Final report: New Jersey special election for Senate

The special election to fill the seat of the late Frank Lautenberg will be held this Wednesday, October 16. Why it isn't being held on the same date as the governor's race this November or even being held on a Tuesday as most American election are, only Chris Christie knows.

In any case, I have said almost nothing about this race because no poll has shown it being very close. Cory Booker has a commanding lead over Steve Lonegan in every poll so far. The only dispute is how big the lead is.

Oct 13: Rutgers: sample size 513 Booker ahead 58%-36%(22 points)
Oct 12: Monmouth: sample size 1393 Booker ahead 52%-42% (10 points)
Oct 8: Richard Stockton College: sample size 729 Booker ahead 50%-39%(11 points)
Oct 7: Quinnipiac: sample size 899 Booker ahead 53%-41% (12 points)
Oct 5: Farliegh Dickinson: sample size 702 Booker ahead 45%-29% (16 points)

The story for polling nerds here is the huge discrepancy between the last two polls. My Confidence of Victory system does not try to pick the margin of victory, just the victor. Because the width of the margin is so high in all cases, the polls all agree Lonegan has next to no chance. Here are the odds using Confidence of Victory, stating them as x to 1 favorite, rounded to three significant digits.

Oct 13: Rutgers: Booker is a 16,000,000 to 1 favorite
Oct 12: Monmouth: Booker is a 18,500 to 1 favorite
Oct 8: Richard Stockton College: Booker is a 1,320 to 1 favorite
Oct 7: Quinnipiac: Booker is a 10,900 to 1 favorite
Oct 5: Farliegh Dickinson: Booker is a 4,170,000 to 1 favorite

Can I explain these differences? This may seem strange, but my explanation is these differences really don't matter. Once you get past being more than a 1,000 to 1 favorite, it's over. I have not yet had 1,000 samples, but so far the biggest favorite to lose since 2008 was about 11 to 5, or 2.2 to 1. This was Spitzer vs. Springer in New York City comptroller, a race only one Quinnipiac called for Springer.

There were some very big upsets in the Republican presidential primaries after Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich both failed to be the Not Romney and Rick Santorum went from also-ran to contender, but two person races are pretty easy to call, especially when the numbers are this big.

I'm sure there will be bigger upsets in two candidate races eventually and there may be some I didn't log because it was in a race I skipped over, like the House races or state ballot propositions. But unless voter turnout is crazy low and skewed as hell, Cory Booker will be a Senator very soon.

VA governor's race:First October update

There are races in New Jersey for senator and governor this year, but I haven't reported on them because they haven't looked interesting. Democrat Cory Booker will likely become a senator with a double digit win and Republican Chris Christie appears to be cruising to re-election by a wide margin as well.

The governor's race in Virginia is a little closer, but according to my Confidence of Victory system, only a little. Here's the latest data.

 

Since late August, polling companies have been taking a major interest in the race between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cucinnelli. Every week or so, two or more polls are released, so the data I present here are weekly medians of the Confidence of Victory numbers.

Advantage McAuliffe, if you haven't been paying attention.

Most news outlets that show polling data consider the percentage lead the most important information, but my system is based on the percentage lead of voters who have a preference. This I turn into a Confidence of Victory (CoV) number using very basic statistical methods. In mid August, McAuliffe's CoV numbers were over 98%, but they fell in mid-September to about 85%. Since then, they have climbed back to 96.8%. I haven't collected enough data to say that there really is much difference when someone gets a CoV over 90%. No one with that strong a lead at the end lost in the data I gather since 2004.

Notice the prepositional phrase "at the end". We aren't at the end yet, because the election is a month away. But as it stands currently, Cuccinelli needs something like the miracle Bill De Blasio got when Anthony Weiner went from front-runner to pariah/dick joke. Unless there are pictures of Terry McAuliffe's junk floating undetected around the Internet, Cuccinelli faces very long odds indeed.

