"With less than two weeks until Election Day, it looks as if the fundamentals — an unpopular president, deep frustration with the status quo, and stubborn inflation — are ultimately going to define this midterm."
Also, please, please don’t focus on the margin in SEN polls. Look at vote share and trend. In OH, Ryan stuck around 45-46, even when he was leading. Trend has being going Oz’s way, but can he close gap in 10 days? https://t.co/uKDYrkq0eq
by Julia Mueller - @ TheHill.com, 10/30/22 2:35 PM ET
With the midterms just over a week away, the latest CBS News Battleground Tracker poll predicts a Republican takeover of the House with a 15-seat gain.
The poll forecasts Republicans will clock in at 228 seats to Democrats’ 207, a 21-seat difference, with a margin of error of 12 seats.
Still, predictions are difficult, as many races remain neck and neck with just over a week until Election Day, and a surge in voter turnout could give Democrats a shot at keeping control.
If November’s election sees a big turnout of young voters and voters of color — comparable to the surge seen in 2018’s midterms — the Battleground Tracker predicts Democrats hold on to the majority by a single seat, with 218 to Republicans’ 217.
If there’s an uptick in turnout among white voters without college degrees, however, Republicans could clinch an even bigger win, winning 238 seats and pushing Democrats to 197.
The Cook Political Report last week amended its outlook for the midterms, predicting Republicans will flip as many as 25 seats rather than the 10 to 20 expected earlier.
Crime and the economy have been polling as the top priorities for voters, beating out issues that Democrats have been emphasizing such as abortion access and protecting democracy.
Still, many Democrats say they are still confident they will hold the House. In an NBC News poll released last week, Democrats held a 1-point lead on a generic congressional ballot. [.....]
Nearly 2 in 3 American voters say crime will play a “major role” in deciding who they will vote for in next month’s midterm elections. https://t.co/jm8NSmDH8a
In spring 2021, I penned a piece in the WSJ Journal urging democrats to take control of the anti-crime message. They did not. Colossal mistake. Now, every Democratic campaign should run the following ad between now and election day...(½) https://t.co/HS3BE1BibX
The Republicans told us they were going to end a woman’s right to choose. We did not believe them. They did. Now, the Republicans are telling us if they get power, they will shut the govt down to slash social security and medicare. I believe them. You should too. (2/2)
^ in case it doesn't come across clear tor everyone: Carville is saying that Dem talking points should now be: abortion and social security/medicare and shutting down the government. Precisely BECAUSE THEY FUCKED UP ON CRIME, can't do crime, it's too late, no one will believe you! Since nothing was done about the crime meme, the GOP has won crime, move on to these others. He even adds Biden doing this as an example:
...This year is a case study in what not to do in order to attract people to your cause. Beneath the Democrat’s inept handling of the economy, constant attempts to indoctrinate other people’s children, lack of care about increasing crime, refusal to secure the border, and more is a hard-to-hide contempt for the American people and their values....
feeling real sorry for the voters of PA-12; looks like they have a choice between a woke lefty supported by "The Squad" and the "Justice Dems" and a right-wing Republican who happens to have the same name as their retiring Dem. rep:
You can see the polls shifting toward Dr. Oz after last week's debate against John Fetterman.@MonmouthPoll's final 2022 Pennsylvania poll drops tomorrow. #PASen
BREAKING: MSNBC reported that Wisconsin is seeing higher youth voter turnout now than in 2018. I'm going to say it again: young people are frustrated, angry, and we will *shatter* youth voter turnout records 9 days from now. Do not count us out. Just wait and see.
A new Marquette University Law School Poll in Wisconsin finds Sen. Ron Johnson (R) just ahead of challenger Mandela Barnes (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 48%. https://t.co/i5ytIPr0f5
One thing I find especially interesting is the disparity between the national and state response rates, even the national and district polls just a week apart.
Nonresponse seemed pretty in-check -- and nothing like 2020 -- in all three of our national polls.
Have response rates shifted? Or is this related to the same 'oh weird Dems doing so bad in blue states' thing, where there's just some pretty extreme variation in Democratic enthusiasm that happens to be cancelling out nationwide? Something to check if I get a chance.
I was pretty paranoid about this and there’s definitely room for confusion. The voter file we used for polling still characterizes the 2010 CDs as the districts, with 2020 as “proposed.” https://t.co/CLK2vLXntJ
The cheap polls flooding the market right now... do not have good and representative samples. They could easily come closer to the final results! But not because they've figured out how to sample the population especially well https://t.co/OdNvk8pPxy
And I don't really see any evidence that the 'cheap' polls have fixed the Trump nonresponse problem, either.
