IA-02 Polling. Leach In Trouble?

Over at Iowa True Blue, former Dem. Party Chair, Gordon Fischer highlights a story in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. PDF download.

Jim Leach has only a 38% re-elect, in a district he won with 59% in 2004, and 52% in 2002. He also has an upside down job approval rating, 42-49. In an initial head-to-head with Democratic challenger Dave Loebsack, a professor at Cornell College, in Mt. Vernon Iowa, making his first run for office, Leach is held to 47%, with 53% either choosing Loebsack or uncertain between the two. Following a paragraph of biographical and issue information about Loebsack, the ballot test swings widely, with Loebsack on top, 51%-28%.

Take with a grain of salt because this poll was conducted by the Loesback campaign. But even if they are massaging the numbers a bit it is only because the real numbers are encouraging enough that they think an additional injection of resources -- which is what they are fishing for here -- will put them into serious contention. Or possibly the numbers are real and we are looking at a landslide election.

Sixty-two days will tell the tale. As my friend The State's Attorney is fond of saying of basketball games with two minutes left on the clock, "There's an eternity left in this game."