Freedom Line Blog

Over the weekend, we pointed out how the nomination of Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell in Delaware isn’t enough to dash Republican hopes for a takeover of the Senate even if she goes down to defeat. The reason? The Senate races in Connecticut and West Virginia — under-reported by the mainstream media — are presenting unforeseen pickup opportunities for the GOP.

Only a few days later, Public Policy Polling is reporting that Republican John Raese enjoys a three-point lead (46-43) over popular Democratic Governor Joe Manchin in West Virginia. Check out these truly astonishing results:

Manchin is the second most popular Governor PPP has polled on all year, behind only Bobby Jindal, with a 59/32 approval spread. He breaks almost even with Republicans as 42% of them approve of the job he’s doing with just 44% disapproving. In a highly polarized political climate the list of politicians with that kind of crossover popularity is very short.

At the same time West Virginians couldn’t be much more down on national Democrats. Barack Obama’s approval rating in the state is just 30% with 64% of voters disapproving of him. Even within his own party barely half of voters, at 51%, like the job he’s doing. Support from Republicans (91% disapproval) and independents (73% disapproval) is pretty much nonexistent.

Given the President’s high degree of unpopularity it’s no surprise that 54% of voters in the state want Republicans to control the next Congress with just 37% wanting the Democrats to stay in charge. GOP voters (91-3) and independents (66-21) are pretty universal in their desire for a Republican majority and even 25% of Democrats say they’d like to see a change.