Piling It On

On Monday, I wrote about the spate of bad news that Team Franken started the week with. Today it got worse. The Rassmussen Reports Daily update came out with these two polls.

Minnesota: Obama Leads by Twelve

Minnesota Senate Race Still a Toss-Up

Even worse came from MinnPost who reported on the latest Quinnipiac poll that showed Senator Coleman up be 15%.

In the same poll showing Barack Obama's margin over John McCain slipping to 2 percentage points, Quinnipiac University pegs Norm Coleman's U.S. Senate lead at 15 points over Al Franken, 53 percent to 38 percent.

The next paragraph has the money quote.

If you go by the 1,261-likely-voter survey, Franken's problems are manifest. He only splits union households 47-44; loses women 41-48, and is getting clocked among independents 32-55. Fully 19 percent of DFLers back Coleman; meanwhile Republicans support their nominee 94-3.

Emphasis mine. Minnesota gains it's purple reputation due to the high number of self-described "independents" in the state. Therefore, that demographic is still a key demographic to win over. However, when nearly 1/5th of your own party backs your rival, there are serious problems to be had...and Team Franken appears to have them in spades.