Thursday, October 21, 2010

Illinois Gov a 1 point race

The Illinois Governor's race is starting to feel more and more like last year's contest in New Jersey all over again. Like Jon Corzine, Pat Quinn has horrid approval numbers. Like Corzine, he was down by a lot over the summer and looked like he was as good as dead. Like Corzine, he's pulled closer as his party's base has reluctantly unified around him. And like Corzine part of his competitiveness is predicated on voters who don't like him supporting a third party candidate instead of his Republican opponent. Whether Quinn's final fate will be the same as Corzine's we shall see.

Our new poll in Illinois finds Quinn trailing Bill Brady just 42-41 with third party candidates combining to get 10%. Whether those third party candidates can maintain their current level of support is going to be critical to Quinn's reelection hopes because in a head to head contest between Quinn and Brady the Republican leads 49-44. That suggests the folks going for the minor candidates are folks who really don't like Quinn but can't quite bring themselves to support Brady. The independent bid of Chris Daggett in New Jersey last year similarly propped up Corzine for a while and shifted the race to a tie but eventually Daggett's support collapsed with folks who had been saying they would vote for him and they moved toward Chris Christie, handing him his final victory.

Regardless of whether he will win in the end Quinn's comeback has been impressive. He trailed by 7 in our last poll. Since then he has convinced a lot of Democratic leaning undecideds to vote for him. He was receiving just 62% of the Democratic vote on our last poll but is now up to 71%. He's likewise increased his support from 27% to 40% with independent voters while Brady's support has remained steady.

Although Quinn remains very unpopular, with a 32% approval rating, the simple story on this race is that the better voters have gotten to know Bill Brady the more appealing Quinn has started looking in comparison. Back in April when Brady had 45% name recognition he led the race by 10 points. Now 83% of voters in the state know who Brady is and they don't like what they see. 39% of voters have a favorable opinion of him to 44% with an unfavorable one.

It's hard to imagine that someone as unpopular as Quinn could really get reelected as Governor in the end but this race looks more interesting than it has in months as it enters its final days.

Full results here

Overwhelming support for Davis

North Carolina fans are happy with the job Butch Davis is doing as football coach and want him to remain in that job despite the controversy that's been swirling around the program for the last three months.

A scientific telephone survey of North Carolina voters describing themselves as fans of the Tar Heels found that:

-Only 14% of Carolina fans want Davis to be fired with 57% preferring that he continue as the coach and 29% having no opinion. 41% of fans approve of Davis' overall job performance to only 20% who disapprove, numbers any politician would love to have.

-We also asked poll respondents whether they would characterize themselves more as 'hardcore' or 'casual' UNC fans. Davis' support is even higher with the hardcore fans who are most passionate about Carolina than the fan base at large. With that group there's only 9% support for replacing Davis while 68% think he should remain coach. And they also give Davis very solid overall numbers with 59% approving of the job he's doing to only 21% who dissent.

These numbers would seem to suggest that UNC fans don't think the program's current issues are Davis' fault and that they appreciate the strides the team has made on the field since he became coach. And they would suggest that Chancellor Holden Thorp and Athletic Director Dick Baddour's strong continued support of Davis is meeting favor with their 'constituents.'

Full results here

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

One last vote...

Thank you to everyone who voted in our 'eastern states' poll on where to do polls the final week of the election. The winners were New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut. I should note that we may be polling New Hampshire for Daily Kos this weekend and if the statewide races are not sufficiently competitive we may consider that to be our final poll there and do South Carolina instead, which was the fourth place finisher. We don't need to do 2 polls in less than a week finding Kelly Ayotte up by 8 and John Lynch up by 10. But if one of the races is within 5 points we will do a second New Hampshire poll.

We had said earlier this week that we would definitely poll Wisconsin in our final set of polls but we're going to take it off the 'guaranteed' list and replace it with Kentucky. You can vote for a Wisconsin poll if you want one. Here are the choices for our final three non-eastern time zone polls:

-Arizona
-Arkansas
-Iowa
-Louisiana
-Minnesota
-New Mexico
-Oregon
-Texas
-Wisconsin

Voting is open until Friday night

Onorato within 2

The Democratic resurgence in Pennsylvania isn't limited to Joe Sestak. PPP's new poll of the Governor's race finds Dan Onorato pulling to within 2 points of Tom Corbett, 48-46.

The reasons for Onorato's improved standing are the same as Sestak's:

1) The likely electorate for this fall is trending in a more Democratic direction. When PPP found Corbett ahead by 13 points in mid-August those planning to vote this fall in Pennsylvania reported having voted for John McCain by a 1 point margin in 2008. Now the likely electorate supported Barack Obama by 4 points, still a drop from his actual 10 point win but at least an indication that the party's voters are picking up their level of enagement.

2) Democratic voters are getting more unified around Onorato. He's seen his support from within his party jump 13 points over the last couple months from 62% to 75%. Corbett's also seen a gain in his party support across that period of time but it hasn't been quite as large, from 74% to 82%.

3) Independents are now splitting pretty evenly. In August Corbett had a commanding 52-20 lead with them. Now it's just 48-46.

