Larry Sabato

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Larry J. Sabato is the Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia and is director of their Center for Politics. He is a frequently cited political analyst and was called "probably the most quoted college professor in the land" by the Wall Street Journal.

A 1974 graduate of the University of Virginia, he was a highly recognizable figure on the UVA grounds. A 1974 Cavalier Daily poll showed more people could identify Sabato as student government president than could correctly name Edgar Shannon as University president. [1] Sabato graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in government before studying at Princeton University. Following his study at Princeton, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship that brought him to study at Queen's College at Oxford University.

He has authored over a dozen books on politics, including Divided States of America: The Slash and Burn Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election, and Get in the Booth! A Citizen's Guide to the 2004 Election. He also issues a political newsletter, Sabato's Crystal Ball. He has also written textbooks which are used by high school and college American Government classes. He has been a frequent guest analyst on cable news.

Prior to his time as a political analyst, Sabato worked for nine years with Virginia Democratic politician Henry Howell. At the age of 15, Sabato joined Howell's first campaign for the Virginia governorship in 1968, and then worked on his successful run for lieutenant governor in 1971, and his runs for governor in 1973 and 1977.[2]

He was classmates at the University of Virginia with Senator George Allen. Sabato was the subject of much controversy in 2006 when he appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and said that he knew Allen had used the word nigger, but later admitted to the Daily Press that he had never heard Allen say the word himself. [3]

In 2004, he correctly predicted the outcome of 525 of the 530 political races, missing only one House race, one Senate race, one governor's race, and two states in the Electoral College. In 2006, Sabato predicted that the Democrats would gain 29 seats in the House of Representatives and 6 seats in the Senate, which would provide them with a majority in both houses. Sabato's prediction that the Dems would win back both houses proved correct and his Senate predictions were exactly correct while in the House, Democrats gained roughly 30 seats, just one more than Sabato's predictions.