When the count resumes, the incumbent pulls ahead.
Surveys tracking Romney versus President Obama show the Democratic incumbent pulling ahead as the primaries progress.
Putin, the incumbent, is ahead in polls by an insurmountable margin.
THE NUMBERS IN MICHIGAN -- Several recent polls in the closely watched Michigan Senate race show the incumbent, Spencer Abraham, ahead of his Democratic challenger, Representative Debbie Stabenow.
The incumbent was ahead by an average of five percentage points in polls conducted just after his convention, but eventually won the election by an average of three points, only a modest difference.
With preliminary results of Mauritania's presidential elections on Friday showing the American-allied incumbent leader ahead by a wide margin, the principal opposition party rejected the results on Saturday and called for a new election.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo was poised to win a second term Wednesday as leader of the world's most populous Muslim nation, with initial election results showing the moderate incumbent comfortably ahead of his rival, a nationalist former military general.
Speaking of the effect of incumbency (that is, incumbents run ahead of what the national house vote would indicate), you'll notice that it had a major effect the last few cycles.
But on paper, their game against an improving D.C. should represent their best chance of keeping pace with the Eastern conference incumbents, just ahead of them.
A similar story is shaping up in the U.S. Senate race, where polling shows incumbent Dianne Feinstein well ahead of fellow Democrat Kevin de León, who in turn is just slightly ahead of Republican James P. Bradley.
