In a new
poll conducted for the Oregonian and KATU (channel 2), there's more good news for Kerry fans in the NW (emphasis added):
In the race for president, Democratic Sen.
John Kerry led President Bush 65 percent to 21 percent in Multnomah County. That 3-1 Kerry ratio spells trouble for Bush statewide, said pollster Tim Hibbitts. Hibbitts said
Bush needs 30 percent of the vote in Multnomah County to have a chance of carrying Oregon.
The poll by Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall Inc. sampled 455 voters in Multnomah County on the income tax measure and the presidential race, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percent.
For those who aren't lucky enough to live in Oregon, where apparently,
"We Love Dreamers" (what is UP with that new OR slogan?--but I digress), there are a couple of important pieces to note here.
- Multnomah County is the county where the plurality of people live in OR. It's where Portland is located. It always swings way left; part of figuring out what Oregon will do is figuring out how far left the heavily-populated Multnomah County will go on a particular issue.
- Tim Hibbitts knows his Oregon politics and he knows his Oregon polling.
- In the 2000 election, Multnomah County went 63% Gore, 28% Bush, and 7% Nader. Oregon went to Gore by approximately 7,000 votes. This time, Nader won't be getting any 7% in the county where he couldn't even rustle up the signatures to qualify for the ballot.
- In another indicator of how well Kerry is doing, Oregon Public Broadcasting Radio is also reporting this morning that the Republicans are cutting their GWB campaign spending in half in Oregon, in order to focus their spending on battleground states.
All of this bodes very well for Kerry in Oregon on November 2nd....