Main page    Oct. 02

Pres map
Previous | Next | Senate page

New polls: NH
Dem pickups: AZ GA MI OH PA WI
GOP pickups: (None)

Note: The graphs of all the polls have been expanded. The y-axis no longer starts at 0 to make it easier to understand close races. The x-axis begins at July 1 (except when there is no data). To see all the presidential polls, click here. To see all the Senate polls, click here. Links to these pages are on the menus to the left of the maps on the main page and Senate page. Clicking on a state on either the main map or the Senate map also gives the new expanded graph.

The Trumps Have COVID-19

This weekend, we were planning to answer a question from W.R.S. in Tucson, AZ, that pointed out that Anonymous may soon unmask himself or herself (although unmasking during a pandemic could be foolish), and asking us to list other "known unknown" potential October surprises. We had "maybe someone leaks Trump's taxes" and "maybe Trump gets COVID-19" and then we decided to hold off for a week so we could think about it a bit more. Now we kinda wish we'd run that answer, because we'd look like geniuses.

In case you haven't already heard, the White House announced late Thursday/early Friday that Donald and Melania Trump have both tested positive for COVID-19. The news actually broke in stages; first a positive test for presidential advisor and frequent traveling companion Hope Hicks was announced, then a 14-day presidential quarantine was announced, then the President's and First Lady's positive results were announced. Maybe the quarantine was planned as a cover story to hide the diagnosis, and the cat got out of the bag. Maybe not. Either way, after a September with about half a dozen "October" surprises, it took about 22 hours for us to get our first actual October surprise. This also means that within the span of less than a week, we've got the tax story, the debate story, and now the Presidential diagnosis. The nation's news editors better be stocking up on black coffee.

There are so many moving parts, and so many "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns" here that we're just going to work through a list of the 10 biggest questions that occur to us. Keep in mind this news broke very late in the day, and properly processing it will take far more than an hour or two. But an hour or two is what we've got to work with, so here goes:

So, there's our immediate response. How many "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns" did we miss? Who knows? But we may just be talking about this a bit more in the next week or two. (Z)

House Approves COVID-19 Relief Measure

Democrats have increased the pressure on Republicans to pass a bill to help people deal with the economic fallout from COVID-19. Yesterday, the House passed a $2.2 trillion relief bill without a single Republican vote. The vote was 214 to 207, with some Democrats also voting against it. The bill is unlikely to even get a vote in the Senate because the actual negotiators, Nancy Pelosi and Steven Mnuchin, are far apart on many issues. But Pelosi is hoping that in the absence of a real bill, at least her vulnerable members will be able to tell their constituents: "We tried but the Republicans blocked it." Whether this will help with the "Why can't they just work together?" crowd remains to be seen.

Not all of the vulnerable members are happy with that strategy. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) said: "The American people are exhausted by empty promises and government dysfunction." But Pelosi's options were basically to give in and sign onto the Republicans' bill or pass her own bill, even though it has zero chance of passing the Senate. One of her big objections to the Republicans' bill—other than it being much more miserly—is that it grants legal immunity to employers whose employees get COVID-19 on the job. Pelosi feels that this is basically an announcement to employers saying: "You don't have to protect your employees because they can't sue you if they get sick."

Nevertheless, she and Mnuchin are still talking sporadically. Part of the problem is that it is not clear if Donald Trump really wants a bill. If he did, he could just order Mnuchin to get the deal done today, no matter what it takes. Then Mnuchin could say to Pelosi: "I'll give you all the money you want if you will accept the immunity provision." She would probably accept that to help her vulnerable members. Mnuchin could then tell Trump that he got a big "win" and Trump would be happy.