Despite the Onorato surge this poll can also be seen as encouraging for Corbett. He hasn't lost any support from his 48% standing in August and the undecideds in this race are exceedingly low at just 6%. So Corbett doesn't have to pick up much more support to get over 50%.

This is a most unusual race for this fractured political climate in that Pennsylvania voters like both Corbett and Onorato. Corbett has a 47/34 favorability rating and is seen positively by even 25% of Democrats. Onorato's favorability is 45/39. Both Gubernatorial candidates are more popular than either of the Senate candidates.

Corbett's lead persists because he's getting 18% of the Democratic vote while Onorato is winning only 12% of Republicans. Ed Rendell's unpopularity is not doing Onorato any favors. 54% of voters disapprove of him as he prepares to leave office and 70% of the Democrats who are planning to vote for Corbett are displeased with the job Rendell is doing.

Corbett remains the favorite but this race at least looks like it will end up being a lot closer than it was over the summer.

Full results here

Continuing Closeness in Illinois

The Illinois Senate race continues to be one of the closest in the country with Mark Kirk leading Alexi Giannoulias 42-40 on PPP's newest poll of the race, representing a small tightening since PPP found Kirk with a 4 point advantage three weeks ago.

You would assume that for Mark Kirk to be running ahead as Republican in Illinois that he would be winning a good amount of crossover support from Democrats and that he would have a massive lead with independents. In reality he is doing neither of those things. He's only getting 10% of the Democratic vote, about average for GOP candidates across the country this year. And he has just a 9 point advantage with independents, below average for what Republican Senate candidates across the country are getting. To put it into perspective when the GOP won another Senate seat this year in a state Obama won by 25 points- Massachusetts- their nominee took independent voters by a 32 point margin.

So how is Kirk ahead if he's not doing those things? The final outcome in Illinois, perhaps more so than any other state in the country, is going to be determined by the ability of Democrats to mobilize their base in these final two weeks. We find that likely voters there only voted for Barack Obama by a 9 point margin in 2008, compared to his actual 25 point victory in the state. If what Democrats are dealing with on a national basis is an enthusiasm gap then what they're facing in Illinois could perhaps be better described as an enthusiasm canyon. The only state where we see a bigger disparity between who voted in 2008 and who's planning to vote this year is Obama's native Hawaii.

The competitiveness of this race is completely predicated on paltry Democratic turnout. If that proves to be the case it's about 50-50 as to who will win on election day with perhaps a small advantage for Kirk. If Democratic turnout exceeds current expectations there's almost no doubt Giannoulias ends up as the winner.

Full results here

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Washington Senate Close

There's a pretty strong argument that the Washington Senate race is the most stable in the country: PPP finds Patty Murray leading Dino Rossi 49-47, basically identical to our July poll of the race that found her ahead 49-46.

The reason for the stability is that voters know these candidates, they know what they think of them, and nothing they've heard during this campaign has changed those opinions in one direction or the other. In July Murray's approval rating was 46/45. Now it's 47/48. In July Rossi's favorability was 43/48. Now it's 44/49. This is a race where persuasion means little and everything will hinge on who bothers to cast their ballots in the next few weeks.

PPP has seen an increase in Democratic interest in many states as the election moves closer but Washington is not one of them and that's the main reason Rossi is still in this thing. Barack Obama won the state by 17 points in 2008 but those planning to vote this year supported him by only 7 points, giving Washington one of the larger enthusiasm gaps we're seeing across the country. If she can get more of those Obama voters who seem likely to drop off to cast their ballots this year she has a chance to win by a more comfortable margin but if things stay as they are this contest is firmly in the toss up category.

In addition to being the most stagnant race in the country Washington also provides one of the most polarizing contests anywhere this year. Murray has 93% of the Democratic vote locked up while Rossi's getting 91% of the Republicans. Appeal across party lines is basically nonexistent for both candidates. Independents are going for Rossi by a 49/43 margin.

One hopeful sign for Murray in the poll is that she leads 52-47 with the 14% of voters who say they've already case their ballots. Working against her is that Obama now has a negative 46/48 approval rating in the state and for the most part voters who don't like Obama aren't voting for Democrats this year. Looks like this one could be a nail biter.

Full results here

Burr leads but NC Senate tightening

There's good news for both Elaine Marshall and Richard Burr in PPP's newest poll of the North Carolina Senate race.

The good news for Marshall is that she's picking up undecided voters and closing the gap against Burr. She now trails by 8 points, 48-40, after facing a 13 point deficit against Burr three weeks ago. She's starting to shore up her support with the base, getting 73% of Democrats compared to 65% in the previous poll.

And that base is getting larger as the level of interest from Democratic voters picks up with the election moving closer. In late September the likely voter pool for this year voted for John McCain by a 9 point margin, suggesting a massive drop in Democratic turnout given that Barack Obama actually won the state. Now the likely voter pool reflects an electorate that supported McCain by 4 points, still pointing to a decline in Democratic turnout but perhaps not as massive as it looked like it would be earlier in the cycle.

