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9:13 AM PT: MA-Gov: I think Tom Jensen is right when he says of PPP's new Massachusetts gubernatorial poll: "Sometimes early polling on a race tells us something, but sometimes it doesn't tell us much. This is one of the latter cases." PPP tested 21 different matchups between three Republicans (listed along the top) and seven Democrats (listed vertically). Each Republican's score is listed first in the head-to-heads:
Democrat |
Brown |
Baker |
Tisei |
Avellone |
46-29 |
33-24 |
25-29 |
Berwick |
47-30 |
35-25 |
24-28 |
Capuano |
45-38 |
33-35 |
24-38 |
Cowan |
48-31 |
33-26 |
25-30 |
Galvin |
43-39 |
31-37 |
24-39 |
Grossman |
46-34 |
31-32 |
25-34 |
Ortiz |
49-31 |
35-27 |
27-29 |
As you can see, unless your name is Scott Brown, no one knows who you are, which makes polling at this very early date not especially helpful—except for the fact that now we know that, well, everyone is pretty much unknown. But even Brown faces the same difficulty he did in last year's Senate race: Despite remaining broadly popular with a 53-35 favorability rating, he's still stuck in the 40s against every Democrat, and the best-known of the bunch, Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin, holds him to just 43 percent.
Even though Galvin hasn't expressed interest in the race, I think this matchup is indicative of what Brown could expect if he goes forward with a bid. That's because Galvin sports favorables of only 37-15, meaning half the state still doesn't know who he is, yet he's already making the contest close. Whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee won't lack for money and will be able to amp up his or her name recognition to 100 percent. Of course, Massachusetts Republicans had good success in winning gubernatorial races for a long time until quite recently, so I wouldn't want to make any predictions this far out. But it certainly seems Democrats have more upside than Republicans here.
In the meantime, here's a scorecard of who all the players are, along with their favorables (or in Cowan's case, job approvals):
Ex-Sen. Scott Brown (R): 53-35
2010 nominee Charlie Baker (R): 21-20
Ex-state Sen. Richard Tisei (R): 14-19
Pharmaceutical CEO Joe Avellone (D): 7-12
Ex-Medicare Administrator Don Berwick (D): 6-11
Rep. Mike Capuano (D): 26-20
Sen. Mo Cowan (D): 12-16
Sec'y of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin (D): 37-15
Treasurer Steve Grossman (D): 20-14
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz (D): 14-20
PPP also threw all seven Democrats into a hypothetical kitchen-sink primary, and that affair is definitely wide open. Capuano, who ran for Senate once before, leads the way, but with just 17 percent. Galvin is the only other person in double figures at 13; the next highest is Grossman at 6, while fully 44 percent say they are undecided or prefer someone else.
10:53 AM PT: MI-Gov: I always get a little antsy when party committees take their recruitment efforts public. After all, if your lines of communications with the candidate you're trying to lure into a race are healthy, then why leak internal polls to the beltway press? In fairness to the DGA, this tactic seemed to work (or at least, it didn't hurt) when they shared some data showing Rep. Allyson Schwartz looking strong against Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett; she eventually wound up making the race. And now they're apparently at it again with a new survey designed to make the case that ex-Rep. Mark Schauer can beat Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder—provided to Politico, of course.
Now, we can't say for sure that the DGA itself was behind the leak. They commissioned the poll, but Politico says they received it from "a Democratic source," which could mean anything. And the poll, from Garin-Hart-Yang is also not quite as optimistic as what we saw out of the Keystone State, seeing as the leaker declined to include initial ballot numbers—all we've got are some informed ballot tests. However, Snyder continues to sport absolutely brutal job approvals, with only 38 positive and 60 negative, and he edges a generic Democrat by just 40-38. Schauer only served a single term in the House and is (for the moment) little known, and other polls have shown him performing about as well as Generic D does here, so I can understand releasing polling data in this fashion.
Still, though, I'm unclear on the virtues of sharing this data with the world at large. It's pretty well established at this point that Schauer is the top Dem choice to take on Snyder, and as I say, this poll is quite similar to others we've already seen. Well, maybe sometimes a positive press writeup can offer an additional little nudge, so hopefully Snyder will decide soon enough.
11:42 AM PT: AK-Sen, -Gov: Now that Gov. Sean Parnell has announced he'll seek re-election to another term, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell says he's "intensifying" his efforts to explore a bid against Democratic Sen. Mark Begich and hopes to make an announcement next month. Treadwell had previously said he didn't want to run against Parnell in the GOP primary, so running for governor is now out of the picture, though he says he could try for another term as LG or just retire altogether.
But Parnell, despite his incumbency, doesn't have a free shot at renomination. As we noted late last month, former Valdez Mayor Bill Walker, who came in second in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial, plans to try again. And Parnell's previous Democratic opponent, ex-state Rep. Ethan Berkowitz, says that he, too, isn't ruling out another attempt. Berkowitz hasn't had much success running statewide, though, with failed bids for lieutenant governor (2006), Congress (2008), and governor (2010) under his belt. Berkowitz seems like a capable politician, but Alaska's red hue is just very difficult to overcome.
11:49 AM PT: (For what it's worth, a February PPP poll had Parnell beating Berkowitz 50-41.)
12:27 PM PT: GA-Sen: After weighing the race for several months in the wake of Sen. Saxby Chambliss's retirement announcement, Democratic Rep. John Barrow has decided not to run for Senate. Barrow would likely have been Team Blue's strongest recruit, but even though Georgia as a whole is less conservative than Barrow's 12th Congressional District, he would have faced serious obstacles. For one, Barrow would have had to introduce himself to an entire state's worth of voters, rather than continue focusing on the small portion who already know him well. For another, while Barrow's conservative views were a key part of why he was able to win re-election in 2012 despite being drawn into a much redder seat by Republicans, they might well have dampened Democratic enthusiasm for him statewide, especially among African American voters.
Now attention will focus on two other Democratic names, nonprofit CEO Michelle Nunn, who is also the daughter of ex-Sen. Sam Nunn, and state Rep. Scott Holcomb. Republicans, meanwhile, already have a heavy-duty three-way primary between Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey, and Jack Kingston, and others, such as Rep. Tom Price or ex-SoS Karen Handel, may yet join. Even if the GOP nominating battle turns ugly, it'll still be a difficult race for Democrats: Georgia's demographics are moving in the right direction, but they're not there yet. Still, in a 2014 landscape with few Democratic pickup opportunities, Georgia ranks among the best, and a surprise is definitely possible.
1:26 PM PT: SC-01: David Jarman has posted our trademark county benchmarks for tonight's special election, and you can also go and post your predictions in comments.
2:01 PM PT: PA-Gov: Ordinarily when credible challengers threaten to primary Republican incumbents, progressives tend to be psyched—and disappointed when those would-be upstarts back off. But in this case, I think we should be glad. After contemplating a run against Gov. Tom Corbett for some time, Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor has decided against the idea, though it was no idle threat. Castor lost the 2004 GOP attorney general primary to Corbett by less than 6 points, so there was every indication he could have given the governor a real run for his money.
Corbett's general election polling, though, is so awful that Democrats have to hope he's the Republican nominee next year, rather than some clean slate alternative, as Castor would have been. Some preliminary polling had showed Corbett looking less than dominant against Castor in a hypothetical primary (PPP had him up 43-23 in March), so it's still certainly possible that someone else could emerge to unseat the incumbent. But with Castor laying down arms, the heaviest artillery has now left the battlefield, and that's good news for Democratic chances at retaking the Pennsylvania governor's mansion.