Congratulations to whomever notified Reid Wilson of
Real Clear Politics that Diane Benson is running for Congress. After first writing that
In November, the Republican nominee will face former State Rep. Ethan Berkowitz,
He later makes a correction. Well, he calls it a 'clarification.'
Clarification: Young, or Parnell, will not necessarily face Berkowitz in November. Berkowitz has his own primary, in which he will face Diane Benson, who ran against Young in 2006 and ran for governor in 2002. Benson held Young to 57% in 2006, his lowest win percentage since 1994. National Democrats will privately admit they favor Berkowitz, but Benson has run before and could benefit from better name recognition.
A pollster phoned me a few weeks ago and asked if I would vote for the winner of Young/Parnell, or Berkowitz. I said, "what about Benson?" He didn't know who Benson was and after some back-and-forth he rephrased the question as "if the election were between Young or Parnell and Berkowitz, who would you pick?"
ReplyDeleteThanks for the story Kenrick.
ReplyDeleteIn one way a pollster is a little different from a journalist. The pollster works for a candidate and asks the questions he's paid to ask. So if Berkowitz hired him, Berkowitz wouldn't be interested in paying for the the Benson - Parnell or Young question, since that would mean he was out of the race himself.
But when journalists write as though there were no Democratic primary they are making an editorial comment, intentionally or not.