Democrats Remain Favored to Retain Senate

[Joanne98]

By NATE SILVER
With only 15 days to go until the election, we’re going to be upping the frequency of our forecast updates somewhat.

Today, we’ve re-run the numbers for the Senate, and they show little change in the overall likelihood of a Republican takeover. The model gives Republicans a 17 percent chance of winding up with at least 51 Senators after Nov. 2. That’s essentially unchanged from our previous update, from last Wednesday, when they were given an 18 percent chance.

There is modest movement in some individual races, however. Democratic chances are somewhat improved in West Virginia, where a new poll from Orion Strategies gives Gov. Joe Manchin III a 10-point lead over his Republican opponent, John Raese. Because West Virginia had been fairly heavily polled, however, and because the survey was issued by an unfamiliar pollster and had a small sample size, it does not have all that much influence in the outcome. Mr. Manchin’s chances are improved to 62 percent, from 57 percent last week.

Three additional polls are out in Washington state since our last update, and all of them show the Democrat Patty Murray with a small lead; her winning chances are improved to 84 percent from 78 percent. While her opponent, Dino Rossi, is far from out of the running, and while the polling has been inconsistent, the only nonpartisan polls since August to show Mr. Rossi with a lead are a series of polls from Rasmussen Reports — and their most recent survey now shows Ms. Murray with the lead.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/democrats-remain-favored-to-retain-senate/#more-2277

[Kdillard]

1. Nothing new I have beem more concerned about the House.

[bigdarryl]

2. Well if Nate says so it must be TRUE!!!!!! LOL