A recent Zogby poll finds Carol Moseley Braun tied for fifth with Representative Richard Gephardt (MO) with 5 percent of the vote. This is only 7 points behind the leader, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. “Our campaign [doesn’t have] a lot of money but we have relied on the goodwill of volunteers,” said Moseley Braun in a press statement. “I am grateful to them for spreading the word so that this candidacy is not only viable but competitive.” At a recent debate in Detroit, MI, she distinguished herself by saying she was “the clearest alternative to George W. Bush. I don’t look like him, I don’t talk like him, I don’t act like him, I don’t think like him,” according to Slate.
Moseley Braun in 1992 made political history as the first African-American woman elected to the US Senate. After losing her 1998 Senate race, she was appointed by President Clinton to be Ambassador to New Zealand. Her candidacy has been endorsed by the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the National Women’s Political Caucus.
Retired General Wesley Clark follows Dean in the Zogby poll with 10 percent; Senators John Kerry (MA) and Joseph Lieberman (CT) have 9 and 8 percent respectively; Senator John Edwards (NC) and civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton are tied at 3 percent; and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (OH) has 1 percent. The poll has also found consistently since the beginning of September that support is greater for an unnamed Democratic candidate than for President Bush. Bush’s approval rating is at 49 percent, up from a recent low in mid-September of 45 percent.
