I've been following some of the discussion on Kos and MyDD about my recent movement in the polls in the Rhode Island Senate race, and wanted to take a moment to tell you a little bit more about my campaign and how we got to this point.
As you may have seen Wednesday on the front page
here or on the front page of yesterday's
Providence Journal, Brown University released a poll showing that I am now in a statistical dead heat with Senator Lincoln Chafee. The poll also showed that I'm leading Sheldon Whitehouse - the establishment candidate in the Democratic primary - by 31% to 25%.
Those results were even stronger than my own poll, which was released on Monday. That poll showed I had moved ahead of Whitehouse, 38% to 36%. That's a 25-point surge since last July, when our internal polling showed me behind, 48% to 25%. And we have a lot more room to grow: my name ID is still 16 points lower than Whitehouse's.
People have been asking what brought about such a dramatic rise in the polls. It helps to know a little bit of the background.
Since I announced I was running for Senate just over a year ago, most of the political establishment has been working against me. But I believed then - and believe now - that despite what the establishment thinks, these elections are decided by the people - not by a handful of political insiders or powerful special interests.
I know this from experience. In 2002, when I ran for Secretary of State, I took on an incumbent in the Democratic primary who had the full backing of the political establishment. I beat him in the primary with 58% of the vote and I won the general election with 68%.
We're winning this race for the same reasons we won that one.
Some people have suggested that the reason for the surge in the polls that has put me even with Lincoln Chafee - and ahead of Sheldon Whitehouse - is that we ran some television ads. I'm sure the ads helped, but you can't explain a 25-point gain in the polls as just the result of a few weeks of television ads. In fact, Steve Laffey, Lincoln Chafee's primary opponent, has run ads and he didn't move at all in the polls.
I believe the reason for this dramatic movement is pretty simple. As I meet Rhode Islanders, they see that that I'm a person who always stands up for what I believe is right - whether or not it's popular and no matter how tough the opposition. And people are hungry for that kind of leadership, as opposed to the same-old politics as usual.
In August, I became the first U.S. Senate candidate to call on President Bush to set a timetable to bring our troops home from Iraq. Now, over 8,000 people have added their name to my petition. The Nation recognized my work on the issue writing, "Brown, the Rhode Island secretary of state, is pushing for a timetable to bring the troops home by the end of 2006, and like a number of other antiwar candidates he is forcing not just his primary opponents but his party--which has begun to see the Rhode Island contest as pivotal in the fight for control of the Senate--to get serious about getting out of Iraq."
In December, I proposed my lobbying reform plan,
and called for a ban on all gifts from lobbyists, the creation of an independent federal ethics commission, tougher lobbying-disclosure and enforcement, and increased waiting periods for members of Congress and their staffers to become lobbyists. I made these kind of reforms here in Rhode Island, and with the mess in Washington it only makes sense to bring them to the federal level.
We've still got a long way to go until Election Day and we're not taking anything for granted. I will keep doing what I've always done - saying what I believe is right and fighting for it. We will continue to run a strong grassroots campaign - knocking on doors, talking to people at house parties and coffee shops. This effort is being led by more than 1,000 Rhode Islanders who have signed onto my campaign committee. They are people from every part of our state and from all backgrounds.
With their support - and yours - we will win this race. And then, the day after the election, the real work begins! Together, we can overcome whatever challenges come our way with energy and conviction.
Thank you for all your help and support. And please stop by my site, www.mattbrown.org.
Matt Brown