Battle for the 81st Assembly District

A while back I asked if anyone thought Rep. Dave Travis might lose his election. No one ventured any guesses here so I'm going to answer my own question now.

I think Travis could lose tomorrow.

I didn't think that until this week and I certainly don't count him out by any stretch. It's really hard to beat an incumbent. However, his opponent Henry Sanders has run a textbook campaign and could win.

On Saturday alone I received a nice large mailer from the Sanders campaign, someone left a card for him at my door, I received two emails about him and Sanders himself stopped by a festival that I was volunteering at that day. Four hits in one day. And that is on top of the fact that I have received twice as much mail from Sanders and phone calls to boot.

The Travis/Sanders election reminds me of the last two Madison School Board races that saw two incumbents get beat by aggressive newcomers.

If Travis is going to win, he better have one heck of a get-out-the-vote program scheduled for tomorrow.

UPDATE: Sanders just came to my door despite the fact that I told someone calling for him today that I won't be voting for him and we have a Travis sign in our yard. He said he had seen the sign but wanted to tell us why he is running. Some might call that a wasted effort, but it's the last day and you know someone with a sign in their yard is going to vote so it could be worth the effort. Personal visits from candidates can make the difference to a lot of voters. The man is tenacious and could squeak by Travis tomorrow.