Chabot, Tiberi, and Stivers have commanding leads

A relatively new polling firm, We Ask America, is out with new polls on three key congressional races in Ohio.

• Steve Chabot is up 51% to 39% with a 26% edge among Independents.
• Steve Stivers is up 46% to 41% while leading Independents 44-32%.
• And Pat Tiberi shows up the anti-incumbent argument by leading 51-34% with a 15 point buffer among Independents.

If these numbers hold up, many on the Democratic side are going to wonder why the DCCC wasted so many resources on races that were clearly so far outside the possibility of victory.

After a little research into their background it seems We Ask America, a new automated polling firm out of Illinois, seems to have a partisan Republican background. That said, it doesn't mean their polls shouldn't be considered legitimate. After all, Public Policy Polling (PPP) is a Democratic firm and they are considered among the top pollsters. Unfortunately, since they are new, We Ask America doesn't have much material to back up their accuracy.

Back in March, WAA had Democrat Mark Critz leading Republican Tim Burns by 39-35% with 26% undecided. About two months later, Critz beat Burns 52-45. If they were overtly partisan, this race is easily one where they could have skewed the results. Instead, it turns out they were pretty darn accurate.

We'll need to see how November turns out to see just how good WAA is as a polling firm, but with the Critz result they're 1 for 1. New polling firms have to start somewhere. Let's see how they do.