Tuesday, November 07, 2006

More Election Coverage

I was listening to some Fox coverage and some CNN coverage on the way home. On CNN they had James Carville, who is just awesome. He has a very quick wit, doesn't take himself too seriously, and is a very tough guy when it comes to defending his positions! He doesn't melt in front of formidable opponents.

They released some exit polling data on CNN and for a second I was thinking "Oh no, not early exit polling data again!", but it turned out to be generic data on which issues people saw as most important and whether the race was "nationalized" or not. On Fox, some Republican was on talking about how Republican turnout was ahead of Democratic turnout from 2004 by 35.9 to 35.4. I have no idea where he was getting that, but I highly doubt it. Soon some of the first races will end. I can't wait to see how things are looking!

Election Day!

Need I say more? Well, I will say more, of course... I just can't believe it's finally here! After two major elections of seeing Republicans making gains in an election in 2002 and 2004 (2000 was mostly a wash aside from the top of the ticket), finally today should be a different story. I still am trying to figure out if there is some rabbit that the Republicans can pull out of their hat at the last minute once again. I don't see any rabbits, but I guess we'll all start finding out in a couple hours.

A site I have been watching closely is the Rothenberg Report. It is non-partisan, and has been predicting big gains for Democrats, which is great, but sometimes I think it's even a bit overboard. He is predicting:
+ 30 to 36 seats for Dems in the House
+ 4 to 7 seats for Dems in the Senate
+ 7 to 9 governors for Dems

I would love for him to be right, but I think the ground game for Republicans continues to be strong, and races always seem to tighten up along partisan lines right before the election. My predictions are:
+ 19 to 23 seats for Dems in the House
+ 4 seats for Dems in the Senate - Dems Cardin and Menendez hold, Santorum, Burns, Chafee, DeWine gone, Allen, Talent, and Corker hold on to win
+ 6 governors for Dems

A friend of mine at work thinks Republicans pick up five net seats in the House, and hold even in the Senate. He's a Republican of course, but he thinks the polls are wrong. I guess we'll see! Lunch is riding on the outcome. As long as we gain seats overall I win! I like my chances. Now it's time to go home and wait for the returns.