So what’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar going to do with the $400,000 he reportedly pocketed at his first fundraising event of the 2010 re-election campaign to add to the $1.8 million bucks already in the bank?
Buy some voter love, if a tepid new DailyKos/Research 2000 poll matchup against ex-Rep. Tom Tancredo and Jon Elway is any indicator. The survey shows Salazar up by double digits in both cases but still hovering dangerously close to the magic 50 percent of “aye” votes for an incumbent.
The telephone poll of 600 likely Colorado voters conducted Dec. 2-4 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points hints at a fairly easy re-election ride against the unpopular Tancredo and politically inexperienced Elway.
Salazar (D) 49
Elway (R) 38
Salazar (D) 51
Tancredo (R) 37
According to Markos:
The “Elway” above is John Elway, former football megastar quarterback for the twice-winning Super Bowl Broncos. In Colorado, that’s serious credentials. Even with all that, however, Elway runs only marginally better than unpopular über-wingnut Tom Tancredo in this poll.
The Colorado GOP bench is thin, and a lack of top-tier credible challenger means that Salazar, who isn’t exactly the most popular senator ever (his 48-41 approval-disapproval rating is respectable, but nothing to boast about), may have a much easier time getting reelected than might otherwise have been the case.
The poll’s crosstabs offers some interesting little nuggets, as well.
Elway, who got a rousing response at John McCain’s Oct. 24 presidential campaign rally at the National Western Arena, doesn’t do much better than Tancredo with Republican voters against Salazar.
Elway (R) 73
Salazar (D) 10
Undecided 17
Tancredo (R) 72
Salazar (D) 11
Undecided 18
One question I have about the poll is the partisan voter sample, which appears to be too weighted toward Democrats. I’ll update here when I get a response from Markos or his pollster.
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