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The re-election prospects for Washington Governor Christine Gregoire (D) have improved significantly over the past two months. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Washington voters shows Gregoire leading her Republican challenger, Dino Rossi, by eleven percentage points. It’s Gregoire 52% Rossi 41%. In late March, Gregoire was up by just a statistically insignificant single percentage point. In February, Rossi had a one point advantage. Four years ago, the 2004 election between the same two candidates was one of the closest elections in the state’s history.

Before March, the Unites States Senate election in Kansas was a shoe-in for Republican incumbent Pat Roberts. At that point there was no viable Democratic candidate in the race and the state has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932. However, the decision by Democratic Congressmen Jim Slattery to run for office has made the race potentially more interesting. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Kansas voters found Roberts leading Slattery 52% to 40%.

Fans of HBO's "The Wire" know fictional Baltimore Mayor Tommy Carcetti. The reformer spends his first days in office screeching through every public-works unit, railing about an abandoned car here, a leaking hydrant there. Shocked city administrators ask their angry new boss: Where is the abandoned car? Which leaking hydrant? The mayor won't specify. In fear, they mobilize their forces to pick up all the abandoned cars, to fix all the hydrants. The beat-down citizens of Baltimore cheer. Mayor Carcetti smiles. The state of the union is angry. Citizens are furious about gas prices and health-care costs, broken schools and...

Here is the 2008 Electoral Vote Projection Map and State Poll Average Chart updated for Thursday, May 15, 2008: * No Changes to the Map. Things have remained static now for several days. We did have one Michigan poll roll off the 50-Day average, but it only upped both candidates by a point to 44%-44%, keeping Michigan in the "Tossup" category. * Barack Obama leads John McCain 46.5% - 44.3% in the 50-Day Average of all National Polls. * John McCain leads Barack Obama 46.7% - 45.1% in the 50-Day Average of "Likely Voter" Polls. * It will be interesting...

In Iowa, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Barack Obama leading John McCain 44% to 42%. This is the third consecutive poll to find the candidates very close in the state that gave Obama his first victory on the way to the Democratic Presidential Nomination. A month ago , it was Obama by four. In February , it was Obama by three. In all three polls, Obama's support has stayed in a narrow range from 44% to 46% while McCain has stayed at 41% or 42%.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Virginia finds John McCain leading Barack Obama by just three percentage points, 47% to 44%. That’s a significant improvement for Obama after trailing the presumptive Republican nominee by eleven points a month ago.

Either one of the two Democratic contenders, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, leads the likely Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. Sen. Obama leads Sen. McCain 47 - 40 percent while Sen. Clinton is up 46 - 41 percent. In an Obama-McCain matchup, independent voters back the Democrat 48 - 37 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. Men split with 45 percent for McCain and 44 percent for Obama, while women back Obama 49 - 36 percent. McCain leads 47 - 40 percent...

Kay Hagan has pulled within 5 points of Elizabeth Dole, according to the newest survey by Public Policy Polling. She had trailed by 17 points in PPP's most recent look at the race, taken in February. Dole leads Hagan 48-43. The two candidates are closely matched in every part of the state, except the Mountains and the southeastern area of the state, where Dole has a strong advantage.

New polls Monday predicted landslide wins for Hillary Clinton in two looming primaries, despite pressure for her to cede to Barack Obama's mathematical stranglehold on the Democratic White House race. The former first lady, who is vowing to battle on even as Obama turns his sights on Republican presumptive nominee John McCain, led her foe by 36 points in the latest poll out of West Virginia, which votes Tuesday. In Kentucky, which holds its primary on May 20, Clinton was up 58 to 31 percent, in another poll suggesting Obama faces an uncomfortable two weeks. Huge wins for Clinton in...

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll in Michigan shows McCain attracting 45% of the vote while Barack Obama earns 44%. Six percent (6%) say they would vote for a third-party candidate and 5% remain undecided. Those results are similar to a late-March survey that also showed McCain with a statistically insignificant one-point advantage. In February, McCain had a three-point lead.

