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September 07, 2010 09:35 PM UTC

Forget the Trends - It's Still About Candidate Matchups

  • 18 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

It’s no secret that national polling has shown Republicans with a big advantage over Democrats in a generic preference matchup, and that advantage should lead Republicans to pick up more seats than Democrats in races around the country. National and local media outlets have gone gaga repeating this news over and over again. But we say “should” for good reason, because national polls have also shown that while voters don’t really like Democrats, they don’t like Republicans, either (hence the big third-party advantage in the most recent Colorado poll).

What this all points to is the same thing we’ve been discussing here for months: At the end of the day, the most important question is still how “Candidate A” compares to “Candidate B.” National trends and general anger/unease are important, but voters still have to pick between two (or more) names on their ballot.

There’s a great example of this than in Texas, where Democrat Bill White is running neck-and-neck with Republican Governor Rick Perry, according to a Republican poll:

A statewide public opinion survey conducted by Republican polling firm Hill Research Consultants on behalf of the Texas Watch Foundation reveals an electorate divided between incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry (42%) and Democratic challenger Bill White (41%), with a significant bloc of voters (14%) still uncommitted to either candidate.

Texas voters haven’t elected a Democrat for governor or U.S. Senate in 20 years (Gov. Ann Richards). They haven’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988 (Sen. Lloyd Bentsen). In the 2008 Presidential election, nearly 1 million more people voted for Republican John McCain than Democrat Barack Obama. Yet in 2010, a Democrat is in a dead-heat with a Republican incumbent for governor. If the Texas gubernatorial race was between “Generic Republican” and “Generic Democrat,” then the Republicans would win in a landslide. But it’s not. Voters still have to pick a name on their ballot.

We won’t deny that there is a Republican advantage in 2010, and perhaps a significant one at that. But as we’ve said time and again, which is reflected in The Big Line, none of these generic trends matter once voters have their ballots in front of them.

Comments

18 thoughts on “Forget the Trends – It’s Still About Candidate Matchups

    1. The national and local media have been in a tizzy about these generic “trends.” Local Republicans have said that these “trends” mean that The Big Line is woefully inaccurate. But when you forget the trends and look at each race, one by one (which is how voters will do it, by the way), then things look differently. National “trends” say that Republicans should destroy Democrats in the race for governor, for example, but does anybody really think that Dan Maes is going to beat John Hickenlooper?

      1. that voters tend to re-elect their own congressional members even as they rail against that person’s party or incumbents in general.  This is not to say that seats never change hands or that Dems won’t lose seats but it does mean that H-man and Co may be counting quite a few chickens prematurely. Also the time between now and th election is still long in terms of what can still happen.  Polls from before Labor Day should never be considered definitive.

        But we’ll still have to put up with H-man boasting and taunting a dozen times per thread and the general invasion of the talking point spewing Ditto head army in the meantime.  Wouldn’t seeing Perry the secessionist loon lose in Texas be loads of fun!?! No chicken counting here, just fingers crossed.  

    2. Below in my link and post.  You guys have very effectively created a meme that you are going to win.  Maybe the Reps peaked to early with their plan.  Now will the momentum shift back?  Maybe the Republican polling firms (Rasmussen, Magellan etc) will now have to make their polls more real so they aren’t so far off what actually happens in the election.  Maybe Rasmussen will even have to come down to earth (see recent poll of Nevada showing Reid leading).  It’s not ColoradoPols who has a “facty truthy” problem, it’s the pollsters who have been cooking the books for a year now.  Pols is right in another way too.  There are 180 Republican Congressional Districts in the country.  If they’re all about 70% Republican, that’s going to skew the numbers for the rest of the country and not change one race, because that district already has a Republican representative.  The “generic ballot” is worthless.  Show me the “truthy facty” polls in each district.  And yes, even though KOS is a Democratic blog, at least they disclose clearly the Democratic and Republican poll bias.

  1. was never elected to the U.S. Senate.

