Good Polling Numbers for Cantwell
Washington State News

Looks like Senator Maria Cantwell's increased presence in the Senate of late (such as leading the fight against drilling in ANWR--the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge) has helped her polling numbers, according to Rasmussen:

A Rasmussen Reports Election Poll found Cantwell attracting 52% of the vote at this early stage of the campaign. Republican challenger, Mike McGavick, has 37% of the vote. McGavick is the CEO of the Safeco corporation.

Cantwell is viewed favorably by 57% of Washington voters and unfavorably by 37%. Name recognition for McGavick is lower--35% favorable and 34% unfavorable.

Other polling numbers from Rasmussen:

Forty-four percent (44%) of Washington state voters believe Judge Samuel Alito should be confirmed to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Twenty-seven percent (27%) take the opposite view and say he should not be confirmed.

Just 32% of voters in the state say that George W. Bush is doing a good or excellent job with the economy. Sixteen percent (16%) say he's doing a "fair" job, while 42% say poor.

Alito's numbers could dwindle a bit based on the news coming out today from the Moony Washington Times:

Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" in a 1985 document obtained by The Washington Times.

"I personally believe very strongly" in this legal position, Mr. Alito wrote on his application to become deputy assistant to Attorney General Edwin I. Meese III.

The document, which is likely to inflame liberals who oppose Judge Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, is among many that the White House will release today from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

In direct, unambiguous language, the young career lawyer who served as assistant to Solicitor General Rex E. Lee, demonstrated his conservative bona fides as he sought to become a political appointee in the Reagan administration.

"I am and always have been a conservative," he wrote in an attachment to the noncareer appointment form that he sent to the Presidential Personnel Office. "I am a lifelong registered Republican."