… Eric’s Cantor’s shock defeat Tuesday is being blamed on any number of reasons. But among the seasoned Republican campaign operatives, the biggest internal culprit is seen as the majority leader’s longtime pollster, John McLaughlin, whose own survey of the Virginia race showed Cantor leading his opponent by 34 points. Cantor went on to lose by 11 points–an unfathomable 45-point swing.
The error was reminiscent of the litany of polling mistakes made by Republican campaigns in the 2012 election, when the party’s internal data predicted everything from victory for Mitt Romney to marked gains in the House and Senate. CONT.
Alex Roarty, National Journal