Thanks Hotline:
A trip through The Hotline archives for the weekend before the '94 election shows the generic ballot as follows:
ABC: --- 47-46 in favor of the Dems (a 6-point swing in the last week toward the Dems)
Gallup: --- 51-44 for the GOP (a 4 point swing in the last week toward the Dems)
NBC: --- 46-35 for the GOP (a 2 point swing in the two weeks toward the Dems)
Times Mirror: --- 48-43 for the GOP (a 7 point swing in the last month toward the Dems)
Also, today's Fox and CNN polls show double digits leads for the Dems, so it looks like the Pew, WaPo, and Gallup polls picked up some weekend distortion. Or not. Generic ballots, as you can see above, are notoriously inaccurate and unpredictable. Their most important function is to create a sense of momentum that the media can report on. In this election particularly, preferences will interact with gerrymandering, GOTV operations, money, ads, voter suppression, robocalling, weather, child care, and all the other sundry elements of a national vote that don't show so easily in the polls. So don't get complacent. Hell, stay scared. And go over to DoMoreThanVote.org to help out.
