Did the Daily Kos also poll the Democratic Senators up for recall?

Polls against unnamed generic opponents provide little insight. In a low-turnout recall election results will depend on how hard each side works. If Sen. Darling keeps cancelling appearances in her district, like she did at town halls in WFB and Menomonee Falls this past weekend, people will begin to wonder why. One reason may be that she needs to travel to DC for fundraisers with out of state lobbyists, which she's apparently doing this week.

Last week I was getting 100 signatures/hour in Menomenee Falls.

Also, signature gatherers -- we MUST get the email info of people who sign so that we can email them and remind them to vote when the time comes.

Why aren't we hearing about 1). The chances for relection of the Democratic senators if recalled and 2). The positive actions that those of us who are in support of our incumbent Senator can take to help him/her retain his/her office. It's easy to sign a petition when you're unhappy, we want to hear what we can do to HELP the senators we elected and continue to support to them during these recall efforts. What we should NOT due is look at these imperfect polls and think we don't have to do anything.

She is cutting $1.8 million from Whitefish Bay Schools. Not cool, dude.

Darling is cutting $2.7 million from Germantown Schools. But Walker is flying around the state in a taxpayer funded plane telling us all how broke we are.

Time to move on....

If you care about working families, you will recall the republican senators. If you support the corportate elite, you will vote to keep them in office.

If you want to keep public education, you will recall the republican senators. If you want our schools to be privatized, you will vote to keep them in office.

Boy, this poll is not good news for Recall Darling, esp. since conducted by Daily Kos, a liberal website that suports Republican recall. To say its invalid because its "against unnamed opponents" ignores the fact that many (dare I say, most) of the public are aware that Sheldon is running hard to get the potential Democratic nominee if the recall is successful and, perhaps even more telling, that any election most likely be a vote for or against Darling, notso much for a Democrat. Before discounting, be careful one doesn't chose and pick the polls they want to use in agruements. You can't praise the negative Walker polls and ignore this poll. I don't think there will be much movement in this poll because I can't fathom there are many "undecideds" left on this issue. You would have to living under a rock not to be aware of what's going on and what each side is saying (pint, TV, mouth to mouth, protests, blogs and sites like this, etc.).

If this was a national race and the polls looked like this, The DNC (or RNC if numbers looked as bad for their side) would pull support and move onto a diff. arena. Thats what both National Committees did in '08 and '10. While I am sure the Darling Recall movement will press ahead, looks like it maybe a tough road and perhaps efforts should shift to Republican targets more vulnerable (as pointed out in the Kos poll).

BWEB: If you want to accept union enforced mediocrity in education, by all means please vote the liberal/union agenda. You do realize the quality of most private/parochial education far exceeds the quality of public education? Private/parochial education are far better at maximizing education dollars than public schools(certainly one aspect of this is not having to provide certain services). The unions do NOT want you to have choice as it will expose their agenda as a fraud. Unions no longer work to protect members rights rather they work to enforce that everyone is treated the same. Anyone that has had to work in a union environment knows UNION=ENFORCED MEDIOCRITY. They are one of the great forces in our loss of competitiveness in the US(certainly not the only one). I'm all for our children having a choice and making the public school teachers compete against the private school teachers. What are the public school teachers afraid of?

Don't know when these polls were taken but I will have to say they are not current. The latest count on her recall is over half way there already and it has only been on going for a week or so now. The deal is not done until the count is in.

Also, if recall is successful in forcing an new election, not sure Wasserman with his "Tax and Spend "history (when in the Assembly, he voted 100% with Doyle on every tax increase) would be the best Democratic canidate in these times of budget responsibility. Perhaps a "Chris Abele" type canidate who is an "outsider" and doesn't have the Doyle tax increase baggage would be a better canidate, if it gets that far.

the key line in this story is the last line. "Daily Kos did not poll in the Democratic districts."
OK. I can live with the story - it tells me about real estate more than anything!

No, I don't believe the poll results. First, it doesn't mirror the anti-darling sentiment I've encountered while gathering recall signatures. Secondly, I don't see how one can conduct a "scientific" poll without even knowing who her opponent will be.

One must remember that the Darling camp is now in damage control mode. They have to put some propaganda out there to show that they are unphased. Trust me, they're not only phased, they're reeling with the certainty of a bitter recall election this summer looming large.

Let's remember that Darling hardly has a mandate in the 8th SD. She eeked out a victory in 2008 by a narrow 1,007 votes. Given the backlash over her support of Walker's union-busting legislation, this pundit says she'd lose hands down.

Another way to read the Daily Kos poll results is this; 44 percent of voters would vote for ANOYONE but Darling!

Obama easily won this district for goodness sake. Sandy Pasch would absolutely destroy Darling. Republicans will never stop wrecking this country -- our only option is to force them to stop hurting America.

Okay, explain this; Darling defeated Wasserman by a mere 1 percent of the vote in November, 2008. Why would she now enjoy a commanding margin now?

Again, I place no stock in a popularity poll that compares an incumbent with an "unknown candidate."

Look, a poll that compares Darling's chances against an as yet unnamed challenger has NO value.

Much depends on who the challenger is and how he/she addresses the key issues. If, for example, Russ Feingold moved into the district to challenge Alberta, do you think the margin would still be 52/44%, I think not.

Doesn't Alberta have a picture that was taken this decade? Her uniquitous headshot is so old the photographer must have been Matthew Brady!

Ummm, I think you missed my point about Feingold. No, I doubt Russ would be interested in running against Alberta. But WHO her opponent happens to be has everything in the world to do with the division of the vote.

If, for example, I were to run against Alberta, the vote would likely be lopsidely in her favor -- maybe 95% - 5%. If a more credible challenger emerged, be it Russ feingold, JFK, or Sheldon Wasserman -- the split would be entirely different.

