Election Trends

Many Congressional and state governor races are tight this year! Political news organizations that follow the trends seem to make forecasts daily. If you are a "political junkie" and want to follow who is up and who is down, visit Google's new website, 2010 U.S. Election Ratings. Here is a description from the website:

How will the balance of power between Democrats and Republicans shake out after the elections on November 2? Many political experts and news sources track and revise predictions, but until now it’s been hard to compare perspectives. We’ve worked with some of the top names in politics — Sabato, Cook, Rothenberg, CQ-Roll Call, and RealClearPolitics — to make it easier to track the daily changes in the political landscape.

The site's US map has colors ranging from deep to light blue or red (Democrat or Republican, respectively) and gold for "pure toss up." If you are interested in a particular state's House of Representative races, just select that state from the drop-down menu. The five political sources are listed so you can see how each source rates a particular race.

And what are these political organizations? Satato's Crystal Ball comes from the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. The Cook Political Report is connected with the National Journal. The Rothenberg Political Report is an independent newsletter. CQ Politics is a publication of CQ-Roll Call Group, which focuses on national legislation and other Congressional activity. RealClearPolitics is an independent political website. The five are nonpartisan and each emphasizes its neutrality in making predictions.