Polls

My barber Gene Varoz has been cutting my hair for 35 years. I did a blog about him sometime back. Read it here. He is one of the best political pollsters I know. I always tell him his "barber poll" is one of the most accurate around. That is because he has over 500 clients and during his half hour with them they always end up talking about politics. So, he gets a good sense for what is going on in his clients heads. He said he has noticed lately that a lot of his clients who were big supporters of bush have stopped talking about him. They are still Republicans, but they aren't carrying the flag for the commander in chief like they used to.

That is probably good news for all of us running this year as Democrats. Of course, Gene's "barber poll" isn't scientifically sound any more than the polls you see me running on this blog. Scientific polls cost real money to put into the field. And, that is exactly what I spent money on last week with Lake Research Partners out of Washington, DC. They are very well respected and very accurate.

I had the poll conducted not so much to get a bottom line figure on my race against Pat Lyons, the only statewide Republican office holder, but to figure out where we go find votes after the volumes of data and demographics are digested. That is the real value of polling.

I will release my poll numbers in a few days. They seem to me to be very good, but smarter people will let me know what all the other stuff means. However, suffice it to say it is always good to be leading your opponent when he is an incumbent. Watch for the real numbers on Thursday or Friday.

I also polled the other races and I can honestly say all the Democrats are doing very well. The Governor's poll numbers show growing momentum after the Republicans threw out their elected candidate and replaced him with John Dendahl. Why am I not surprised?