The new Senate race poll that I posted about this morning, which put Rossi up 50-48 and declared a "severe" enthusiasm gap in Washington State, is drawing a quick response from top Democrats and causing one local pollster to come out swinging for his own recent survey, which produced a very different winner and sense of this state's enthusiasm gap.
In a leak to Greg Sargent of the Washington Post, Democrats have offered their own internal poll, which puts Murray up by seven points:
The new DSCC poll—conducted by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz—and sent my way—shows Murray ahead 51-44 among likely voters. It also finds Murray is regarded favorably, 50-48, while Rossi's favorability numbers are reversed, 45-51.
And Matt Barreto, the University of Washington pollster who oversaw the most recent Washington Poll (Murray 49, Rossi 45, with Democrats in this state more energized than Tea Party loyalists), tells me that Public Policy Polling's finding of a "severe" enthusiasm gap in Washington State is way off. Barreto writes:
PPP is based in North Carolina. I doubt they know anything about Washington state. They do all their calls by robocall (automated recorded voice)—no good. It doesn't look like they actually asked an enthusiasm question, they surmised by asking people how much they support Obama by, which is idiotic, because it doesn't speak to voter intention or enthusiasm. If they post results of a voter enthusiasm question, broken out by party identification, that would be worthwhile, but otherwise, they are trying to come up with a reason for their faulty data.
Still, Nate Silver is calling the PPP poll "a big deal for Rossi" and last week announced that Washington is the New Florida. We'll find out who's right tomorrow night—unless we don't, in which case we may be well on the way to proving Mr. Silver correct.