Bumps In The Road For The Rollins Coronation?

Filed in National by on May 6, 2010

Republican Glenn Urquhart has released a poll showing that he leads Michelle Rollins in the primary race to replace Mike Castle. Take this poll with a huge grain of salt because it’s an internal poll with high undecideds. WDEL has the details:

A new poll suggests downstate real estate developer Glen Urquhart has an edge over Michele Rollins with Republican primary voters.

Kim Stevenson with the Urquhart campaign tells WDEL News GOP polling firm Wilson Research Strategies polled 300 likely Republican primary voters April 20th and 21st.

The survey says by a 53 to 47-percent margin, voters with an opinion of both candidates are likely to back Urquhart, but also says 60 percent of those responding are undecided, so the race is still wide open.

I think this will be a very interesting primary race. Michelle Rollins represents the country club Republicans, who are a dying breed in the Republican party but are likely still the majority among Delaware Republicans. Glenn Urquhart seems to be much more like the standard Southern Republican that we’re used to. I think this election will tell us a lot about the state of Delaware’s Republican party.

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Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (20)

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  1. a.price says:

    let’s forge that man some teabag support.

  2. Delaware Dem says:

    The couching of the language “The survey says by a 53 to 47-percent margin, voters with an opinion of both candidates are likely to back Urquhart” tells me that they used a blind push poll method, where they told the voter items from the policy and personal backgrounds of both candidates A and B (without revealing their names) and asked the voter which one they would vote for.

    So I take this poll with a huge grain of salt for that reason, and also because there is a huge undecided margin of 60%. So in this type of poll, where you push leaners pretty hard to decide and you ask favorable framed and biased questions, to have 60% undecided is a very bad thing for Urquhart.

    But Urquhart got what he wanted out of this poll. He paid for it. He got the result he paid for, and he got the news coverage he hoped for.

    Let’s see this poll confirmed first though by an independent pollster.

  3. anon says:

    Some of Rollins’s website in development appears to have leaked onto Google cache (click the “cache” links in the search results).

    Highlights:

    “Stay the course. Entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid must be left untouched.”

    “Pay as you go. No new Federal program or increases – regardless of how worthy they may be—shall be funded without a dollar-for-dollar cut in another part of the budget.”

    ” Freeze all discretionary spending NOW. “

  4. Yes, I agree that it’s hard to judge this poll without any data on the internals. Trust me, I googled it. BTW, Delaware Liberal is one of the top hits for Urquhart.

    Nice catch, anon.

  5. Joanne Christian says:

    Tell you what–run your own poll right here!! Wouldn’t that be a first?!! Then you can bill them for the endorsement/results:)!!

  6. Delaware Dem says:

    LOL. Of course any poll we run on the site would be an unscientific internet poll.

  7. Joanne Christian says:

    Yup, but you could run the poll of NOT “who do you want to be the R candidate?”–but rather “who do you THINK the Rs want as a candidate?”–let’s see how good you are at predicting us. Intrigued?

  8. Republican says:

    Urquhart is a crazy person with a history of scaring people all over Sussex County as a businessman.

    He has a violent temper, and he can’t hide it forever.

    The May 16 headline in the News Journal will read:

    Psycho Conservative Republican Candidate Taken Out of Convention in Straight Jacket After Assaulting Delegates Who Didn’t Vote For Him

  9. anon says:

    Urquhart is a crazy person with a history of scaring people all over Sussex County as a businessman. He has a violent temper, and he can’t hide it forever.

    I don’t know Urk, but I do remember the same shit going round about Spivack.

    Seems like the same smear machine that went after Castle’s opponent is now going after Rollins’s opponent. Funny how that works.

    The machine is scared.

  10. a.price says:

    A republican is offended that a crazy person is going round trying to drum up votes by making people afraid? Isn’t that what their entire business model is based on?
    Republican, either you are a rare breed, in severe denial, or a typical liar-publican and if so, you should know we see right through you. Now go back to your teabag and plot the civil war or whatever it is you people do nowadays.

    (off topic… ONE HOUR UNTIL THE DOCTOR IS IN!)

  11. Delaware Dem says:

    I hope Urquhart is violent and insane, and also the nominee of the Republican Party. LOL.

  12. anon says:

    Oooh, maybe he’ll get tasered.

  13. a.price says:

    we can only hope

    (offended outrage from a LefteaBag in 3…2….)

  14. anon says:

    a history of scaring people all over Sussex County as a businessman

    What kind of wusses do they have down there?

    Does he have a Freddy Krueger glove or something?

  15. missundaztood says:

    Everything I’ve heard about Urquhart is along the same lines of what (alleged) “Republican” said.

  16. Joanne Christian says:

    Aw DelDem–you’re too kind. Why, I have an Arizona State t-shirt, I’m pulling out of my prize closet just for you! Not everyone gets one of those….

  17. Ken Matlusky says:

    I ran into both candidates more than once, Rollins and Urquhart, during my own campaigning. Rollins is a much, much, much better campaigner than her opponent.

  18. Jason330 says:

    “…they used a blind push poll method…”

    uh…that’s what she said? Oh hell. I’ve got nothing.

  19. Jason330 says:

    ” I think this election will tell us a lot about the state of Delaware’s Republican party.”

    Yes and no. Here are the possible outcomes.

    1) Rollins wins the primary but loses in the general.
    2) Urquhart wins the primary and loses in the general.

    Either way the teabgger’s claim a moral victory and will continue to try and push the DEGOP into obscurity. I guess the primary gives a glimpse at how fast the DEGOP wants to rush into statewide irrelevance.

  20. Geezer says:

    “Businessman” is a rather general term. “Developer” would be more to the point, but it’s generally viewed as a pejorative term in Delaware. His best-known project was a 1,600-unit proposal outside of Milton that was entirely unsupported by infrastructure, fortunately 86’ed by the bursting of the real estate bubble.

    I met him and engaged in about five minutes’ worth of dialogue, during which he racked up a truly impressive Teabagger Cliche score. I detected no sign of any actual intellectual prowess, or indeed an original thought — just a bottomless supply of Tea Party “wisdom.”