October Surprise/ Hurricane Sandy

             The possibility or either a tropical storm, hurricane or bursts of snow devastating the east coast is becoming more apparent as the days go on and the reality of the Caribbean become far too real. The pre-Halloween hurricane is already starting to effect the presidential race between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama. Prompting cancelations of campaign events in critical battle ground states such as North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Some states such as Virginia and Maryland have already issued emergency declarations.

The National Weather Service in Philadelphia warned the morning of Friday the 26^th to expect major flash and river flooding along with storm tides of as much as 5 feet in the Chesapeake Bay and 10 feet in the Delaware Bay. Meteorologists advised some areas to expect strong winds for up to two days straight from the slow moving storm. Sandy could merge with an eastward moving winter storm and join cold air flowing from Canada to form what the media is calling a “Frankenstorm” which could drop as much as two feet of snow on West Virginia and smaller areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Experts aren’t confident on how the storm is for sure going to play out they just know that it’s a large and dangerous storm and could have widespread effects.

Sandy throws one more wildcard into the Presidential election that has already taken many different twists and turns in the public’s perception. Some of the ways that the storm could affect the outcome are.

1.)    Early Voting. in many states such as Ohio and Virginia will be in trouble and prone to flooding are already making plans to relocating voting equipment. This could effect different groups on people in making time or having the availability to be able to vote on or before election day giving different candidates more of a advantage.

2.)    The Katrina Factor.  Any disaster offers a chance to see how a leader governs. Seeing the strength of the current President in dealing with aid to the public and working closely with disaster officials could make a difference in how Republicans and Democrats push for last minute advertisings.

3.)    The distraction. The fact that hurricanes and large natural disasters bring in a lot of attention the presidential election might lose importance and headlines in the media making final pitches of the future president hopeful less time in the media.

There are many last minute variables right now. The campaign is closely monitoring the storm and watching to make sure the public stays educate and safe when the storm hits.

www.politico.com 10/26/12