Thune Passes Daschle In The Polls

[Bartholomew Roberts]

For a long time now, (GOA B rated) John Thune has been trailing Daschle (GOA F rated) in the polls. Lately the campaign was almost even with Thune within the margin of error.

The latest poll still shows Thune within the margin of error; but he has passed Daschle now with 50% supporting Thune, 48% supporting Daschle and the remaining 2% for other candidates or undecided.

http://daschlevthune.typepad.com/daschle_v_thune/2004/08/new_poll_thune__1.html

For gun owners, this is one of the key seats we need to win to have a chance at blocking any future bans or actually repealing some of the more ineffective gun laws. We get the opportunity to replace a GOA F rated candidate with a GOA B rated candidate.

I'd also note that Thune lost his 2000 bid to unseat Democrat Tim Johnson by just over 500 votes. In that same race, the LP candidate for South Dakota Senate drew 3,000 votes. This race is likely to be close as well and every vote will make a difference.

If you want to send a message to the Dems that gun control is a bad strategy to push, unseating the current Senate Minority Leader is a very good way to do it.

Edited to reflect Daschle's role as minority leader instead of majority leader circa 2002

 

[Brett Bellmore]

As I understand it, Thune's last defeat owed as much to ballot fraud as third party competition.

 

[Sawdust]

Besides Ahnold vetoing the gun bills currently on his desk here in California, nothing would please me more than to see Daschole go down.

Well, mebbe if Boxer went with him.

Sawdust

 

[bamawrx]

Now is a good time to send Thune a couple bucks. Can someone from the area post a way to do this?

 

[AZRickD]

http://www.johnthune.com/

The donation button is on top. $50 will buy him a radio spot or two in that market.

One of Thunes top "backers" in talk radio is California-based Hugh Hewitt, a formidable debater who was once on Reagan's Legal Counsel staff.

http://www.hughhewitt.com

Rick

 

[bamawrx]

Done. Thanks.

 

[tfurey19]

Just a quick note

Whenever you send a donation to any political candidate MAKE SURE you let them know why. If they do not allow you to include a note with a donation mail the campaign a short letter saying why you contributed. Remember that for all they know you could be donating money because you like his hair.

 

[mountainclmbr]

I already sent Thune $50. May send more. A simple victory is not sufficient to show Daschle the way out. He should be shown the door with a mighty swift kick.

 

[tulsamal]

If you want to send a message to the Dems that gun control is a bad strategy to push, unseating the current Senate Majority Leader is a very good way to do it.

In order for Daschle to be the Majority Leader, he would have to be a Republican!

That would actually be Senator Bill Frist, M.D. He's a Republican senator from Tennessee. We _don't_ want to defeat him!

Gregg

 

[Chut1st]

Going to Mr. Thune's web site, I noted that he has a published position on the rights of gun owners. One direct quote from the site: "He believes state and local governments have the right to decide how to regulate gun ownership, allowing those closest to the people they serve to decide what is appropriate."

Frankly, this is the problem in New York City, Washington, DC, California and numerous other locales. They believe that the local pols, rather than the United States Constitution, have the authority to decide who can own a gun and what kind he or she can own.

No doubt, Mr. Thune is a vastly superior choice over Tom Daschle for gun rights advocates, just as President Bush is a vastly superior choice over John Kerry. But it is important to fully recognize what any candidate for political office stands for (pardon the grammer).

My $.02, FWIW.

 

[dakotasin]

i've seen john thune at gunshows. i've met him and his kids at these gun shows (every single year in mid-october he is at the gun show in mitchell - yeah, there is only one show a year). he deserves better than a b-rating on gun issues.

and yes, thune lost to tim johnson because of voter fraud - although it was an extremely tight race.

daschle's ads are starting to get a little dirty, and accusing thune of slinging mud, though i have yet to see an ad having anything to do w/ guns... don't know how much of that is going to sit well, here. we got our current governor (rounds, pro-gun) because the top 2 candidates were throwing so much mud around that they forced the voters to pick rounds to help settle the nausea... rounds was certainly not considered much of a contender until election day.

 

[jfh]

Well, he can get a couple more radio spots

from my donation. His campaign is, IMO, more important than my MN races. I followed the campaign earlier with the voter fraud--hopefully that can be prevented in this election.

Our action in MN is really just within the state--and we have to wait until next year to work on the Metrocrats that control our state Senate.

 

[Sungun09]

Putting my money where my mouth is

Ok, Im not an SD resident but I believe John Thune is a decent man so I sent his campaign a donation ..

Does Keyes have a chance in Illinois ??

 

[JerryM]

It is worth $50.00 to try to unseat Daschle.

Jerry

 

[Don't Tread On Me]

If you guys can beat that anti-freedom daschle clown, and we get Martinez in over here in FL, we will level the Senate to 50/50 on the gun issue. That leaves Cheney with the deciding vote.


It would be nice if we could get another 1-2....If we own the Senate and House, Kerry or not, a new ban will be tough to get.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Realistically, we can pick up 5 pro-gun seats this November if gun owners get out and do their part. The critical states are:

Colorado
Florida
Louisiana
North Carolina
South Carolina
South Dakota

If gun owners in these states turn out in force and vote their guns, we will replace 5 Senators who voted for the ban in March with 5 senators who oppose the ban (and several of these Senators replacing them have already expressed a desire to roll back more poorly written gun laws).

Except for South Carolina, where the Republican has a comfortable lead but could still lose, all of the above states have Senate races that are virtually tied and a clear cut choice on guns (in every state listed above, the Republican candidate opposes the ban and the Democratic candidates supports it).

If we don't do our part, our worst case scenaro is this: The antis gain an extra vote in the Senate and Democrats are now in charge of the committees that oversee Senate procedure and gun control. Leahy, Kennedy, Schumer and Feinstein will determine what gun control bills get voted on in a House where there will be 53 votes for a ban.

 

[tulsamal]

I HIGHLY recommed bookmarking this URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2004_ELECTIONGUIDE_GRAPHIC/

I guess you have to register with the NYT's to view it but surely most of you have done that before.

It is an interactive election map. At first glance it is useful for following the Presidential Electoral College but notice on the left side you can use it to study the Senate and House races as well. The NYT's has said they are going to keep updating it right through the election. I love a couple features of it. One, it lets you run your own "scenarios." Click on Senate Races. Then click on Scenarios. It will show you the current distribution of Senate seats by party. It shows you which states don't have races. And it lets you click on a contested state. If you click on Oklahoma (for instance) it will award the state to the GOP. Click on it again and it gives it to the Democrats. All while maintaining a count on the left. The second really nice feature you can find when you are looking at the Presidential race. It shows you which states are leaning which way etc, but it also shows you how each state has voted all the way back to 1960. Just take your mouse cursor and float it over the state you want to know about. (Don't actually click.) It will give you a list of every Presidential race to 1960 and what the vote was in that state by percentage. VERY useful when you are trying to understand shifting preferences.

Gregg