Carl Levin has served in the United States Senate for 30 years and the first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of his re-election bid suggest he’s likely to keep his job. Levin leads Republican state legislator Jack Hoogendyk by a 54% to 37% margin. Levin has won each of his last three re-election bids with 58% to 60% of the vote. He has not faced a serious election threat since 1984.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Missouri shows that John McCain retains a significant lead over his likely opponent, Barack Obama. McCain attracts 47% of the Show-Me State vote while Obama earns 41%. A month ago, McCain led Obama 53% to 38%. In February, before McCain wrapped up the nomination and before the Democratic competition became so heated, McCain’s advantage over Obama was just two percentage points. has opened a significant lead over both potential Democratic opponents in the state of Missouri. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds John McCain leading Hillary Clinton by nine percentage points, 50%...

Here is today's updated Electoral Vote Projection Map and Poll Average Chart for May 10, 2008. Nothing has changed from yesterday on the map. * McCain's poll average in Texas improved with a new Research 2000 poll showing him leading Obama 53% - 39%. Please note that new charts are now posted at the bottom of the main page showing the "Latest State Polls," the "50-Day Average of National Polls," and the "Latest National Polls." Those charts will be updated and kept there on an ongoing basis.

n a hypothetical matchup between Clinton and McCain, the New York senator led the Arizonan by 47% to 38%, with 11% saying they were undecided. And in a contest between Obama and McCain, the poll gave the Illinois senator a 46% to 40% lead over the Republican, with 9% undecided. The nationwide poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The results represent a slight shift from a Times/Bloomberg poll in February, in which McCain led Clinton by 6 points, and Obama by 2 points, within the poll's margin of error. The direction has...

Barak Obama and his people should be happy about the headline attached to the new Gallup analysis: Obama Beats McCain Among Jewish Voters. But truly, that is a misleading headline. Even in his wildest dreams no McCain activist was hoping that his candidate will beat Obama fair and square among Jewish voters. American Jews are liberal Democrats. A Democratic nominee cannot conceivably lose most of the Jewish votes. In their dreams, the McCain people hope that their candidate will be able to pull out the almost 40% Ronald Reagan got from Jews back in 1980. "Barack Obama is faring better...

Washington, D.C. (May 7, 2008) -- Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Executive Director Matt Brooks issued the followed statement today: "The just released Gallup poll of Jewish voters is another important indicator of the ongoing troubles Barack Obama has with Jewish voters. In the poll of Jewish voters (conducted April 1-30), it showed Obama getting only 61% of the Jewish vote against John McCain (32%). By comparison, in 2004, John Kerry received 75% of the Jewish vote and George W. Bush received 25%. The recent polling numbers demonstrate Obama's weakness among Jewish voters. This data comes on the heels of the...

Today's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina could give the first hard evidence of whether Barack Obama has been hurt by the flap over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Current polling reveals that most voters seem ready to accept Obama's renunciation of his former pastor, but a not-insignificant group reports that the controversy has damaged their opinion of the Illinois senator. Polling numbers left heads spinning over the past several days, as different surveys showed divergent results. Obama led Hillary Rodham Clinton among Democratic primary voters in the latest CBS News/New York Times poll, 50 percent to 38 percent. Among Democratic...

Zogby (special Arabic magic sauce) tracking polls show a big late shift to Obama. NORTH CAROLINA: Obama destroys Clinton 51-37 INDIANA: Obama upsets Clinton 45-43 If Zogby's special sauce is right, HRC's campaign will end today.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appears to be rebounding from sliding poll numbers in the wake the controversy over his former pastor, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll released on Sunday. Among Democratic primary voters, the Illinois senator now leads opponent Hillary Clinton by 12 points -- 50 percent to 38 percent -- the poll found. Obama led the New York senator by 8 points in a CBS/New York Times poll released just a few days ago. The latest poll was taken after Obama's comments last week repudiating Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who repeated statements that the September 11...

