Keller @ Large: James Pindell Talks New Hampshire Politics
BOSTON (CBS) -- The new Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll released last week showed a statistical dead-heat between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in New Hampshire.
WBZ political analyst Jon Keller asked Globe campaign reporter James Pindell if he agreed with pollster David Paleologos that the 5 percent of voters backing third-party candidate Gary Johnson could be decisive.
"Absolutely, that's one of the reasons you saw his particular poll collapse," said Pindell. "Largely that gap was bigger between Clinton and Trump, but the one big difference there was that Gary Johnson was hanging around at 9, 10, 12, 13 percent--in fact, it's his second best state in the entire country, outside of his home state of New Mexico."
Keller asked Pindell who had the "excitement edge" in New Hampshire this election.
"Oh, there's no doubt about it, like anywhere else, Donald Trump has the excitement edge," Pindell said. "But there's two ways of looking at this election that this particular poll found. Almost 60 percent of people said they were alarmed by this election, and if you're alarmed, you're voting with Clinton. If you're excited about this election, about 1 out of 5 voters were, you are definitely with Trump."
Keller asked how big a deal it was that New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte had a flub last week where she said Trump could be a role model for children. Pindell said it was a big deal, because the race between Ayotte and Gov. Maggie Hassan is one of a handful that could decide control of the senate.
"Kelly Ayotte, who's been threading the needle so hard, trying to thread it so hard about trying to appear independent of Donald Trump, yet at the same time not lose his supporters on the right ... she really messed up on Monday night," said Pindell.
The two also talked about Sunday night's debate, which they agreed would be "highly unpredictable," especially due to the fact that the audience would be asking the questions.
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
