Rep. Ben Cardin?s campaign manager Ken Morley fired off an e-mail to reassure supporters after a recent poll on the U.S. Senate race had the campaigns of ex-NACCP president Kweisi Mfume and former Baltimore County Executive Dennis Rasmussen crowing about their numbers.
The Washington Post telephone survey of about 400 Democratic voters published Sunday found Mfume ahead of Cardin 31 percent to 25 percent, the first poll to show Mfume in the lead.
In unpublished numbers the Rasmussen camp said they had obtained, Rasmussen ran third with 8 to 10 percent, said his campaign manager Gerry Patnode. The poll did show Cardin doing better than Mfume in the race against Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.
Morley emphasized that Cardin “is the only Democrat who we can count on to defeat Michael Steele this November.” He didn?t even mention that Mfume led Cardin, other than to say that “this is very competitive race” and said, “Other polls taken during the same time period show Ben in the lead.”
Mfume campaign consultant Joe Trippi mocked Cardin?s response. “It was pretty funny to like totally ignore the fact that you?re not leading in the primary. ? It?s pretty startling with the front-runner strategy he?s running. It just speaks to his weakness as a candidate.”
Cardin has raised at least $3 million more than Mfume, and has a huge lead in endorsements. “Money isn?t enough,” Trippi said.
Ernie Grecco, president of Baltimore-area AFL-CIO council that endorsed Cardin early, found the poll numbers “hard to believe.”
