Month: October 2009

Well, both PPP and Rasmussen have released brand new NJ-Gov polls, with identical results, both bad for Corzine.

The takeaway is that it appears the Christie/Republican attacks on Daggett are working, and strangely somehow are turning the model into one where Daggett hurts Corzine more than Christie.

PPP released its poll this morning and shows Christie up 42-38, with Daggett at 14.  PPP explains that Daggett voters now are saying Corzine, rather than Christie, is their 2nd choice, by a 44-32 margin.  That’s a reversal of before.  Strangely this doesn’t come from Daggett lcsing ground and Christie gaining; rather, Daggett is actually holding steady in his own support.  So the crosstab results could just be statistical noise, with subsamples having very high margins of error.

But Rasmussen suggests there is more than just noise going on.  Rasmussen continued its dishonesty in its latest NJ-Gov poll, but this time with a twist:  the real topline looks better for Christie than the published one.  The real topline with “initial preferences” shows the same result as PPP, at 42-38, with Daggett at 14.  Their published topline is Christie up 46-43, with Daggett at 7–actually a narrower Christie lead than the real topline.  Rasmussen cooks its numbers as a rule this year, but their close-to-election numbers boomerang back to the norm of other pollsters…they pretty much have no choice to maintain their reputation.

Two polls, two identical results, two both showing a flip in which side is bleeding to Daggett.

PPP explicitly suggests that Christie’s attacks on Daggett are doing the trick.  I didn’t think tying Daggett to Corzine would be effective, especially when the attack narrative started so late, barely a month out.

I hope these polls are wrong and it really remains a dead heat.  I’m aware of the Suffolk poll from a few days ago showing Corzine up by a big margin, but that poll was flawed and has “outlier” written all over it.

I really hope Corzine can pull this out, because we’ve reached the point where his defeat would look worse than it should have, given the latest expectations that his comeback was near-complete.

Two new polls out today paint a disturbingly similar picture of the state of the New Jersey gubernatorial race.

From PPP:

After his lead was reduced to a single point in a Public Policy Polling survey two weeks ago, Chris Christie has now widened his advantage to four.

Christie’s at 42% in the newest poll to 38% for Jon Corzine and 13% for Chris Daggett.

Earlier in the race it had appeared that Daggett was hurting Christie more, but now supporters of the independent candidate say by a 44-32 margin that their second choice would be Corzine. 43% of voters planning to support him are Democrats while only 9% are Republicans.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…

This comes only about an hour after the latest Rasmussen survey was released showing nearly identical topline numbers – that is, prior to the pollster’s re-allocation of Daggett votes:

The initial preferences were Christie 42%, Corzine 38%, and Daggett 14%. After Daggett-supporters and undecideds were pushed, it became Christie 46%, Corzine 43%, and Daggett 7%. Last week, Corzine had led by 37%-36%-16% on first preferences, and Christie was up by 41%-39%-11% after people were pushed. The margin of error is ±3%.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…

A few questions have come up about the FEC’s so-called “48-hour reports.” They’re actually pretty simple. From a PDF on the FEC’s website:

Who Must File FEC Form 6

Principal campaign committees must file 48-hour notices on contributions of $1,000 or more received after the 20th day, but more than 48 hours, before 12:01 a.m. of the day of any election in which the candidate participates. …

When to File

FEC Form 6 must be received by the federal and state (where required) filing offices within 48 hours after acampaign’s receipt of any contribution of $1,000 or more received after the 20th day, but more than 48 hours before, the date of any election in which the candidate participates.

The candidates in NY-23 have been filing 48-hour reports since the close of the reporting period for their “pre-special” fundraising reports, Oct. 15th. But because the 48-hour reports have to be filed very quickly, all three campaigns had already posted a bunch of them before they were required to file their pre-special reports. We gathered those numbers in the right-hand column of the chart in this post.

