Okay, okay. I'm getting a minute to do something on the Whalen/Herseth poll results

The Argus Leader Reported at mid-morning while I was at work on the Herseth/Whalen race, and the anonymous commenters started nipping at my heels because I hadn't written on it yet.

For Gosh's sake, I am gainfully employed. Which means if I'm lucky, I get time to write at a breakneck pace before work, at lunch while I eat a PBJ, and after work. I'll even do it if I'm suffering from insomnia, as I sometimes do (hence the 3am updates).

Not to mention that I might find other things interesting. I like Constitutional races, legislative politics, and local stuff too - those are my bailiwick, moreso than the federal races. So, if I don't write about Herseth (including her hair or cutoff jeans) as often as you'd like, I'm sorry. It's my party, and I'll blog what I want to.

Anyway, due to popular demand, here's the Argus on the Whalen/Herseth Race:

Rep. Stephanie Herseth enjoys a commanding lead in name recognition and in voter preference over Republican Challenger Bruce Whalen in her reelection bid, according to a poll commissioned by the Argus Leader and KELO-TV.

If the election were held now, Herseth would lead Whalen 60 percent to 26 percent, with 14 percent of voters undecided.

Herseth Spokesman Russ Levsen says “it tells us that South Dakota approves of the job Stephanie is doing in Congress and wants to send her back for another term.”

But Whalen says poll results reflect more on the fact he is still laying the foundation for his Congressional run.

“It tells me we didn’t kick off our campaign until April fifth. The results are what we expected,” he said of the poll. “We still have about 97 days left before the election. We’re okay.”

The poll, conducted between July 24-26 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc., of Washington, D.C., questioned 800 registered voters statewide who indicated they were likely to cast a ballot in November. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

In favorable name recognition, Herseth outpaced Whalen 63 percent to 10 percent. All the other parameters of name recognition pointed out Herseth is more well-known than her challenger. Twenty percent of those polled recognized Herseth’s name unfavorably compared to 3 percent for Whalen.

Read it all here. And actually, I think Whalen brings up a point that I didn't think I heard from Billion (primarily because in the early article I read, they didn't ask the campaigns for a response) "we didn’t kick off our campaign until April fifth. The results are what we expected,” he said of the poll. “We still have about 97 days left before the election. We’re okay"

Should we put a lot of stock in these polls when the campaigns this year were late starts? Between Billion/Wiese jumping in when Volesky bailed out, or Bruce coming in as a late entrant himself, there may not have been enough time for the voters to become acquainted with them.

As I mentioned before when I commented on the Billion race, the Whalen campaign probably wasn't happy to see these numbers, but I have to give Bruce props for maintaining the positive attitude.

But I would also agree that early polls aren't going to show that the voters are well acquainted with him in this, his first run for statewide ofifce. So it's going to take money, media and elbow grease. And if Bruce keeps working as hard as he has been, the first two will hopefully follow the third, a quality he's shown in abundance.

(So there, I commented on it. Can I eat now?)