Better later than never, for MI-08 Democratic challenger Bob Alexander. Although the DCCC focused early on races in the neighboring 7th and 9th Districts, Alexander's shoestring operation is going great guns in the home stretch.
Two polls have confirmed that the race is basically a dead heat, and Rogers' own polling data must confirm this, since the MI GOP has mounted two negative attacks on Alexander in the past 10 days. The first volley came in the form of a telephone push poll, the second was a mailer focusing on bogus claims that Alexander wanted to provide national health care to 900 illegal aliens. These are clearly the defensive maneuvers of a worried incumbent.
After a long, tightly-budgeted campaign, contributions are coming in for Alexander, but it's late in the game. A TV ad is ready to go, and an infusion of cash would let Alexander make media buys to increase his name recognition in a district that the incumbent gerrymandered to be heavily Republican. Alexander can absolutely win this race; it's just a question of whether the cash comes in time.
There may be no such thing as a "crucial" endorsement, but this one from the Anniston Star supporting Democrat Josh Segall's bid for Alabama's Third District is big as far as they go.
Calhoun County, in which Anniston is located, is the second largest county in the district, and the Anniston Star is one of the most read newspapers. Not only that, but this is the hometown newspaper of Segall's opponent Mike Rogers. In the three elections since Rogers first ran for Congress, the paper has never endorsed anyone else.
Notably, the paper downplays the strong affirmative case that Segall has made in support of his candidacy. As Rogers himself has conceded, Josh is a "young, zealous advocate who really wants to do a good job" (see 16:09) for the district. But not all endorsements can be perfect, and in this race, the indictment of Rogers' record is just too long to ignore and takes up just too much space.
This is a race where your contributions can make a difference. Check out this link to join the cause: https://secure.actblue.com/con...
Want to help defeat conservatism right in the heart of Red America? How about Alabama, Heart of Dixie, where 29 year old attorney Josh Segall is the latest addition to the DCCC's Red to Blue list. If elected, Segall won't be just another Blue Dog Democrat -- he's a true progressive, a better Democrat in a place where merely more Democrats would be welcome.
The Democratic party can and should take back Alabama's 3rd District this year. The seat was held by a Democrat from 1875 until the 1996 election when Glen Browder retired and (now governor) Bob Riley won election to Congress as a moderate Republican. It was an open seat in 2002, a terrible year for Southern Democrats. The DCCC pulled out of the race late and Joe Turnham was completely off the air for a full two weeks before election day. He lost by only 3800 votes. It's kind of poetic justice that the DCCC is stepping in to help Segall -- late, but not too late to make a critical difference in the race.
Based on a Sept 30- Oct 1 poll by Capital Survey Research , Mike Rogers leads Josh Segall 44.9 % to 36.9%. Rogers got 212 votes while Segall got 171 votes. And 88 were still undecided.
I've been told from a couple of reliable folks that Segall is polling with African Americans right at 70%. If you move that number to a more realistic 95% based on past election data and the high number of African Americans that will likely vote straight ticket this cycle you get a totally different picture.
We know that 32% of the 471 sample are African Americans which equates to 151 voters.
So instead of Segall getting 106 votes from African Americans he would get 143 based on getting 95%. So let's take 7 from Rogers (18.9%) and 30 from the undecided voters (81%) and not change any other variables. We would think it would be more likely that those African Americans coming over to Segall would be from the undecided votes rather than from the Rogers voters.
Rogers would have 205 votes 43.5%
Segall would have 208 votes 44.2%
and we would have 58 undecided voters 12.3%
Even if you move the number down to 85% to 90% of the African American Voters going Segall's way, this race is still within just a couple of points. We could certainly expect that even at the 85-90% the sheer numbers of African American turnout could be high enough to make up the difference based on registration numbers and the Obama factor.
A Capital Survey Research (Gerald Johnson) poll has Mike Rogers leading Josh Segall 44.9 % to 36.4 %. 18.7% of people polled remain undecided. The polling sample was 471 people taken Sep.30-Oct. 1, 2008
with a margin error of +/-4.5%.
Josh Segall
