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October 08, 2010 09:58 PM UTC

Big Line Updated

  • 60 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

We’ve updated “The Big Line” as we near the mass mail-out of ballots around the state.

We get a lot of comments about how our Line could ignore “national trends” or similar arguments. Our answer is always the same: We go through each race, one by one, and try to set the order and the odds for just that race. Only then do we go back and look the whole thing over to see if we should make some adjustments here or there based on national “trends” that favor one Party over the other, or anti-incumbency, or whatever.

Sometimes we’re wrong, but after Election Day, (warning: horn-tooting ahead) we usually pick most of these races correctly. In order to provide more insight into how and why we order “The Big Line” in such a manner, read on…

Our final determination on the leaders in each race always comes down to the same test that we ask you to make when voting in one of our polls. We don’t make a decision based on what we want to happen or what we hope will happen.

Instead, we try to take a cold look at it through the eyes of a gambler, and we ask ourselves the same question each time: If we had to bet everything we owned on this race, which candidate is the safest bet?

The CD-3 race is a perfect example of this “technique,” because despite all the news and polls, we looked at it again and decided that we just wouldn’t feel safe placing a large bet on Scott Tipton to unseat Rep. John Salazar. If we had to place that bet today, and we had to wait to collect until Nov. 3, we’d sleep better at night with our money on Salazar.

So that’s how we do it. Forget “national polls this” and “national trends that,” because when voters get their ballots, they’re still going to be looking down at a bunch of actual names. And if you HAD to make a choice, and it was your butt on the line if you chose wrong, then how would you really feel about each race?

   

Comments

60 thoughts on “Big Line Updated

  1. It’s obviously partisan hackery. Gardner will win in a landslide, Buck by a decisive margin, and Frazier and Tipton will win in very close races.

      1. You owe me a soda.

        ProgressiveCowgirl @ Fri Oct 08, 2010 at 13:14:48 PM MDT

        ThillyWabbit @ Fri Oct 08, 2010 at 13:15:10 PM MDT

        (OK, not EXACTLY jinx, but close enough)

    1. …a relatively ineffective candidate.  He’s lucky he’s better at legislating than campaigning, and that his district would be toss-up to right-leaning in a normal year.  But Betsy Markey handed him the keys when she voted for HCR.

      Buck will win by a decisive margin, agreed.  No real question there in my mind.

      Tipton will be very close.  Frazier should also be very close, as he’s easily the best candidate Republicans have in 2010, although he had the biggest hill to climb.  Not ready to predict a winner in either of these races, as polling is virtually non-existent and what we do have could be way off in either direction.  I am optimistic though…

      As for the Big Line…it has always been a joke.  Ken Buck has never been tied or led on TBL, and yet there has been only one poll giving Michael Bennet a lead (1 point, at that) in over a month.  RCP has Buck at an average lead of 4.4%.  ‘Nuff said.

          1. In his wildest dreams,maybe.

            There hasn’t been any (public) polling in the 3rd that I’m aware of. Off-shoots of statewide polls with a small sample of the 3rd just don’t cut it.

            Anybody know of one that’s been done properly with a high sample number and not Razzy?

        1. but I’ll testify from memory that they called all the big ones correctly, if at times having odds that didn’t jibe with how close the contest ended up being.

        2. I’ll just make a couple notes.  First, you could accurately “predict” the outcome of 90% of races just by picking the incumbent in ALL races in almost any given year.  Second, Pols has only been doing TBL as far as I can tell in a short period of history where Democrats–their default selection–have done very well.  This election will be their first test as far as true accuracy goes.  They may pick them right, they may pick them wrong, but their short history of picks tells us nothing.

          1. The didn’t pick Dems because of bias, they picked Dems because they were more likely to win in the last few elections.  And they did.

            You will notice that they moved several R’s up to the same as the Dem candidates. If so badly biased, I doubt they would have done that.

            From my distance, TBL looks just about right.

            We’ll find out soon enough.  

            1. …possibly since the 1940s for Republicans, they have moved 3 races out of 8 competitive races into a tie.  They consider not one single Republican a favorite.  Not the incumbent John Suthers.  Not Buck, who is consistently outpolling his opponent by 5-8 points.  Not Cory Gardner, who could win by double digits.

              I would hazard a guess that out of the nine races listed on The Big Line, a Republican WILL win 7, possibly 8, and a clean sweep isn’t out of the question.  But TBL predicts Democrats WILL win 5, probably 6 or 7, and possibly 8.  They think Democrats can win every single one of these competitive races?  Are they nutz?

              1. But my point remains, don’t confuse bad judgment with partisanship. You know, like you are doing.

                Their batting average is good, not because they picked Dems, but because they weighted all the facts and arrived at conclusions. Good ones.  

                    1. that Hickenlooper will be the next gov.

                      You want to match the bet: Even money.  I get hick.  If either Maes or Tancredo wins, you collect.

