Absolutely amazing. The Barbaro campaign just got the results of a poll they commissioned today from Bannon Communications Research, a DC-based polling firm that works mostly with Dems.
Poll conducted 9/26-27, MoE= +/- 5.3
When asked if the nation was going in the right direction or the wrong direction:
38% said right direction.
46% said wrong direction.
When asked to choose between Democrat Frank Barbaro and Republican Vito Fossella, including leaners:
36% said Barbaro
42% said Fossella
For a 3+ term Republican incumbent Congressman to be at 42% with just a month left before the election is absolutely amazing. What's even more amazing is that the race is this close with 60% of respondants having not heard enough about Frank Barbaro to form an opinion!
There was also one push question asked, referring to Fossella's support for tax breaks for companies that ship US jobs overseas, and Barbaro's opposition. After being told that, when asked who they would vote for, including leaners:
47% said Barbaro
35% said Fossella
Fossella is in DEEP, DEEP trouble here. The campaign has already let the DCCC know about this, and the NY 13th was added to their list of top races. The poll is going to hit the local papers this weekend, and Roll Call is picking up on it on Monday.
THIS IS A WINNABLE RACE! Thus far, the Barbaro campaign has been getting by using only grassroots efforts, because of a lack of funding. That accounts for the 60% of respondants who aren't familiar with him. Even with that massive disadvantage, Barbaro is within striking distance of knocking of the only Republican in New York City's Congressional delegation.
And what a Republican Fossella is. Since the Iraq War vote, Fossella has voted with the Bush Administration over 95% of the time. He supports Social Security privitization, refused to support the assault weapons ban extension, opposes a minimum wage increase, supported the gutting of overtime protections, is anti-choice, anti gay rights, supported the federal anti-terrorism funding formula that leaves New York near dead last in per-capita anti-terrorism funding, and even initially opposed the creation of the 9/11 Commission.
Fossella is the kind of Congressman Tom DeLay has wet dreams about.
Barbaro, on the other hand, is a true progressive. He supports single-payer universal health care, a true prescription drug plan under Medicare, a boost in the minimum wage, a repeal of the new overtime rules, and opposes any effort to privitize Social Security. He's pro-choice, pro-gay rights, anti-death penalty, and pro-gun control. And he's opposed the Iraq war from the beginning as a distraction from the fight against The Man That Bush Forgot, Osama Bin Ladin.
The NY 13th, covering Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, is considered the last bastion of conservatism in NYC, with a lot of socially conservative, working class Italian Catholics. But it also has the highest number of union members of any district in the country.
This is a race we can, and MUST win if we're going to give John Kerry a Democratic Congress to work with. Head over to http://www.barbaro4congress.com/ to read up a little more on who Frank Barbaro is, and if you like what you see, throw them a few bucks (or more than a few bucks...)
(Crossposted to MyDD and OurCongress)