It’s not just a double punch for Brian Bengs – it’s a flurry of body blows as South Dakota remembers it’s roots and prepares to send one of it’s own back to the US Senate, shaking off the carpetbagger dreams of someone who has only lived in the State for 9 years. At least, according to SD News Watch:
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds leads Independent challenger Brian Bengs 56% to 37%, according to the latest South Dakota Poll sponsored by News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota.
The Oct. 12-14 survey of 500 likely voters by Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy, ranked as one of the least-biased and most-factual pollsters, also found that 62% of independents support Bengs, while 30% support Rounds and 8% of independents are undecided.
and..
“The Bengs campaign (has) spent over $100,000 on polling from various pollsters to get an accurate read of where the race is. Some have us up, some have us down. But the fact is that Mike Rounds’ allies wouldn’t be dumping so much money into this race if they really thought it was safe,” Clara Bronikowski, a representative from the Bengs campaign, said to News Watch in a statement.
and..
“Rounds is the junior senator. He also was a beloved governor who did really well as governor. That protects him, but he also really stays away from some of the more D.C.-esque concerning things. I think Rounds has very purposefully, maybe even strategically, tried to to stay away from falling into that trap, if you will. And so I’m not surprised by by that at all,” Hellwege said.
I’m kind of thinking that Bengs’ $100k that he blew on goofy polling would have been better spent on helping to raise his name ID.
Here’s the reality from the ground. South Dakotans like Mike Rounds. He was a good governor, he’s a good senator and an all around good guy. I don’t care how many TV ads you run, if you tell South Dakotans an obvious falsehood we’ll reject it, like the lie that grown a$$ adult men belong in a girls bathroom.