Could South Dakota be the next Kansas?

[IceSpear]

I can't help but see the parallels here. A Republican in a deep red plains state who was presumed to be a shoo-in is drastically underperforming in a race against a Democrat and an independent. He's languishing in the high 30s/low 40s, but the race is still considered fairly safe since that's a comfortable amount of support in a three way race and due to the partisan nature of the state. Until...?

Is it possible Dems could mediate and get Weiland and Pressler to strike some type of deal? They must both realize it will be impossible for either one of them to win in the current situation. Weiland could probably keep it competitive in a two way with Rounds, but a path to victory is probably easier to see for Pressler, IMO.

Of course, there's the fact that even if one drops out and endorses the other, they'll still be on the ballot and will attract at least a few percent. On the other hand, SD is also slightly bluer than Kansas and there's another right wing independent siphoning votes from Rounds, which mitigates this factor.

[IceSpear]

Is there any evidence to suggest that three-quarters of the people voting independent would go to Weiland if the independent dropped out? Because that's what it would take (and that's still assuming that undecideds break evenly) for him to win. It'd almost certainly have to be another just-like-Kansas scenario instead.

Yeah, this is why Weiland dropping out and endorsing Pressler is the best case scenario. Obviously national Dems have no leverage with him, but perhaps someone could call in Daschle to mediate. It's not like Weiland has a prayer of winning in current circumstances anyway, and he has to be intelligent enough to realize this.