Just as an example: the last Trafalgar poll in PA had Fetterman leading among whites and doing the same in-and-out of the Philadelphia DMA (ie: leading outside of Philly)
And worth flagging that, unfortunately, this PA survey was largely conducted before the debate last week. So there's certainly a chance there's been movement since
White reg. Dems were 28% more likely to respond than white reg. Reps.
That's nothing like our national polling and quite a bit like 2020, when party quota/weighting was insufficient. That's a troubling sign for nonresponse biashttps://t.co/pOmfH1hLBX
NEW: Perhaps no place in the nation offers a more symbolic and consequential test of whether Democrats can claw back some of the white working-class vote than northeastern PA in 2022.
There are, quite simply, a lot of white voters without college degrees in America. Another Pew study found that such voters accounted for 42 percent of all voters in the 2020 presidential election. And, by some estimates, they could make up nearly half the vote in Pennsylvania this year.
from the Shane Goldmacher piece above, it's an important point.
Also, he has two interesting examples of Obama-Trump voters:
Both sides are targeting voters like Chris Tigue, a 39-year-old who runs a one-man painting company and lives in Dunmore, a town bordering Scranton known for its enormous landfill. Mr. Tigue, a registered Republican, has gone on a political journey that may seem uncommon in most of the country but is more familiar here.
He voted twice for Barack Obama. Then he voted twice for Donald Trump.
As Mr. Tigue sat outside Roosevelt Beer Garden, a watering hole where the portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt on the wall was a reminder of the area’s Democratic heritage, he explained that Mr. Fetterman had won him back, not just because of his working class “curb appeal,” but because of his stances on abortion and medical cannabis.
Mr. Tigue said he was voting for Mr. Fetterman knowing that Mr. Fetterman would probably support the president’s economic agenda in the Senate, a prospect he called “a little scary.” But he said he was looking past that fact. “I’m focusing on the person,” he said.
Justin Taylor, the mayor of nearby Carbondale, is another Obama-Trump voter. Elected as a 25-year-old Democrat almost two decades ago, he endorsed Mr. Trump in 2020 and grew increasingly more Republican, just like the city he serves.
Today, he is adamantly opposed to Mr. Fetterman, calling him a liberal caricature and the kind of candidate the left thinks will appeal to the people of Carbondale, a shrinking town of under 10,000 people that was founded on anthracite coal. “I think, quite honestly, he is an empty Carhartt sweatshirt and the people who are working class in Pennsylvania see that,” Mr. Taylor said.
Mr. Taylor is still technically a registered Democrat, he said, but he feels judged by his own party. “The Democratic Party forces it down your throat,” he said, “and they make you a bigot, they make you a racist, they make you a homophobe if you don’t understand a concept, or you don’t 100 percent agree.”
Still, Mr. Taylor said he might not vote in the Senate race at all. Of his fellow Fetterman doubters, and of Oz skeptics, he asked, “Do they stay home? That becomes the big question.”
finally, this is a striking quote from the beginning of the article from the union guy working for Dems:
“It’s about cultural issues and social issues,” Mr. Papp lamented. “People don’t even care about their economics. They want to hate.”
.@dellavolpe on this last night: "I'm not sure if we're going to see a red wave, I'm not sure if we're going to see a blue wave - I'm confident we'll see a Gen Z wave next week." pic.twitter.com/4HTF67fA7s
The stakes in Arizona’s governor race could not be higher.
The Republican nominee, Kari Lake, is the most zealous election denier this side of the South Florida Sigmaringen. She has indicated she would do everything in her power to tip the scales for Donald Trump in this swing state in 2024. She is a talented political performer, perhaps the most talented in the entire party. Her rise has been foreseeable for at least a year.
So you would expect that the Democrats would have had a plan for that. That they would be deploying their best and brightest to figure out how to deal with this clear and present danger.
If so, you would be sorely mistaken.
The Democratic nominee for governor in Arizona, Katie Hobbs, has been a dog’s breakfast served inside a dumpster fire. She’s turning over staff after getting sued by a past employee for discrimination. She is ducking debates and hiding from the press. She’s proven incapable of rhetorically taking the fight to her opponent, despite the extensive hit list to choose from. The liberal columnist for the local paper and co-chair of Biden’s campaign in Arizona have ripped her campaign. And the more prominent, popular Democrats who might aid her effort are M.I.A.
Not. Great. Bob.
