www.teamkaine.org

I quote from this post:
"Gods, guns and gays"

Polytheism, Jerome?

A good man developed the southern strategy, which was a strategy that built off the Republican party's inability to turn their racial tolerance into electoral success. You will recall, the Republican party - was the party that liberated the slaves
and the Democrats, in the south, were staunch racists. People like Zell Miller openly supported segregation. The Democrats used their ability to block civil rights legislation throughout the era of civil disobedience, in the south.

The strategy that is being used now is to turn America into a fascist state. Race has nothing to do with it. Its about fascism, Jerome.

One god. God money.

Watching the clips of the debates on washingtonpost.com, and being surrounded by media coverage of them here in Arlington, I am amazed that Kaine is not crushing Kilgore. Kilgore sounds like a buffoon. Kaine has to hammer home: Kilgore wants to embark on the most expensive traffic plan ever while cutting your taxes more - he is lying somewhere in that. Kilgore is part of the Gilmore team that ruined Virginia's budget during a nation-wide time of economic boom. Warner and I restored it (he is hitting this hard, but not hard enough). Kilgore has publicly stated that he wants to outlaw abortion. 57% of Virginians want abortion to remain legal. Kilgore wants to suppress what the majority of Virginians want. I have heard tell that Warner is supporting Tim, but I don't see him anywhere.... I want to see Mark Warner stumping hard for Tim, especially in the parts of VA Mark won where Tim is less likely to be popular - SW Virginia, far out suburbs of NoVa and Richmond....

that all but one percent of the increased Kaine voters came from the previous unsure/undecided column.  This bodes well for us with 12% still in that category.  If we can take 2/3 of that 12%, then we can win the race.  Of course, we STILL have to make sure we GOTV better than the Reps.  In the end, the race is won by the party with the most registered voters showing up at the polls.

I agree with Jerrome that this is where Kilgore will center his campaign.  So how should Kaine react?  Here are some ideas that I have:

1. Reframe the shelters issue from being one of "decency" to one of law and order.  Kaine should oppose Kilgore's stand not because it is "indecent," but because it is unsafe to the general population.  You want these laborers to congregate in one place; it is better, safer, for all concerned.  In order to do that, you have to have some place for them to congregate.

2. Try to get some big business types to advertise the fact that day laborers promote economic growth.  This advertising is not something the campaign should do itself.  But it should encourage businesses that rely on this labor to publically declare its economic benefits.  

3. The issue of day laborers should be used, quietly (using micro targeting techniques Jerome talked about last week),  as a wedge issue separating the business groups that rely on day laborers from supporing Kilgore.

4. Register every breathing hispanic eligible to vote.

In short, the "push back" on this issue should be done in a way that strengthens Kaine's image for toughness and as a savy leader who knows how to promote economic growth.

Actually, your table aside, Rasmussen doesn't include Potts in their poll.  They ask about Kaine, Kilgore, or "other."

In the last poll where Potts was included, he polled at 9%.  My conclusion is that ~4% of voters know Potts by name.  They don't know what he's running for, or who his opponents are, but they like him.  By not naming him -- and the guy's on the ballot, so why not? -- in their poll, Rasmussen doesn't accurately present the percentage of the vote that he'll get.

This is particularly noteworthy because polling also shows that Republicans support Potts at a 2:1 margin over Democrats, meaning that he's siphoning votes off of Kilgore.

Take 4% of Kilgore's percentage here and give them to Potts.  As you can see, that puts Kaine in the lead.

-Waldo Jaquith

It doesn't seem like Kaine gaining so much as Kilgore dropping.  Kaine seems to be holding steady around 40%, with Kilgore falling from 46-47% in June to 43% now.

Kaine has to start picking up some of these voters.