Graham leads in his poll

"Graham hasnt done well in a poll in months..."

Public Policy Poll
August 6, 2007

Republican Governor
Graham 23%
Smith 11%
Orr 9%

Seems to match McLaughlin's poll....

Have you guys ever considered that none of these candidates has a chance? The best thing we can do is recruit a real candidate that has good name ID.

Graham has been my choice, in lieu of a good 3rd party candidate, but guess the demopublicans will STOP that from happening...

Graham is what NC needs right now! Please dont EVER vote for another democrackkk...they keep us ALL oppressed!

Interesting comment. This from the Public Policy Poll which has had Mr. Graham in the lead from day 1:

New poll results from Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Graham. According to his poll, he leads the Republican race with 21%, followed by Fred Smith at 9% and Bob Orr at 6%. These results closely resemble our latest tracking poll that had the race at 23-9-9%. FYI, our August tracking poll goes into the field tonight. You’ll get the results early next week.

That is Graham 23%, Orr 9% and Smith 9%.

Sounds like you know a lot about the Gas Tax issue. Please educate me regarding this statement:

"Theres more to this Graham gas tax stuff than you think."

I've seen all 3 GOP primary candidates numerous times and Mr. Graham is just the better, more electable candidate. Will the General Election be uphill? Absolutely. But we all know that Fred and Bob would lose BIG in the General Election. We don't know what a true outsider like Mr. Graham would do. Would he lose? Probably. But we know Bob and Fred would lose...

To your point of name confusion, I don't think you're giving people enough credit. The simple fact of the matter is that Mr. Graham has outworked the other two.

Interesting...

Graham hasnt done well in a poll in months. He was way behind Smith and Orr in both a Civitas poll and an NCFREE poll as recentlty as a few weeks ago. Graham has even been trending negatively in the Civtas polls in the last few months. (Not saying its the most reliable poll, but its the same poll by the same people, so i think the ternds in it are pretty solid.)

I'd be VERY interested to find out WHERE the majority of the respondents were from and HOW were the questions worded....

PS- As for the legislative victory... Graham didnt PASS anything. No offense to the man, but he was merely a cheerleader on the sidelines while the guys in the trenches did the work. Theres more to this Graham gas tax stuff than you think.

I bet Anglico would be more than happy to fill you in...

Paid canvassers and astroturf websites generally don't rise to the level of even the most anemic grassroots.

The best theory I've heard to explain Graham's numbers is the fact that most people think he's related to the "real" Bill Graham (Billy), who's right up their with god in the name recognition department.

Either that or they've seen him in the supermarket.

Ryan,
Be careful with the term 'grassroots.'

kmr

Yes but my point remains the same. Fred and Bob have been around a while and the voters still cannot remember their names.

Bob Orr is claiming he can win because of his previous statewide races and he still trails in name recognition?!

Fred has been campaigning statewide for 2 years, is a sitting state Senator and has run TV spots all over the state and people cannot remember his name?!

Maybe we need to consider that those two (Fred and Bob)are forgettable people in the eyes of the public. Let me put it this way - I'd rather be Graham than the other two right now.

kimkim,

Check out my post here: http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2007/08/graham-has-graham-in-lead.html

Apparently the poll indicates that Graham also has the highest name recognition compared to Smith and Orr. Primary voters might not be interested in Smith or Orr, but according to this poll they do have more room to grow.

Fred Smith has been all over the state physically and on the air (paid TV/radio spots)running for Governor for close to 2 years.

Republicans have known about Bob Orr for years.

Bill Graham is new to the scene and he has something that neither Fred nor Bob have - a legislative victory (Gas Tax)that reduced people's taxes (est. $159 million for 2007). Mr. Graham has also spoken out against amnesty for illegal aliens.

My point is this - this poll shows that the GOP primary voter has little to no interest in Fred Smith and Bob Orr. Why? Because the GOP primary voter already knows those guys. I think this poll shows more upside for Bill Graham than it does for the other two gentleman. This primary is Bill Graham's to win - or lose.