Allen Weh narrowly won last week’s non-scientific poll on this site asking who should be the GOP nominee for governor next year. He’s trying to capitalize on that fact in a news release sent today.
While pointing out that the poll isn’t scientific, the news release from the Weh campaign says the poll “on one of the state’s most popular political blogs” shows that Weh “is the preferred GOP nominee for governor in 2010.”
“I’m thankful people took the time to participate,” Weh said in the release. “The results reveal that New Mexicans believe I’m the strongest candidate to take on Diane Denish in 2010. They’re tired of the corruption, and they’re tired of being ignored. It’s time to get state government back to business.”
While I’m flattered that the Weh campaign takes my site so seriously, the reality is that I intend the non-scientific polls for fun only. It’s no secret that such polls can be manipulated.
In my experience, winning a poll on this site, especially when there are a high number of voters, is a sign of a campaign’s organizational strength, if anything. While this site’s polls usually have around 200 voters, this one had 438 voters.
Which means someone, or more likely more than one someone, made an intentional effort to get people to this site to vote in the poll. Out of that came a Weh victory.
Take it for what it’s worth. But it’s too early to say that Weh or anyone else is “the preferred GOP nominee for governor in 2010.”