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Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Leaked Straw Poll: Who The Liberal State Party Activists Like for President.

posted by on August 8 at 15:35 PM

I was just slipped the results of a straw poll conducted by the Washington State Democrats at the end of June. The poll asked “party leaders” — that is, activists very involved in Washington State Democratic politics — who they want to be the Democratic presidential nominee.

The results:

WApartyLeadersStrawPoll.gif

Michael King, a spokesman for the state Democratic party, confirmed the poll’s authenticity for me. “This was totally unscientific, more for fun than anything else,” he said. “I wouldn’t necessarily give a ton of credence to it, but it kind of tells us where everyone is at.”

As for why the poll seems to show fractions of people voting for certain candidates (95.83 for Edwards, 62.33 for Obama), well, like King said, the poll was very unscientific. Some people were allowed to vote for more than one candidate. They gave responses such as “everybody” or “anybody but Bush.”

Still, as an unscientific gauge of where state party leaders are, it’s interesting and shows that Washington Democrats, as usual, are thinking a lot differently than Democrats in the nation as a whole.

When you’re talking about declared candidates (which means leaving Gore out), Democrats here like, in order of preference: Edwards, Obama, and then Clinton.

Recent national polls have it exactly the opposite way. Democrats in the nation as a whole like, in order of preference: Clinton, Obama, and then Edwards.

Also worth noting: When you stop factoring out the undeclared candidates, Gore beats Clinton among activists here.

RSS icon Comments

1

Obama is self-destructing, Edwards is a tool, and Clinton will get the nomination (cringe).

Then, regardless of who wins the general election, there will be a conservative in the White House.

Posted by Mahtli69 | August 8, 2007 3:43 PM
2

Actually Gore is a scosh ahead of Clinton there.

Posted by Fnarf | August 8, 2007 3:48 PM
3

@Fnarf: Good point. I clarified so that my point is about declared candidates.

Posted by Eli Sanders | August 8, 2007 3:54 PM
4

not sure what it says about washington democratic activists that the overwhelming favorite is "undecided"/"no reply". probably practical, since our caucus will have almost no effect on the nominee.

Posted by josh | August 8, 2007 10:02 PM
5

Edwards?!?!?! That milquetoast?!?!?

I ain't voting for a JC Penney mannequin for Prezzydint!!

Posted by michael strangeways | August 9, 2007 9:26 AM
6

i was in this poll as a local LD alt rep to the county dem org - i guess this makes me a 'leader' in the party... i'm so honored.

actually i was suspicious of this email poll as i thought it might be a means for the control freaks who run the state party to find out who they need to be wary of for supporting fringe candidates like kucinich (who i support). the stae party big wigs are constantly ridiculing kucinich i suppose because of his stance on issues like gay marriage, ending nafta and wto, and getting out of iraq. crazy ass commie!

Posted by upchuck | August 10, 2007 7:34 PM

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