We haven’t started to see a lot of polling in NY-25, NY-26, or NY-29, but when we do, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on what source the poll comes from. Pollster.com has a must read piece about how different pollsters lean Republican or lean Democrat in general election trial heats. This pictures sums it up pretty well:

One thing that’s interesting is that the two tracking polls (Gallup and Rasumssen) both lean heavily Republican. The methodology for tracking polls (which are conducted every day) is, I believe, slightly different from regular polls (in a regular poll, a house is called on three consecutive days so as to reduce nonresponse bias).

I doubt we’ll see any tracking polls for local races, but it will be interesting to keep track of the local polling see this fall and how it corresponds to final results.

Related posts:

1. Charlie Cook moves NY-29 to “toss up”
2. This is how losers talk
3. When is Polling not polling?
4. And just what does your internal polling show, Mr. Van Wicklin?
5. People-Powered Polling