2014 elections: Might Democrats keep control of Senate after all?
Washington Are Democrats going to maintain control of the Senate after all?
If so, that would be a surprise. Election fundamentals point to a GOP takeover. Mid-term elections generally swing towards the party that doesnt hold the White House, for one thing. President Obamas job approval ratings are so bad that theyre a stone around the chances of many Democratic candidates, for another. Enthusiasm and momentum seem more pronounced on the Republican side.
But a funny thing happened on the way to majority leader Mitch McConnell. In the past few days, a number of the major election forecasting models have lurched back toward the Democrats.
The New York Times Upshot model now judges the race for the Senate to be pretty much a toss-up, for instance, with a 51 percent chance Republicans will win a majority, and a 49 percent chance for Democrats.
The probability is essentially the same as a coin flip, according to the Upshot.
The data journalism site 538 gives the GOP a slightly better 55 to 45 percent edge. Thats still pretty close and its down from a 64 to 36 percent Republican lead on Sept. 1.
Then theres the Washington Post Election Lab at its Monkey Cage political science vertical. Today it gives Democrats the 51 percent in a 51-to-49 split.
All this has given some disaffected Democrats a little wind beneath their metaphorical wings.
A week ago, I was thinking Dems were toast for Senate; now I think GOP could find a way to blow it, tweeted Talking Points Memo editor and publisher Josh Marshall earlier today.
Well, missteps arent really what have caused Republican chances of winning the Senate to decline from 65+ percent plus to a toss-up. Whats happened is partly due to a change in the models themselves: As the election nears, they begin to place more emphasis on poll results in individual races, as opposed to underlying political fundamentals.
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2014 elections: Might Democrats keep control of Senate after all?