Obamacare Impact on Virginia Vote Steers Strategy in 2014

Republicans cite their 2.5-point defeat in the Virginia governor’s race as proof that Ken Cuccinelli would have reversed his fortunes if he’d hammered earlier and longer on Obamacare, an issue the attorney general said tightened the contest in its final days. Democrats argue Terry McAuliffe’s narrow Nov. 5 victory amid […] Read more »

Texas: What Early Poll Results Tell Us

Some people might have been surprised by the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll results released Monday, which showed Greg Abbott leading Wendy Davis by 6 points in a two-way contest and by 5 in a three-way race — a single-digit margin for a statewide office that the Democrats haven’t claimed […] Read more »

The Battleground: The Shutdown and Looking Ahead to 2014

Celinda Lake, Daniel Gotoff & Alex Dunn, Lake Research Partners Two weeks after the latest Republican‐led attempt to sabotage this President came to an ignominious end, the dust has settled and we are left to assess the damage. While the harm done to the Republican brand is undeniable and the […] Read more »

Battleground 2014: Both Parties Are Down, but the GOP is Not Out

Ed Goeas & Brian Nienaber, The Tarrance Group This latest edition of the George Washington University Battleground Poll finds a national political environment that has gone from bad to worse. Nearly three-fourths of the American electorate (73%) believes the country is on the wrong track, with sixty-two percent (62%) holding […] Read more »

Will ACA Problems Hurt Democrats as Much as the Shutdown Hurt the GOP?

The noise you hear is the grinding of Democratic teeth over the botched launch and arguably deeper design problems of the Affordable Care Act. Democratic pols had been gleefully anticipating the negative impact the Republican Party would incur as a result of the recent government shutdown debacle. … Now Democrats […] Read more »