The past few weeks, we've been focusing here at RK almost exclusively on the Virginia 2007 General Assembly elections. Now that those are successfully concluded, it's time to catch up a bit on the 2008 presidential contest. Here's the latest polling from Rasmussen Reports and others:*Democrats hold a 46%-35% edge over Republicans in the "generic" Congressional ballot. "It's the fourth straight month Nancy Pelosi's Party has enjoyed a double-digit lead."
*Mitt Romney has widened his lead in New Hampshire. Romney holds a 15-point lead (32%-17%) over Rudy "Pat Robertson Seal of Approval" Giuliani and a 16-point (32%-16%) lead over John "Comeback Kid?" McCain.
*On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton continues to lead in New Hampshire, but her "current level of support is the lowest measured in any Rasmussen Reports poll this year." Clinton registers 34% support in the Rasmussen poll, followed by Barack Obama (24%), John Edwards (15%) and Bill Richardson (8%).
*Rasmussen's latest poll from Iowa was in mid-October. At the time, Clinton led on the Democratic side over Edwards (33%-22%) and Obama (33%-21%). On the Republican side, Mitt Romney led with 25%, followed by Fred Thompson (19%), Mike Huckabee (18%) and Rudy Giuliani (13%).
*The latest Zogby poll indicates a tightening race in Iowa. According to Zogby (11/6), on the Democratic side it's Clinton with 28%, Obama with 25%, and Edwards with 21%. When "second choices" are factored in -- Zogby calls this "a critical wrinkle in the Iowa caucuses" -- the three leading Democrats are essentially in a 3-way tie (Clinton at 30%, Obama at 29%, Edwards at 27%).
*On the Republican side, Zogby's latest (11/7) Iowa poll has Romney with 31%, Huckabee with 15%, Giuliani with 11%, and Fred Thompson with 10%.
*According to Robert Novak, Fred Thompson's comments about abortion on Meet the Press this past Sunday "sent e-mails flying across the country reflecting astonishment and rage by pro-life Republicans who had turned to Thompson as their best presidential bet for 2008."
*Oh yeah, I've got to mention that Ron Paul brought in $4.2 million in 24 hours on November 5. That's amazing by any standard; in comparison, Jim Webb raised $4.2 million online in the entire U.S. Senate campaign last year.
*Chris Cillizza's latest Senate "line" has Democrats possibly picking up seats in Virginia (Mark Warner), New Hampshire (Jeanne Shaheen), Colorado (Mark Udall), New Mexico (nominee undecided), Oregon (Jeff Merkley or Steve Novick), and Maine (Tom Allen), Minnesota (Al Franken or Mike Ciresi). The only endangered Democrat at the moment appears to be Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, but Republicans haven't settled on a candidate (one possibility is State Treasurer John Kennedy). We'll see what happens.