Now, I want to be clear, this article is not a pre-mortem for Hobbs, who could still win. When I called her team to talk through this story, they pushed back aggressively, stating that Hobbs is “leading in fundraising, ads on the air, and in the polls”—pointing to private data showing their candidate in the lead. (As it stands, the 538 polling average has Lake ahead by 1 point.) A strategist for a Democratic Super PAC in the state went further, arguing that Lake’s refusal to say she will accept the election results might do her in.
I want to believe that a candidate’s refusal to say she will accept election results would be disqualifying for voters, but I’m not sure the evidence is there to support that belief. Here’s hoping that it is so, and that Hobbs will eke it out in blueing Arizona in spite of her campaign.
But here’s the deal: Bad candidates win and good candidates lose all the time.
Campaigns aren’t a contest like chess or tennis where [....]
538: Republicans Are Just A Normal Polling Error Away From A Landslide — Or Wiping Out
Average error of each race's polling average is 5.4 % points in US Senate elections & 6.3 % points in US House elections since 1998; if 22 errors are that size but consistently in same partisan direction, the range of outcomes is S 54D-54R, H227D-259Rhttps://t.co/axTENgFpou
New GA poll:
"Democrat Raphael Warnock with 49% support for re-election and Republican Herschel Walker with 47%. With undecided voters’ support accounted for, Warnock reaches 49.5%, just shy of the 50% to avoid a runoff, while Walker follows with 47.6%."https://t.co/YcqjRYjI0h
Generally likely voter polls haven't been great for Democrats, but not much of a likely vs. registered voter gap in the final ABC/WaPo and NBC polls. Quite possibly the difference between them keeping or losing the Senate. https://t.co/cS3SAvi2sQ
Well, that's one of the whole purposes of 538. Our pollster ratings track accuracy and improve pollster incentives to put out accurate numbers rather than just influencing the discourse. If Trafalgar et al have a bad night, that will lower their rating going forward. https://t.co/NQLeMoWim8
Life is a lot easier even you can just stick to vague pronoucements and innuendo instead of devoting 1000s of hours to developing a rigorous process that people can test against actual results.
New rule: you're not allowed to criticize any pollster or polling aggregator unless you pre-register your own forecast. Use this thread to predict the following:
1—% chance of R Senate win
2—% of R House win
3—# of R Senate seats
4—# of R House ""
5—GA-Sen result
6—AZ-Gov result
Longtime dem strategist @hilaryr: “I'm a loyal Democrat, but I am not happy. I just thinking we did not listen to voters in this election and I think we are going to have a bad night”
Notes that voters kept saying the economy was the number 1 issue pic.twitter.com/Omh9pqtl50
“When voters tell you over and over and over again that why care mostly about the economy, listen to them! Stop talking about democracy being at stake”
She’s speaking for many Dems who have been privately fuming at the Wh, especially after the impromptu speech this week
A common complaint from Black men is that Black women are routinely rude and condescending, blaming the former for all their woes.
In that context, it's astounding to see Stacey Abrams resort to condescension & blame to explain her lack of appeal to Black male voters. https://t.co/YLaCG9ylec
The last thing we need is intensification of long-standing tensions between Black men and women, yet the messaging has been very clear as to who "the problem" is if a White Republican is reelected governor of Georgia. https://t.co/9TqWCwN9pj
BTW Clifton self-describes as an Artist. Heterodox Liberal. Erstwhile New Yorker. Smart-Ass. Gym Snob. Wildberry Skittle Stan. Drollery is my love language.
Mho, I tried to be openminded about Abrams but all I have seen is a lousy candidate and am at a loss to fathom what all the brouhaha about her is about. It's like she's playing a 'you go girl' character on a crummy made-for-BET romance movie, where she only relates to black women and is clueless about any other race or gender, almost a caricature.
Brian Kemp and Herschel Walker have done no joint campaign events. I wonder if this is a sign of the split ticket voting we will likely see on Tuesday.
Stacey Abrams and Rev Warnock have campaigned together, most recently at the rally with Obama. I don't know if they have the same calculation Kemp might have, but the same dynamic applies.
In a runoff, Kemp doesn't have to worry about vulnerable seats he needs in the state legislature where some of those districts probably vote Warnock but send a Republican to the state house. So yeah it's probably intentional and not a cpincidence. https://t.co/rrH8Gl5VQ7
This is true in the same sense that Democrats want to implement single payer health care. There are lawmakers in these big parties who want to do these things but the politics is so difficult it's unlikely. https://t.co/ln5EZtbMke
lots of voters don't take these kind of threats from the other side seriously - there's incredibly powerful lobbies and other entities that just won't let it happen - those using it as a campaign cudgel are just seen as being insincerely hyperbolic and treating voters like dummies. So saying "it's real, folks" is probably really counterproductive!