As you can see from the link, Bill Owens was already kicking ass in this department as of last Thursday. But since then, the disparity has grown much, much greater. Both Owens and Hoffman have each filed three new 48-hour reports; Scozzafava, by contrast, has filed just one. The overall tally is therefore no surprise:

     Owens:   $73,100

     Hoffman: $43,100

     Dede:    $ 2,000

Now, these reports only cover big ($1,000+) donations, so I suppose it’s possible that Dede is raking in a lot of last-minute small-dollar checks. But I tend to doubt that. One thing we do know for sure is that Republican members of Congress – who seldom write checks for less than four figures – have all but forsaken her. Fewer than twenty have given to her so far, and none in her final hour of need. Meanwhile, by my count, over sixty have given to Owens, and many more than once – giving money via campaign committees and leadership PACs, and making donations for 2009 and 2010. This flow has continued unabated – just yesterday, Rep. Joe Crowley’s PAC threw down another $5,000, and Rep. Charlie Gonzales came in for $2,000.

I’m not sure even Obi Wan Kenobi could help Scozzafava now – not that he would.

By: Inoljt, http://thepolitikalblog.wordpr…

The New Jersey governor’s election is less than two weeks away, and it deserves far more attention than I have been giving it. Nevertheless, I will now belatedly share some thoughts that have been stewing in my head.

Here is a snapshot of the race as of 10/25:



There are several unmistakable trends here. The challenger Attorney Chris Christie gains a double-digit lead over the incumbent, for fairly obvious reasons. Then, mysteriously, he proceeds to lose it. Incumbent Governor Jon Corzine’s share of the vote mostly remains flat but – and this is important – trends slightly upward. While the two main candidates blast each other, third-party candidate Chris Daggett draws support at an accelerating rate.

Mr. Corzine’s positive trend should encourage Democrats; it indicates that he is actually building support, not just tearing down Mr. Christie. In addition, expect Mr. Daggett to overperform on election day as he reaches viability. Normally, third-party candidates perform below their polling; this election, however, with both major candidates highly unpopular, constitutes anything but a normal situation.

The strangest and most interesting part of the campaign, however, has been the story of Mr. Christie.

More below.

He challenged an unpopular incumbent, under hugely favorable macropolitical conditions, and by summer had attained a double-digit lead. Then Mr. Christie’s support began sliding, a trend that continues to this day. He went from polling barely below 50% to polling barely below 40%.

I am at a loss to explain why this has happened. The fundamentals behind the race haven’t changed; the economy remains weak and Mr. Corzine much disliked. Scandal has not upended Christie; if anything, it has hurt Corzine more. Obviously the governor has run the better campaign, but campaigns generally do not erase double-digit leads.

Indeed, this race runs counter to a fundamental theme of politics: if a challenger of an unpopular incumbent attains a substantial lead, it is almost always a futile effort eroding the advantage. The unpopular incumbent – whether it be Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, or Rick Santorum – will inevitably lose. In fact, I cannot name a single election in which a candidate with a double-digit edge, facing a disliked incumbent, has lost that edge barring major scandal.

Part of the answer may lay with Chris Christie himself. The man seems, plain and simple, a bad candidate. For some reason or other, the inhabitants of New Jersey just don’t like the guy. It’s the same problem that cursed John Edwards and Mitt Romney during the primaries. No matter how well-run their campaigns, no matter how good their ideas, people just wouldn’t vote for them. Christie perfectly fits this description – an irony, given that Republicans nominated him because he appeared a strong candidate.

The same, of course, could be said for Corzine; both nominees have tremendous weaknesses. That is why this race is so close less than two weeks before election day.

The rumors over the weekend suggested that the White House was exerting behind-the-scenes pressure on Milwaukee mayor and ex-Rep. Tom Barrett to run for Governor, thinking he has the best chance of holding the state for the Democrats, compared with underfunded and not-well-known Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, the only Dem in the open seat race. (Reportedly, the pressure via Obama originated with current Gov. Jim Doyle, although Russ Feingold has reportedly also encouraged Barrett.)

Apparently, there must be some truth to all those rumors, because, one day later, Lawton seems to have gotten the message, announcing today:

My deep commitment to our state is second only to my commitment to my family. For very personal reasons, I will not pursue the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010.

