Weissmann is a Placeholder

Tea Partier Nan Hayworth released a poll several days ago that appeared to show that she has a 13-point lead on Democratic challenger Sean Patrick Maloney. The poll showed 46 percent support Hayworth, 33 percent support Maloney, and 10 percent support someone named Larry Weissmann on the WFP line. Bummer, right?

Well, it turns out that Hayworth's "lead" isn't what it appears to be:

UPDATE: Apparently, Weissmann was a placeholder candidate for the WFP until after the Democrats got their primary battle sorted out.

A statement from Maloney’s campaign, which crows that today’s poll shows the Democrat “within striking distance” of Hayworth, includes the following quote from WFP Executive Director Dan Cantor:

“My understanding is that the our judicial delegates plan to nominate Larry Weissman for Supreme Court, in which case the Working Families Party Executive Committee intends to nominate Sean Patrick Maloney as our candidate to take on Tea Party Congresswoman Nan Hayworth.”

As a result, Maloney’s spokeswoman Evangeline George claimed Hayworth’s lead is actually three percentage points, not 13, which assumes all of Weissmann’s votes will go to Maloney – not necessarily a foregone conclusion.

The article rightly points out that not all of those WFP votes will go to Maloney, though I can't imagine that too many progressive voters would support Hayworth. Some might choose to stay home, or they might skip that part of the ballot, I suppose. And the fact that Maloney moved to the district only recently highlights his biggest problem (the same problem Schreibman has): Name recognition.

But here's the thing: Hayworth is an incumbent. Like Gibson, she hasn't cracked 50 percent. As such, she's in deep trouble, hence the "carpetbagger" ad.

Hayworth can, to borrow a phrase, crow all she wants about her huge "lead," but she's being totally disingenuous when she does. Hopefully the DCCC knows about this and will spend some money on this race.

All the momentum is with the Democrats right now. Time to run up the score as much as possible.