                       Deal, big mouth?  Or do you want to go back to momma’s basement and blog some more.

                    2. …some info that the other 5 million people in this state don’t, but…

                      However, if you’d like to make the same bet on the Senate race, or CD-4, please do let me know.

                    3. a long time ago. You have no special right to anyone’s money.

                      It’s kind of funny how Republicans hate paying taxes but still think they’re entitled to other people’s money on demand.

                      I’d call it hypocrisy if I thought Republicans believed in anything but winning.

                    4. …the loser’s money go to a charity of the winner’s choice (mine was Susan G. Komen).  I could care less about your money.  I just want everyone to start backing up their rhetoric.

                    5. An unverified promise of where money will go in the future is worth so much more than an unverifited statement of where money has gone before.

                    6. …if you are questioning whether or not I would follow through, I’m happy to place my share in escrow with a trusted member of the Pols community.

                    7. I choose $1 million.  On Thielen or Bennet/Buck.  Please see him for your voucher.  I can’t point to your reality voucher but I can’t say it doesn’t exist.  Don’t stop believin’

                    8. I lost my password and figured I’d just start over.  Jambalese never made much sense to me.  Just sounds like idiot rambling, although usually there are enough talking points mixed in that I can string them together to form a relatively coherent thought.  In this case, not so much.

                    9. were you under the sad impression that your ostensible wager made any sense to start with?   Welcome back to COPOLS to me, I say, welcome back hard.

  2. Dan Maes is 25:1 and  Flerlage is 45:1

    R u f’ng insane?  I know it’s hard to do powers in html, and I also understand that TBL is not for actual betting.

    But first of all, Maes is at least 44:1.  And Flerlage was over in Jan 2010?! I know you don’t mean Jan 2009  – he hadn’t announced yet.  But in Feb 09 when he announced that he didn’t need big fundraising because he was going to run an issues based campaign. Uh-huh

  3. we usually pick most of these races correctly

    You started in ’04?  It hasn’t taken a genius to pick Dem winners in the last three cycles.  

    But for this cycle, you:

    A. Forgot to undo the Dem default settings

    B. Have an undisclosed Dem+10 spread

    C. Really are smarter than the average lucid American.

    How many real upsets can you point to have predicted?  Otherwise, I think you fall into B., giving points to Dems.  Afterall, you did pick Coffman; Flerlage won’t cover your spread.

    Your current line leaves you with little chance to claim C. in November.  Not a lot of courage to update with even odds but verbally call for Dems.  I suppose you could claim credit if Salazar beats Tipton by 5+.

  4. Not on the merits, but because a bookie that offered 4-1 or 5-1 odds on both candidates in two candidate races would make people who played both sides to hedge their bets very rich.

    I know, I know, these are “emotional oddds” and not mathematical ones.  But, oy vey!

  5. To me, that seems like the one race where Pols has never beeen realistic.  Hope Pols is right but haven’t seen anything to indicate it was ever Garnett ahead and now tied. I’d love to see it but just don’t.

  6. going to do an Election Day prediction contest like you did last cycle (I believe)?

    Pick winners & losers with margin for the 8 races listed at left (not CO-6).  Ties determined by smallest combined margin differential between predictions and results.

    Gov. turnout could be 2nd tie-breaker.

    1. …Pols uses to suggest that his position has gotten worse since the last update of TBL.  Doesn’t necessarily mean they dropped his odds (they didn’t–he always trailed Bennet).

  7. (mine don’t deserve their own diary). In decreasing order of certainty:

    Governor: Hickenlooper

    CD7: Perlmutter

    AG: Suthers

    Senate: Buck

    SoS: Buescher

    CD3: Salazar

    CD4: Markey

    Treasurer: Stapleton

    I’ll be voting for the Democratic candidate in all of these races.

    1. You need to add Big Line(s) for control of State Legislature (or House/Senate separately).  Especially with re-districting coming up this is a noteworthy consideration.

  8. “General protest” is only going to happen if people are paying at least some attention.  Anyone even paying marginal attention can’t have missed the good news coming out of that office.  There weren’t fireworks or anything, but it was on all the local news networks.

    If that were going to happen at all I’d vote in the SOS race.  “Absolute mess”, I think you mean no one knows who this guy is.  Perfect protest vote.

    Maybe you’re right, but if so, those two races should look more alike.

  9. ….I would forsake that butt to the Gods because your cause and your reasoning are too ephemeral to be counted on.

    Let us be thankful that money has poured into the races in Colorado, and wonder why we are so blessed.  It’s not like I avoid Jeopardy every night to avoid political commercials.  Those bithces call me at work, robostyle……if I had a job, that is.  Suthers will win, BTW.  So it is written…

  10. I was in Douglas County the other day, and kept seeing signs for Mike Coffman.  And for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what he could possibly be running for!  

    I knew he wasn’t Secretary of State anymore, but had totally forgotten he was in Congress.  Of course, I don’t live in his district either.  

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