Madison Straw Poll Picks: Herseth Sandlin, Heidepriem, Olson, Fargen, Lange

More analysis and crosstabs here!

The Lake County Democrats conducted a straw poll on Madison's Main Street Friday. 48 hardy political souls came into town from the lake long enough to toss ballots in the giant mayo jar. Here's how they voted on the U.S. House, South Dakota Governor, District 8 State Senate, and District 8 State House races:

Candidate	number	%
U.S. House
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D)	33	79%
Kristi Noem (R)	8	19%
B. Thomas Marking (I)	1	2%
S.D. Governor
Scott Heidepriem (D)	28	67%
Dennis Daugaard (R)	14	33%
District 8 Senate
Clark Schmidtke, Jr. (I)	19	48%
Russell Olson (R)	21	53%
District 8 House
Mitch Fargen (D)	32	74%
Gerald Lange (D)	27	63%
Patricia Stricherz (R)	3	7%
Jason Bjorklund (I)	10	23%

Jason! You've got momentum! Fire up that campaign machine!

Interesting to note that if there is frustration among Dems with Herseth Sandlin's Blue-Doggery, it doesn't show up in this straw poll. I heard some dissatisfaction expressed by our Dem-leaning crowd, but not enough, apparently, to hand our lone seat in Congress over to the next Michele Bachmann.

The participants in the poll identified their political affiliation thus:

Party	number	%
Democrat	23	48%
Republican	10	21%
None	10	21%
Independent	3	6%
Other	2	4%

Margin of error is larger than Russell Olson's campaign war chest. Scientific rigor be jiggered, I'm working up some cross-tabs to look for interesting phenomena (cross-party voting, SHS-Bjorklund voters, etc.) Stay tuned! In the meantime, your speculations, ruminations, and hearty chortles are welcome.