Lieberman Leads in Oklahoma

[HFishbine]

An extremely tight race, but Lieberman's on top for now in an early state.

Lieberman: 10%
Dean: 9%
Clark: 9%
Gephardt: 9%
Kerry: 5%
Edwards: 3%

http://www.channeloklahoma.com/news/2681793/detail.html

[Hawkeye-X]

1. Still within MOE

Dean could be leading by next week - maybe.

Hawkeye-X

[ajacobson]

2. From the poll: 20% of respondents aren't going to vote.

What, is there a poll tax or something?

I know lots and lots of people don't bother with primary voting but to come out and say it, jeez.

[HFishbine]

3. Isn't that pathetic?

Yeah, I missed that the first time around. It makes me wonder, are they completely ABB and are willing to leave it to others to decide, are they so convinced of an eventual Bush win that it doesn't matter to them, or are they just oblivious?

[Hubert Flottz]

4. He should, It's a Repub state!

They like Con-servative types!

[CalebHayes]

5. Wow, this one will be close.

God, I can't wait.

[plcdude]

6. there is no great

movement yet here in OK to decide a democratic candidate or to vote. The primary in this state is not well attended and excludes independents so I wouldn't take too much from this article. The real depressing thing will be how much * will win this State. Absolutely defies reason for this kind of State to vote for *.

[littlejoe]

7. Why does that not surprise me?

[littlejoe]

8. Politics is not something many okies think about.

[CMT]

9. wow

it is wide open in OK.

[OKNancy]

10. Something I know about!

Okay -
1. The reason a lot of people don't vote in the Democratic primary is they aren't really Democrats. Oklahoma has a closed primary, however even though people are registered Democratic, they never vote that way except in local elections.
Democrats have 1.5 million registered, and Republicans have 785,000.
My mother-in-law is a die-hard Republican but she is a registered Democrat. This is still a holdover from the days when no one was a Republican in Oklahoma and if you wanted to vote, you had to register Democratic.

2. Lieberman is up because of name recognition only. Clark has been running commercials a lot in the last week, so his name is getting out, and Dean has a good organization too. I expect both of their numbers to go up.

3. Also, Lieberman is popular in the Oklahoma City area because Hadassah's (sp?) sister lives there and they visit a lot.

4. Not all Okies are dumb, but some are and they just don't care that much about politics.

Lieberman could possibly win here, but I expect a good challenge from Clark, Gephardt and maybe Edwards. Dean is an unknown to me...I have no idea how that will play out.

Edit: so I read the article AFTER I posted....don't know if it means much but the poll was commissioned by the Oklahoman ( a Gaylord publication) It is the most right-wing paper that I've ever seen. I say it even worse than the Washington Times.

[bobbieinok]

11. also from OK, and also from Tulsa

I moved back here in 89. After 20+ years in IA, OK drives me crazy.

By and large, OK democrats seem to be pretty demoralized. All we get is right wing and religious right stuff all the time.

There was significantly more interest in 2002 races.

When I've said anything even partially critical of local democratic party organization, I've been really dumped on. They are probably right to a large extent; I do not know the background and how hard the regulars have fought in an increasingly discouraging battle.

There were more than 200 people at a Clark appearance a while ago in Tulsa. I found that really wild.

[OKNancy]

13. WELL - there is lots of infighting in the

Tulsa Democratic party for sure....there are "groups".
If you havn't been involved lately however there is a new chairman, Elaine Dodd, and she really seems to have her act together.

---
I'm still pissed because of the David Walters vs. Inhofe race. I think we could have beaten that son of a bitch if we had not nominated Walters. I think he is probably a good guy, but you just don't run a failed and scandal plagued ex-governor against the Republican machine.

[RedEarth]

12. I agree, I don't put a lot of credence in this poll

Futhermore, other than a few visits by some of the candidates, there hasn't been much campaigning done in Oklahoma. Polls taken by sources other than The Oklahoman after the first of the year should provide a more accurate result.

[HFishbine]

14. Thanks

for the local insight!

[Eloriel]

15. Fascinating, Nancy, thanks

What about the Dean campaign? He had 3500 people in attendance at the recent state convention, and has a state level staffer (Native American).