About Election Advantage

Updated (7/12/10)

First of all, just a little about me: I am a 24-year-old high school math teacher in the state of Maryland. I first became interested in politics, as many did, during the buildup to the 2000 election, but it was really the 2004 election that got me following politics on a daily basis. During the 2006 midterms, I became more interested in downballot races, following races for Senator, Governor, and eventually for the House, in the process learning more and more about the members of Congress and Governors, as well as more about the voting patterns of all the states, counties, and districts across the country. At the beginning of 2007 I started the Election Advantage website for the 2008 elections. I covered in great detail the race for President as well as the downticket races, posting polls, news, and rankings. All of the old posts can be found in the archives at the bottom of the menu on the left side of the page. I am proud of my 2008 track record: I called 48/50 (well 49/51 if you count DC) of the states right in the Presidential election (Obama's wins in IN & NC really surprised me), 35/35 right in the Senate (as a result of Franken apparently winning the recount in MN), 10/11 for Governor (Obama's cottails were too strong for McCrory to win in NC), and 422/435 in the House (most were no-brainers, true).

I take great pride in ElectionAdvantage, but 3 things in particular are important to me: I try to keep the analysis as nonpartisan as possible, and in the two years since I started this site I have not revealed my own political leanings; I try to make all of the information as accurate as possible (although visitors have to correct my mistakes more often than I would like), and I try to go into as much detail in as many races as possible. My plan for the site is fairly similar as it was for the last cycle: I will be posting background information about all of the races for Senator, Governor, and House during the coming months, starting this week, and once that is completed I will start posting news and polls on a day-to-day basis.

There are a few features of the site I would like to make you aware of: the Ratings Tables at the top left of the page, where you can easily find the most up-to-date ratings for every race, the Senate and Governor rankings, where you can find which races are most likely to change party control, my 435-House race coverage, which will begin at the end of the year, and most importantly, the Comments Corner, where I invite my readers to post their thoughts about the site and ways the format of the site could be improved. I look forward to covering all of these races in the coming weeks and months, and invite you to check in to the site for updates and to participate with your own comments for the individual posts.

If you have any questions or comments about the blog or any specific topic, please feel free to e-mail me at  mattmizyankees@yahoo.com and I'll get back to you.

Thank you for reading and have a great start to the new year!

Matt