One of the curious outcomes from Tuesday’s primary was the seeming collapse of Urquhart’s support. In the polling that showed the O’Donnell surge, Urquhart had a lead over Michele Rollins of 12% (50-38). This was really the first scientific poll of the race although Urquhart had an earlier poll showing a 5-7 point lead. The race ended up being much closer. Urquhart squeaked out a win of <1%, just 552 votes.
UNITED STATES SENATOR
REPUBLICAN PARTY
MICHAEL N. CASTLE 26201 820 27021 46 . 9 %
CHRISTINE O’DONNELL 29882 679 30561 53 . 1 %
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS
REPUBLICAN PARTY
ROSE IZZO 2025 57 2082 3 . 7 %
MICHELE ROLLINS 26045 744 26789 47 . 7 %
GLEN URQUHART 26651 690 27341 48 . 6 %
Without a lot of polling it’s hard to say whether the PPP Poll was an outlier or whether there was a late surge to Michele Rollins. It is obvious from these numbers that a significant number of O’Donnell voters did not vote for Urquhart (30,561 for O’Donnell & 27341 for Urquhart).
Based on the stories we were hearing from people at campaign events, Rollins was a terrible campaigner (rather introverted) while Urquhart was a good campaigner (back-slapper). My observations last night (from the peanut gallery) was that O’Donnell had a small, loud, obnoxious contingent. This same group did not have the same passion for Urquhart.
I’m sure part of this is all the attention is part of the reason for O’Donnell’s more passionate support. But after listening to the debate last night I see where people might be suspicious of Urquhart. He’s a Beck talking point machine, repeating some of the more bizarre (and obscure) wingnut talking points:
– The federal debt is the most important problem ever, in fact he turned almost every question to debt in some way
– Urquhart worked for Reagan, did you know he worked for Reagan? Also, Reagan.
– The federal government has grown 25% since last year
– The debt is “Democrat debt”
– Debt is bad, it’s a job killer
– We should balance the budget, but also spend $10B building a missile defense because Iran is coming to get us!
– Abortion makes everything worse, it can never solve a problem (seemed jarring especially after hearing O’Donnell say she could support abortion in case of life of mother – her sister had gone through this)
– Abortion has “decimated minority communities”
– Government is huge & overreaching & regulations kill jobs
Glen Urquhart has charisma and he has an interesting biography. However, he came across as batsh*t insane and made O’Donnell look sane in comparison. It’s possible even the fervent wingnuts find him somewhat distasteful.