Okay peoples. Deep breaths. I am just as freaked out as the rest of you but, BUT I think that it's important to remember that the midterms are being played out on a different level by the Dems. The emphasis has been on GOTV and a MASSIVE ground game. The big question has been whether the early votes from the Republicans mean an insurmountable lead or are they simply playing musical chairs.
The Braley campaign believes it's the latter and has released a response to the latest DMR/Selzer poll showing Ernst with a +7 lead. I think it's worth reading and it certainly underlines just how much is riding on the Brannock Street Project.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Braley's campaign manager offered reaction tonight in reaction to The Des Moines Register's new Iowa Poll.
Here's Sarah Benzing's statement:
"With the exception of today's outlier, every single poll of Iowa voters in the last few days has shown this race to be a dead heat heading into Election Day with clear movement in Bruce's direction. Our campaign's modeling of the electorate shows that Bruce is headed to victory on the strength of his clear and significant lead among early voters, the superior Democratic ground efforts that will drive far greater numbers of supporters to the polls, and his strong and consistent lead among independent voters.
"The campaign's modeling of the early vote returns show clear signs of strength for Bruce heading into Election Day. With over 420,000 votes in already, not only have more Democrats voted than Republicans, but our models show that Bruce has a significant lead among independents who have voted already and those whose ballots we expect to come back, giving him an advantage of over 15,000 votes so far among this group with that number expected to grow in the final days. Bruce is also leading by 22 points among voters who don't traditionally vote in midterm elections—a critical group that Democrats are successfully working to turn out.
"Over the last two weeks, Democrats have outpaced Republicans in generating new vote by mail request forms every single day and have brought in over 60,000 new forms from voters who will be supporting Bruce. Over 25,000 more ballots have been requested by Bruce supporters than Ernst supporters, and we expect our superior ground game to bring those ballots in.
There is more to the response so please head on over and give it a read. I believe the same response pretty much applies to Colorado. So either the DSCC is right or they are really, REALLY wrong. I for one will shake off the the doom and focus on GOTV. This is new territory and unfortunately I feel the fear of not knowing how this new strategy is playing out vs. traditional GOTV is itself working against us. I believe Sarah. I believe what I've been hearing from folks on the ground in IA.
I say we take a page from the wingnuts' miltarism - fall in line and leave no vote behind!!!GOTV!!!!