The Journal-Sentinel article from yesterday that discussed the rumors said that Barrett’s in no hurry to decide, though, saying he may wait as late as February to make a decision. However, with both Lawton and Rep. Ron Kind out, though, it looks like Barrett may be ready to step into the vacuum right away — although if he doesn’t, that would leave Democrats in the serious lurch. Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan today says that he’d “love” to see Barrett get in the race, but isn’t ruling out running himself.

RaceTracker: WI-Gov

• AR-Sen: Another day, another random conservative guy running for the Senate in Arkansas. Today, it’s the turn for Stanley Reed, the former president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau and former president of the University of Arkansas board of trustees, who says he’s considering the race for the Republican nod. (H/t CongressDaily.)

• FL-Sen: The Police Benevolent Association, friendly with Charlie Crist from his law-and-order days as Attorney General, commissioned a poll via McLaughlin & Associates that paints a slightly rosier picture of Crist’s race against Marco Rubio than we’ve seen from several other pollsters last week. They find Crist up against Rubio 53-29, with a 67% approval.

• IA-Sen: It looks like Christie Vilsack (the former Iowa first lady, and political heavyweight in her own right) won’t be challenging Chuck Grassley after all. She’d sounded receptive to the idea in the last few weeks, but today she’s telling the Des Moines Register that she won’t run. Lawyer and former gubernatorial candidate Roxanne Conlin had sounded close to running last week, so the ball’s in Conlin’s court now.

• LA-Sen: Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne is the only prominent Republican left who hasn’t ruled out a challenge to David Vitter in the Republican primary, and, although he hasn’t taken any steps, he’s still not shutting the door on it. Last week on a radio show he confirmed that he hasn’t ruled it out. While a primary between the two hasn’t been polled since March (with Vitter leading 43-32), a recent poll had Dardenne overperforming Vitter against Charlie Melancon in the general.

• MA-Sen: A poll of the Democratic primary, from Western New England College Polling Institute, in the special election in Massachusetts finds that AG Martha Coakley is still in the driver’s seat, but that some of her competitors are gaining ground as they get better-known. Coakley is at 37, with Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca at 14 (that’s what spending all that money on ads will get you), Rep. Michael Capuano at 13, and City Year founder Alan Khazei at 4. The general election is shaping up to be a non-event, as Coakley beats Republican state Sen. Scott Brown 58-32 and Capuano beats him 49-33.

• WI-Sen: Russ Feingold finally has a noteworthy challenger: Terrence Wall, a Madison-area real estate developer who seems to have lots of money, although he’s never been elected before and it’s not clear what poltical skills he brings to the table. Wall is a frequent GOP donor, although he’s also given money to his local Dem, Rep. Tammy Baldwin.

• MI-Gov: Rasmussen took a look at the Michigan governor’s race, but without a clear sense of who the nominees will be, they just did a generic ballot test. Generic R leads Generic D by only a point, 37-36 — suggesting that Lt. Gov. John Cherry, who hasn’t polled well in general election matchups, is underperforming Generic D. Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm’s approval is 40/60.

• NJ-Gov: Suffolk University takes its first poll of the New Jersey governor’s race, and while it would be nice to say this was the new reality, it’s probably more likely an outlier: Jon Corzine leads Chris Christie 42-33, with Chris Daggett pulling in 7. Suffolk did an interesting experiment: they listed all 12 minor candidates, and they ate a bit into Daggett’s numbers, pulling in a cumulative 3%. Corzine also has surprisingly high favorables, at 45/46, with Christie at 34/46. Monmouth, however, explains what might have happened with this sample (apparently a simple mistake that out-of-state pollsters often make): Suffolk weighted party ID by registration, but because of NJ’s semi-open primary system, many unaffiliateds are actually partisan and should be polled as such.

Meanwhile, with most polls still pointing to a tossup, Barack Obama is back for one more rally with Corzine next weekend. Chris Christie can ill-afford one more scandal in the news, but that seems to be happening anyway, as stories about his seemingly politically-motivated hiring of the son of Christie patron and mentor Herbert Stern as an assistant US Attorney, despite Stern Jr.’s mediocre interviews.

• NY-Gov: This is the kind of courtesy call you don’t really want — the kind that says “I’m taking the job you want.” According to the NY Post’s Fred Dicker (so add salt according to taste), Andrew Cuomo contacted Rudy Giuliani through intermediaries to let him know that he will, in no uncertain terms, be running for Governor.

