Thursday, May 2, 2019

Biden's Left Flank Is Exposed

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

New polls released this week show freshly-minted Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden with a significant lead over his opponents, but another measure shows that support for the former Vice President may not be as strong with the party's left flank as it is with the more mainstream elements.

Quinnipiac University's most recent survey of voters found Biden the favorite among 38% of Democratic voters, with Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts coming in second with 12%, and  Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont with 11 percent.

DailyKos, a left-of-center political news and opinion site on the internet conducts a straw poll of its readers every two weeks to track their preferences in the race for the Democratic nomination.   Unlike Quinnipiac, the DailyKos is decidedly unscientific and allows anyone who drops by its site to cast a vote.

It's not too surprising to find that the current straw poll from DailyKos provides a significantly different result than that of the more mainstream Quinnipiac.   The DailyKos poll has Bernie Sanders running first with 40% of the vote.   Elizabeth Warren is second with 18%, and Joe Biden is 3rd with 16% - even with his week of intense publicity.  Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana is fourth with 9%, and Beto O'Rourke is fifth with just 2 percent.  Washington Governor Jay Inslee is sixth with 1%, and he is followed closely by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar also at 1 percent.  "Other" claimed 3% of the straw poll vote, as did "unsure."

From the DailyKos unscientific results it would look as though Beto O'Rourke's popularity may be suffering at the expense of Pete Buttigieg, and that Bernie Sanders' supporters may have a strong interest in showing their strength in every possible venue, even an internet straw poll.  It is also possible that Bernie's national organization may be encouraging its mailing list to visit DailyKos and participate in the poll.  Regardless of their motivations, it would appear that the left edge of the Democratic Party is less enthralled with Joe Biden than the rest of the party is.

It is also interesting the Senator Kamala Harris of California did not place in either poll.   Politics is an extremely fluid medium, and that may change markedly in the next round of polling - especially after the way she humiliated Attorney General William Barr in yesterday's Senate Judiciary hearing.  Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey also turned in a solid performance at that hearing, and his star may experience a rise as well.

Polls are just snapshots capturing a single moment in time, and in a couple of more weeks they may look very different than they do today.

Buckle up, buttercup.  It's still a long haul to the general election!

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