Polling Just Before The GOP Vote That Came "On Little Cat Feet." Bad news for Senators Kapanke and Hopper

Senator Kapanke

Senator Hopper


The Plum Line, the political blog in the Washington Post has a post today at 11:28 AM, EST.  (You may have to scroll down.)  In it the polling firm, Survey USA, hired by MoveOn.Org (a liberal PAC) surveyed 400 likely voters in each of the senate districts of GOP senators Dan Kapanke and Randy Hopper. The polling asked respondents to choose between their senator and an unnamed opponent, kind of "the devil you know versus the devil you don't know."

In Hopper's district, when asked if they would vote for Hopper or "the Devil they didn't know" if a recall election were held right now, 54 percent said they'd vote for TDTDK, versus only 43 percent saying they would stick with Hopper.

In Kapanke's district, the numbers were even worse: 57 percent said they'd vote for someone else, versus only 41 percent who said they'd vote for Kapanke.

Money quote:

"It gets even more interesting. The poll was taken yesterday, before last night's events, and fifty-six percent of voters in Kapanke's district, and 54% of voters in Hopper's district, said if their Senator voted for Walker's plan, it would make them more likely to vote for someone else.  Last night, both Senators did vote for Walker's rollback of bargaining rights."

The post added an update:

"UPDATE, 11:34 a.m.: A MoveOn official adds that the organization has already raised over $800,000 to support the recall drives against GOP senators (in Wisconsin)."

According to at least one Democratic lawmaker, the Republican senators celebrated the union-busting bill's passage yesterday afternoon by high-fiving one another in the Capitol after they passed it.  Before you conclude that this violated the classic Vince Lombardi admonition:  "When you get into the end zone, for Christ sake, act like you've been there before," you need to remember in fairness to the GOP senators that many of them are newbies and really haven't "been there before."  Perhaps the celebration resulted from a mixture of giddiness and nervousness.  That can happen when you are cutting loose.

The Survey USA polls suggest that in at least two senate districts, there is substantial support for recall.  The recall petitions for both these senators were filed on March 2, so there are only 52 more days to reach the necessary valid signatures.  I posted a primer on the recall process earlier.  It is a daunting undertaking, requiring a lot of planning and "boots on the ground."  Wait, is that too much of a warfare euphemism? 

Uh . . . . probably not.