Comments on Gregoire Leads Rossi by 16 Points

It was fun being phoned by them for this poll.

One of the advantages of having a landline and not screening your calls - and voting all the time.

Now stay off my lawn!

(grin)

I spent the weekend in Eastern Washington and I saw giant Rossi signs throughout I-90, Yakima, Ellensburg and the Tri-Cities. The tagline on most of them was "Don't let Seattle steal THIS Election".

I also wasted a great deal of time arguing with friends and relatives about whether or not Michelle Obama was a racist. This looks like a nice little poll of 405 registered voters, but I think it would be a grave mistake to put too much stock into it. Folks in Eastern Washington are still stinging from their perception that the last governor's election was stollen by corrupt officials in King County. This is going to be a tough election for Gregoire and I'd bet you a month's salary that you aren't going to see a double digit victory by her.

Gregoire with a commanding lead... for a change.

I saw those Rossi billboards too a while ago, made a similar assumption, but when I made a comment when I saw some Gregoire signs out in the open in NE Washington, my partner driving said "Well, support for Gregoire shouldn't be really surprising out here."

So what gives, Eastern Washington? Please tell us sheltered Seattlites where this appeal for Gregoire in Eastern Washington is coming from. Seriously! (Maybe Rossi is just fucking up that badly, and Gregoire is centrist enough to be a protest vote?)

@2/@4: It was the Rossi campaign that put those signs up right? People in eastern washington might be more socially conservative on average, but they're not all idiots who think city folk are trying to steal their money and make them gay marry.

Lots of people in eastern washington (maybe even most now?) like Gregoire more than Rossi for the same reasons you do.

I'm sure the Rossi campaign probably had something to do with it, but these were up on private property. I'm certain that there are people in Eastern Washington who like Gregoire more than Rossi for the same reasons I do, but the politcal climate is way different there than it is here. There is a pretty prevelent attitude amongst many people there that the state government doesn't reflect their values. I saw a ton of Rossi signs all weekend, but didn't see a single Gregoire sign.

I had many, many discussions after the last vote with people about how King county/Seattle stole the election and they haven't forgotten that. The last election was way too close and I sure hope that people don't see these kind of polls and assume it is going to be smooth sailing for her.

I actually just gave a small amount to her campaign via this link and I encourage others to do the same. http://www.ChrisGregoire.com/Obama

It's way too early to get excited about one poll, but it's interesting to see that as the undecided vote is shrinking (20 percent in April; 12 percent in July) Gregoire's numbers are going up.

@5 People in eastern washington might be more socially conservative on average, but they're not all idiots who think city folk are trying to steal their money and make them gay marry.

For some anecdotal contradiction on the stolen election point:

I failed to take the Obama button off my jacket when visiting a customer site in the Ephrata area, and ended up getting an earful from the customer's office staff about how Seattle wasn't going to steal the governor's office again this year. IIRC, this happened before those signs started to appear.

One of my girlfriend's relatives from Bellingham told her this past weekend that Gregoire is going down for stealing the last election.

So some people believe it, at least.

Fun Fact: More than half the state's voters live within view of the Space Needle.

Fun Fact: Life's a bitch. Get used to losing.

Fun Fact: It is probably hard for Will to believe. but not every person that lives within view of the space needle shares your political beliefs.

It is always easy to bury your head in the sand and pretend a problem doesn't exist - especially if you happen to be one of those people who only hangs out with like minded individuals, but pretending that this one is in the bag could very well mean that taxpayers are going to be covering the costs of Governor Rossi letterhead.

I can't help wondering why Eli posted this. Without more information about how the statistics are collected it is tough to know why there is such a wild discrepency. But, if you have 4 kids take a math test and three out of those 4 end up with relatively the same answer to a question, what is the probability that the one who is way off is actually right? Eli, shouldn't you at least ask the question about why this poll has such different results, instead of just posting this like the race is already over?

In addition, (unfortunately, in this case, from my point of view) Elway's polls are notoriously inaccurate, and no experienced, credible political organizations use him for their polling, just neophytes and the local media.