Actually, there was a whole batch of them.
Nate Silver from the polling site FiveThirtyEight confirmed this morning what most independent observers had been saying all year: Fox News-friendly pollster Rasmussen is in the tank for Republicans. And that's fine if you're a pundit. Not so great though, if you're in the polling business.
From Silver [emphasis added]:
Rasmussen polls quite consistently turned out to overstate the standing of Republicans tonight. Of the roughly 100 polls released by Rasmussen or its subsidiary Pulse Opinion Research in the final 21 days of the campaign, roughly 70 to 75 percent overestimated the performance of Republican candidates, and on average they were biased against Democrats by 3 to 4 points.
Every pollster is entitled to a bad cycle now and again — and Rasmussen has had some good cycles in the past. But their polling took a major downturn this year.
UPDATED: Taegan Goddard's Political Wire also calls out Rasmussen today:
A Rasmussen survey in Hawaii showed Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) leading challenger Cam Cavasso (R) by 13 points two weeks ago, 53% to 40%.
The final results showed Inouye winning re-election by 51 points, 72% to 21%.