Damage Control

Public Policy Polling came out with a poll a while back that had Tester and Rehberg in a statistical dead heat.  Then, the Republican political front group known as the Montana Chamber of Commerce came out with a poll, which they were forced to release, much to their chagrin, because the poll had Tester leading by five.

The Rehberg campaign needed damage control, so they had the Republican Party get a polling firm to release a poll that showed…guess what?  Rehberg up by 11 points.

The poll, conducted by the firm Public Opinion Strategies for Karl Rove’s secretive organization American Crossroads, shows questionable and uncharacteristic results for the race between Jon Tester and Congressman Dennis Rehberg.

Perhaps the campaign wasn’t aware that a second poll was released today, also conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, has much different results.  It shows the race much closer—well within the margin of error.

 

Common Ground 

In addition to testing voter opinions of Jon Tester and Dennis Rehberg, the Public Opinion Strategies survey also tested current voter attitudes of Governor Brian Schweitzer, who is one of the most popular Governors in the U.S. (65 percent approve to 24 percent disapprove).

That’s something even Rehberg’s campaign manager Erik Iverson can agree on.  In a television appearance, Rehberg’s campaign manager told Tom Brokaw his opinion of the Governor.  Here’s the clip:

 

Conservation

The poll also found that Montana voters across the political spectrum – from Tea Party supporters to those who identify with the Occupy Wall Street movement – think of themselves as conservationists and support preserving Montana’s air, land, water and wildlife to protect the economy, and their way of life. The Montana results are particularly interesting.  In fact:

63% say increasing the use of renewable  energy will create jobs in Montana, and three-quarters (75%) of state voters indicate support for Montana increasing the use of renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal from ten  percent to 25 percent by 2025.

Links to all of the Colorado College, State of the Rockies polls for Montana (and other western states) can be found here.