Poll: Manchin's lead slim in W.Va. Senate race (another seat now in play for possible pickup)

The Hill ^ | 08/31/10 | Shane D'Aprile

[Republican Wildcat]

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) was supposed to have an easy road to the Senate once Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) decided against challenging him in November's special election.

But the latest Rasmussen poll on the race shows Republican businessman John Raese within six points of the popular governor.

Manchin is running in a special election to fill out the remainder of the late Sen. Robert Byrd's (D) term.

The new poll gives Manchin 48 percent of the vote to Raese's 42. Another 4 percent prefer another candidate, and 7 percent remain undecided. The survey polled 500 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.5 percentage points.

...

Among the 34 percent of voters who just "somewhat approve" of the job Manchin is doing as governor, 64 percent strongly disapprove of the president's performance. Raese also holds a 45-40 edge among unaffiliated voters in the state.

The Raese campaign quickly trumpeted the results of the poll in an e-mail blast, while Manchin's camp dismissed Rasmussen as a "Republican pollster."

[Republican Wildcat]

John Raese for Senate

[RightGeek]

Ask ole Joe if would vote for Harry Reid for Majority Leader

[Republican Wildcat]

There’s a video of Manchin supporting Obama and Obamacare:

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/ID/220989&start=4192&end=4268

[AuH2ORepublican]

In the Senate, they don’t actually vote for Majority Leader; the leader of the party with the most members in its caucus automatically becomes majority leader. Thus, the question to Manchin would be “if you are elected, would you caucus with the Democrats even though it would make a liberal Democrat such as Chuck Schumer or Dick Durbin Majority Leader?”

[Mariner]

Until today, this wasn't even on the conservative radar.

Now we have to ask the question: Will it be a 10-seat pick-up, or 11?

[RightGeek]

Thanks for expressing it much better than I did.

[Soul Seeker]

WV votes Republican in presidential races. Byrd was similiar to Kennedy. He’d been there so long and the people in the state seemed to personally like him. With him gone a Republican winning is possible but it depends on the candidate, quality of the campaign and really how addicted they are to pork. There is no reason a conservative can’t win here however. This is a race conservatives should aggressively involve themselves in.

[taildragger]

This is one of 4 seats if my memory is correct that would be sworn in right away.

They also include:

Obama's Seat
Biden's Seat
And Hillary's Seat

If we get 2 or even all 4 Reid ain't got doodley-sqwat, his days of 60 easy votes for Cloture are finito...

The Obamatrain and the Lame Duck Session are then officially over..

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Republican Wildcat.

[liberalcide1]

What a wonderful thought—a republican taking Byrd’s spot. Lets all contribute as much as we can to make it happen. Republican control of the Senate is in sight.

[Roccus]

Your excerpt, "Among the 34 percent of voters who just "somewhat approve" of the job Manchin is doing as governor..." is somewhat misleading. According to the article, Manchine has an overall favorable rating of 70%. IMO, he's not done a bad job as governor and this could be a very good thing. My fellow Mountaineers may not want to lose him to the Senate.

[Republican Wildcat]

How is that misleading? It means exactly what it says.

[Republican Wildcat]

The GOP switch for WV didn’t start until 2000...it is relatively new to the Red State column. An exception was Reagan’s landslide in 1984.

[Republican Wildcat]

here you go

[WOSG]

You WILL lose him to be a rubber stamp for obama if he becomes a Senator, its how DC works.

Anyone who thinkg Manchin will be any different from the other ‘blue dog’ Pelosi poodles and Reid cronies and Obama Democrats is fooling themselves.

[Mr. Lucky]

Correctamundo.

[counterpunch]

Now we have to ask the question: Will it be a 10-seat pick-up, or 11?

It's going to be an 11 or 12 seat pick-up.
AR, IN, ND, NV, CO, PA, WA, CA, DE, WI, CT, WV
 

[counterpunch]

We may lose AZ though.
It would be an acceptable loss.

[Republican Wildcat]

I don’t think we should hope for McCain cratering as that could adversely affect down ticket races, including some very conservative candidates who won house races such as Jesse Kelly in Arizona 8. I don’t like McCain as I don’t trust him given his past (although if he maintains his grudge against Obama, he might not be too bad), but I don’t dislike him enough to hope he loses and drags people down like Jesse Kelly.

[WVNan]

Wow! I had no idea that John stood a chance against Joe, but it looks like it might be possible. Guess we have work to do. This one will take boots on the ground and lots of phone work. I think Roccus has a point. I had thought the same thing, that the 70 percenters might not want to lose Gov. Manchin. This could get interesting. Thanks for the ping.