Every once in a while, a really good idea or new way of looking at things comes along that is worth replicating. Early this month, J. Ann Selzer, president of Des Moines-based Selzer & Company and pollster for The Des Moines Register and Bloomberg News, offered up a better way of looking at the potential for support of the multitude of Republican presidential contenders. With at least 16 candidates and seven months to go, the race is not static, and simplistically focusing on the first-choice support levels for each candidate doesn't work. So factoring in a second choice and the number who say they would consider supporting that candidate likely is a better way to look at it.
Selzer developed this method while working with Bloomberg Politics reporter (and former Register colleague) John McCormick, with the encouragement of Bloomberg columnist (and journalistic mentor of mine) Al Hunt, who insisted that it be called "the Selzer Score." As Selzer describes it in the June 5 Register: "The percentage of first-choice votes is the most important metric. We give that double
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