Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Davis ahead in primary

Artur Davis is ahead in the Democratic primary for Governor of Alabama, but there are some warning signs for him in the polling as well. Davis is getting 38% to 28% for Ron Sparks and 9% for Sam Franklin Thomas.

Despite his lead there are actually more primary voters with an unfavorable (34%) than favorable (28%) opinion of Davis. That may tie back to his recent vote against the Democratic health care plan. 80% of likely primary voters support the bill that passed last week compared to only 14% opposed to it.

Despite his serving in statewide office a majority of primary voters don't know enough about Sparks to have formed an opinion of him. 27% view him favorably to 17% unfavorably with 57% ambivalent.

Sparks is ahead 33-29 with white voters, but Davis has the overall lead thanks to a 48-23 advantage with African Americans. There is not a strong split along ideological lines in how the candidates are faring right now with Davis up 14 among moderates and 8 with liberals and conservatives.

Sparks certainly has an issue to play with here- it's not often to have a primary where the leading candidate recently cast a vote that 80% of the electorate disagrees with- but whether he will have enough resources to milk that issue for what it's worth and defeat Davis remains to be seen.

Full results here

3 comments:

  1. I saw this video on another blog of Sparks who is apparently against healthcare reform. I think he says one thing to one audience and another thing to another audience. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMNU81LdUpY

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  2. Sparks has a white message and black message. We weant some one who speaks the samr to all Albamaians (Artur Davis)

    Yes, he voted no on the health care vote but so did the other democrate from Alabama and all the other delegates from our state.

    let's remember who fought for the Black Farmers (not Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks)Yes, Artur Davis fought for Black Farmers.

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