WA-SurveyUSA: McKenna+1

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I think this year might be different though.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Yeah, but this year is different.  They have an unpopular outgoing Democrat governor, a Democrat president running for reelection, and the fact that Dems have controlled the governor's office there for 28 years.  That alone hurts their chances of holding on.  McKenna's lead may have dropped recently, but I think that it's temporary and he will ultimately win it all.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I just read a comment on another site about this poll by someone from Seattle who says that he/she doesn't know anyone from either party who thinks that Inslee has a better shot than McKenna because Inslee hasn't run a particularly exciting campaign (which shows up in this poll: 72 percent of McKenna supporters are enthusiastic compared to only 58 percent of Inslee supporters) and McKenna has done an excellent job of making inroads with Independents and Democratic-leaning constituencies like moderates by prioritizing economic issues over social issues.  If only Republicans did that in more states like Washington, and we would really be a great party again!!!

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I really don't think there's ususally much of a coattail effect in any given election, since so many people split their tickets when they vote.  If there is a coattail effect on this race, however, and President Obama loses, then you could see that in the governor's race as well.  But I still think that's unlikely.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I said that I thought it would be unlikely to hurt him.