Ohio incumbent Senator Mike DeWine's (R) poll numbers show his seat to be in potential jeopardy against Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown. This is according to a new Mason Dixon poll. While the poll shows them virtually tied, the unfavorable numbers for DeWine are souring against Brown's.
The key to this race is likely to be the votes of independents. In this poll, Brown leads among independents by a 52 percent to 33 percent margin.
The latest Mason Dixon poll of the Senate race in Montana shows Republican incumbent Conrad Burns trailing his Democratic opponent Jon Tester by a 47 percent to 40 percent margin. 3 percent support a third party candidate and 10 percent undecided. Margin of error is 3%. Montana is a traditionally Republican state.
MSNBC reports on a new Mason Dixon poll, the most highly regarded polling organization in the country, which shows incumbent Republican Senator George Allen losing huge ground to Democratic challenger Jim Webb. In July, Sen. Allen held a 16 point lead over Webb. Today, they are in a dead heat at 43% each.
This could become one of the 6 seats Democrats need to take control of the U.S. Senate.
The Washington Post reports internal polling has incumbent John Hostettler (R) trailing not only in the polls, but, significantly in fund raising as well. The challenger, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth (D) who is spending some of his larger fundraising on radio advertising, appears to gaining traction with those ads as he moves ahead in the polls for District 8.
This would may be one of the 15 seats Democrats are hoping for to take control of the House of Representatives.
A recent MSNBC/McClatchy poll finds the contest between Republican incumbent George Allen and Democrat James Webb tied with both men polling at 43%. This is a significant setback for the Republicans, who at one time saw Allen leading in the polls by as much as 16 percent.
History.
This initial group of folks who founded and grew Vote Out Incumbents Democracy came from a political discussion and debate web site known as WatchBlog founded and owned by Cameron Barrett.
David Remer, a writer and managing editor of WatchBlog, decided in October of 2005 to set up a website called Vote Out Incumbents Democracy and call it VOID for short. Remer's idea was to provide a place where bloggers and political junkies could congregate and discuss what is wrong with our system of government, provide news stories about how corrupt our system is, and discuss what can be done about it using the power of the vote against incumbents responsible for corrupt politics and ineffective government.
In addition, it was hoped that visitors would come to understand the power of the anti-incumbent vote and join ranks with millions of other voters to oust incompetent, irresponsible, and ineffective politicians in our U.S. Congress. Remer articulated the belief that our political process and governance could be cleaned up and restored to founding principles if elected officials could be made to realize their re-election depends on their official actions and how effective those actions are in solving our nation's problems and challenges.
Other participants at WatchBlog began to frequent the VOID site and asked about joining the effort. As a result, a volunteer staff was assembled to promote the VOID mission on the the voidnow.org web site and elsewhere on the internet through supportive web bloggers. Donations were solicited to help defray the costs of moving VOID from Remer's hosting account at PoliWatch.org, to its own web space, secure and transfer domain names for VOID, establish a PayPal account in VOID's name for donations, and other costs associated with spreading the VOID news and information.
As more donations and memberships began to come in, and emails of support from folks all around the country, the volunteers at VOID decided VOID was going to grow and needed a board of directors. Having accomplished that in Dec. 2005, the board decided agreed that since we were taking donations and contributions for political action, we would at some point become required to register with the federal government. The board researched the requirements and began preparing to file documents with the IRS and FEC as revenue amounts were accrued requiring registration. Early in 2006 we registered with the IRS and we hit the $1000 revenue milestone requiring our registration with the Federal Elections Commission.
In the summer of 2006, the directors put together a plan to develop local VOID chapters where supporters of VOID could work to effect VOID's mission at the local district levels. At this same time, we initiated discussions with other political organizations regarding coalitions amongst themselves to oust incumbents for their mutual benefit as advocates for better government and politics. Both of these projects are now underway.
VOID's Future
As of this writing, Oct. 2, 2006, we have had limited resources to effect significant changes in the outcome of November's mid-term elections. However, with the support continuing to grow, the volunteers and supporters of Vote Out Incumbents Democracy have every expectation of being able to wield some significant clout in the 2008 elections, affecting outcomes of some key district races. Our goal is to reduce the reelection rate in 2008 by at least 10%. A reduction of incumbent's reelections by 10% is what will be required to achieve national media coverage of our effect and to put remaining incumbents on notice, that they may be next to lose if positive changes in politics and governance are not achieved.
The VOID Directors and volunteer staff, can only guide and point the way. It is up to you, the American voters, to insure the success of VOID's mission with contributions and memberships to provide VOID with the supporter base and funding necessary to:
1) buy advertising in key election districts in 2008.
2) to vote in challengers and vote out incumbents in sufficient numbers to generate national attention to the Vote Out Incumbents movement.
3) to generate the kind of numbers of voters contacting their representatives when VOID puts out a 'call to action' notice which will compel action by our representatives for needed reforms.
It is our belief that positive changes in American politics and governance will not take place in one election cycle. But, will require a growing anti-incumbent movement over several election cycles as far out as 2014, to bring about the goals of forcing politicians to heed the needs of the nation and her citizen's ahead of, and before, the needs of wealthy campaign donors, special interest lobbyists, and personal greed. Therefore, as long as the annual numbers of supporters for VOID continue to grow, the VOID organization will continue to work and aid voters in restoring American politics and governance to what it should it have been all along.
It is hoped that VOID will spawn similar web sites and local groups around the country to spread the word about the anti-incumbent choice, which we believe so many eligible voters who don't register or vote, forget is available to them. The anti-incumbent vote can provide them the ability to have their voice heard in concert with thousands of others in their districts, of like mind.
Other Notes about VOID.
VOID accepts no sponsorship from any political party or candidates. VOID does not advocate for any political party. VOID's efforts and hopes partially rest on motivating the almost 50% of eligible voters who don't vote, to register and vote. We are not alone in this, as many other organizations are working on voter registration and poll turnout as well on a non-partisan basis.
Staff and guest writer editorials are the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the goals, motives, or, intentions of the VOID organization. Comments to articles on VOID in no way represent the views, or beliefs of the VOID organization or its volunteer staff.
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