There's good news for Burr in the poll numbers as well, beyond the obvious fact that he continues to lead. Although Marshall has picked up support Burr is not really losing it. His 48% is basically identical to the 49% he was getting on the previous poll and is awfully close to crossing the 50% mark he needs to clinch a victory. He continues to hold a remarkable 52-24 advantage with independents. If that holds on through election day it's hard to see a scenario where Marshall wins.

Interestingly the 42% of voters with a favorable opinion of Marshall actually exceeds the 40% who approve of Burr's job performance. You might expect Marshall to be polling closer with that as the case but casting a shadow over her is Barack Obama's high level of unpopularity in the state. 54% of voters disapprove of the job he's doing as President to only 41% who approve and there's a near total correlation between how voters feel about Obama and how they're planning to vote in the Senate race. Only 4% of voters who approve of Obama are planning to vote for Burr. But only 6% who disapprove of Obama are planning to vote for Marshall. That makes her path to victory tough when a majority of voters fall into the disapprove category.

Burr appears to be in good shape but Marshall does find herself in the strongest position she's been in in over a month and we'll see if she can continue that momentum over the final two weeks.

Full results here

Pennsylvania Senate tied

You can put Pennsylvania Senate back in the toss up category. Joe Sestak leads Pat Toomey 46-45 in our newest poll of the race, erasing the 9 point deficit he had in an August PPP survey.

Toomey's support has remained stagnant over the last 2 months while Sestak's has gone up 10 points from 36% to 46%. There are three main factors driving the increased competitiveness of the race:

-Democratic voters are getting more engaged as election day moves closer. Barack Obama won Pennsylvania by 10 points in 2008 but our August survey in the state found those planning to vote in November had actually supported John McCain by a point in 2008, suggesting a massive drop off in Democratic turnout. Now those saying they will vote next month supported Obama by 4 points in 2008. The enthusiasm gap is still there but it's not as severe a problem for Democrats as it was 2 months ago.

-Sestak has wiped out what was an enormous deficit with independents. In August Toomey led 50-27 with them. He hasn't really lost any support with them but Sestak has picked up most of the undecided ones and now trails only 49-48 with that voter group. Most Democratic candidates across the country are down double digits with independents so for Sestak to be running even with them is a good sign for him.

-The Democratic base is unifying more around Sestak. In August there was a considerable party unity gap in this race with Toomey winning 74% of Republicans while Sestak was getting only 64% of Democrats. Toomey is still benefiting from greater unity with his party's voters, getting 82% of Republicans, but Sestak is up to 77% of Democrats. While it persists that unity gap is half the size of what it was in August.

One of the more impressive things about Sestak's resurrection is that it comes even as Barack Obama remains very unpopular in the state. 51% of voters disapprove of the job he's doing while only 43% give him good marks. If there is some bad news for Sestak in this poll it's that the remaining undecideds are not very happy with the President- if they ended up voting in the Senate race based on their feelings about Obama it would turn Toomey's 1 point deficit into a 1 point lead.

It looks like this race will be a lot more interesting in the final two weeks than anyone would have expected over the last few months.

Full results here

Monday, October 18, 2010

Previewing Washington

The Washington poll we'll put out tomorrow finds that by a 47-46 margin voters in the state would like Republicans to have control of the Senate for the next session of Congress. It also finds, like almost all recent polls, a lead for Patty Murray.

Dino Rossi isn't usually thought of as one of the weak Republican candidates this year along the lines of the Christine O'Donnells, Sharron Angles, and Joe Millers of the world but when you see voters in Washington wanting a Republican Senate but not wanting Dino you may as well add him to the list. And his favorability numbers are pretty poor with 49% of voters having an unfavorable opinion of him to only 44% who see him positively.

It was pretty much simultaneously earlier this year that Republicans were hoping Rossi would join the race in Washington and that Tommy Thompson would throw his hat in Wisconsin. Republicans got what they wanted in Washington but not in Wisconsin. In retrospect though they actually came out better in Wisconsin than in Washington.

Rossi and Thompson are both tired old politicians in a year when Americans aren't too fond of them. Our final poll in Wisconsin when Thompson was still considering the race found 44% of voters with an unfavorable opinion of him and only 40% with a positive one, numbers very similar to Rossi. Fast forward 7 months and compare those numbers for Thompson to what we found on our last poll for Ron Johnson- 46% favorable, 34% unfavorable and a solid lead over Russ Feingold. Republicans are much better off with the fresh face they got in Wisconsin than they are with the familiar one in Washington, even if that's not what they thought they wanted in the first part of this year.

Our Last Set of Polls

It's hard to believe it's already time for this but it's time to start picking the states for PPP's final round of public polls for this cycle, which will be released from Thursday, October 28th to Monday, November 1st.

We're aiming to survey 18 states over the last week of the election. 12 of them are locks: Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The final six we'll let you choose. 3 of them will be eastern time zone states and the other 3 will non-eastern time zones. Here are your choices for the eastern time zone ones and voting will be open until Wednesday night:

-Connecticut
-Delaware
-Georgia
-Maine
-Maryland
-Massachusetts
-New Hampshire
-New York
-Rhode Island
-South Carolina
-Vermont

Vote away!
 
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