More updates when there is more data.

More election news:Results from New Jersey, new polls for New York City mayor

The results from the primary for the New Jersey special election came in and there were no surprises. Cory Booker won the Democratic nomination handily with 59% while his closest rival had 20%. Republican Steve Lonegan beat his single opponent Alieta Eck 79% to 21%.

The Booker vs. Lonegan election will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 16. Two months is a long time in politics, but currently Booker is leading comfortably in all the polls that have asked about this particular match-up.
  

The New York City mayoral race is much more up in the air. The Democratic primary polls taken this month by Siena and Quinnipiac don't agree on much except the fall of Anthony Weiner from the top tier of candidates.

The rules of the primary state that if a single candidate gets more than 40% of the vote, he or she is declared the winner. Otherwise the top two candidates are in a run-off. Here are the results for the top three candidates in the most recent polls.

Siena (8/2 to 8/7)
Quinn 25%
DiBlasio 14%
Thompson 16%

Quinnipiac (8/7 to 8/12)
DiBlasio 30%
Quinn 24%
Thompson 22%

My Confidence of Victory method does have ways of turning each of these sets of numbers into probabilities of victory for all three of these candidates, and as you might expect the Siena numbers from earlier in the month would make Quinn the prohibitive favorite while the Quinnipiac number would hand the big favorite role to DiBlasio.

Quinn has been the favorite for several months, never polling less than second. Similar to the 2012 Republican presidential primary, there is a remarkable amount of what I call "churn" in the numbers. If I stretched the analogy a little farther (perhaps too far, I can't be sure), this would put Christine Quinn, the openly gay speaker of the New York City Council in the role of Romney, while Weiner and DiBlasio, the  New York City public advocate and considered the most liberal candidate, in the roles of the many Not Romneys that the Republican field had to offer.

The last five elections for mayor have been won by a Republican (Giuliani) and a former Republican turned Independent (Bloomberg), but the current assumption is that the star power is gone from the Republican ranks currently and the Democratic primary winner will move to Gracie Mansion.

I've read analyses by Harry Enten and Nate Silver, both of whom are very keen on historical track records. Maybe it's because I'm older than either of them or I've just seen so many predictions done on flimsy data turn out so badly, but I'm not convinced the historical record is the right thing to look at. An issue like "stop and frisk" has a strong chance to be a game changer, and that would work to DiBlasio's advantage.

Enten believes it's all about ethnic politics, which gives Thompson,who is black, an edge over DiBlasio. Silver thinks Quinn's position as front runner for most of the year gives her the inside track. I claim no expertise about New York politics, but I believe more strongly in event driven elections being the correct modern model and that historical data is often so much balloon juice.

I'll post again when there is new data.

I will keep track of these races through the primary on September 10, the likely run-off on October 1 and the general election on November 5.

Massachusetts Senate Race: Markey(D) vs. Gomez(R)Final election day update

The special election to fill John Kerry's Senate seat in Massachusetts is today and Democrat Ed Markey has lead in the polls from day one. There have been a couple polls that showed a close race, but even in those Markey has been ahead, once by as little as a single percentage point. The four polls in the final week have had him ahead by 3%, 7% and twice at 10%. The Confidence of Victory of the median poll has never slipped under 95% for Markey.

There is always a first time, but in over 100 races where I have used the Confidence of Victory method, the favorite wins an overwhelming amount of the time and a favorite at over 90% is yet to lose. Voter turnout is always important and the method does not predict the margin of victory, just the victor.  I'll be back tomorrow to give the results.

Massachusetts Senate Race: Markey(D) vs. Gomez(R) 17 June Update

New polls have been released since last Monday regarding the special Senate election to fill John Kerry's open seat in Massachusetts. On June 9, two polls were released giving Democrat Ed Markey a 7 point lead over Republican Gabriel Gomez. Two more recent polls show double digit leads, one by the Republican polling company Harper (49%-37% on 6/11) and the most recent by Boston Globe (54%-43% on 6/14).

