Are the polls underestimating Barack Obama's ground game? According to the folks at FiveThrityEight — this year's Rookie of the Year in terms of online election coverage — the turnout propelled by the Obama campaign's army of volunteers could be much bigger than expected. McCain's field operation, meanwhile, is reportedly feeble at best. U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, recently spent a couple days in Wisconsin to tout Obama's health care plan. According to Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly, McDermott called the Democratic presidential nominee's ground game the "most organized bloody campaign" he had ever seen.
In Oregon, evidence of the "Obama tidal wave" has already been reported. The latest polls show Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon Smith is poised to lose against Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley, and Oregonian reporter Jeff Mapes thinks the reason is a larger than expected Democratic turnout. Currently, 49 percent of the state's Democrats have returned their ballots so far, compared to just 41 percent of Republicans. ...
Wave of dissent: I wrote yesterday about the editorial board at the P-I and their multi-editorial crusade against Initiative 985, Tim Eyman's "traffic congestion relief" measure. Today, The Seattle Times editorial board joined in by publishing 10 reasons to reject I-985. ...
Wave of support: After Horse's Ass blogger David Goldstein and reporter Josh Feit were kicked out of Wednesday's press conference for Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's deposition in the Buildergate lawsuit (the reason, reportedly, was that "partisan bloggers" were not allowed), Seattle Times editorial writer Bruce Ramsey cried foul. ...
Wave of donations: According to Seattle Times reporter Nick Perry, faculty and staff members at the University of Washington favor Obama over McCain by more than 80-1 — in terms of donations, anyway. ...
Sound position? Seattle Times transportation reporter Mike Lindblom says Sound Transit's light rail expansion measure, Proposition 1, caught a break on this year's ballot by landing at "or near the upper right-hand corner of the back page, in both Seattle and Bellevue." What do you think? Is that really "prime real estate," as Lindblom thinks? ...
Sound research: Eric Earling at Sound Politics takes a look at the Public Disclosure Commission campaign finance reports, and wonders if the Rossi campaign's ad strategy is more effective than Gregoire's. ...
Sounds scary: Apropos of Halloween, the Republican Governor's Association recently released an ad featuring a clown who wants you to vote against Gregoire. It's unnerving.
