*** UPDATE *** Halvorson responds…

“This poll demonstrates that the race for the Illinois 2nd Congressional District is wide open. Even though almost all of the respondents in the poll know who Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is, only 35% of them are willing to support his reelection and almost half of the total respondents were undecided.

“I’ve been out talking to residents of the district every day and what I hear most is that they are tired of waiting. Our district needs a strong representative who is going to fight for jobs now. Representative Jackson has had 15 years to get the job done and is vulnerable because he has little results to show to this district.”

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* Fako & Associates, Inc. has a new poll out…

We conducted these surveys as an internal test, not commissioned by any campaign or third party organization. We chose the 2nd Congressional District to run nearly identical Interactive Voice Recognition and traditional live interviewer surveys because of the unique dynamics of the district. Its population and the state of the race presented numerous beneficial attributes to test the viability of IVR surveying. We will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages we discovered through these two surveys after the Thanksgiving holiday, but for now, we present you some of the results

These two polls only have 301 respondents each, so the MOE is a pretty high +/- 5.65 percent.

* Here are the CD 2 trial heat toplines. The first result in each line is for robocalls, the second number is for live interviewers…

Jackson……………………………. 39%….. 35%

Halvorson…………………………. 22%….. 18%

Undecided/Other/Refused…. 38%….. 47%

No longtime incumbent wants to be under 50 percent. Ever. But that’s still a decent sized cushion.

* Name ID, favorability and Jackson job approval…

Jesse Jackson, Jr.:

Substantive Name ID……….. 95% 93%

Positive…………………………… 38% 44%

Neutral……………………………. 30% 27%

Negative………………………….. 27% 22%

Don’t Know…………………….. 5% 7%

Jesse Jackson, Jr. as Congressman:

Approve………………………….. 41% 56%

Disapprove……………………… 24% 25%

Don’t Know…………………….. 35% 19%

Debbie Halvorson:

Substantive Name ID……….. 58% 54%

Positive…………………………… 26% 25%

Neutral……………………………. 22% 22%

Negative………………………….. 10% 7%

Don’t Know…………………….. 42% 46%

Not hugely great favorability and job approval numbers for Jackson, considering that he’s so well known.

* President Obama’s job approval…

Approve………………………….. 82% 89%

Disapprove……………………… 7% 6%

Don’t Know…………………….. 10% 5%

* That high presidential approval will be key if Fox Chicago’s recent report is accurate…

The woman who vows to unseat Jesse Jackson Junior told FOX Chicago News the South Side congressman is so damaged by scandal not even a Presidential endorsement could save him.

Former Representative Debbie Halvorson (D-Illinois) was reacting to our Tuesday night report. A source close to the President’s re-election campaign told us President Obama would support Jackson in the March 20th primary.

It’s still not clear exactly what the President would do for Rep. Jackson (D-Illinois.) He’s still under investigation by the House Ethics Committee on charges related to Rod Blagojevich’s attempt to sell a U.S. Senate seat.

Halvorson declared, “People are sick and tired of his ethics problems, the fact that he’s never around, that he hasn’t done anything. The people of the Second Congressional District need somebody who can walk and chew gum at the same time, somebody who can actually do several things at once and work to bring jobs and economic development to each individual town in the district.

Discuss.

* Full toplines and crosstabs…

* Summary Topline

* Tables for IVR & Cellular Study

* Tables for Live Landline & Cellular Study