Quinnipiac: Rubio +6, Ross +4, Portman +18 and McGinty +1

[SATW]

I'm confident that Richard Burr will emerge the winner on election night - Republicans who are questioning his campaigning abilities and his ability to win need to stay composed.

It's important to remember that Burr won a tightly contested race in 2004, one of the most expensive in the country at that time, against Erskine Bowles, 51% to 47%.

In 2010, he won by nearly 12% against a popular democrat figure, Sec. of State Elaine Marshall (who, in the 1990s,  stunned politicos by beating NASCAR legend Richard Petty in a competitive race and also went on to win re-election 2012 fairly easily despite losing by 12% to Burr).

Also, Ross is in fact too liberal from NC. The Old North State does seem to be trending to the dems, but it is no where near loving ACLU leftists like Ross. It prefers democrats like Kay Hagan, and Roy Cooper and Elaine Marshall  - all of who are moderately liberal, with a pragmatic streak (and a noticeably present southern charm).

Also, Burr is hardly an extremist senator. He voted in favor of federaling funding for embryonic stem cell research and also supporting repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. His comments about Hillary are unfortunate, but this is not a Senator known for controversy.

I'll admit that Burr could  lose, and lose by 2-3%, for the following reasons:
- Burr is not as sharp as he was in 2010 and 2004.
- Burr won big in 2010 - a heavily GOP year and in 2004 - also a GOP year - and thus has never faced an election climate that is overly hostile to the GOP.
- Burr has been a king of fundraising throughout his career but, noticeably, has not done as well in '16 as he had in the past.
- Like Kay Hagan in 2008, Deborah Ross came out of nowhere and is an outsider (especially compared to Burr, whose been in Washington longer than many of our posters have been alive) and has a lot of upswing on her side.
- Burr, despite being around since the 1990's (1995-2005 in the House; 2005-Current in Sen) is a virtual unknown in the state, which is not a positive this late in the campaign.

That being said, I still think he will win.