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is no doubt (and regrettably) a big issue in the presidential campaign. But what we’ve seen over the past week is major media overkill — Jeremiah Wright all day and all night. It’s like watching the clips of a car wreck again and again. We’ve plotted the trend lines of his relationship with Barack Obama over the past two decades. What did Obama know and when did he know it? We’ve forced Barack and Michelle Obama, two decent, hard-working, law-abiding, family-oriented Americans, to sit for humiliating television interviews, reminiscent of Bill and Hillary Clinton on “60...

For the third straight month, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen leads Senator John Sununu by eight percentage points in his bid for re-election. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of New Hampshire voters shows Shaheen attracting 51% of the vote while Sununu earns 43%. A month ago, Shaheen led 49% to 41%.

Five days before the important Democratic presidential primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, Barack Obama of Illinois enjoys a substantial lead in one state and remains tied with Hillary Clinton of New York in the other, a new Zogby daily tracking poll shows. Obama leads by a 50% to 34% margin over Clinton in North Carolina, while the two are tied at 42% support each in Indiana.

Will Barack Obama's longtime connection to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright continue to hurt him? Evidence that it will comes from pollster Scott Rasmussen, who finds that only 30 percent of likely voters say Obama denounced Wright because he was outraged, while 58 percent believe he denounced him for political convenience. Only 33 percent believe Obama was surprised by Wright's statements at the National Press Club, while 52 percent say he was not surprised. Some 26 percent say it's very likely that Obama "shares some of Pastor Wright's controversial views about the United States" and 56 percent say it's somewhat likely...

A new poll concludes that Arizonans believe Sen. Barack Obama poses the biggest challenge to John McCain in the presidential race, but that the Arizona senator will ultimately win the White House. The poll of 577 registered voters found that voters favored McCain over Obama 47 percent to 38 percent. They favored McCain over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 53 percent to 37 percent. The voters polled said they believe McCain likely will beat Obama in November. A similar February poll showed Arizonans thought Obama would beat McCain. The poll was conducted April 24-27 by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism...

The Democrats would appear to have a large edge leading into the fall elections: voters view their party as better than the Republican Party on many important issues and overall. But once the candidates’ names are mentioned, the general election looks like a much closer race. Barack Obama is in a tie with John McCain in this poll, while Hillary Clinton leads McCain by just five points. The closeness of the race between Obama and McCain represents a change since four weeks ago, when Obama held a five point lead. Since then, Obama has lost support among women, particularly white...

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows that Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman has opened a seven-percentage point lead over Democratic challenger Al Franken in his bid for re-election. Coleman, widely considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents of Election 2008, attracts 50% of the vote for the first time this year while Franken earns support from 43%.

With Drudge reporting an internal Clinton poll said to have her up 11, Wolfson responds on a conference call with reporters: The campaign "categorically den[ies] an obvious effort to raise our expectatons by somebody." Wolfson and pollster Geoff Garin said the campaign didn't conduct a poll last night.

In California, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Barack Obama leading John McCain 50% to 43%. That's an improvement for McCain who trailed Obama by fifteen points in March. If Hillary Clinton is able to come back and win the Democratic nomination, she holds a slightly smaller lead over McCain, 47% to 42%. Clinton led McCain by seven points a month ago.

For the second straight month, Democrat Mark Udall holds a three-point edge over Republican Bob Schaffer in the race to become Colorado’s next United States Senator. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Colorado found Udall attracting 45% of the vote while Schaffer earns 42%. A month ago, Udall was up 46% to 43%. Two months ago, it was Schaffer with a statistically insignificant one point lead. This is the fourth straight Rasmussen Reports election poll to find the two candidates within three points of each other.

THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats nationally ___ THE NUMBERS Barack Obama, 54 percent Hillary Rodham Clinton, 35 percent ___ OF INTEREST: Obama's huge lead in this Newsweek poll marks a big shift from the magazine's last survey in March, when he and Clinton were essentially tied. Besides Obama's usual leads among men, blacks and young people, he leads in this poll among women and older voters and is about even among whites. In a matchup against Republican candidate John McCain, both Democrats are ahead slightly. ___ The Newsweek poll was conducted April 16-17 by Princeton Survey Research Associated...