• CA-11: One more Republican sounds like he’s ready to join the strangely crowded field to go up against Rep. Jerry McNerney next year. Former San Jose city councilor Larry Pegram says he’ll move into the district to take on McNerney — but it seems like he may want to do a little research before getting too committed, as he claimed that McNerney is weak because he was just swept in as part of the “Obama wave.” (McNerney, of course, was first elected in 2006.)

• FL-19: The special election in the 19th is shaping up to be pretty uneventful: over the weekend, not only did outgoing Rep. Robert Wexler endorse state Sen. Peter Ted Deutch to take over for him, but so too did everyone else representing the Gold Coast: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Ron Klein, and Alcee Hastings.

• MI-02: A whole lot of Dutch-American conservative Republicans are jostling to take over from Rep. Peter Hoekstra in the solidly-red 2nd, and one of the field’s heavy hitters made his entry official: state Sen. Wayne Kuipers. He faces former state Rep. Bill Huizenga, former NFL player Jay Riemersma, and businessman Bill Cooper.

• NY-23 (pdf): There have been rumors of private polls out there given a small lead to third-party Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman in the 23rd, and now his sponsors at the Club for Growth have openly released one. Basswood Research finds Hoffman in the lead with 31, with Democrat Bill Owens at 27 and Republican Dede Scozzafava lagging at 20, with 22 undecided (although with a huge 6% MoE, anything could be happening). That must have something to do with the DCCC’s new strategy; their new negative ad is going after Hoffman, rather than Scozzafava. Also, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty finally got off the fence and decided to throw his lot in with the movement: he endorsed Hoffman.

• NY-24: The New York Times, in a broader piece on GOP targeting of New York House Democrats, has an interesting tidbit we hadn’t seen before: the GOP is trying to coax Michael Richard Hanna, the businessman who performed surprisingly well against Rep. Mike Arcuri last year, into a rematch.

• KY-St. Sen.: We’re moving one step closer to another vacant seat and special election in Kentucky’s Senate (which is controlled 21-17 by Republicans right now). Republican Dan Kelly was nominated for a state circuit court position, and he just needs Gov. Steve Beshear’s approval to get the job. Competitors are already lining up for the special, including Republican state Rep. Jimmy Higdon and Democratic former state Rep. Jodie Haydon. (In case you were wondering if Kentucky, which votes for statewide offices in odd-numbered years, is having legislative elections next week, the answer is no; state legislators are still elected in even-numbered years.)

• VA-St. House: One more good piece in the diaries breaking down the individual races in Virginia’s House of Delegates into Tossup, Lean, and Likely, thanks to our Johnny Longtorso. One particularly interesting race is the 51st District in exurban Prince William County, where Republican Rich Anderson, challenging Dem incumbent Paul Nichols in a very competitive race, may face criminal charges for giving out Nichols’ Social Security number on a mailer to over 15,000 area residents.

• ME-Init: Another poll from Pan Atlantic SMS of Question 1 in Maine on gay marriage. They find 42 yes and 53 no (with “no” being a vote in favor of continuing gay marriage), not much changed from their September poll (43-52) but the most optimistic numbers we’ve seen yet here.

• Mayors: In New York City, Quinnipiac finds incumbent Michael Bloomberg (the $85 million man) with a sizable edge against Democratic comptroller William Thompson, leading 53-35 with a lead in every borough. (Not much change from 52-36 a month ago.) In what looks to be the first poll of the Atlanta mayoral race, SurveyUSA finds city councilor Mary Norwood with a big lead, although not quite enough to avoid a runoff with the 2nd place finisher. Norwood is at 46%, followed by state Sen. Kasim Reed at 26% and city councilor Lisa Borders at 17%. Norwood leads 6:1 among whites, independents, and Republicans; Reed leads among African-Americans. Also worth a read is a piece from our own diaries about major (and minor) mayoral races from elections09, which gets into the weeds on some tight races not on anybody’s national radar screen (with Vancouver, WA and Stamford, CT as particularly interesting examples).