The pont is this; the Daily Kos poll is indicative of nothing. You can't hold a popularity contest with only one contestant.

Anybody like anagrams? "Recall Alberta Darling" anagrams to "Really bad call-girl rental."

You know Kierman, some times you almost use rational arguments, but the you come back with unbelievably immature comments like the above. Calling Darling a "bad call-girl". If this is your humor... Just how old are you. I'm sure you will be glad to know this is my last response to you. Don't want to waste any more time.

And by the way, it's your own patty's poll.

My hunch is that DC Dems want to grab the three easiest seats and call it a game (conveniently this poll shows only three seats where generic dems hold big leads). But the difference between left and right is that the left is bottom up rather than top down. We folks on the bottom tell the top what to do. And the DC Dems are hearing us loud and clear over here in the Northshore. We've had enough of Darling.

New poll happening tonight. Have you gotten it? 3/15/11. Neighbor did - I'm sharing the email with you in its entirety, no analysis or comment.

"---------- Forwarded message ----------

For what it's worth, I just was called by the following number: 1-414-292-9451. It was a national researcher... According to the caller, it was Call Research, from Salt Lake City. When I asked, the survey administrator identified herself as "Odess -- I mean Michelle Jackson." This is the website I was given (again, when I asked): wwwdotventuredatadotcom. I called the number back and that was the name of the voice recording.

The purpose of the call was, at first, to gauge opinion on a potential recall of Alberta Darling. But it got into very push poll type questions towards the end:

-- Does the fact that the recall is being funded by out-of-state unions affect your opinion?

-- Does the fact that union sympathizers have given Darling death threats change your opinion?

-- Does the fact that the highest public employee in Madison is a bus driver making $157K / year change your opinion?

-- Does the fact that the union used collective bargaining power to get viagra change your opinion?"

Typical push poll tactics that both sides use ( I have recieved similiar poll calls over the past weeks from both sides) and that I hate. That being said, I truely doubt the the poll in this story, by Daily Kos, a admitted liberal website supporting Recall of Republicans, used the type of obviously right wing biased questions quoted in the comment from Jenny Heyden. Wrong party.... which makes the Kos poll even more interesting.

I would like to recall that 30-year- old picture of Senator Darling. Can she provide something a bit closer to her 2011 self? I'm just saying.

Hey 'bewildered' enjoy your last 44 days in office. If you weren't so afraid of your constituents, you would actually talk to us and know how angry we all are at you (instead jetting off to DC and begging the Koch Bros for more money). It turns out that at your core you are just a deeply bitter old person.

The democrats created public schools because they realized that schools should focus on education, not profits and marketing. The republicans have done everything they can to wreck this great public institution (as well as other great inventions like pensions, good jobs, and social security).

No matter which party is in office, the schools will not be improved by larger classes, less supplies, and disrespected teachers. People think that schools are predictable, like factories. Kids are not widgets. Often someone will not know how valuable their teachers were to them until many years later. Teachers are being held responsible for far too many variables that are beyond their control. Just about every politician I've ever heard pays lip service to "children being America's most valuable resource", "let's do more FOR THE CHILDREN", and the ever popular, "our children are the future of America". They then turn around and cut funding for schools, and single out teachers as the source of all the problems. Why not cut out the bogus rhetoric and admit that, in reality, society feels that kids are an expensive pain who often don't appreciate what they're given, and I didn't like my teachers so much when I was in school, so why should I give them anything, now that I'm a taxpayer? In truth, education is almost the only thing that offers a child a chance at the American dream. Is this what we really want to cut first? Dave Koven

Bob stop being a troll. So many lies so little time. Teachers already have 16 unpaid furlough days for three years and now they are getting a 20 percent pay cut.

Republicans just believe what their authority figures tell them (rich people, powerful people, religious leaders). When people think, the left always wins, which is why republicans hate education.

OMG GOP

How many of the angry voters who want her replaced only use cell phones? Did the pollsters call cell phones, or only landlines?

I got a call from a different poll the other day on my cellphone. I think you're on a hunting expedition with that one, N.

Looking at the raw data of the poll: First Darling’s district is the largest one (by far) but has only 1333 survey respondents while all other Senate districts others have 2200 or more. Odd.

Next, there are differences between their reported numbers and the raw data. For example, they report 93 of 1333 African American responses (7%) while in the raw data they provide there are only 80 African American responses (again out of 1333). Moreover, this district has roughly 15% AA population. They report 25% support for Darling among AAs, but the raw data shows only 20% support. There is a similar discrepancy with 18-29 years olds. They report 106 responses but the raw data has 40. And there should be double the number of surveyed people in this demographic.

I’ll admit I’m not a seasoned pollster, and maybe there’s a simple explanation. But since the total counts in the raw data agrees with the posted count (1333) I assume I’m looking at the same data as the polling firm. recallalbertadarling.org has sent an email asking for an explanation.
http://recallalbertadarling.org/wp/

Kiernan: A college-educated teacher should be able to learn how to use spell check, no? It devalues your socialist forum opinions.

I'm normally a fine speller, and will pit my grammatical skills against those of anyone who posts in this forum. I suppose my spelling would be somewhat better today if I were not recovering from surgery and under the influence of Oxycodone.

For what it's worth, your nit-picking criticism seems to be more rooted in disgareement with my views than dissatisfaction with my typing.

Thanks, Joe, for your thoughtful wishes. Didn't mean to be so edgy, but, frankly, I can't remember a time when I've been in more constant pain. Oxycodone helps, but it's far from the ideal. I'm either in a semi-coherent stupor or in agony. Yes, balance issues have become apparent.