With less than 4 months to go, who's got mo' in the NDP Leadership Race?

I’m still on a Christmas break but that NDP Leadership Race is just too darn exciting to stay away from until I get back to work officially next week!

So a quick roundup, then, for your consideration:

• Before the holiday break, I reported here that, based on my discussions with senior officials from several campaigns, that the race at that point had sorted itself into three tiers of support: A top tier of Peggy Nash, Paul Dewar, and Thomas Mulcair; a middle tier of Brian Topp and Romeo Saganash; and lower tier of Nathan Cullen, Martin Singh, and Niki Ashton. Read the full post for these conclusions but perhaps more importantly, please check out the thoughtful comments to that post from many New Democrats, some who agreed and some who disagreed with this report.
• Today, Postmedia columnist Stephen Maher takes a look at the NDP’s leadership race where he wrote:
  

  In September, when Brian Topp launched his candidacy with Ed Broadbent by his side, I wrote that the leadership race “looked like it was all but over.” That’s not how it looks now. Insiders think Topp is in fourth place, behind Thomas Mulcair, Peggy Nash and Paul Dewar.
  A few days ago, Topp dropped his gloves and went after Mulcair, warning that the former Quebec Liberal “wants to move our party to the centre,” contrasting that with his own “clear and principled social-democratic” positions…

• Here’s Joel French, who works as a staffer in the office of Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason, with a long and thoughtful post about how he plans to structure his ballot (noting that there is still a lot of time to go). Remember: Card-carrying New Democrats can cast their ballots ahead of the March 24 leadership convention or they can do it the traditional way on the convention floor on March 24 or on-line in real-time on March 24. Those who do it ahead of time, will be asked to rank their choices, with the lower rankings factoring in to second- and third-round balloting if a higher-ranked candidate falls off. (To win, a candidate needs 50 per cent plus one of all ballots cast. The candidate with the fewest votes falls off the next ballot. Balloting continues until someone gets that 50 per cent plus one.) French will not even put Mulcair, Cullen and Singh on his ballot so if those are the three candidates left standing at the end of the day, then French’s vote will not be cast for any of them. French’s top three are Dewar, Ashton, and Topp. Do read his long post to explain why Mulcair, etc. are out and why Dewar, etc. are in but, as a New Democrat in Alberta (like many Liberals in Alberta, for that matter), French says Mulcair lost it for him after referring to the province’s biggest natural resource as the “tar sands” and not the oil sands:
  

  Mulcair’s inability to understand Alberta or to make the province a priority (not sure if it’s one of those or both) cements his position in last place for me. Although it seems like he’s getting better, Mulcair was still calling Alberta’s oilsands the “tar sands” when he got to the first official NDP leadership debate. I’ll never forget the day in the 2011 election campaign that Jack Layton uttered those two words in Montreal during a policy announcement on the environment. It set off a storm across Alberta, most acutely for the NDP in the campaign offices for Edmonton-Strathcona, Edmonton East, and Edmonton Centre. After a few days of damage control, we did manage to get back on our game, but it was an unnecessary mistake. Mulcair seems not to have learned from it.

  Cullen, on the other hand, initially impressed French, but Cullen’s idea for “co-operation” with non-Conservative parties turned French off completely. But, as I said: Read French’s post. It’s a great insight into the mind of New Democrat voter who’s giving everyone serious attention and taking the whole process seriously. (And if you find other posts like Joel’s, please put the link in the comments below or e-mail it to me.)

• My thumb-to-the-wind polls: On this blog and on my Facebook page, I used available tools to ask blog readers and Facebook users how they were feeling. These results are completely and utterly unscientific and have likely been lightly abused by campaign enthusiasts who know a little Web scripting but still, I think they have a certain “thumb-to-the-wind” value. Take ’em with a grain of salt. Here’s the first question: My pick to lead the federal NDP is: Nearly 1,000 voted and were asked to pick one:

Here’s another one (albeit a bit stale): Who won the English-language portion of the Dec. 4 candidates debate on the economy. (Note: Robert Chisholm participated in this debate but then withdrew. He garnered less than 2% in this poll and I have omitted him.)