There is no way not to eat this story up and ponder how Wisconsin fits into the stats given how close our gubernatorial race continues to be, and that our state has the fewest undecided voters among all the states holding gubernatorial races.
As I have stated over and over on this blog there is no end to the fascination that these mid-terms have provided. I can honestly say in my life-time I have never witnessed anything similar to what is now happening all at once in senate and gubernatorial elections. This speaks to the unease and angst in the voters at paralyzed government and all too-often tone-deaf politicians. How this breaks to one party or the other, or gets split will be key to the number of people who turn out to cast a ballot.
Make strong coffee and plenty of desserts for Election Night–and Election Eve is one week away!
I take the liberty of posting a huge chunk of this article as it is simply fascinating to see the nation as a whole so divided.
Through mid-day Sunday, the average polling spread for each of the 36 races at Real Clear Politics (RCP) revealed:
● Five contests within less than one point: Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin
● Five between 1.0 and 4.9 points: Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts
● Seven between 5.0 and 9.9 points: Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
● Nineteen at more than 10.0 points: Alabama, California, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Wyoming
What’s remarkable about the 2014 cycle – should the polling averages hold – is the unusually large number of races this cycle with razor-thin polling ‘advantages’ of just fractions of a percentage point.
Real Clear Politics averages find:
● Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado up 0.8 points over challenger Bob Beauprez
● Democratic Governor Dan Malloy of Connecticut (pictured at top) trailing GOPer Tom Foley by 0.3 points in a rematch of a 2010 race decided by 0.6 points
● Democratic Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois down 0.2 points to Republican Bruce Rauner
● Republican Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas tied with Democrat Paul Davis
● Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin tied with Democrat Mary Burke
Add to that narrow spreads in three other races at just around 1 percentage point:
● Republican Governor Rick Scott of Florida trails Democrat Charlie Crist by 1.0 point
● Republican Nathan Deal of Georgia is up 1.3 points over Democrat Jason Carter
● Republican Paul LePage of Maine is up 1.8 points over Democratic Congressman Mike Michaud
In short, each of the eight tightest gubernatorial races in the country according to RCP polling averages all involve incumbents.
What’s more, if most of these races continue to go down to the wire, the 2014 cycle might just set a modern record for the most races decided by a fraction of a percentage point.
Smart Politics examined the more than 1,600 gubernatorial elections conducted during midterm and presidential election cycles since 1900 and found that only three cycles have produced as many as five contests with a victory margin of less than one percentage point.
There are at least eight in the mix to do so in 2014.
Across the 57 election cycles since 1900, two have yielded six gubernatorial races decided by less than a point – 1940 and 1962.
In 1940, the country saw down-to-the-wire races in six of 34 contests, or 17.6 percent: in Indiana (0.2 points), Kansas (0.1), Massachusetts (0.3), Missouri (0.2), Washington (0.8), and Wisconsin (0.9).
Republicans won five of these six races – only falling short in the open seat Hoosier State race.
In 1962, six of 36 gubernatorial contests saw victory margins of less than a point, or 16.7 percent: with Democrats winning in Massachusetts (0.2 points), Minnesota (0.0), North Dakota (0.9), and Wisconsin (0.9) and the GOP winning Maine (0.2) and Rhode Island (0.1).
In 1916 five of 36 races yielded a victory margin of less than one point:Arizona (0.1 point), Idaho (0.4), Missouri (0.3), Ohio (0.6), and West Virginia (0.9).
The only other cycles since the 20th Century in which at least 10 percent of gubernatorial races were won by less than a point were in 1902 (3 of 27, 11.1 percent) and 1974 (4 of 35, 11.4 percent).
Overall, just 82 of the 1,661 gubernatorial races held during midterm and presidential election cycles since 1900 have been decided by less than a point, or 4.9 percent.
Another 306 contests were decided between 1.0 and 4.9 points (18.3 percent) and 326 others by between 5.0 and 9.9 points (19.6 percent).
In other words, a larger percentage of gubernatorial races in midterm and presidential election cycles have been decided by less than five points (23.4 percent) than between 5.0 and 9.9 points (19.6 percent).
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 