WV: Rasmussen: Manchin (D) overtakes Raese

[Tender Branson]

BTW:

Early voting so far in WV matches PPP's turnout model of 55% Democrats and 35% Republicans.

[Sbane]

Good news, though I'd much rather Feingold had come back from the big deficit to narrowly lead. Should have filmed some ads shooting pieces of paper with the names of unpopular legislation written on them, apparently.

I don't even get why Feingold fell so fast, myself. I mean, Wisconsin is MUCH more Democrat-friendly than WV, even in a year like this. My only guess is that Johnson has to be Scott Brown to the power of about fifty.

Johnson comes across as a moderate midwesterner. He might not be moderate in terms of his views, but his personality is, which is what really matters. He has also had some good ads, claiming he has never been to Washington. That works.

[Sbane]

Feingold on the other hand is still an unapologetic liberal

Why would he apologize for that? And it's not as if Wisconsin is throwing him out for that reason, although that doesn't mesh well with your talking points undoubtedly. Some of the votes he cast in this last congress gave an impression of him as a generic democrat, instead of someone who stands up for what he thinks is right. Wisconsin didn't have a problem with his liberalness for all these years, and they still don't, but they felt he had sold out to the Washington Democrats. That is much more toxic than being called a librul.

[mypalfish]

Feingold on the other hand is still an unapologetic liberal

Why would he apologize for that? And it's not as if Wisconsin is throwing him out for that reason, although that doesn't mesh well with your talking points undoubtedly. Some of the votes he cast in this last congress gave an impression of him as a generic democrat, instead of someone who stands up for what he thinks is right. Wisconsin didn't have a problem with his liberalness for all these years, and they still don't, but they felt he had sold out to the Washington Democrats. That is much more toxic than being called a librul.

One of the local newscasts did a report on Feingold's difficulties and they asked people why they weren't supporting him this time.  "He's too liberal" and "he votes with Obama (the Obamacare vote)" were the most frequent reasons given.  I can't stress enough just how in the tank the TV and print media in the state are for Feingold.  It's only because Johnson has enough money to spend that he's gotten Feingold's votes well known, and gone around the media to do it.