Is Bernie for socialized health care? Doh, so what, is not going to happen.
The majority of voters said they made up their minds about who they are supporting in the midterm elections at least two months ago — before the whirlwind of late-state campaigning and big-dollar spending.
Why it matters: The final stretch of the midterm campaign has the opportunity to sway just a sliver of voters — but in a razor-thin battle for the Senate, that small slice of voters could push one party over the edge.
Driving the news: 68% of registered voters said they made up their minds to support specific candidates in Tuesday's elections before September and 10% said they made up their minds in September, per a new NBC News poll.
Meanwhile, 8% of registered voters said they made up their minds in October, 3% said in the last week and 2% said they decided in the last few days.
What to watch: 7% of registered voters said they still might change their mind, per the NBC News poll. [....]
- asked, received Russia's help in 2016
- worked for months to de-legitimize 2020 election
- tried to illegally install Trump as President
- led a mob to attack the final vote count
Is capable of dropping some bucks to game the polling averages. 4/
Destroying Twitter's brand, its openness? Yeah, I've got a problem with that.
I mean, sure, he bought it, he can fuck it up. In the end it's his money,
and if Jack couldn't figure out a better way, them's the choices
(not that someone overpayng $20bill for his platform in trouble is something he'll pass up.
Despite some crap service management at times, overall Twitter's been quite useful for politics.
But Elon feels like he's taking it back down the learning curve to that of maybe 10 years ago.
Couldn't a newbie look a bit before jumping in with 2 left feet?
Carl (who self-describes as "FDR/LBJ/Obama free speech low-rent liberal professor. Sanity, nuance, courtesy, whimsy, no bigotry. Essays at http://historyboomer.substack.com.") -
I don’t mind someone being partisan—I’m medium partisan myself—but when you forget the other side is human and has reasons for their voting choices that require some effort and empathy to grasp, I think you’ve gone astray.
See this is what happens — the exit polls always underrate the number of non-college whites.
Then because they are benchmarked to the actual outcome, they exaggerate GOP vote share within each demographic to compensate for undersampling the most conservative group. https://t.co/RxkYhoiubF
The Wisconsin Senate race is suddenly getting very, very interesting again. 10% of votes are left to be counted, Barnes (D) is only down by 1.4%, and it seems most of the remaining votes are in heavily Democratic Milwaukee. https://t.co/rJIFA2wAV6
not purporting to know for sure and I fully admit I haven't paid any attention to exit polls yet, still, I just thought of this promise which did get a lot of play on social media:
Senator Lindsey Graham made it clear: Republicans want a national ban on abortion. But if we elect two more Democratic senators and keep control of the House, we will codify Roe v. Wade. pic.twitter.com/UNFw63oV9k
Comments
They sure convinced me, the article goes on and on and on with reasons
by artappraiser on Thu, 10/27/2022 - 10:30pm
by artappraiser on Thu, 10/27/2022 - 11:10pm
by artappraiser on Sat, 10/29/2022 - 10:37pm
CBS poll predicts GOP House takeover
by Julia Mueller - @ TheHill.com, 10/30/22 2:35 PM ET
by artappraiser on Mon, 10/31/2022 - 2:50am
by artappraiser on Mon, 10/31/2022 - 7:18pm
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/01/2022 - 1:15pm
^ in case it doesn't come across clear tor everyone: Carville is saying that Dem talking points should now be: abortion and social security/medicare and shutting down the government. Precisely BECAUSE THEY FUCKED UP ON CRIME, can't do crime, it's too late, no one will believe you! Since nothing was done about the crime meme, the GOP has won crime, move on to these others. He even adds Biden doing this as an example:
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/01/2022 - 3:27pm
dupe deleted
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/01/2022 - 1:10pm
Sister Souljah moments towards The Woke are seen as being few and far between
'They're Making Republicans': Joe Rogan Points to Democrats as Creator of Massive Red Wave
@ redstate.org, Oct. 31
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/01/2022 - 1:09pm
feeling real sorry for the voters of PA-12; looks like they have a choice between a woke lefty supported by "The Squad" and the "Justice Dems" and a right-wing Republican who happens to have the same name as their retiring Dem. rep:
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/01/2022 - 3:05pm
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/01/2022 - 6:09pm
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/01/2022 - 6:16pm
Currently a dead heat for the Senate & GOP favored to win the House -
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/01/2022 - 6:21pm
by artappraiser on Wed, 11/02/2022 - 3:03pm
by artappraiser on Wed, 11/02/2022 - 10:57pm
by artappraiser on Wed, 11/02/2022 - 10:53pm
by artappraiser on Wed, 11/02/2022 - 11:03pm
by artappraiser on Wed, 11/02/2022 - 11:12pm
by artappraiser on Wed, 11/02/2022 - 11:25pm
from the Shane Goldmacher piece above, it's an important point.
