(R)asmussen Poll: WVA Senate--Raese (R) 50% Manchin (D) 44%

[WI_DEM]

Republican John Raese now holds a six-point lead on Democratic Governor Joe Manchin in West Virginia’s shockingly competitive U.S. Senate race.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in West Virginia finds Raese with 50% support, while the state’s highly popular governor earns just 44% of the vote. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

These findings now move this race from a Toss-Up to Leans GOP in the Rasmussen Reports Election Senate Balance of Power rankings.

Raese, a businessman and unsuccessful Senate candidate in 2006, first edged ahead of Manchin last week 48% to 46%. The race, which initially seemed safely Manchin’s, now appears to be pitting the governor’s popularity in the state versus President Obama’s unpopularity with West Virginia voters.

www.rasmussenreports.com

[Kdillard]

1. Ugh I am so mad about this race.

[WI_DEM]

3. He's a popular governor and I believe there are those who are voting against him for senate

just to keep him as governor.

[Kdillard]

6. Yeah that is what some of the polling has suggested.

I wish he would have realised this and appointed someone instead of having us most likely lose this seat which we really can't afford.

[DCBob]

7. There is an ad that says exactly that.. Tweety showed it last night..

Two ignorant rednecks talking in a coffee shop complaining about Obama and "Obamacare" and "bailouts" etc and claiming Manchin will become like Obama if we send him to DC... we need him to stay right here in WV.

Sickening but no doubt effective.

[catgirl]

12. Rove probably put that ad out

These people are brutal. Manchin needs to go on air to address this.

[svsu]

2. It is really disappointing. :(

[sandnsea]

4. I guess they prefer mines collapsing on them

Then again, our Democrats in Oregon are running on MORE logging. You put together the natural resource exploitation of various states into a national campaign, and pretty soon you've got a Republican agenda. *sigh*

[WI_DEM]

5. there are a lot of poor, working class whites who live in WVA and

there was a poll out today that nationally working class whites favor the GOP by over 20-points. They fall for all the rhetoric of the republicans and vote against their own interests.

[sandnsea]

8. That's why I mentioned our logging agenda

These local economic issues pop up everywhere and do have a drastic impact on elections. I don't understand why they haven't made a statewide campaign on implementing sustainable logging, something our rural voters could really get behind. Instead, DeFazio is running against Obama for not implementing a logging plan, and Kitzhaber is running on more logging jobs. In part of course. Seems crazy to me, and disgusting. But this mish-mashy "what party is this" stuff happens everywhere.

Although I don't see how they could log in my district any more than they already do. There wouldn't be any trees left.

[KingFlorez]

9. Rasmussen always goes over the top with Republican support

West Virginia is a lot like PA-12, nationalizing that race didn't work for the Republicans and it won't work here. Besides that, the Republicans has been rubbing his wealth in people's faces and vowed to get rid of the minimum wage.

[doc03]

10. Living just a few miles from WV I have to watch all the

Raese ads on TV. I think the Raese ads outnumber Manchin's like 3 to one. Raese uses all the Rethug talking points, Manchin supported Obama's Wall Street bailouts, Manchin supported Obama's failed Stimulous plan, Manchin supported Obama's big governmant takeover of heath care and Manchin supported Obama's $500 billion cut to Medicare. Why the fuck don't the Democrats dispute these claims? Come out and say Obama saved the auto industry and 100s of thousands of American manufacturing jobs. How about coming out and telling people in WV how many jobs the stimulus saved in WV and reminding them most the money went to tax cuts and paying unemployment so people didn't lose their homes. Tell them the cuts in Medicare was the payments to insurance companies that were riping them off. The Rethugs just make one charge after another and the Democrats haven't got the spine or intelligence to call them on it. :banghead:

[FBaggins]

11. Little different from the recent Fox poll (which Rasmussed performed)

So it's not particularly instructive.

I'd like to see another polling firm add this race to their list (or at least have PPP run another poll to confirm their last).

Any way you slice it though... this seat is in danger.

[OHdem10]

13. It has been reported at least twiice: The GOP have been able

to concince the voters, Manchin will come to DC and support Obama.

There is an apparent-Anti Obama mood in that state. Very sad.

[Lyric]

14. Ugh. It is NOT just anti-Obama. It's anti-Manchin.

People here are pissed at him right now--both right AND left wingers. His "high approval ratings" were from before Byrd's death. He acted like the most callous, self-absorbed, power-hungry ASS you can imagine after Byrd died. Byrd died at the end of June, and Manchin was already dropping HUGE hints about his own ambitions less than 2 weeks later. He offended a LOT of people with his obvious lust for power--he acted like a vulture who'd been waiting impatiently for Byrd to die before pouncing on his Senate seat. Byrd was a much-beloved legend here, but Manchin didn't allow his constituents any time to grieve. All we heard about in the weeks following Byrd's death were reports of how hard Manchin was pushing to force a special election THIS year instead of waiting until 2012. Since he threw his own hat into the ring almost before the corpse was cold, it made him look like a disrespectful asshole of the highest order.

Granted, Raese is playing that for all it's worth right now. But he couldn't do it if Manchin had practiced a little bit of respectful self-restraint. Manchin's greed is the root cause of this impending loss, plain and simple. After this, he won't even win an election for County Clerk, much less Senator or Governor.

[Arkana]

15. Obama and West Virginia have never gotten along--he lost it by 25 points in the primaries,

almost 30 in the general, and they hate him probably more than Oklahoma does now.