Posts by Dr. Eric Ostermeier
Cable Television News Election Forecasts
To whom are you turning to get your Election 2006 news? On cable television, the horserace coverage that dominated the summer season (e.g. the U.S. Senate races in Virginia and Connecticut) has, in recent weeks, been replaced by more generalized,…
Read MoreMN-02: Rowley Closes Gap
Coleen Rowley, the DFL candidate in Minnesota’s 2nd US House district, has closed her deficit to 2-term GOP incumbent John Kline from 20 to 8 points in less than three weeks, according to polls released by SurveyUSA in late…
Read MoreSplit Ticket Voting Revisited
I co-authored a report on Split Ticket Voting released today at the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance. The popular lore is that Americans and Minnesotans are sharply divided into Republican “red” and Democratic “blue.” Although the divisions…
Read MoreUpper Midwest US House Races Tighten in GOP Held Districts…But Is a Revolution Afoot?
A recent spate of polls tracking US House races in the Upper Midwest reflect what is perceived by most political analysts to be a nation-wide trend: GOP-held districts that were secure in 2004 now seem to be competitive or near…
Read MoreWho’s Looking On the Sunny Side of Life?
The Midwest…the heartland of America…where caustic coastal cynicism has not yet taken root and a hearty optimism about life in these United States still prevails. Syrupy, true, but that description about life in the Upper Midwest sounds like it might…
Read MoreMN: The Decline of Independents?
As previously mentioned at Smart Politics (October 2, 2006), Minnesota has led the Upper Midwest in successful third party candidacies for more than a decade. Third parties spring up for a number of reasons, not the least of which is…
Read MoreAbortion Policy: An Upper Midwestern Snapshot
In South Dakota a landmark petitioned referendum will be on the ballot this November, asking voters whether or not to uphold the recently signed State House Bill’s abortion ban. Mid-summer polling on the referendum—which does not provide exceptions for rape…
Read MoreBush Drag Not Affecting All Republicans
One of the greatest fears facing republican strategists in the 2006 election is that the decline in George W. Bush’s approval ratings during the past few years is going to drag fellow republican incumbents down with him. While not…
Read MoreUS House Redistricting: Iowa Gets Lowest Marks for Proportionality
In the coming year or so states will begin to outline plans for the redistricting process that will go into effect in 2012 after the 2010 Census results. One way to measure the ‘success’ of these processes is to…
Read MoreVoter Turnout Uncertain for 2006 Election
A handful of scandals in Washington during the past year as well as low approval ratings for Congress in general lead one to speculate whether voters will be turned off by politics and stay home in November, or motivated to—as…
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