Bush Strength Seen In New Data

Polidata compiles election results by Congressional district. That seems easy enough, but since results are assembled by electoral district, it takes months for Polidata to complete their work -- and their just-finished work on the 2004 election is good news for the GOP.

Read this lengthy WSJ piece by John Fund (h/t Real Clear Politics) for a good analysis, then mine into this stuff from Polidata's home page.

Two items from Fund's piece as whistle whetters:

Only five Republican House members currently sit in districts where Mr. Bush won less than 47% of the presidential vote last year: two in Connecticut, two in Iowa and one in Delaware. But 31 House Democrats represent districts where John Kerry won less than 47%. That means Republicans have many more opportunities to pick up seats in favorable political terrain as Democratic members leave the House. No one expects Democrats to hold the seat of Ike Skelton of Missouri when he leaves office; President Bush won 64% of his district's votes. Ditto for the district of Gene Taylor of Mississippi, where Mr. Bush won 68%.

And, in one of my home-county districts, as part of an encouraging discussion of GOP inroads into Hispanic districts:

In 2000 Mr. Bush lost what is now the Orange County district held by Democrat Loretta Sanchez by 15% of the vote. In 2004, Mr. Bush outpolled Mr. Kerry in Ms. Sanchez's district.