Poll Results: Everybody Loses!
We knew as soon as we wrote yesterday's poll that we'd made a fatal mistake. There was no way Katherine Harris could lose it. It's our fault as much as hers - the poor woman can barely fire a campaign manager before we start alleging that she's a bad candidate. So Harris won the poll with 42.7%. Ho-hum. What about the rest of the Worst Campaigners in America?
At #2 with 17.8% of the vote, we've got Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi (pictured above). The old trope about politics - "Hollywood for ugly people" - has rarely been as true as it is in New York, where this mutton-faced schlub is considered "dashing" and "handsome" and possessing "charisma to burn." Tom's problem: He believed his hype. So he ran against one of the most famous and popular men in American politics, Eliot Spitzer, on a platform of firing the rest of the state's politicians and putting tolls on the Long Island Expressway. Somehow, he failed to get any traction whatsoever.
The New York Post's Fred Dicker piled on Suozzi today :
Suozzi's not-ready-for-prime-time performance in what has become a painfully boring and repetitive countdown to the Sept. 12 primary has included such eyebrow-raising "high points" as rounding up the homeless in a Buffalo Park for a "rally" during his party's state convention, handing out bubble-gum-type playing cards with pictures of Spitzer described as an "All-Star," abandoning his pledge not to personally attack Spitzer and claiming in this week's NY1 debate that his Catholic religion prevented him from supporting same-sex marriages - even as he says he's pro-choice on abortion.
Suozzi's campaign spent $6 million during the first six months of the year and - at 9, 11 or 12 percent in the polls - got nothing whatsoever in return.
Suozzi finished 4.7 points ahead of the far more famous Rick Santorum, Cynthia McKinney polled 4.5%, and Michael Steele and Chris Bell (Democrat for governor of Texas) finished in single digits. How would they have fared in a Harris-less campaign? Hard to tell. Bell's allies e-mailed us to point out that he's in now on the air and polling second out of four candidates , not fourth, so maybe he would have been safe.
A few other nominees from the e-mail bag:
You really need to create a special JERRY SPRINGER dysfunctional family award for the KT McFarland campaign (she's in the GOP primary to take on Hillary and another ED "I like my candidates crazy" ROLLINS client) to date she's talked about outing and shunning her gay brother who later died from AIDS...accused her father (Augie Troia) of beating her and sexually molesting her as a child....then said that she was retracting the sexual molesting part because her shrink forced her to say it.....Dad called her a liar and threatened a NY POST reporter...her brother then told the same reporter (Ken Lovett) that she was "evil" and a "liar"....the brother then called in to a TV show and trashed her on the air.....all this on top of the fact that she claims Senator Clinton has had helicopters circling her house in the hamptons taking pictures...padding her resume and lying to the media about a host of issues....she makes Katherine Harris look like Maggie Thatcher.
I thought that's what Howard Dean was doing? Someone passed on this article on Nevada LT Gov candidate Bob Stupak, and he... hell, just read it .
Perched on a stool in a black suit, yellow tie and prescription aviator sunglasses, the 64-year-old seemed to say whatever came to mind. He frequently made mistakes, confusing the mayor with the governor, thousands with millions, and Michael Jackson with Michael Jordan. He called the Legislature useless and said there shouldn't be any taxes, but didn't explain how else government should run.
Let's let e-mailer Drew Steen bring it home:
Surely Tom Delay is running the worst campaign in the country: he is attempting via federal lawsuit to not run for Congress, and so far appears to be failing.
Previously: Poll: Who's Running the Worst Campaign in America?
-- David Weigel