I will be spending the afternoon canvassing, but since I had a couple hours in the morning, I thought I would compare the district-level polling situation in 2004 to the district level polling situation in 2006. Right now, looking only at the most recent, independent, district-level polling,
Electoral-Vote.com shows Democrats making 37 pickups in the House, and Republicans making none:
Projected New House*: 240 Democrats, 195 Republicans
* Where no independent polls exist, the 2004 election results have been used. See
complete House polls.
Dem pickups (37): AZ-05, AZ-08, CA-11, CO-07, CT-02, CT-04, CT-05, FL-13, FL-16, FL-22, IA-01, ID-01, IL-06, IL-10, IN-02, IN-08, KY-03, KY-04, NC-08, NC-11, NH-02, NM-01, NY-19, NY-20, NY-24, NY-25, NY-29, OH-01, OH-02, OH-15, OH-18, PA-06, PA-07, PA-08, PA-10, TX-22, WI-08
GOP pickups (0): none
For good measure, let's add in the districts where the incumbent party still leads, but the challenger is within ten points in the most recent, independent poll:
Dem close (23): AZ-01, CA-04, CA-50, CO-04, CO-05, FL-24, IN-09, IA-02, MN-01, MN-06, NH-01, NJ-07, NV-02, NV-03, NY-03, NY-26, OH-12, PA-04, VA-02, VA-10, WA-05, WA-08, WY-AL
GOP close (5): GA-12, IL-08, IN-07, VT-AL, WV-01
So, according to the most recent, independent poll from individual House districts, Democrats are ahead in 37 Republican-held districts, and close in 23 Republican-held districts. By contrast, Republicans are ahead in zero Democratic-held districts, and close in five Democratic-held districts. There are a few races, such as GA-08, KS-02, and KY-02, where there are no independent polls.
Now, let's compare this situation to districts level polls in 2004. Further, since there have been far more polls in 2006 than there were in 2004, when looking at 2004 let's use both independent and internal polls. According to
Polling Report, here are the races where the challenging party was ahead of the incumbent party in the final, pre-election, district-level poll:
Dems (6): CO-03, KY-06 (special election), LA-03, NY-27, NC-11, SD-AL (special election)
Reps (3):: LA-05, TX-19, TX-32
Again, according to Polling Report, here are the districts that were close:
Dems (11): CO-04, CO-07, CT-02, CT-04, IL-08, IL-11, MN-06 (tied), NE-01, NV-03, NM-01, NY-13, WA-08
Reps (6):: LA-07, MO-05, SD-AL (general election), TX-01, TX-17, UT-02
Note: when both internal and independent polls were available for the final weeks of a campaign, I used the independent poll instead.
So, here is a useful comparison chart of the pre-election polling situation in the two cycles:
- Dems ahead, 2006: 37
- Dems ahead, 2004: 6
- Dems close, 2006: 23
- Dems close, 2004: 11
- Reps ahead, 2006: 0
- Reps ahead, 2004: 3
- Reps close, 2006: 5
- Reps close, 2004: 6
The interesting thing is that eight of the nine polls showing a party switch in 2004 were correct: CO-03, KY-06 (special election), LA-03, NY-27 and SD-AL (special election) did in fact flip to Democrats, while LA-05, TX-19, and TX-32 did in fact flip to Republicans. Only NC-11, where an internal poll put Patsy Keever up by one point two weeks out, was incorrect. Further, many of the other pickups for one party or the other can also be found in the "close" districts: IL-08, LA-07, and TX-01. In fact, the only pickups that were not listed here came in GA-12, IN-09, KY-04, and TX-02. The polls for those campaigns weren't wrong, there just weren't any polls for those races released to the public. In TX-10 and TX-11, the other two Republican pickups in the 2003-2004 cycle, no polls were needed because Republicans faced minimal opposition in those seats, and the pickups were guaranteed from the start.
I am about to head out the door, but here is my point: the district level polling in 2004 was pretty good. In fact, nearly every single independent poll accurately predicted the winner, and nearly every independent poll did the same. With Democrats ahead in thirty-seven races, and close in twenty others, we should expect Democrats to win the House. There are at least 65 close races and / or near-certain pickups right now, and 60 of them are held by Republicans. Since Democrats only need a net of 15 seats to win the House, our chances to become the majority are excellent.
More importantly, at the same time that we should expect to win, we should also expect a lot of close races. Right now,
polling averages show 54 races within seven points, which means we have a slew of opportunities in many districts where we might not receive another good chance to win for four, six, or many more years. In the races with a separation of larger than seven points, Democrats currently lead 204-170. While this means we only need 26% of the close races in order to take the House by one seat, it also means we can build a majority larger than anything Republicans have received since 1946 with 54% of the close districts going our way. Considering this, we have a rare opportunity to build a long-term House majority in this election, not just to take the majority. If we take that majority, you will see a wave of Republican retirements, new maps, and Republicans changing sides, which will only strengthen that majority further. Now, I will be happy if we end up with any majority at all, but it will still be a big disappointment if we don't capitalize on this opportunity and tuck the House away for a long time to come. That will stop the agenda of the conservative movement in its tracks for years.
By the way, the odds of getting 14 or more of 54 coin-flip races to go your way
are at least 99.97%. Just thought I would point that out.