Wow… she really takes it to Koster, and is seems like she has so much more experience than Jeff. Vote? Donnelly.

Seeing that Harris has a 10 point lead Maggie finally learns how to campaign.. too little,too late.

10 point lead 3 week ago, he has had no TV and cannot afford much more. The poll conducted by the dispatch was non-scientific.

This is a 2 candidate race, and Donnelly is the only one with Integrity.

Jeffy boy needed to have the discipline to spend the time fundraising… and it never happened.

Donnelly is the only one who can beat Koster the Imposter.

About time. What is she having a . . . pre election conversion. Jeff was rewarded with the lead in the polls by pointing some of the issues with Koster. Democratic voters long for someone that takes a stand. Just like he was the only candidate to take on Mike Gibbons when he tried to turn the same sex marriage issue into a political issue.

I will ask the people that have realized Koster is a problem to support Jeff who has been leading in the polls and got every single newspaper endorsment outside of Donnelly’s hometown. Koster got nothing. Margaret has very little support outside of Kansas City and St. Louis. One representative from Springfield and Becky Cook. That is it.

That isn’t a prescription for winning in a primary and certainly not in a general election. The story of the MArgaret Donnelly campaign will be that she was never able to build any support outside of the major metropolitan areas of the state. That ultimately doomed her.

Donnelly’s fundraising has faded the last week while Jeff’s have ballooned. Please don’t throw away your vote.

Donnelly would be a great attorney general but the position we are in requires voters to make smart decisions.

The poll was scientific. Jo or anyone that works for the Post can verify that. Jeff took a lead despite spending less money than the other canidates because he has run a smart tactical campaign.

I think Donnelly could put an end to this by releasing her internal numbers. But you know she will not do that. You may believe she is ahead because the campaign has told you that but everything that is happening in this race like Jeff getting all these late endorsments and his late fundrasing numbers tell you otherwise.

She is ripping off Jeff’s spot with the Jay Nixon quote. She has also tried to do what he did with his blog ads. If that strategy didn’t work why did she copy it.

I think it is pretty obvious what is going on in this race. Koster or Jeff Harris.

Question: has anyone seen any of Harris’ ads on television yet?

Jessica, has the P-D ever released their methodology?

The primary is less than a week away, and I am confused. Harris and Donnelly claim that Koster is running third. If Koster is losing, why are they attacking him? Are they attacking Koster because he is the only candidate in the race for Attorney General who has meaningful experience as an attorney? (He is the only candidate who has actually tried jury cases and run a prosecutor’s office.) Are they attacking Koster because they don’t want the Democratic voters to realize that Koster is the only moderate, and therefore the only candidate who has a chance to beat Gibbons in our consevative state? (NARAL is a militant pro-life group, and their “co-endorsement” of Harris and Donnelly would be used by Gibbons to expose them as the far left liberals that they are.) I know desperate people do desperate things, but why should Harris and Donnelly be worried about Koster if he is really going to finish third? The goal of the Democrats should be to win the general election. The Democrats should support the candidate who has the most experience, and the best chance to beat Gibbons. That is Koster, my friends. It is time to consider the obvious. Missouri is NOT a liberal state, and if Harris or Donnelly win the primary, Gibbons wins the general.

Clark

Long time Harris supporter here.
I am not a big tv watcher and I have not seen the ad. I have seen the Koster ad two or three times. My mother has seen it in Southeast Missouri and I know a number of people that have seen it in mid Missouri. Harris should win this area pretty easily and should win Southeast Missouri pretty easily.

Good Lord, are the Donnelly people so desperate now that they’re going to have their paid blogger (Clark) come on here and question the integrity of the Post Dispatch’s poll? The methodology was released, it was a reliable poll by a respected pollster, and it showed your candidate losing and losing badly.

As for fundraising, check the latest report. Harris nearly outraised Donnelly 2 to 1. He’s got the lead in the polls, the fundraising momentum, and a much better ad. And he’s going to win.

No wonder Clark’s so nervous, and Donnelly’s mimicking Harris’ every move. I like Donnelly, but she’s done. Harris is going to win.

I think Taylor has it right. Missouri is NOT a liberal state. The more liberal a candidate is, the less chance he or she has of winning a statewide general election. Harris and Donnelly fear Koster for the same reasons that Gibbons fears Koster - he has the most and best experience, and is a moderate. I don’t know who is going to win this primary, but you can bet all your nickels that Gibbons is praying that Koster loses. Gibbons fears Koster. Gibbons would love to face Harris or Donnelly. His message wil be that they are just ultra-liberal politicians. And he is absolutely correct about that. A vote for Harris or Donnelly in the primary is a vote for Gibbons to win the general.

All polls deserve to be taken with a grain of salt, especially one that shows a candidate ahead in St. Louis who has little presence in the area. I’m still curious about the methodology. If someone would post me a link, I would be most grateful.

