On June 15, Rasmussen Polls released a poll for the U.S. Senate race in South Carolina. See it here. It shows 58% for Republican Jim DeMint, 21% for Democratic nominee Alvin Greene, 9% for “some other candidate”, and 13% undecided.
The only other person on the November ballot is Tom Clements, Green Party nominee. It appears Rasmussen did not actually list him, yet apparently 9% of the voters still opted for “some other candidate”, rather than letting themselves be listed as “undecided.” None of the newspaper stories about this poll even mention Clements.
Thanks for catching this.
I noticed it today also, and immediately thought how great that number is.
Thank you for the story.
It is also typically tragic that Rasmussen does this year after year. The media blackout of the Green Party and Green Party candidates.
Congrats to the Green Party’s Tom Clements.
Of course the other thing this South Carolina story reminds us. Every state in the nation needs a paper trail at the ballot box.
Thanks Richard. That’s exactly how I saw it. If “Some other candidate” got 9%, and Tom’s “some other candidate”, then Tom’s at 9%. Not bad after only a week after the primaries.
We intend to get a couple of petitions going. One would ask organizations that conduct polling to include Tom by name in future polls, the other addressed to organizations that might conduct forums and debates to include Tom.
We sure could use some help from other folks who think that Clements is a better alternative to DeMint or Greene. DeMint’s 58% showing should give those who want a change some succor. His 3.5 million dollar war chest is hard to overcome, but no one expected Greene to even be a blip on the screen.
Gregg Jocoy,
Good ideas.
I think it’s incorrect to assume that Clements is polling at 9%. I think if he were mentioned by name, the % would be a few points higher. Even though they offer “some other candidate” as a choice, most people would still hear the choice as being between two candidates.
The filing deadline for independent candidates is July 15.
Third partyers shouldn’t be getting excited about this. It only goes to show third parties only have a shot at winning when one or both of the major party candidates is terrible.