Also, he has two interesting examples of Obama-Trump voters:
finally, this is a striking quote from the beginning of the article from the union guy working for Dems:
not the least of which because it synchs with Pippa Norris' theory promoted by Ezra Klein (and a reminder, that's global, so spare us the 'dumb Americans' thing)
by artappraiser on Wed, 11/02/2022 - 11:52pm
The Gen Z high turnout thing:
by artappraiser on Thu, 11/03/2022 - 9:34am
Democrats Need to Know What Time It Is
A lesson and a warning from the Katie Hobbs Experience.
by TIM MILLER @ TheBulwark.com, OCTOBER 24
by artappraiser on Thu, 11/03/2022 - 10:03am
538: Republicans Are Just A Normal Polling Error Away From A Landslide — Or Wiping Out
by artappraiser on Thu, 11/03/2022 - 1:31pm
by artappraiser on Thu, 11/03/2022 - 2:37pm
by artappraiser on Sat, 11/05/2022 - 10:39am
Nate Silver:
yesterday was getting real crabby
by artappraiser on Sun, 11/06/2022 - 12:50pm
by artappraiser on Sun, 11/06/2022 - 10:41pm
Cook's final forecast for the Senate was not at all promising for the Dems:
by artappraiser on Sun, 11/06/2022 - 11:01pm
BTW Clifton self-describes as an Artist. Heterodox Liberal. Erstwhile New Yorker. Smart-Ass. Gym Snob. Wildberry Skittle Stan. Drollery is my love language.
Mho, I tried to be openminded about Abrams but all I have seen is a lousy candidate and am at a loss to fathom what all the brouhaha about her is about. It's like she's playing a 'you go girl' character on a crummy made-for-BET romance movie, where she only relates to black women and is clueless about any other race or gender, almost a caricature.
by artappraiser on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 12:33am
He lives in Georgia:
by artappraiser on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 12:40am
great point:
lots of voters don't take these kind of threats from the other side seriously - there's incredibly powerful lobbies and other entities that just won't let it happen - those using it as a campaign cudgel are just seen as being insincerely hyperbolic and treating voters like dummies. So saying "it's real, folks" is probably really counterproductive!
Is Bernie for socialized health care? Doh, so what, is not going to happen.
by artappraiser on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 12:54am
Crazy midterm stat: Big chase for tiny slice
By Erin Doherty @ Axios.com, 13 hrs. ago
by artappraiser on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 1:51am
by artappraiser on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 8:57am
by artappraiser on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 10:21am
Rut roh, gaming polls, flooding the zone?
What will they think of next.
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 1:49pm
So much for neutrality
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 2:42pm
Only if you like to consider what the owner thinks. Freedom of speech and all - got a problem with that?
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/08/2022 - 1:18pm
Destroying Twitter's brand, its openness? Yeah, I've got a problem with that.
I mean, sure, he bought it, he can fuck it up. In the end it's his money,
and if Jack couldn't figure out a better way, them's the choices
(not that someone overpayng $20bill for his platform in trouble is something he'll pass up.
Despite some crap service management at times, overall Twitter's been quite useful for politics.
But Elon feels like he's taking it back down the learning curve to that of maybe 10 years ago.
Couldn't a newbie look a bit before jumping in with 2 left feet?
by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/08/2022 - 3:54pm
He's warning his followers not to fall for it and reminding them how deluded they are:
(Which makes me wonder what Hal C. is writing today. A little bit, but not enough to seek it out...
.)
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/08/2022 - 1:36pm
Carl (who self-describes as "FDR/LBJ/Obama free speech low-rent liberal professor. Sanity, nuance, courtesy, whimsy, no bigotry. Essays at http://historyboomer.substack.com.") -
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/08/2022 - 2:19pm
I have an inkling Carl is being sarcastic here:
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/08/2022 - 9:05pm
by artappraiser on Tue, 11/08/2022 - 8:08pm
Bolduc even/slight lead in polls. Loses by over 10%.
No flooding the polls, eh?
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/09/2022 - 12:38am
edit to add:
by artappraiser on Wed, 11/09/2022 - 1:12am
by artappraiser on Wed, 11/09/2022 - 1:15am
not purporting to know for sure and I fully admit I haven't paid any attention to exit polls yet, still, I just thought of this promise which did get a lot of play on social media:
by artappraiser on Wed, 11/09/2022 - 1:26am