Gretchen, thanks for answering my question. I don’t watch much TV, but I have seen an ad from Margaret and an ad from Koster. My wife, who watches a little bit more TV, has seen both several times. Neither of us has seen an ad from Harris.

This just makes me chuckle. Donnelly, whose number one qualification is that she’s the choice of the rich ladies in central St. Louis County’s “women’s caucus” resorts to innuendo about the ehtics “scandal” she and Harris spent the past six months trying to generate a headline about. Pathetic. Can’t wait o see her and the rich girls club get their collective butts handed to them next week.

Is Mike McMillan a rich lady, bemused?

Margaret Donnelly’s number one qualification for the job is the 20+ years of experience of fighting for Missouri families as an attorney, in local government, and as a legislator. None of her competitors, R or D, can compete with the breadth and depth of her experience.

Does Donnelly have 20+ years of experience “fighting for Missouri families” on top of her 20+ years as a divorce lawyer? Oh, sorry, that is what you are referring to, my bad.

FYI, most people do not consider being a divorce lawyer “fighting for Missouri families” rather that is Missouri families fighting.

I’d put Margaret’s record defending abused children and spouses up against any of her rivals.

This is a link to the research 2000 website. http://research2000.us/about/
Del Ali is a fairly well known pollster. I would think while his poll may be off a little it wouldn’t be off by a lot.

Unfortunately, Taylor, I don’t think Koster is running third. He is second and that is why he is such a threat.

The problem with Donnelly for both the primary and geneeral has always been that she hasn’t been able to generate much support outside of Kansas City and St. Louis. One representative from Springfield and Becky Cook. That is it.

Not only does it make it tough to win a primary, it is even tougher to win a general. If you look at our candidates that have been elected statewide in the last four or five elections the only one from St. Louis to win is Nancy Farmer who had a rural sounding name. The rest and I mean all of the rest like Carnahan, Holden, Maxwell, Cook, Montee, Nixon, and McCaskill were not from St. Louis. We have to be realistic here. A vote for Donnelly could help Koster win. Even if Donnelly wins the primary she will face a very difficult general election. I will work hard to help her win but it will be very tough. I think Jeff would be a better attorney general. He worked in the office and he was the democratic leader. But even if you don’t believe you have to realize that Donnelly is fading. Jeff got every newspaper endorsement outside of St. Louis. I also got an e-mail saying he got the UCFW endorsement. Donnelly’s fundraising has faded the last week while Jeff’s have ballooned. Please don’t waste your vote.

I’ll go even one better, I would put Margaret’s ability to act as a divorce lawyer up against any of her rivals. In divorce court, she is the BEST!!!!

Question, If donnelly had polls which showed Harris in the lead, why would she attack Koster and not Harris? I would think she would attack Harris, correct?

I know about the P/D Poll from a few weeks ago, but, if Koster was not ahead in everyones polls today, why is everyone attacking him?

Harris supporters seem to be trying to scare the Donnelly supporters out of the race but I do not get why anyone would believe Harris is ahead. Based on the recent ads, Koster must be ahead, correct?

Jessica, we’ll see what shakes out next Tuesday. I expect that Margaret will be competitive all over the state and will win the Democratic nomination.

I’m still waiting for a real link to methodology on that poll.

Clark, if the Donnelly campaign wants to dispute the Post Dispatch poll, then why don’t you release your own numbers? Has Margaret done a poll in the last three weeks? If so, then let us know what it said. Questioning the integrity of a credible pollster isn’t going to win you any points. It just shows how desperate Donnelly’s has become.

Shecky,

Has Harris done any polls? What are his internal numbers?

Jeff’s ad which is running throughout the state is all positive. That’s a fact. Early on he differentiated himself from Koster but his recent ad which is the biggest buy is all positive.

This information can lead me to believe only one thing - that Koster is looking pretty good in Margaret’s internal polls. If Koster was lagging behind, she wouldn’t waste her time and money on attacking him.

Although I think it’s going to be tight, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see Koster walk away with the primary.

However, not only does that scare Jeff and Margaret, it also scares Mike Gibbons. Mike Gibbons knows the deal is pretty close to done if Koster wins… and it wouldn’t surprise me if Gibbons supporters are all rooting for either Jeff or Margaret because they know that means a Republican victory in November.

Clark,

What the heck do you know about her competence in defending abused children or adults? Why don’t you tell us where we can learn more about her great work as a GAL on behalf of the court, that is suppose to be in the best interest of the children.

Wow, there is so much hostility out hear from the Koster folk. While I’m a Harris supporter, I think it’s unfair to attack the work Donnelly has done. It is not fair to classify her as a divorce attorney, and even if that was all she did, most divorce attorneys aren’t bad people. A majority work hard to reach amicable solutions for their clients in what is one of the toughest times their clients will experience. Its a tough job and is not one that should be blindly attacked by people who have no clue what they are talking about.

