Tim Johnson for South Dakota | News | Latest News | Johnson Maintains Strong 25 Point Lead in Poll Completed Yesterday

Sioux Falls, SD - With a little over three weeks until election day, a new poll released today shows U.S. Senator Tim Johnson maintaining a commanding 25 point lead among South Dakota voters, topping his opponent 60 - 35 percent. Johnson's lead is identical to a mid-July Rasmussen independent poll taken before Johnson announced his intention to forgo debates and before his opponent began a barrage of misleading and false negative television advertising.

The newest poll was conducted from October 6-8 by the Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Firm, and had a sample size of 627 likely voters. It shows Johnson with substantial leads in every region of the state including in Rapid City, all of West River, Sioux Falls, the Lincoln/Minnehaha region, the Jim River Valley and throughout the I-29 corridor.

Senator Johnson also holds a prominent lead in name identification; 96 percent of the respondents could identify Senator Johnson, while only 53 percent of the respondents could identify his General Election opponent.

The poll was conducted almost a month after Johnson's opponent began airing false negative TV and radio ads throughout the state. In fact, this poll shows that those false ads have hurt Johnson's opponent as much as they have helped him.

"While we know that the only poll that counts is the one on Election Day, these latest numbers confirm our belief that South Dakotans want Tim to keep fighting for them in Washington. Voters in this state are sick of negative politics and misleading attacks, and numbers in this poll indicate that his negatives ads are actually hurting our opponent. Voters know that Tim is working hard and delivering for South Dakota, and they want him to continue to do so for the next six years," said Johnson campaign manager Steve Jarding.