Balkinization: What Chance Do the Republicans Have of Maintaining Control of the House

Comments:

It would be a mistake to count the GOP out in the House based on media polls. The polls of "likely voters" in the actual competitive districts are all over the place, indicating the polls themselves are inaccurate or the electorate is unsettled on for whom they plan to vote.

The last polling for Congress in an off year election in 2002 predicted that the GOP would lose seats, when they actually gained.

http://www.riehlworldview.com/
carnivorous_conservative/2006/10/
a_unique_perspe.html

How can this be? This has received comparatively little press, but the GOP has elevated voter turnout to a carefully managed science based on massive numbers of volunteers making communicating by phone and door to door with GOP leaning voters specially identified for interest in certain issues.

The worry among many Elephants (and hope among many Donkeys) was that the volunteers and thus the voters would not turn out amidst the torrent of "bad news." That does not appear to be the case so far. Instead, volunteer contacts are reportedly up.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/
archives/2006/10/are_republican.html

Even amidst this adverse electoral environment, this methodology was most recently used to elect Brian Bilbray in the district vacated by the disgraced Duke Cunningham...

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/15/
america/NA_POL_US_Turning_Out_Voters.php

And to save Lincoln Chafee in a hotly contested primary where he was trailing his conservative opponent in many polls.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2006/09/13/
AR2006091302254.html

This is probably the reason for Mr. Rove's fascinating self confidence while many fellow Elephants are tearing out their hair. That and about $100 million in Elephant ads which are about to hit the airways.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/
20061018-123042-6508r.htm

This election will be Rove's stiffest test yet, though. The media environment is toxic in a sixth year of an unpopular presidency. The next couple weeks should be very interesting for political junkies like myself.

# posted by

Bart DePalma : 9:26 AM

You can also get both House & Senate numbers (plus all the other politics odds) here.

# posted by

Chris : 12:33 PM

Its long been said that what goes around comes around and this new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll seems to be an indication that the GOP is fast approaching a first hand encounter with the short end of the proverbial stick. For the Party that has sought to make terror and fear the surf and turf of their pre-election voter menu, they may instead find themselves bogged down in the sands of scandal as a fast approaching wave is about to sweep them out of power in a classic example of voter house cleaning.

Clearly, the most significant finding in this new poll is that the Democrats may be finally closing the deal with voters...something they have been unable to achieve in recent election cycles. If the Democrats are in fact now seen as a favorable alternative to the GOP, it may well signal that the country has not only rejected more of the same from the Republican Party but decided that the nation needs to move in a decidedly new direction.

Read more here:

www.thoughttheater.com

# posted by

Daniel DiRito : 1:07 PM

I hope that I'm being paranoid about this issue, but let's not underestimate the Republicans' skill at stealing elections, both by preventing people from voting and by messing with the computer outcomes. Why didn't Congress enact a law requiring paper trails in congressional (and presidential) elections?

# posted by

Henry : 6:11 PM

Yes, you're being paranoid.

The Republicans win because the Senate is gerrymandered by history (D votes the last three cycles outnumber Rs, and not by 537) and because the House is gerrymandered by design.

On the latter subject see this fabulous model work (PDF), or just look at my version (PNG) of Paul Krugman's clever partisan-vote-by-district analysis (TimesSelect).

There has been plenty of cheating on both sides (viz. FL2K), but in 2004, the (R) candidates won fair and square, insofar as gerrymandering is legal and, in the case of the Senate, enshrined in the Constitution.

Parenthetically, a Californian, I look forward to the utopia in which Ted Stevens is met by 55 (fifty-five) Barbara Boxers.

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