It's coming ever so close... 3 more days till Election Day!
Today we're talking about the importance of the governor races. While they're not publized as much as Congressional ones, they are still quite important for the future of American politics.
Voters in 36 states choose their top elected officials on Tuesday. The outcome will offer insight into the issues that people care about, and a glimpse of the battlegrounds in the 2008 presidential contest.
There are more Republican governors (28) than Democrats (22), but because of term limits and retirements, Republicans went into the election year defending eight open seats, and Democrats only one. This at a time of widespread dissatisfaction with the Bush administration.
Of those nine open seats, Democrats are well ahead in five of them - New York, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Colorado and Ohio - with competitive contests in the remaining four. Democrats are in range of unseating two sitting Republican governors, in Maryland and Minnesota, polls show. Additionally, in Alaska, GOP Gov. Frank Murkowski lost his party's primary, and now the general election is competitive.
Political strategists say that govenors help out politics in a number of ways.
Though governors never formally act as a group, strategists say a majority can help build party strength, turn out votes for presidential contests, and cultivate future national leaders. Their decisions shape domestic policy on health care, social issues and taxes, and often touch citizens more directly than Washington.
The MSNBC.com article also discusses the most competitve govenor races.
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A Newsweek poll released this weeknd shows that the Republicans are loosing more ground.
While the Republicans have lagged behind Democrats throughout the campaign season, the trend in the past month—when NEWSWEEK conducted four polls in five weeks—had suggested the Republicans were building momentum in the homestretch.
But that seems to be no more, as this poll shows support for Republicans receding.
53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win enough seats to take control of one or both houses of Congress in the midterm elections on Tuesday
In early October, that number was only 32%
If the elections were held today, 54 percent of likely voters say they would support the Democratic candidate in their district versus 38 percent who would vote for the Republican-a 16-point edge for the Democrats.
As for the key issues of the election, Iraq comes as no surprise.
Nearly a third of registered voters (32 percent) now say Iraq is the most important issue in deciding their vote. The economy comes in second at 19 percent. And just 12 percent say terrorism, the Republican trump card in the last three elections, is their most important issue.
There is some good news for Republicans, though.
90 percent of likely Republican voters say they would vote for the GOP’s candidate if the elections were held today, not far behind the 95 percent of Democrats who back their party’s nominee.
Most independent voters, though, are leaning Democrat.
But independents say they would vote for the Democrat over the Republican in their district nearly 2 to 1 (26 percent versus 51 percent.)
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And finally, in this final weekend before election day, congressional candidates are lashing out last-minute advertising blitzes to lay out their closing statement before voters hit the polls.
Choosing which message to end on is decided by secret polling, local events and intuition, but some broader themes have emerged for each party as candidates make their final appeals.
Republicans are banking on two of their staples -- national security and tax cuts -- to contrast GOP policies with their vision of a potential Democratic Congress that would be big on taxes and soft on terrorism. Democrats, meanwhile, are hammering away at two of the GOP's biggest vulnerabilities -- Iraq and President Bush -- while underlining the message of change in Washington.
The rest of the article is boring, but you can read it here.