Another problem is the Senate, which is badly divided. Mitch McConnell sees no need for a new bill, but his vulnerable members desperately want one. If the bill—any relief bill—actually came to the floor of the Senate for a vote, it would pass with 47 Democratic votes and the votes of Sens. Martha McSally (AZ), Cory Gardner (CO), Joni Ernst (IA), Thom Tillis (NC), David Perdue (GA), Kelly Loeffler (GA), and Susan Collins (ME), all of whom are in tough races. McConnell knows this, of course, but members who are not up for reelection don't want to spend government money to help people. This puts him in a bind. He is waiting for marching orders from Trump, but until he gets them, he is unlikely to bring any bill up for a vote. (V)

Trump Finally Condemns White Supremacists

It took him nearly 48 hours, but Donald Trump finally said (to Sean Hannity): "I condemn the KKK, I condemn all white supremacists, I condemn the Proud Boys. I don't know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing, but I condemn that." That will give Trump supporters something to post to Facebook, and Republican members of Congress something to point to when facing tough questions from reporters. Well, assuming the story doesn't get lost in the tidal wave of COVID-19 diagnosis coverage.

Of course, other than those who are looking for cover in order to vote/support Trump, nobody can take this denunciation seriously. First, because when it comes to condemning white supremacy, anything less than a batting average of 1.000 is a real problem, and the President's batting average is well below .500. Second, if you do swing and miss, and you regret it, it should take you seconds (or maybe minutes) to clean up the error, and not 48 hours. Especially when that 48 hours is chock-full of teeth pulling and arm twisting from your allies and your staffers. Third, and as always, Trump's "denunciation" was accompanied by an even longer postscript about how truly awful Antifa, Black Lives Matter, the Democrats, the radical left, etc., are. In the end, everyone should be very clear where Trump really stands. Certainly the Proud Boys are; they continue to celebrate on social media, and they're now selling "stand back and stand by" merchandise. Well, they're trying, though nearly every online merchant has removed the products. Maybe the Proud Boys can sell it here. (Z)

New York City Botches the Absentee Ballots

For months, Donald Trump has been yelling that absentee ballots are rigged. Now New York has conveniently given him some evidence. The bipartisan but notoriously dysfunctional New York City Board of Elections, which is stacked with political hacks, has mailed out 100,000 ballots with incorrect return envelopes to Brooklyn voters. The names printed on them appear to be chosen not entirely at random, but not correctly, either. When the envelopes arrive at the election office, workers will look at the printed names, look up the signatures for those names, and discover they don't match. Now what? Think Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Mayor Bill de Blasio said: "It's appalling." Melissa DeRosa, an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), said: "To say that we're troubled by this is the understatement of the year."

Trump is surely going to use this mess to argue that absentee ballots are a bad idea and can't be trusted. The reality is that this particular screw-up helps him, since New York City is very heavily Democratic and this is going to result in thousands of votes for Joe Biden being invalidated. What Trump will not note is that the printing error was the work of a private company under contract to the city, not by the city itself. Don't expect to hear: "The private sector can't do anything right. The city should have handled this itself."

The city is planning to send out a second batch of ballots to voters. These will be marked with a red dot, so if a voter votes twice, only the second one will count. But needless to say, Trump will spend the next month saying that some voters voted twice—even though he, himself, called for that last month. This is assuming that he is not intubated the whole month, which makes talking a bit difficult. (V)

The Pope Is No Dope

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Rome this week for meetings with Italian officials. And while he was in town anyhow, the Secretary thought he might as well request an audience with Pope Francis. Pompeo need not have wasted his time; the Vicar of Christ said, in so many words, "gratias ago sed nulla" ("thanks, but no thanks").

The Pope cited a Vatican policy against meeting with officials of foreign governments close to elections. Of course, he is free to ignore that policy as he sees fit because he is, you know, the Pope. The truth is that the meeting was never, ever going to happen even if an election wasn't close. Francis knows that Joe Biden is an actual Catholic and Christian, Donald Trump is neither, and that pictures of a meeting with Pompeo would be used to imply papal endorsement of the Republican ticket. Further, though he would not say so directly, the Pope loathes both Trump and Pompeo. The former because of his personal behavior, the latter because he just published an article that was highly critical of Francis in a journal that is always highly critical of Francis.

On a somewhat related note, we pass along an essay from Jeannie Gaffigan that is making the rounds. She is best known for her work as part of the comedy duo that also includes her husband Jim; both are outspoken Catholics. In the essay, Jeannie explains what while Trump might be "right" on abortion, he is "wrong" on many other issues that cost (or degrade) lives, like "racism, unjust social and economic structures, providing inadequate access to health care, wantonly harming the environment, abusing or neglecting anyone." She concludes that Biden is the only candidate she can vote for in good conscience, even if he is pro-choice. Anyhow, we know that some readers are interested in the religious or the Catholic "case" for Biden, so that is why we mention it. (Z)

Could McCain Bring in Arizona for Biden?

