79 in 80

Chance the Democrat wins (98.6%)

1 in 80

Chance the Republican wins (1.4%)

Candidate

Forecasted vote share

Chance of winning

Josh Gottheimer (D)Incumbent
57.3
Chance of winning:79 in 80
(98.6%)
Forecasted vote share:57.3 (low: 52.2, high: 62.3)
John J. McCann Jr. (R)
39.5
Chance of winning:1 in 80
(1.4%)
Forecasted vote share:39.5 (low: 34.5, high: 44.5)
Other candidates
3.2
Chance of winning:<1 in 100
(<0.1%)
Forecasted vote share:3.2 (low: 1.1, high: 5.7)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
us_map2See the national overview
Forecasted turnout
Our model expects 278,000 out of an estimated 543,000 eligible voters to cast a ballot — that's 51.2%
51.2%
0Median90% of districts fall in this range100%
Partisan lean
NJ-5 is 3.7 points more Republican than the nation overall
D+75D+50D+25EVENR+25R+50R+75D+75D+50D+25EVENR+25R+50R+75R+3.7

# What goes into the
icon_classic_2
classic forecast in the New Jersey 5th

The Classic version of our model projects a race’s outcome by taking a weighted average of polls of a district (if available), polls of similar districts (CANTOR) and non-polling factors (fundamentals). It is then reverted toward a mean based on long-term trends in midterms and presidential approval ratings.

  • D+12.0

    Adjusted polls

  • D+13.6

    CANTOR

  • D+22.2

    Fundamentals

  • D+15.9

    Experts

  • D+12.8

    icon_lite_2

    Lite

  • D+17.8

    icon_classic_2

    Classic

  • D+17.1

    icon_deluxe_2

    Deluxe

  • <0.1

  • <0.1

Historical adjustment

Key

More weight

Less

#Latest polls

We've collected two polls for the New Jersey 5th. We’re adjusting poll results in three ways: Polls of registered voters or all adults are adjusted to a likely-voter basis; older polls are adjusted based on shifts in the generic congressional ballot since the poll was conducted; and polls are adjusted for house effects (the tendency for a firm’s polls to lean toward Democrats or Republicans). Polls with larger sample sizes and those conducted by higher-quality polling agencies are given more weight, as are more recent polls.

Adjustments
dates pollster sample weight
Gottheimer
Jr.
margin likely voter Time-line House effects Adjusted margin
Oct. 13-15
10/13-15
McLaughlin & Associates
R
400 LV
0.61
47% 38% D+9.0 <0.1 6.7 D+15.7
Aug. 9-12
8/9-12
Tel Opinion Research
R
400 RV
0.25
36% 39% R+3.0 0.2 0.5 8.5 D+5.8
Weighted averageD+12.0

Key

A = adults

RV = Registered voters

V = voters

LV = likely voters

R
D

= partisan poll

Our latest coverage

#Similar districts and CANTOR

Our district similarity scores are based on demographic, geographic and political characteristics; if two districts have a score of 100, it means they are perfectly identical. These scores inform a system we use — CANTOR, or Congressional Algorithm using Neighboring Typologies to Optimize Regression — to infer what polling would say in unpolled or lightly polled districts, given what it says in similar districts.

Districts most similar to the New Jersey 5th
Sim. score Polling avg.
1 NJ-7 82 D+5.4
2 NJ-11 72 D+8.0
3 NY-3 67
4 CT-5 65
5 NJ-3 65 D+0.9
6 PA-1 62 D+0.5
7 PA-6 61
8 NY-1 60 R+11.7
9 NY-18 60
10 CT-4 59
NJ-5NJ-5keyLESS SIMILARMORE SIMILAR

#The “fundamentals”

The Classic and Deluxe versions of our model use several non-polling factors to forecast the vote share margin in each district.

Factor Impact Explanation
Incumbency
3.1
Josh Gottheimer has been elected to 1 term. Congress has only a 20.1% approval rating, reducing the incumbency advantage.
District partisanship
1.3
NJ-5 is 3.7 percentage points more Republican-leaning than the country overall, based on how it has voted in recent presidential and state legislative elections. It voted for Trump in 2016 and Romney in 2012.
Incumbent's margin in last election
5.0
Gottheimer won by 4.4 percentage points in 2016, defeating an incumbent.
Generic ballot
6.7
Democrats lead by an average of 8.6 percentage points in polls of the generic congressional ballot.
Fundraising
10.7
As of Oct. 17, Gottheimer had raised $4,800,000 in individual contributions (94% of all such contributions to the major-party candidates); John McCann had raised $317,000 (6%).
Incumbent's voting record in Congress
0.1
Gottheimer has voted with Democrats 78% of the time in roll-call votes in recent sessions of Congress.
Challenger experience
1.9
McCann has held elected office before. (So has Gottheimer, but this is accounted for in our incumbency calculation.)
Scandals
0.0
Neither candidate is involved in a scandal.
Total
D+22.2

#Expert ratings

The Deluxe version of our model calculates an implied margin for each race based on expert race ratings from The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections and Sabato's Crystal Ball; it then adjusts that margin toward its estimate of the national political environment.

Equivalent Margin
Expert Rating Raw Adjusted
Cook Political Report
Likely D
D+12.1 D+12.7
Inside Elections
Solid D
D+22.3 D+23.2
Sabato's Crystal Ball
Likely D
D+12.1 D+11.7
Average D+15.5 D+15.9

How this forecast works

Nate Silver explains the methodology behind our 2018 midterms forecast. Read more …

Comments