I would imagine that you'd agree with me that Barack Obama has had a pretty rough last few weeks. Jeremiah Wright, bittergate, the steady stream punches from two Clintons and so on. You'd think he'd be losing a lot of ground. And yet out comes this Washington Post poll today that shows him just getting stronger and stronger - and Hillary Clinton weaker and weaker. The results, to me, are surprising to the point of being confusing: I can't quite figure it out or know what conclusions to draw from it. But I bet there's one group of people who...

Periodically pollster Scott Rasmussen asks voters whether they think America is basically fair and decent or whether America is basically unfair and discriminatory. In the latest survey, 64 percent say America is basically fair and decent, and 22 percent say it is unfair and discriminatory. Men (70 percent) are considerably more likely than women (59 percent) to say that America is fair and decent. As one might expect, blacks tend to think America is unfair and discriminatory rather than fair and decent, by a 47 percent to 37 percent margin. Whites take a positive view (67 percent to 18 percent)...

SurveyUSA polling conducted exclusively for WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, WHP-TV in Harrisburg, and WNEP-TV in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton shows Hillary Clinton maintaining her double-digit lead over Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary for President. Today, Clinton leads Obama by 14 points; down slightly from an 18-point lead one week ago. Despite this movement, the polls have been consistent over time; in four polls, Clinton has never received less than 53% or more than 56% of the vote; Obama has never received less than 36% or more than 41%

WASHINGTON -- With three crucial Democratic primaries looming, Hillary Rodham Clinton may not be headed toward the blockbuster victories she needs to jump-start her presidential bid -- even in Pennsylvania, the state that was supposed to be her ace in the hole, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found. The survey found the New York senator leading Barack Obama by just 5 percentage points in Pennsylvania, which votes next Tuesday. Such a margin would not give her much of a boost in the battle for the party's nomination. What is more, the poll found Clinton trails Obama by 5...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eight out of 10 Arabs have an unfavorable view of the United States and only six percent believe the U.S. troop build-up in Iraq in the last year has worked, said a poll of six Arab countries released on Monday. The poll by the University of Maryland and Zogby International, also found most Arabs did not see U.S. foe Iran as a threat and they sympathized more with Hamas in the Palestinian Territories than U.S.-backed Fatah. "There is a growing mistrust and lack of confidence in the United States," said Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor...

A new poll by the American Research Group has Hillary Clinton with a 20-point lead in Pennsylvania over Barack Obama, just over a week before that state’s April 22nd primary. Clinton leads in the survey 57 percent to 37 percent and that’s a huge turnaround from the ARG poll earlier this month which had the race deadlocked at 45 percent each. According to the poll, Clinton leads among white voters 64 percent to 29 percent. Moreover, 10 percent of respondents in the poll said they would never vote for Clinton in the primary while 24 percent said they would never...

Sixty Per Cent of Physicians Surveyed Oppose Switching to a National Health Care Plan Written by Cisco Monday, 07 April 2008 With apologies to the leftist anti-war crowd, I will steal and bastardize one of their favorite mantras: “Ackerman lied, health care freedom died.” Now that I have said it, I have to admit that it does not have all of the fluidity of the anti-war slogans. Maybe that is because “Ackerman” has three syllables and “Bush” has just one. Or maybe that is because you need to be a brainless leftist in order to construct a really enjoyable brainless...

As former Congressman Dick Zimmer formally entered the Republican U.S. Senate race today, he essentially becomes the third candidate to fill a single candidacy. First there was Anne Estabrook. Andy Unanue took her place after she suffered a minor stroke. Zimmer jumped in to the race after Unanue’s campaign disintegrated in less than three weeks. Just as Unanue inherited most of the Estabrook campaign infrastructure – who had been paid a severance that lasted until the June primary while they waited for a candidate to take her place– Zimmer is poised to take over much of Unanue’s staff, including Campaign...

