Tennessee is Undecided Country

The Tuke Campaign released a poll late yesterday which shows promising results for the former party chairman, as well as a relatively unengaged Democratic electorate here in Tennessee:

In the Democratic primary for US Senate, the candidates are: Leonard Ladner, Kenneth Eaton, Gary Davis, Mike Clayton, Mike Padgett and Bob Tuke. Which one would you vote for if the election were held today?

Bob Tuke 32%
Mike Padgett 8%
Other 4%
Undecided 57%

Unfortunately, not many other details are available from this like methodology, geographical representation (though Tuke's campaign says they have a lead in all major markets, including Padgett's home-base of Knoxville), racial breakdown, etc...so I'm loathe to really accept a poll without all the nitty gritty.

Jed Brewer, campaign manager for Padgett, thinks this is bad news for Tuke, via ACK:

“I find it interesting that this guy used to be head of the state party and in a primary of the people he used to lead, there are still 57% undecided. That sounds to me like Democrats were not too happy with his leadership.”

Hrmm, to be sure, some probably weren't (for instance, Brewer's boss Randy Button who preceded Tuke as party chair), but I somehow doubt the majority of Democratic primary voters even know who the Party Chair is, let alone have an opinion on the job they did.

I imagine the release of this poll serves the purpose of pushing Democratic contributors to back a primary candidate now, rather than wait until August. It will be interesting to see on July 15th, when the next quarterly FEC reports are due, what kind of scratch both candidate were able to raise...and I think that might be a good indicator of where this race is at going into the August primary.