Poll Shows Coleen Rowley Surging - MN District 2 No Longer “Safe” Republican

Northfield, MN (PRWEB) October 20, 2006

Coleen Rowley, the retired FBI agent who first rose to prominence for speaking out about agency miscues in the days before the 9/11 attacks, has gained significant ground on two-term incumbent John Kline in their contest for Minnesota’s Second District congressional seat. According to a SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KSTP-TV, Kline edges Rowley 50% to 42%. This marks a 7-point gain for Rowley and a 5-point drop for Kline since the previous SurveyUSA poll, released on September 27. The Rowley campaign has closed the gap by 12 points in 19 days.

Rowley attributes the surge to growing voter discontent. “Polling has consistently shown George Bush’s approval ratings in the 30’s, and a double-digit preference for a change to a Democratic Congress,” said Rowley. “John Kline has spent four years reliably voting with the GOP leadership and George Bush. It’s no wonder that Kline is sinking in the polls as well.”

Rowley went on to highlight the differences between John Kline’s vision for the country and her own. “John Kline demands an open-ended commitment of U.S. forces in Iraq, even though it’s clear the administration has no plan for success. He has been one of the leading advocates for privatizing Social Security, and he has placed partisan politics above all other concerns, including the needs of our disabled veterans. I believe we must redeploy our forces in Iraq as quickly as we can safely do so, I believe we need universal health care to solve the problem of 46 million uninsured Americans, and I believe we need leaders in Washington who are serious about enacting comprehensive ethics reform and conducting meaningful oversight of the Bush administration.”

When asked the question: “If the election for U.S. House of Representatives were today, and you were standing in the voting booth right now, who would you vote for? Republican John Kline, DFL candidate Coleen Rowley, or Independence Party candidate Douglas Williams,” Rowley gets the support of 81% of Democrats and Kline is supported by 91% of Republicans. Independent votes are evenly split between the two candidates. A gender gap seems to be in play as Kline leads by 14 points among men and only by 3 points among women.

900 adults from Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District were interviewed on October 13-15. 804 were registered to vote. Of these, 519 were judged to be “likely” voters. The margin of sampling error on this poll was +/- 4.4%.

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