Rick Weiland

[existentialist]

I met Rick Weiland tonight as he campaigns across the state and campaigns, as he said he would, in every incorporated town in South Dakota.

He is smart, and easily capable of turning hard questions around.

He knows South Dakota, and he knows Republican vulnerabilities. If he can be heard, he is capable of making this race interesting.

Even if the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has written him off as being "too liberal for South Dakota."

[AvidReader]

1. I met him Saturday.

And I agree with you. A friend went to the town hall event with me, and before we left she switched her registration from Republican to Democrat so she could sign his nominating petition. There is hope.

[AvidReader]

2. New PPP Poll

The Weiland campaign commissioned PPP to conduct a poll in South Dakota recently. The results are quite encouraging!

Public Policy Polling’s newest South Dakota survey continues to find Mike Rounds stuck
under 40%. Right now 38% of voters say they intend to vote for him to 28% for Rick
Weiland, 15% for Larry Pressler, and 4% for Gordon Howie. There are several
encouraging findings for Weiland within the poll results:
-Most of Rounds’ early lead is based on having higher name recognition than Weiland,
and Weiland actually has the advantage among voters who have heard of him. 82% of
voters are familiar with Rounds compared to 67% for Weiland, but among the group that
has heard of Weiland he leads 38/36. That bodes well for his prospects as he becomes
better known.
-Weiland (+6) has a higher net favorability rating than Rounds (even). 36% of voters see
him favorably to only 30% who have a negative opinion of him. Meanwhile voters are
evenly divided on Rounds with 41% rating him positively and 41% with an unfavorable
view.

More at the link: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2014/SouthDakotaPollMemo.pdf