Obama Urges Massachusetts Democrats to Turn Out for Markey’s Senate Bid

[Purveyor]

BOSTON — With less than two weeks before Massachusetts voters go to the polls to elect a new senator, President Obama campaigned here on Wednesday to try to stir up enthusiasm for Representative Edward J. Markey.

“I need Ed Markey in the United States Senate,” Mr. Obama declared to a cheering crowd of a few thousand people at Roxbury Community College. He said Mr. Markey would “carry on the legacy of John Kerry and Ted Kennedy” and “be my partner.” The special election is to fill the seat of Mr. Kerry, who stepped down this year to become Mr. Obama’s secretary of state.

Mr. Markey, a Democrat, is leading his Republican opponent, Gabriel Gomez, in the polls by about seven percentage points, within the margin of sampling error of the two latest polls. While that may seem a lot for Mr. Gomez to make up in a short time, it also seems surprisingly small for Mr. Markey, given the state’s overwhelming history of sending Democrats to Washington.

Internal Democratic polls suggest that Mr. Markey’s lead is actually wider — as much as 10 or 12 points, one insider said. But the Markey campaign is happy to leave the impression that the race is closer to prod donors to open their wallets and keep enthusiasm from flagging.

Sarah Benzing, the Markey campaign manager, sent out her latest fund-raising plea on Wednesday and referred to a poll that showed the race neck and neck. In appealing for $100,000 by midnight, she wrote, “As long as we keep up our grass-roots power, we will come out ahead.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/us/politics/obama-urges-massachusetts-democrats-to-turn-out-for-markeys-senate-bid.html?_r=0

[Mass]

1. Since when a poll when you win by 7 within the MOE? (MOE of these polls is 4)

This is poor reporting. It does not hurt Markey who is fundraising on the supposed closeness of the race anyway, but this shows how silly these reporting can get.

In addition, it is silly to be surprised Markey is only 7. This is more or less the advantage Patrick had in 2010 which was not a presidential election or Warren last year. It seems that this person does not know what she is talking about, or that she wants to write according to a preset script.

Anyway, go and vote. It is a special election and the worse we could do would be to be complacent.

[graham4anything]

2. Special elections are very tricky...always best to assume nothing and make sure

make sure every single person votes.
Polls have been horrible the last few years and better to say it is close and win by a lot, than to think its a landslide
and lose by three points.

This seat and the NJ seat can go far in who controls the senate after the 2014.
Because both these seats were never expected to ever be republican ones.