Last week, Madeline Rogero released an “opinion poll” that her campaign paid for. A poll that says that she has 40% of the vote, Ivan Harmon 20%, Mark Padgett 13%, Joe Hultquist 4% and Bo Bennett at 1%.
I intentionally waited until Monday night to give my perspective. I wanted to see what all the other pundits had to say. It seems that she scored with the pundits giving her a “front runner status”. Even former Knox County Republican Party Secretary Steve Hunley’s newspaper ran a nearly full page color photo of her.
But, here’s my take on the “front runner status”. she has topped out at 40%. Here is my reasoning, in 2003 she received 48% of the city vote in challenging Bill Haslam. A few years later, Haslam tapped her to be in a highly visible position within the city government and his administration. She has been the front man on all community initiatives (ie. Ten Year Plan etc.) While the other candidates have either been out of the public eye for a while (Harmon and Hultquist) or are new comers to elective office campaigning (Padgett and Bennett).
So, for her to poll at 40% with her high visibility that tells me that all the undecided are decided on one thing, they are not voting for her.
