Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

April 10, 2009

The New Partisan Voting Index

Charlie Cook released the lastest Partisan Voting Index (PVI) based on results from last fall's elections. The index is an attempt to find an objective measurement of each congressional district that allows comparisons between states and districts.

For instance, this chart ranks each congressional district from the most Republican (Spencer Bachus's AL-06 at R+29) to the most Democratic (Jose Serrano's NY-16 at D+41).

Key finding from the re-crunched data: There are far fewer swing districts today than there were in the 1990s and Democrats now hold most of them -- 34 of the 50 most potentially competitive districts (those that fall in the R+2 to D+2 category).

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Taegan D. Goddard is the creator of Political Wire, a political column updated around the clock with the most interesting news, buzz and commentary.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

This is a personal site and does not necessarily reflect the views of any company, political campaign or advocacy group.

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