KS-02
Posted on June 21st, 2008
by Daniel Larison |
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Kansas’ 2nd District may be turning into a safe seat for the Democrats, according to this result. Generic approval for Congress is an abysmal 12% these days, but the personal job approval ratings for new Democratic incumbents appear to be very good, and we all know that the generic Congressional ballot is overwhelmingly pro-Democratic. As far as Nancy Boyda is concerned, there does not seem to be voter’s remorse over her 2006 election, which supports my earlier guess that her seat was not as vulnerable as the race rankings suggest that it is. Pretty clearly, contrary to what I was saying earlier this month, her endorsement of Obama has had no meaningful effect on support for her in the district. KS-02 ought to be one of the GOP’s best chances to retake a seat lost in the midterms, and that possibility seems more remote by the day. Things may change once the Republicans settle on a nominee, but there is no reason right now to think that a Boyda-Ryun rematch would yield a different result.
P.S. In North Carolina, the Democrat Kissell appears to be doing well in the Kissell-Hayes rematch in NC-08.
Filed under: politics












[…] One small problem that I see with Politico’s analysis is that it seems to pay no attention to the opinions of the actual people in Kansas’ 2nd District. At last glance, Boyda was leading former Rep. Jim Ryun by 17 points in a poll last month (and she was leading her alternative Republican challenger by 30), and her approval numbers were quite good. As Reid Wilson reported: 68% of respondents in her district said she was doing an excellent or good job, while just 21% had a negative impression of her job performance. 54% said they would definitely or probably vote to re-elect Boyda, while just 35% said they would give someone else a shot. […]