The latest Corporate Research Associates (CRA) poll puts Danny Williams well ahead of the Liberals.
Progressive Conservative party support is at 69% compared to 17% for the Liberals. Leader support is equally dramatic: 71% for Danny; 12% for newly minted and part-time Liberal leader Jim Bennett.
There's an unusually high 4.9% margin of error which, effectively means that some of the new numbers here are within the range of variation from the last CRA quarterly poll in December.
That said, the numbers highlight the challenge facing Jim Bennett. He has to get himself on the radar screen, fix the Liberal Party's bank balance, find candidates, develop policy and get a campaign ready to go for September 2007. If he can't do all that himself, he'll need to light a fire under caucus and get some people started on the stuff that one guy can't do by himself.
Right now, the numbers aren't there to back Bennett's brave claims that he will be able to unseat Danny in 2007. Heck, the numbers aren't even there that would lead me to believe the Liberals will win the same number of seats they currently have.
