GOV. SARAH PALIN CUTS AD FOR STEELMAN
July 30, 2012
Last week of campaign features Brunner's numbers collapsing, Steelman only candidate with positive message and momentum
Gov. Sarah Palin appears in a television ad airing today across Missouri in which she calls Sarah Steelman, “an economist who defends our tax dollars like a mama grizzly defends her cubs." The ad is available online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiDON6BqgvY. The ad, featured on Breitbart TV, is positive and reminds Missourians why they've supported Steelman in previous campaigns.
Meanwhile, after proclaiming to be ahead in the polls by 20 points as recently as Monday, July 23, the Brunner campaign lead has collapsed. Steelman and Brunner are now in a statistically insignificant within-the-margin dead heat, according to a Post-Dispatch Mason-Dixon poll. (Notably, the poll was taken just a day or two after the recent spate of anti-Brunner ads aired, and before this week's Palin ad.) Summing it up, Steve Kraske wrote Friday night, "Insiders say Brunner led by a wide margin when he was the only candidate advertising on TV. But that changed once Akin and Steelman launched their own ads." As voters learn more about John Brunner, his inability or unwillingness to commit to even the simplest answers on policy, his business background and his penchant for hiding his wealth, it is obvious that his support would decline as it has.
Steelman, on the other hand, has been a champion for small government and fiscal conservatism. Voters are being reminded of that.
In the same column, Kraske goes on to observe, "But Brunner faces a problem that often faces deep-pocketed political newcomers. While it’s easy to drive up name ID, that often fails to translate to votes because voters simply don’t know him. Support can fade." Steelman, on the other hand, is well known, having appeared on a statewide ballot at least three times, and outperforming the polls. As voters are reminded of all that they like about Steelman--and that she has the support of much-loved conservatives like Gov. Palin--her upward momentum continues. Voters recall that as treasurer, Steelman was fiscal conservative who stood up for what was right, even when it was unpopular. Attempts to portray her as a close to Claire McCaskill have been dismissed as over-the-top empty rhetoric.
The Mason-Dixon poll release Friday pulled 38% of its sample from the St. Louis region and 20% from the Kansas City region, with "Southwest Missouri" earning only 14% of the sample. But in recent Republican primaries, the voter turnout has been closer to 30%, 18%, and 26% for those regions respectively. Southwest Missouri is very conservative and has supported Steelman in both the 2004 and 2008 Republican primaries.
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