    He was appointed by Gov. Richards in Jan. 1993 to replace Lloyd Bentsen, who had become Clinton’s treasury secretary.

    Krueger lost the special election for the seat later that year. His opponent was Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

  2. Longtime pundit Bob Ewegen advanced the Everybody Stinks but Harley Rule to explain why polls showed Congress so unpopular even though Congress’ re-election rates were higher than that of the old Soviet Politburo!  

     

    Ask anyone what they think of Congress and they will respond: “It stinks.  They are all fools, scoundrels, idiots.”

      What do you think of Your Congressman?

      “Oh, my Congressman is Harley Schmidlapp.  Harley’s Great.  When Aunt Millie’s Social Security check got held up last year, we called his office and he kicked those bureaucrats in the Butt and She got her check.  We love Harley, but the rest of them stink!”

      Congress consists of 535 fools, bounders and idiots — each of whom is the sole exception to that rule.  That’s why generic match-ups mean little when actual candidates, with real strengths and weakness, enter the picture.  Add the ability of staff work to sway voters by doing what they’re supposed to do for the home folks, and you’re back to Tip O’Neill’s rule, All Politics is Local.  

  3. Voters don’t like members of either party.  The only thing that means is that incumbents are screwed.

    In case you were wondering, Dems have the sizeable advantage of incumbency.  Are the dots starting to connect yet?  A lot of geniuses on this board, I’m sure someone can figure out the syllogism.

    This will be most clear in districts where incumbents represent districts where they’re in the minority (easy Voyageur, this isn’t a racist thing).  This group consists almost solely of Dems.

    So it’s it’s quite conceivable that a few Republican incumbents will lose as well (though I wouldn’t bet against Perry).  But the crystal clear outcome for those outside Pols-world is that Republicans are going to have sweeping gains.  One match-up at a time.  

    1. Conservatives have been shilling those Rassy polls showing a Republican tidal wave. If it doesn’t materialize, if R’s don’t take the House and Senate, they’re losers.

      1. Not just Rassmussen has been showing that Republicans should make big gains.  Most are saying we will come close/ have a chance at taking House.  Very few are saying we’ll take senate back.

        Though, if we come up a seat short in each chamber, we’ll find a way to live with being losers.

  4. I give you as examples:

    Colorado SoS

    Colorado AG

    Colorado Treasurer

    I would bet that not 1/20 of the voters could tell the names of any of candidates.

    I asked this question in a slightly different form on an earlier topic.

    Does anyone have any data on what happens in this situation?

    1. 2006 was similar, a Dem wave. What happened to the second tier state candidates then? The elected incumbents won, even though they were from the counter wave party.  

  5. An interesting corollary to this thesis (which I agree with) will be the national results vs. Colorado results.

    Real candidates matter and here in Colorado, where the Republicans have been working hard to turn the tide of what is supposed to be a favorable year against them, we may see those effects running contrary to the national trend.

    Nationally, the Rs have been running an obstructionist strategy in conjunction with firing up the fear and anger astroturf movement. But they lost control of the beast in some places (Colorado, Alaska, Nevada, possibly Delaware). So that, in a few places they may have nominated unelectable candidates and here in Colorado, the Republican party has turned into such a circus that it may have a significant impact down ballot.

    1. (CO Sen and Gov, NV Sen, AK Sen, and especially DE Sen) I will personally buy each and every regular TEA Party poster on this board a (good) beer.  (Any 4 of those races will do; I’m pretty much giving you CO-Gov for free since Hickenlooper is watching the rest of the field tear itself apart.)

      The fact that Harry Reid might survive a re-election in Nevada, and that uber-popular Republican Mike Castle might lose his primary in Delaware (thereby guaranteeing a Democratic hold for the Senate seat there), is a testament to just how whacked out the TEA Party Republicans have become.  Nearly the same can be said for the possibility that Scott McAdams could win against Miller in Alaska.  It takes talent to lose those kinds of races.

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