Take the Poll

During the fall PPP broke new ground for a polling company by letting readers of our blog vote on four different occasions for which swing state we polled in a given week. We are proud to be industry leaders for transparency and interaction with the people who follow our polls.

Continuing in that vein we're giving the public the opportunity over the next 48 hours to decide who we test next in a hypothetical match up with Richard Burr. We've already looked at how Roy Cooper and Heath Shuler stack up. We took nominations on the blog over the weekend and are offering the choices of former State Senator Cal Cunningham, former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt, State Senator Linda Garrou, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, and Congressman Mike McIntyre.

Some folks wonder why we're testing these match ups so early. Two years ago PPP showed publicly how vulnerable Elizabeth Dole was well before most purveyors of conventional wisdom were willing to accept that she might not be reelected. Her approval ratings were consistently mediocre throughout 2007, and she polled under 50% against an assortment of potential challengers ranging from the well known (Mike Easley) to the relatively obscure (Ted Kaplan.) That monthly set of polling data reinforced the emerging reality that Dole was no longer the political dynamo she had once been, and helped fuel the persistent efforts of Democratic leaders to find a strong challenger to Dole even as many passed on the race.

We're taking votes until 10 AM Wednesday morning and will release the results next week.