Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Presidential Forecast - 7/29 - The Dog Days

WE'VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

Obama leads 303-235, no change over the last two forecasts. With Rasmussen moving Ohio from Obama-Lean to Tossup, and 538 moving it the exact opposite way, there's not much in the way of trends.

Please also check out our Senate Forecast and House Forecast.

Map showing consensus of sources. This table will show a state Blue or Red if a majority of the sources show it Leaning or Solid for that candidate. NC moves from Tossup to McCain.

<p><strong>><a href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/electoral-college/'>Electoral College Prediction Map</a></strong> - Predict the winner of the general election. Use the map to experiment with winning combinations of states. Save your prediction and send it to friends.</p>

Note: Only 3 states have shifted categories on the consensus map and not shifted back:
6/18 FL: McCain -> Tossup
7/6 MT: McCain -> Tossup
7/9 NM: Tossup -> Obama

Of special note is NC, which has shifted 4 times between McCain and Tossup.

Unanimous solid states, not shown in the table below:
Solid Obama: CA, CT, DC, HI, IL, MA, MD, NY, RI, VT - 150 EVs.
Solid McCain: AL, ID, KS, KY, NE, OK, TN, UT, WY - 58 EVs.

The sources are sorted by each projection's estimate of Obama's Electoral Votes (Algorithm at bottom). The states are sorted by the number of electoral votes.

DCW Presidential Forecast
State
EVsOpen LeftElect. Proj.EV.
com
FHQ538
.com
RCPRMCNNNBC.…
Date

7/29.7/29.7/29.7/27.7/29.7/29.7/22.7/24.7/9.
Obama-Strong (O)

236190197175238153210153168
Obama-Lean (OL)

287049475585636842
Tossup (T)

1021071181592113738128139
McCain-Lean (ML)

859591667064626453
McCain-Strong (M)

8776839115499165125136
Obama Total

264260246222293238273221210
McCain Total

172171174157224163227189189
Obama Est.

326319313305303302292284282

Texas
34MLMLMLMLMMLMMM
Florida
27TTTTMLTMLTT
Pennsylvania
21OOLOLTOOLOLOLT
Ohio
20TTMLTOLTTTT
Michigan
17OLOLTTOLTOLTT
Georgia
15MLMLMLMLMMLMMLML
New Jersey
15OOOOLOOLOOLOL
N. Carolina
15MLTTTMLTMLMLML
Virginia
13TTTTTTTTT
Indiana
11TMLTTMLTMMLML
Missouri
11TTTTMLTMLTT
Washington
11OOOOOOLOOLO
Arizona
10MLMLMMMMMMM
Minnesota
10OOLOLOOOLOTOL
Wisconsin
10OOLOOLOOLOOLOL
Colorado
9TTTTOLTOLTT
Louisiana
9MMMMMMMMLM
S. Carolina
8MLMLMLMLMMMMM
Iowa
7OLOLOOLOOLOLTT
Oregon
7OOOLOLOOLOOLOL
Arkansas
6MMLMMMMMMLM
Mississippi
6MMMLMLMMLMMM
Nevada
5TTTTTTTTT
New Mexico
5OOLOLOLOLTOLTT
W. Virginia
5MMLMLMMMMMLM
Maine
4OOOOOOLOOLO
NH
4OLTTTOLTOLTT
Alaska
3MLMMLMLMMLMMML
Delaware
3OOOLOLOOOOO
Montana
3TTOLTTMLMLMLML
N. Dakota
3TMLTTMLMLMLMML
S. Dakota
3MMLTMMLMMLMML


Open LeftElect. Proj.EV.
com
FHQ538
.com
RCPRMCNNNBC.…























































Notes:
538 - FiveThirtyEight - Safe and Likely mapped to Strong (O or M), Lean to Lean (OL or ML), Tossup to Tossup (T)
CNN - Safe mapped to Strong, Leaning to Lean, Tossup to Tossup
Elect. Proj. - Election Projection - Solid and Strong mapped to Strong, Moderate to Lean, Weak to Tossup
EV.com - Electoral-Vote.com - Strong mapped to Strong, Weak to Lean, Barely and Tossup to Tossup
FHQ -
FrontLoading HQ - Solid mapped to Strong, Lean to Lean, Tossup (Dem and Rep) to Tossup
NBC - Base mapped to strong,
Lean to Lean, Tossup to Tossup
OpenLeft - Solid mapped to Strong, Lean to Lean, Tossup to Tossup
RM - Rasmussen - Safe and Likely mapped to Strong, Lean to Lean, Tossup to Tossup
RCP - RealClearPolitics - Solid mapped to Strong, Lean to Lean, Tossup to Tossup

Here are the states that span 3 categories.

  • Indiana: 4 at Tossup, Rasmussen at McCain-Strong.
  • Iowa: Two at Obama-Strong, NBC and CNN still calling it a Tossup. Only July poll shows Obama up by 10.
  • Minnesota : 4 at Obama-Strong, CNN at Tossup
  • Montana : EV.com at Obama-Lean, 4 at McCain-Lean. EV.com will exactly follow the latest poll if no other poll has been published within the week.
  • New Mexico (NEW): 1 Projection at Obama-Strong, 3 at Tossup. This used to be on the 3 category list, but spanning Obama-Lean to McCain-Lean.
  • North Dakota - CNN at McCain Strong, 3 at Tossup.
  • Ohio (NEW): EV.com at McCain-Lean, 538 at Obama-Lean, everyone else at Tossup
  • Pennsylvania: OpenLeft at Obama-Strong, 2 at Tossup.
  • South Carolina: 1 Tossup, 5 McCain-Strong
  • South Dakota: EV.com at Tossup, 4 at McCain-Strong
We're purposely ignoring Maine and Nebraska CD splits for now to keep things simple. We'll add them in later if we need to.

The overall projection is just a straight average of each projections' estimate of Electoral Votes (EVs) for each candidate. For each projection other than FiveThirtyEight, we give Obama 100% of the EVs in a state that is solid for him, 80% of the EVs for a leaner, 50% of the EVs for a Tossup, 20% of the EVs for state that is McCain-Lean, and 0% of the Solid McCain states. Exact opposite for McCain. For FiveThirtyEight, we use their overall estimate of Obama's EVs, not the state-by-state categories.