Not John. He's dead. But his widow, Cindy McCain, endorsed Joe Biden last week, and the McCain name still carries weight with many Arizonans, especially moderate Republicans. Most recent polls (except for the very most recent one, which was by an unknown pollster), have Biden ahead in the Grand Canyon state, as follows:

Arizona polls

McCain's endorsement could be the cherry on top of the sundae that finishes the job. Her influence could bring in moderate independents—especially suburban women—who liked the late senator for his courage, guts, and general maverickyness. Mavericity? Maverickality? Paul Bentz, an Arizona Republican pollster, said that those women are "definitely an audience that Cindy McCain appeals to." He added that there are 300,000 swing voters in the state and having the widow of an enormously popular senator side with Biden could pull in a fair number of them.

The place were McCain could have a big influence is Mesa, AZ, a city of half a million people in Maricopa County, the state's most populous. Legislative district 25 in Mesa is representative. It has 35,000 Democrats, 62,000 Republicans, and 48,000 independents. Looks good for the Republicans, no? Maybe not. Democratic primary turnout doubled compared to 2016 and they are aggressively courting independents. What McCain can do is give the independents and some of the moderate Republicans "permission" to vote for Biden. In a tight race, that could be enough to help Biden over the finish line first. That holds not only for Mesa, but for suburbs all over the state. (V)

Money, Money, Money

Political spending this year is going to smash all records. It is projected to hit $11 billion, crushing the previous record of $6.5 billion, which was the tally for 2016. Small donors (defined as individuals giving $200 or less) will account for 22% of the donations, up from 14% in 2016. While this is well and good, it means that the big donors still rule the roost. In fact, the top 100 donors have chipped in 8% of all giving ($750 million), and this excludes the $1 billion Michael Bloomberg spent on his own short-lived campaign. Women have opened their wallets like never before, spending $1.7 billion (compared to $1.3 billion in 2016). The pandemic has affected how the money has been spent, with advertising up and travel down.

A substantial chunk of that money—at least $250 million and counting—is going to be spent on television ads in Florida between now and Election Day. If you live in Florida, this would be a good time to turn off your television until election night because all programming is going to be preempted to make room for the ads. The October ad buys for $250 million are $100 million more than in 2016. And this total doesn't reflect all of the $100 million Bloomberg has promised to spend there, since he has reserved only $30 million in time so far.

All this spending raises the question of whether this makes any sense, given that 90+% of the voters have made up their minds already. But the campaigns have more money than could fit in Scrooge McDuck's swimming pool and Florida is the mother of all swing states, so here we go.

Many of the Florida ads, both in English and Spanish, are running statewide, but some are running only in the 18-county so-called I-4 corridor that runs from Tampa to Orlando. Many of the state's swing voters live there. But neither campaign has forgotten South Florida. The two campaigns combined have already spent $33 million in the Miami media market. (V)

Today's Presidential Polls

Emerson has been pretty Trump friendly this cycle, and even they are telling him not to bother in New Hampshire. (Z)

State Biden Trump Start End Pollster
New Hampshire 53% 45% Sep 30 Oct 01 Emerson Coll.

Today's Senate Polls

Theresa Greenfield up by 12 points over Joni Ernst? Hard to believe. Theresa Greenfield's lead now statistically significant? Very plausible. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate hopes of West Point graduate Corky Messner are going south. Which makes this our second directional joke of the day. (Z)

State Democrat D % Republican R % Start End Pollster
Iowa Theresa Greenfield 51% Joni Ernst* 39% Sep 23 Sep 26 RABA Research
New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen* 54% Corky Messner 41% Sep 24 Sep 28 U. of New Hampshire
New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen* 55% Corky Messner 40% Sep 30 Oct 01 Emerson Coll.

* Denotes incumbent


Previous | Next

Main page for smartphones

Main page for tablets and computers