We are eight days away from the polls closing and nearly no movement in Confidence of Victory numbers, now sitting at 97.5% for Markey. A week out it's hard to move the needle, especially given the increased popularity of voting by mail. Polling companies would like it if news organizations would add the phrase "if the election were held when the poll was taken" to any report on a poll, but with absentee ballots the election is effectively taking place now. I expect more polls this week and at least one more report on the race.

Massachusetts Senate Race:Markey(D) vs. Gomez(R)10 June Update

We are now about two weeks out from the special election to fill John Kerry's Senate seat in Massachusetts. Polling data had been scarce, but it's starting to pick up. Now that Suffolk has published their data from a poll that ended yesterday, we have five polls from 2 June to 9 June. Here is the list from newest to oldest. (The next newest poll not included is from 15 May and was conducted by Public Policy Polling [PPP], who also completed a poll on June 4. This poll would be excluded from the list either for being too old or for being done by a company already represented.)

9 June: Suffolk 48%-41% Markey n=500
Confidence of Victory 95.2%
5 June: McLaughlin[R] 45%-44% Markey n=400
Confidence of Victory 58.4%
4 June: YouGov 51%-40% Markey n=500
Confidence of Victory 99.5%
4 June: PPP[D] 47%-39% Markey n=560
Confidence of Victory 98.0%
2 June: New England College 52%-40% Markey n=500
Confidence of Victory 100.0%

The [R] and [D] behind McLaughlin and PPP respectively indicate that they are partisan companies and I include that out of a sense of fairness. I do not skew the data, I let all the pollsters have their say and take the median, which this week happens to be PPP at 98% CoV. McLaughlin is currently the lone outlier saying the race is close and even that poll does not give Gomez the lead.

Again, I consider these statements as snapshots of the situation instead of forecasts, but in general I would say Markey looks to be in the lead comfortably and Gomez has some small momentum which has to improve markedly for him to have a chance.

More updates as more polls come in.

Massachusetts Senate Race:Markey(D) vs. Gomez(R)Update #2

A new poll has been taken for the Massachusetts senate race and Democrat Ed Markey continues to lead. This poll was taken on May 15 and the most recent poll before this one was completed on the 7th, so using my seven day rule, this is the only poll being considered.

Most recent poll: 15 May 2013
Polls taken within a week of the most recent: 1
Lead: 7% lead for Markey(D)
Confidence of Victory of the median poll: 98.2%

I do prefer having a larger set of data on which to base a post, but I will remind readers that I consider these updates to be snapshots of an evolving situation rather than predictions of what will take place on election day. While this is "just one poll", the resulting Confidence of Victory numbers are much the same as we saw last week. I intend to have an update at least once a week until the election on June 25 if there are enough new polls to warrant such regular reports. I'm not sure how many polling companies will be working this race in May, but I fully expect multiple polls a week in June.

Massachusetts Senate race:Markey(D) vs. Gomez(R)

There are only a few elections this year, but I mean to cover the Senate and governor's races using the Confidence of Victory method, which takes polling data - percentages and size of sample - and turns it into probabilities of victory for both sides, or all three sides if a race has three truly competitive candidates, a rare occurrence in American politics.

In Massachusetts, there is a special election for the Senate seat vacated by John Kerry. It will be held on June 25.

Most recent poll: 7 May 2013
Polls taken within a week of the most recent: 4
Largest lead: 17% lead for Markey(D)
Smallest lead: 4% lead for Markey(D)
Confidence of Victory of the median poll: 97.4%

Markey has much greater name recognition than Gomez and Massachusetts is a generally blue state. The big lead is from the latest poll, but my system is interested in the median, not the most recent.

I do not think of this number as a prediction, but instead as a snapshot of the current position.  I'll report back at least once a week on this race, more often if it looks like its getting closer and there is enough polling data to track changes at a faster pace.