In a difficult year for Republicans, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is providing GOP leaders with yet another headache. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that Stevens is essentially even with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. Stevens currently attracts 46% of the vote while Begich earns 45%. Four percent (4%) say they’d vote for a third party option while 5% are not sure. Any incumbent who polls below 50% is considered potentially vulnerable and that label certainly applies to Stevens.

AP-Ipsos National end date 4/9 (previous end date 2/24) Obama 46, Clinton 43 (Obama 46, Clinton 43) McCain 45, Obama 45 (Obama 51, McCain 41) Clinton 48, McCain 45 (Clinton 48, McCain 43)

So here we have two new polls, the Marist posted by a fellow Freeper, where McCain leads Obama in blue New York, and this one where he leads in PA. The Democrats are in trouble if you ask me.

The USA Today/Gallup Poll of late March suggests a strategy for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the general election. The poll compared Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and McCain on certain key variables. Here were the results: Obama prevailed in these categories: Cares about the needs of people like you (66 percent to 54 percent) Shares your values (51 percent to 46 percent) Understands the problems Americans face in their daily lives (67 percent to 55 percent) McCain prevailed in these categories: Is a strong, decisive leader (56 percent to 69 percent) Is honest and trustworthy (63 percent to 67 percent)...

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone poll in Oregon shows Barack Obama leading John McCain 48% to 42%. However, McCain leads Hillary Clinton 46% to 40%. Those results are broadly similar to last month’s poll in Oregon. Last August, McCain also led Clinton by three percentage points. Obama was not included in that round of polling.

Good news but not great news, for reasons you’ll shortly see. Which way’s the trend moving? Gallup doesn’t offer historical data to compare and it’s hard to tell from other pollsters, whose surveys on this issue tend to stick to questions about whether gun laws should be made stricter or not. CNN did poll the “individual right vs. militia right” question a few months ago, though, and found 65 percent support at the time, 72 percent among men and 58 percent among women. The margin of error there, as in the Gallup poll, was three percent, so there may well...

THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats nationally THE NUMBERS Barack Obama, 49 percent Hillary Rodham Clinton, 39 percent ___ OF INTEREST: The two rivals' standings in the Pew Research Center poll have changed little from late February, the latest indication that so far Obama has weathered the controversy over provocative sermons by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. While Obama has a mostly favorable image among white Democrats, those with unfavorable views about him are likelier to say equal rights for minorities have gone too far and to oppose interracial dating. Almost one in four white Democrats who...

You'll recall Hillary Clinton's recent speech in which she attempted to play up her foreign policy experience by recounting her "harrowing" 1996 trip to Bosnia. "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." Well, mainstream media has discounted that account, and such luminaries as comedian Sinbad have chimed in as well. It appears, however, that Clinton caved in too soon when she admitted overstating the dangers, as Barely Political...

Some certainly do. And one could easily get the impression that the Bush-haters have become a majority. To be sure, President Bush's approval ratings continue to languish in the 30s. But Presidential approval ratings are a very blunt instrument, and these data from the Tarrance Group suggest that the full story is more balanced. Most striking to me is that 56% of respondents approve of the President personally. This seems remarkable in view of the endless, savage attacks that have been launched on Bush by the Left and repeated, often uncritically, in the mainstream media. Beyond that, a number of...

Since wrapping up the Republican nomination, John McCain’s general election prospects have improved against Barack Obama in New Hampshire. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Granite States shows McCain with 46% of the vote, three points more than Obama’s 43%. McCain leads Clinton 47% to 41%.

In the state where she served as First Lady in the 1980s, Hillary Clinton trails John McCain by seven percentage points in a hypothetical general election match-up. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state shows McCain attracting 50% of the vote while Clinton earns 43%. However, when Barack Obama is presented as the Democratic option, McCain leads 59% to 30% in Arkansas. Clinton is viewed favorably by 50% of voters in her former home state while 47% have an unfavorable view. As with all polling on the Democratic hopeful, there is a significant gender gap. She earns favorably...

In Minnesota, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows Barack Obama leading John McCain 47% to 43%. The election poll also shows McCain essentially even with Hillary Clinton, leading her by a statistically insignificant 47% to 46%.