Unexpected lines in urban districts. Also in red states. A reader writes:
Following up on your post this morning on "The Democrats' Machine", I thought I'd give you a quick report from New Jersey's 2nd District (southeastern part of the state), where we basically have only a House race and a miscellaneous (read: boring) ballot issue to contend with. Though it's a virtual lock that our sitting congressman, Republican Frank LoBiondo, will cruise to re-election (Nate Silver at Fivethirtyeight puts his chances for victory at 100%), the local Democratic machine has been remarkably active in recent days.
In fact, the four phone calls (not robocalls, but from staff at local Democratic headquarters) we've received in the last two days are likely more than we got during the entire 2008 campaign, and the visit this morning from two well-dressed young men from the county Democratic Party was, as far as I can recall, unprecedented in my neighborhood. I'm not sure what this all means, if anything. I have no doubt that, come tomorrow, Republicans will have made big gains across the country. But the Democrat Party in these parts, even without any real hope for electoral success today, is really putting forth an effort.