Posted: June 24, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Poll: Essmann, Hill Unpopular with Montana Voters; Schweitzer, Bohlinger, Bullock Popular
Anyone who smokes pot (or is supportive of medical marijuana) will be happy to know that anti-cannabis crusader Jeff Essmann, who has recently claimed an interest in running for Governor, has a negative popularity rating of almost 4-1. That’s worse than any politician polled in Montana since Judy Martz.
For every six Montanans who like Essmann, 22 say they don’t like him.
Rick Hill also has surprisingly high negatives. 30-20 against. These are terrible numbers for a candidate to start out with. Essmann’s numbers are not surprising, but Hill is really weaker than I expected. This is because he hails from Congress, and Montanans don’t really like Congress or Washington.
Worse yet, John Bohlinger would slap down Essmann in a head to head race if Bohlinger ran as a Democrat, by seven points. This tells me that Essmann’s gubernatorial aspirations appear to have taken a major blow, and his marijuana act might have been a major miscalculation on his part, a politically tone-deaf stunt that libertarian Montanans are upset about. Ken Miller would likewise lose to Bohlinger. Former state senator Corey Stapleton did not even get polled, nor did terrorism expert Neil Livingstone, who skipped most of the GOP convention last weekend. So these guys are sort of a joke, at least for now, although Livingstone has millions of personal wealth, so don’t count him out totally.
And, Steve Bullock and Bohlinger both are roughly even against the mer-man, Rick Hill. Schweitzer remains at top of list nationally as most popular Democratic governor.
The Hill-Bullock number is surprising because this same polling company (which is known for a slightly conservative bias, btw) had Hill beating Bullock by almost ten points when they polled five months ago. Remember too that this poll didn’t didn’t take into account the Libertarian in the race, Ron Vandevender, who as a third party candidate has the potential to take a large percentage of the conservative vote – especially if Hill is the GOP nominee.
The only explanation is that the republican brand has taken a severe beating in Montana because of the wild and wacky legislative session. As this blog predicted, it dragged the GOP down across the board.
This will amke Essman’s Day
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/24/ap/congress/main20074070.shtml
It should be no surprise to Essman. You can’t ignor that many constituents and tell them they didn’t know what they voted for. We saw it as it was happening, but ol Jeff had his head in the sand. Now, only to pop his head up and see that his political turf has been destroyed.
Welcome to reality Mr. Essman. Too bad you were so far from reality during the last session. And, don’t worry about your precious bill 423. We’ll trash that in the courts.
Essman and company didn’t just ignore their constituents, they spent an inordinate amount of time telling each other how stupid the voters were. How ‘they were tricked’ and ‘didn’t know what they were voting for’ and ‘didn’t read the voter information booklet’ before they voted. I believe all those quotes definitely apply to the LEGISLATORS’ campaigns when they were voted in, but medical marijuana was very clear. And voters don’t like being told they are simple minded and stupid.
I was reminded by a politician the other day, that they take an oath to serve the constitution of MT and the US, the oath says nothing about serving their constituents. Food for thought.
People – you gotta’ read Essmann’s bizarre defense of the medical cannabis ban in the Billings Gazette. He clearly has no civics understanding at all, instead, he complains about how the possibility of the courts striking down a law for being unconstitutional “raises a separation of powers issue” Essmann – that’s what the constitution intended the courts to do moron. Here’s the story.
Because medical cannabis is the issue most associated with Essmann, this poll can be read in part as a statement from Montanans that opposition to the issue is very unpopular in the state. I think it will be interesting to see what he does after the court ruling comes out. There are a couple of Republican dim bulbs that have planned to campaign on this issue for state wide office. Shockley being another one. I suspect we’ll here less on their opposition to cannabis after this poll is reported in the media.
Hoo boy! What the Assman DOESN’T understand is that in issues such as this, it’s ALWAYS better to err on the side of democracy! Why does Assman hate democracy? We don’t NEED/WANT daddy Assman telling US the voters where we went wrong!
Assman pretty much epitomizes the extreme rightwing Teatard mentally. ONLY white, old, goofy, daddy-figure males know best! The ASSman knows best and to HELL with everyone else!
Well, them days are gone, Assman. Join the twenty-firt CENTury, dude. Sure, you hate hippies. Sure you just GOTTA be in control. And sure you can’t STAND it when THE VAST MAJORITY of folks in the state disagree with you. But that’s just the way it is. If you run, you will get your ass kicked. Get used to it, dude. You blew it. Have a doobie and relax. You just might feel better!
Ya gotta wonder where guys like the Assman spent the sixties!
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/poll-gov-rick-scotts-unpopularity-handicapping-gop-pres-candidates-in-florida.php
Is Essman in Vale this weekend? or Hill? Denny ?
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/signs-your-governor-may-have-koch-p-0
Schweitzer is popular because he is not afraid to stand up to anyone. Unfortunately, critical thinking is dead in this country, meaning that people like Hill, who never stood up to anyone except (unless you count cheating on his wife with small children) think they have a chance to be elected governor of the f-ing state of Montana.
Schweitzer has definitely earned the right to a nice peaceful retirement after his term as guv is over. But I hope like heck that he stays involved in government in some capacity. You’re right. He is unique. We used to have LOTS of guys like Schweitzer in this country. I don’t know where they’ve all gone. Why do we not produce guys like this in great numbers any more?
Schweitzer was born with a very, very low tolerance for bullshit. In that regard, he’s much like the men I knew as a kid when I was growing up, all the WW II vets. They were our dads, our teachers, our neighbors. THEY too did not abide bullshit easily. Sad that they’re mostly all gone now.
One thing that I find interesting about these numbers is the Essman pos/neg compared to the Wanzenried pos/neg. I can see why Essmann is unpopular, as he has tied himself to a very unpopular issue, but what do folks make of Wanzenried’s numbers? At 8 pos/16 neg, hE has twice the negatives as his own positives. Wanzenried has tied himself to the right side of the medical marijuana issue, but still is more unpopular. My theory is that people are so fed up with the Montana Legislature (including the dems who didn’t do that well in standing up to the bad guys) that some of this has rubbed off on Wanzenried, even though he is one of the dems who actually stood up to Repubs and didn’t become a sell-out vote trader like Sesso or Caferro. Thoughts?