Oct 29 2010
GOP Blowout In PA
Pennsylvania is going to be the prime example of how pollsters just missed this election. The GOP has had a regular but small lead in the state for the entire month of October, as if the Dems are somehow still in the statewide (and by extension the CD) races. But we now have a sample of nearly 100,000 early votes, and the picture is quite different.
To put it bluntly, the GOP voters are so intense they are swamping the Democrats – who hold a significant registration lead in the state (click to enlarge):
All one has to do is compare the last two sets of data to see something extraordinary here. The 2010 registered voter data is completely flipped on its head. The GOP registered voter deficit of -14% turns into a GOP early voter lead of +16%. That is a swing of 30%!
In the 2009 VA Governor’s race we saw a 20% swing from 2008 to 2009, resulting in a GOP blow out. This and the NJ governor race in 2009 were the first signs of a political backlash – the likes of which almost no one has seen in living memory. The wave continued to wreak havoc in January of 2010, in the MA Senate special election. It seems the wave has only strengthened and picked up energy as it has traveled to the November elections next Tuesday. Because this kind of turn out is just amazing:
In comparison, during the 2006 and 2008 elections, absentee ballots were returned almost equally between Democrats and Republicans.
During 2006, the two parties returned exactly 82 percent of ballots. During 2008, Democrats returned 88 percent of absentee ballots, compared to 89 percent returned by Republicans. Republicans requested over 8,600 more ballots than Democrats in 2006, compared to only 3,400 more in 2008.
The data is awkwardly being reported in percentages of requested ballots by party. But what it indicates is the GOP and Dems basically voted in equal numbers in 2006 and 2008. Bottom line: a 1% difference in returned ballots for each party is going to result in less than 1% difference in early voters by party. With the GOP running so far ahead this year in early voting it is clear something big is happening in PA.
As I have done before, I can run two scenarios through these early voter numbers and estimate the GOP and Dem votes produced. The first model is the 60-40/95 scenario where each party holds 95% of its party’s voters, but the GOP take the independents by 20% (60-40). If that is how these voters voted, then the GOP would win by almost 16% (57.9%-42.1%).
But I do not believe that is an accurate model, because I do not think the Dems can hold their left of center base. Assuming a paltry 15% defection rate for the Dems we get the 60-40/D:85 scenario, where the Dems only hold 85% of their voters, the GOP does 95% of its party voters and the independents still go to the GOP by 20%. In this scenario Dems lose the early vote by 23.5% (61.8%-38.2%).
These are staggering numbers, but early voters typically only make up around 15-25% of the total PA vote (a range that changes over time as early voting becomes easier and more popular, on top of the intensity between midterm and presidential races). However, one thing I have noticed with early voting is that the trends are established very quickly and do not move at all over time. A week ago, with a fraction of these votes in, PA was in the same place (but not quite as bad for the Dems). The early vote tally is like a massive poll, with 100,000 samples and no guesswork needed for turnout models or intensity by party ID. This trend is locked in.
And right now it looks like a GOP blowout in PA.
I think the Democrat defections are far worse than anyone has realized, especially the large polling operations, such as Rasmussen and Gallup. They are all sticking to their projections that were made back in August, when the electorate was still in the doldrums. Now that the time to go vote is at hand, a lot of disgruntled Dems are voting with their feet. Even stalwarts of the Democrat party, like Dennis Kucinnich and Barney Frank, are feeling the heat. I am thinking that the election and the total incompetence of Barack Obama and the radical legislative agenda that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid forced upon the American people, was the straw that broke the camel’s back of the entrenched Washington mindset.
related somewhat to this is the reason why all this last minute maneuvering in Florida between Crist and Meek can only benefit Rubio and hurt Sink’s gubernatorial race.
Estimates are that 1/3 of Florida’s votes have already been cast. If that is accurate, given Rubio’s lead up to this point, it will be almost impossible for any last minute polling shifts to change the results, even if Meek did drop out. (he won’t, of course)
But what IS likely to happen because of this flap? Black voters, watching Meek get stabbed in the back by the Obama machine, are apt to become quite demoralized as the news spreads to them that Meek is a lost cause. How many of them will now still be motivated to vote on Tuesday? Not as many as there were before this came out, that’s guaranteed. And who does this hurt more than anyone? Alex Sink, who desperately needed their votes.
What a sweet, sweet dish of irony! Charlie Crist, in seeking to destroy the Florida Republicans, may actually succeed in completely wrecking the Florida Democrats instead!!!
(Hey Obama, there’s a reason that you never trust a traitor! How do you like learning that lesson the hard way?)
I usually fit into the middle American mind set. This year I am so angry at the way government is rolling over me, I was the most ungenerous I have ever been. Voted no on everything. People I wouldn’t have voted for I did this time. I’m pretty sure many/most Americans voted as I did.
Obama will be in PA tomorrow. Wonder why?
Toomey should win by 5%. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato has no chance of winning so he won’t help Sestak at all.
The only that will go the Dems way is PA-12. Watch the media focus on this race since it may be one of the few that goes to the Dems.
I’m confident that PA-12 is going to be eliminated by 2012; Pennsylvania is losing a seat in redistricting, and that’s an ideal candidate for the cut. *Especially* with a GOP Governor and Legislature. So let Critz enjoy his 2 1/2 year “career” in Congress, early retirement is coming.
Icing on the cake is that the seat is moving to Texas. heh heh.
[…] I have also seen this blow out in early voting trends, such as we see in PA: […]