Doeden blasts unfavorable poll. As usual, he’s all rhetoric, no substance
A just-released KELO-commissioned poll conducted by Emerson College, shows incumbent Larry Rhoden way, way ahead of Toby Doeden as we head into the Republican primary runoff for the gubernatorial nomination.
The poll, with a 4.3% margin of error, has Rhoden ahead, 62% to 32%, with 7% undecided.
I’m surprised by the size of margin, which I figured would be solid, but not this solid, because I couldn’t see many Johnson supporters backing Toby, whose property tax-elimination promise was turned into confetti by knowledgeable critics (me included) who tore it to pieces.
Among those critics was one of South Dakota’s leading experts on taxation, USD law professor Thomas E. Simmons, whose multi part analysis of Doeden’s plan here in The Standard sliced and diced Doeden’s main campaign theme into the rhetorical bits of garbage that it is.
For his part, Doeden has slammed the Emerson pollsters, whom he adored last March when they had him leading in the primary. Says Doeden, via Facebook, “the paid-off media is attempting to influence the outcome of this election with a very fake poll.”
Beyond the fact that Doeden’s grammatical ineptitude is displayed by his ignorance of the fact that “media” is plural (“medium” is singular), Doeden’s knee jerk response, saying the media are “paid off” is plenty laughable. He bought and promoted the same pollsters last March when their polling results showed him leading in the primary.
He liked them then, but now that they bear bad news, Emerson’s pollsters are “very fake.”
I did some checking on Emerson College’s polling credibility and it turns out the organization is highly regarded and considered to be among the least-biased of polling firms.
Harking back to the Bard, the fault, dear Doeden, is not in our polls, but in our selves.
John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission.
Photo: John Tsitrian
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