Saying that, I just don’t think Donnelly is the best candidate for Attorney General. I feel that Harris trumps Donnelly in basically every category. He has an impressive legal background (which even though the Koster supporters will attack this statement, it is true), he has worked closely with Jay Nixon while working in the Attorney General’s office and as the majority leader, and he stood up for against Matt Blunt and the Republicans in the General Assembly, including Chris Koster. Harris has the best understanding of inner workings of the office and is best prepared to lead the office from the get go.

Harris also has a broader base of support through the state than DonnellyI. This will help a great deal in the general election. Harris has shown he is the strongest candidate in rural Missouri, he his right next to Koster in KC, and he is ahead of Donnelly in St. Louis. Its been brought up in previous posts, but St. Louis candidates haven’t had the most success in statewide raises in the last few years.

When all of this is considered with the fact Harris’ fundraising has picked up drastically in the last month and he has the most cash on hand of any Democrat candadiate, even after Donnelly’s most recent loan, things are still looking great for Harris.

Not a Koster fan, but he really got the hose here. “Money laundering” and “illegal activity”…true, but not in the way most voters will think.

You really must be confused, ConfusedGuy:

1. I don’t work for Harris. Clark does work for Donnelly. I wouldn’t have any access to Harris’ polls (if he has any), while Clark would.
2. Donnelly campaign is trying to say the PD poll isn’t accurate, not Harris. If they want to prove it wrong, then they need to put out some evidence.

Thanks for playing. Please try again.

I’ve heard from several people that Donnelly’s campaign keeps trying to push some bogus poll numbers around. The problem is that they won’t ever actually give the numbers to anyone, so no one believes them. If the polling numbers were real, then they’d love to show us all what they’re poll says. So Donnelly’s campaign should either stop lying to people or they should back their hearsay up with some facts.

So what do you say, Clark? If you’re going to knock the PD poll and you campaign is going to keep saying the poll is wrong, then show us the numbers?

Shecky, of course Harris wouldn’t publicly question the P-D poll, because it’s a cash cow for him. I don’t know if the P-D poll can be trusted because I don’t know what their methodology was. Did they use an autodialer or a live caller to conduct the questionnaire? What were the exact questions that were asked? And did they rotate the order of the names? That’s the methodological information I’m looking for, not a website from the pollster patting itself on the back.

We have internal polls that show us doing very well, but with a larger number of undecideds than the P-D poll. We’re not going to release the internal poll because the trade-off of revealing specific information to our competitors is not all that great. I’m sure the other campaigns have their own internal polls, and of course, they are wisely not releasing them, either. We’ll see when the results of the only poll that really matters come in on Tuesday evening.

Even if I had not seen our numbers, a couple of things make me very skeptical that Harris has such a solid lead. One is that he hasn’t been up on the air at the time of the poll, while Koster had just begun his TV campaign and we were just about to. Harris was absent from the airwaves for a long time.

Another is the “fact” that Harris had a lead in St. Louis. He’s not from St. Louis and has very little presence in the area, just a handful of endorsements. And as a blogger, I know that blog ads don’t penetrate all that far yet in the Missouri blogosphere. So do you really think he has a lead in St. Louis? And if he doesn’t really have a lead in Saint Louis, then do you really think he has a lead elsewhere?

Honesty, integrity and morality are qualities the AG should possess.
Koster the impostor doesn’t have it and neither does Dangerous Donnelly.

Ms. Donnelly seems to be an honorable person, but I question that when i see attack ads like this. I question her qualifications if her whole advertising campaign will consist of trying to smear the frontrunner, who certainly appears to be far better qualified. Mr. Gibbons must be sitting and chuckling to himself. The last thing he wants to see is Koster in the general election.

What will double D do when she comes in third?

Hey…

I’ve been calling all weekend for Margaret (because, you know, she is the only candidate in the AG’s primary who is not doing any “robocalls”), and I’ve been assigned to call the rural, outstate areas, and she has a TON of support there. I haven’t spoken to one person who has said they are supporting either of the other two candidates, and I have spoken to a lot of people who have said that they are strongly supporting her.

I’ve worked on a lot of campaigns, doing phoning, and people have never hesitated to tell me when they are supporting another candidate than the one I am working for. So, given the responses I have been getting from my PERSONAL contact with voters, I would say that a statement that she doesn’t have enough support outstate is just dead wrong.

From my experience, it seems like people saying “Margaret can’t win outstate” are threatened by Margaret’s viability, and are hoping to influence people’s votes by scare tactics, or trying to create some self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’ve been phoning on my own time, as a volunteer, and I just want to state, for the record, that there are a LOT of people outstate who are strongly for Margaret. And we are calling voters who were previously pegged as “undecided,” not people who have already expressed support for Margaret. Just to nip that critcism in the bud.

http://www.donnelly08.com