A battleground district poll revealed by the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee to House Democrats earlier this week is very bad news for Colorado’s U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter.
According to Politico, the poll of swing districts showed a generic Democrat trailing a Republican challenger by six points and Democrats overall losing control of the House of Representatives.
The July poll commissioned by the DCCC and presented by Maloney last week showed a Democratic candidate falling behind a GOP candidate by 6 points in a generic poll in swing districts. The survey of 1,000 likely 2022 voters was conducted in more than four dozen congressional battleground districts and regions. […]
“The polling looked pretty dismal to me,” according to one Democratic member who attended the briefing, who addressed it candidly on condition of anonymity.
The poll has to be especially worrisome for Perlmutter given proposed changes Colorado’s 7th district by the Independent Redistricting Commission.
The proposed map would transform the 7th district’s partisan composition from a Democrat +9 district to a Republican +3 district.
We are willing to bet the generic partisanship of the districts polled by the DCCC are more favorable for the Democrats than the three point Republican registration advantage Perlmutter could face after redistricting.
The left’s primary obstacle in the poll is the economy, with only 42% of swing district voters approving of how Democrats are handling the issue.
That should come as little surprise given the drastic price increases Americans have seen on everything from food to gas this summer.
Last week, another national Democrat-aligned group called Build Back Together warned that a recent National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee ad on inflation was one of the most effective attacks on the issue to date.
“The NRCC produced one of the first inflation spots we’ve seen and it was one of the most powerful Republican ads to date,” according to the Democratic memo. “Notably, they did more damage with this ad than nearly any other conservative ad tested and they were able to do it in [15 seconds] instead of a typical [30 seconds].”
Perlmutter was one of 11 Democrats included in the digital buy placed by Republicans over the 4th of July.
“We will be aggressively pursuing every pathway to the majority, and that includes targeting vulnerable Colorado Democrats, like Ed Perlmutter,” NRCC spokesman Courtney Parella said at the time.
Beyond soaring prices throughout the economy, Perlmutter is also likely to face questions about his penchant for trading stocks that conveniently happen to fall under the jurisdiction of committees he sits on in Congress.
Perlmutter’s fundraising in the last quarter was also fairly mediocre, trailing fellow Democrat U.S. Reps. Jason Crow and Joe Neguse in cash on hand.
That is sure to raise a few eyebrows because neither Crow’s nor Neguse’s districts appear nearly as competitive as what Perlmutter could see in a revised 7th district.
Democrats like to call Perlmutter one of Colorado’s “best campaigners,” but the reality is the Arvada Democrat hasn’t faced a significant challenge in a number of years.
If the widespread fear among vulnerable House Democrats in D.C. is any indication, that’s all about to change in 2022.