Daily Kos Alaska Campaign polls ignore Diane Benson
AK-Sen, AK-AL, AK-Pres: Democrats competitive all around
Kos shows his latest poll information:
He then goes on to look at the results in light of the Rasmusson AK Presidential Poll:
If you're like me (a Diane Benson supporter) you'll find it irritating that she's been left out of the results altogether. That was also the case in December.
Markos is a contributor to Berkowitz's campaign. You may or may not be surprised that Markos/Kos commissions these polls himself.
What may surprise you is that this is NOT a condemnation of Markos. While I may not like it that the candidate I'm choosing to support is not also receiving support from the largest Progressive blog in the Nation, the reality is just that...it is a blog. Blogs generally have a bias and while usually that bias is more idealogical (Progressive vs. Conservative), there are also biases within those ideologies. For example, it's well known that DailyKos readers (Kossacks) tend to be Obamacans while MyDD readers tend to be Clintonians.
There is nothing wrong with this and as Democrats, it is my belief that we will ALWAYS come together in the end behind the candidate who wins.
No, I'm not condemning Markos for his bias. However, I do have a problem with this particular piece of it. While I'm a supporter of Diane Benson, when I do a "candidate roundup" on the blog I at least mention ALL of the Progressive candidates in the races, even if I'm unhappy with one of them, because to do otherwise doesn't tell the whole story.
Markos is treating Diane Benson like she is invisible...something that has happened to Alaska Native Women for much too long. Some of the issues she's fighting for have to do with just that...the treatment of Native people, women and Native women in particular. Markos is playing right into the hands of Alaska Republicans or all of those who would like a lot of those issues to remain invisible.
Most importantly, Diane Benson managed to take 40% of the vote in the 2006 election against Don Young with NO MONEY FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. She did far better than ANY opposition Young's had to date.
That alone should have earned Diane some respect.
Additionally, in a poll conducted by Craciun and Associates in November 2007, Benson took 45 percent of the vote against Young with 37. That same poll also showed Berkowitz with 50 percent to Young's 35 percent, which would indicate that Benson has as likely an opportunity to beat him as Berkowitz.
Once again, I'll say that this is NOT a condemnation of Markos' right to favor one candidate over another. I do the same on my blog and will continue to do so leading up to my trip to the Democratic National Convention.
But giving the impression one is analyzing an Alaska race when a perfectly viable Progressive candidate is being virtually ignored isn't a complete (or accurate) analysis at all.
Kos shows his latest poll information:
If 2008 election for Congress were held today, for whom would you vote for if the choices were between Ethan Berkowitz, the Democrat, and Don Young, the Republican?
Young (R) 40 (42)
Berkowitz (D) 50 (49)
If 2008 election for U.S. Senate were held today, for whom would you vote for if the choices were between Mark Begich, the Democrat, and Ted Stevens, the Republican?
Stevens (R) 43 (41)
Begich (D) 48 (47)
He then goes on to look at the results in light of the Rasmusson AK Presidential Poll:
And Alaska is definitely a state where Obama at the top of the Democratic ticket will pay HUGE dividends:
McCain (R) 49
Obama (D) 42
McCain (R) 55
Clinton (D) 37
You better believe Begich and Berkowitz are cheering Obama's primary victory. Meanwhile, Obama is legitimately competitive in the state. That's some map-changing mojo at work.
If you're like me (a Diane Benson supporter) you'll find it irritating that she's been left out of the results altogether. That was also the case in December.
Markos is a contributor to Berkowitz's campaign. You may or may not be surprised that Markos/Kos commissions these polls himself.
What may surprise you is that this is NOT a condemnation of Markos. While I may not like it that the candidate I'm choosing to support is not also receiving support from the largest Progressive blog in the Nation, the reality is just that...it is a blog. Blogs generally have a bias and while usually that bias is more idealogical (Progressive vs. Conservative), there are also biases within those ideologies. For example, it's well known that DailyKos readers (Kossacks) tend to be Obamacans while MyDD readers tend to be Clintonians.
There is nothing wrong with this and as Democrats, it is my belief that we will ALWAYS come together in the end behind the candidate who wins.
No, I'm not condemning Markos for his bias. However, I do have a problem with this particular piece of it. While I'm a supporter of Diane Benson, when I do a "candidate roundup" on the blog I at least mention ALL of the Progressive candidates in the races, even if I'm unhappy with one of them, because to do otherwise doesn't tell the whole story.
Markos is treating Diane Benson like she is invisible...something that has happened to Alaska Native Women for much too long. Some of the issues she's fighting for have to do with just that...the treatment of Native people, women and Native women in particular. Markos is playing right into the hands of Alaska Republicans or all of those who would like a lot of those issues to remain invisible.
Most importantly, Diane Benson managed to take 40% of the vote in the 2006 election against Don Young with NO MONEY FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. She did far better than ANY opposition Young's had to date.
That alone should have earned Diane some respect.
Additionally, in a poll conducted by Craciun and Associates in November 2007, Benson took 45 percent of the vote against Young with 37. That same poll also showed Berkowitz with 50 percent to Young's 35 percent, which would indicate that Benson has as likely an opportunity to beat him as Berkowitz.
Once again, I'll say that this is NOT a condemnation of Markos' right to favor one candidate over another. I do the same on my blog and will continue to do so leading up to my trip to the Democratic National Convention.
But giving the impression one is analyzing an Alaska race when a perfectly viable Progressive candidate is being virtually ignored isn't a complete (or accurate) analysis at all.
posted by CelticDiva at 10:28 AM
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5 Comments:
If you look carefully, you'll see he didn't commission a new poll on the Young-Berkowitz match up, he jut re-posted last year's poll.
Whoa...that sure wasn't obvious.
I looked again Phil, he was comparing one from May to the one from December:
Research 2000 for Daily Kos:
5/12-14
Young (R) 40
Berkowitz (D) 50
12/3-6
Young (R) 42
Berkowitz (D) 49
Actually, I realize now that his set of numbers for Ethan is new, not recycled.
I'm wondering why Markos went to all that trouble polling for Ethan against Young, but failed to poll Ethan against his most likely challenger, Sean Parnell. Or - maybe he did an Ethan-Sean match, but doesn't feel comfortable releasing the numbers.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Diane might stand a better chance against Parnell. When I was organizing the Gathering, I discovered that the three people Vets seemed most loyal to were Lisa Murkowski, Mark Begich and Diane Benson...because all three of them have a proven track-record of caring for Vets.
If Diane didn't poll equally as well against Young or if she had no shot in the primary, I could understand not including her. However, neither of those things are true.
What bothers me about this is that the post was portrayed as Progressives in the AK elections, when it looks to me like the goal was to gather more donations for Ethan.
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