accepting them and wearing them. Supposedly there was no presence at all for Mark Taylor.

I bring this up because despite the fact that the Taylor campaign has all of my info. and a check from me, I've yet to be contacted by them for anything. Not even an email which costs nothing. Apparently they don't have anything going with the Georgia Tech Dems either.

It's time to get in the game folks..................

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting thought on the missing GT presence, but Democrats have never had a great showing at recent college football games from my observations. During my time as a student and alum at UGA home games, I remember a lot of Guy Milner, Johnny Isakson, Sonny Perdue, and Saxby Chamblis schwag. I can't think of a single democrat having stickers, shirts, etc at a game. Now 90% of the time the people wearing the GOP gear were Greek, so I always associated it with the herd mentality (sorry if you're a former Greek). Could it be that Dems are missing an opportunity? Or is it a hostile environment to Dems?

Button Gwinnett said...

This is totally unscientific but I agree with you in guessing that football crowds and Greeks are generally going to be more conservative and favor Republicans. I also believe that there is more of an ecclectic mix of people at UGA than Tech. Athens/Clark Co. is still a good county for Dems. Perhaps that somewhat makes a difference.

And when I inquired about volunteering to help, I was told that the UGA Dems would be doing this at home games this year. I know in 2004 I wore a "Bulldogs Back Kerry" sticker at most of the games.

But Mark himself made an appearance at the Tech/Notre Dame game a couple of weeks ago. So I do know they are conscious of the opportunities.

Ataru Atlanta said...

Button Gwinnett, just forget the idea that the Taylor people will ever contact you and start calling them yourself. I have been similarly frustrated and it was not until I e-mailed one of his staffers this week that I found out about a big mailing they are doing at the downtown office on Saturday.

At least those "Jackets for Sonny" stickers look pathetic.

Button Gwinnett said...

Benson, I'm giving a half day to a day each week to the Martin and Burns campaigns right now. After the primary, I made one last check each to the Taylor, Martin, and Burns campaigns and unfortunately, that's tapped me out for money I had budgeted for campaign contributions this year. So all I have left until Nov. is a little time and energy.

BTW, you gave a good pep talk on the Young Dems blog. For those of us that don't want another 4 years of Perdue, it was something that we needed to hear.

Steve,

I have the same expectations as you do when Cagle gets into gear. What I'm hoping for is that Martin's own ads and public appearances will continue to convey what I think are very sincere words and concerns from Martin. If he can do that, perhaps Cagle's mudslinging will backfire on him.

Tina said...

I don't hear much from Mark Taylor either, even though I have signed up for emails and would willingly promote him on my blog.