Only 34 days to go and the polls in Pennsylvania are still volatile.
Franklin & Marshall projects that the gubernatorial contest is tightening. Other pollsters are showing many House races in either a dead heat or with challengers enjoying a slim margin. So attention turns to factors like voter turnout, a variable that polls can really only speculate about.
Battle ‘10 spoke with John Randall at the National Republican Congressional Committee about the state of the commonwealth in the run-up to Nov. 2.
“Races tightening is always par for the course, and you’ll see it in good and bad years,” Randall told Battle ‘10. “Polls are just a snapshot of a particular moment, but the most important poll is the one on Election Day.”
“We always encourage our candidates not to take anything for granted, and to keep making the case for why you should be elected, and more to the point, why the incumbent should be fired.”
In nearly every competitive race, the core issues seem to be the same, revolving around taxes, spending, and debt.
“When you’re talking about the fact that Democrats own Washington, for good or bad – and their problem is it hasn’t been good – they’re desperate to make races local,” said Randall. “They [can] spin all they want with Pat Murphy, but they’ve been voting in lock-step with Pelosi and Democrat leadership for two or four years.”
“Take today’s vote to adjourn before extending tax cuts. It was a 210-209 vote, and 39 Democrats voted against adjournment, so things have been nationalized in that sense.” Some vulnerable Dems in the Pennsylvania delegation (Dahlkemper, Critz) voted with the Speaker to adjourn.
Says Randall: ”There’s something greater going on than who is going to represent a district – it’s about who controls the agenda in Washington.”