Is James Pindell Trying To Steal Charlie Cook's Readers?

Take a poke around both Politicker's new Pindell Report and you'll notice that it is attempting to offer readers much of what Charlie Cook's well-regarded Cook Political Report does: Analysis of every competitive House, Senate and gubernatorial race plus presidential swing states. True: Pindell and Cook aren't the only ones doing such things (see: Hotline, Stu Rothenberg, etc.), but Cook has become a bit of a guru in that field and it's hard not to think that Pindell's hoping to siphon off some of Cook's readers based on a.) the similarities between the two products b.) the name (Pindell Report v. Cook Report) and c.) some of the PR language / spin that's going on for the Pindell Report behind the scenes in order to promote it. Pindell tells FishbowlDC how he thinks he can carve out his own niche in this crowded field...after the jump... Pindell: Like Cook, Rothenberg, Hotline, etc., we of course look at polling, fundraising, past election data, demographic changes and interviews with the nation's top political strategists. But unlike the others ... 1. Some use a number ranking system. Others use the toss-up, leans, likely, safe metrics. We use both. 2. We are the only ones that rank purely in terms of competitiveness. Most everyone else (Hotline, Cillizza) rank in terms of most likely to switch. By using competitiveness we are suggesting where money should go, where staff should go and where press coverage should be aimed 3. While some use reporters, we are the only ones who have reporters out in the field covering these races every day. Politicker.com now has 15 states and we have about 30 people working on them. The 16th site will launch in a month. The effect is that while we take into account the Washington conventional wisdom that others do we also heavily rely on the feel of the ground where these races are taking place. 4. We update every day and we evaluate the rankings everyday while others update less frequently. So within 30 minutes of news of Sen. Stevens' indictment his race dropped from the number three race in the country to number seven because it became less competitive. There will be an update today to swing states. 5. We're free.

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Is James Pindell Trying To Steal Charlie Cook's Readers?

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