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Thursday, March 23, 2006

Montana: The Field Is Set

Posted by DavidNYC

Today was the filing deadline in Montana. You can see all the Senate and House candidates listed here. Bob Keenan did indeed file to challenge Burns. (as promised). Meanwhile, Denny Rehberg did not jump into the senate race - he filed to run for his House seat once more.

In other words, we probably wound up with the best of all possible scenarios, or close to it. Burns now faces a decidedly non-trivial primary challenge, which is awesome. If Burns wins, he's wasted money and gotten even more bloodied than he already is. If Burns loses, well, Keenan is no Racicot or Rehberg. (Those were the two names which whooped our two guys in the latest Rasmussen poll.) I'm sure Keenan doesn't have comparable name recognition. Speaking of which, Matt Singer speculates that Keenan is simply trying to up his name rec for an eventual run against Brian Schweitzer. Good luck with that, buddy.

The only person who loses out here is Monica Lindeen, who still has to face Rehberg in November. It's a tough fight, but Rehberg's got his own Abramoff problems. If the Montana press stays on this story as aggressively as it has vis-a-vis Conran Burns, Rehberg is going to have some serious troubles.

UPDATE: When a perfect 100 really just ain't too good.

Posted at 07:57 PM in 2006 Elections - House, 2006 Elections - Senate, Montana | Technorati

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Comments

I love the emerging progressive majority in Montana. Hell, when Im done with college/grad school I might have to head on out there.
Tester for Senate.

Posted by: DFLer22 at March 23, 2006 08:53 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

yes, yes, but what the people really want to know is "are you a cardinal?" or a cardinale perhaps?

Posted by: publius at March 23, 2006 11:32 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

You bet your sweet ass I am.

Posted by: DavidNYC at March 24, 2006 01:02 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

hmmm...
-DeWine bounced back from -1 in Feb. to +7, but he's still only at 46
-Santorum's still looking miserable: 43/48 (43/46 in Feb.)
-Hopefully Burns survives his primary so he can embarrass himself in the general
-Chafee's back above 50 (52 from 49), but his disapproval is the highest its ever been (42)
-Talent, unfortunately, improved markedly from +7 to +13, but he's still only at 51% approval
-Frist is clocking in at 54, though that's an open seat- hopefully Harold Ford finds his populist voice sometime soon
-Ensign- no movement- he's only at 52
-George Allen is only at 51. George Allen is only at 51. George Allen is only at 51.

On our side...
-Nelson's only at 49... yuck. Luckily there's one woman in FL capable of pulling off the stunning upset loss.
-Klobuchar's still kicking Kennedy's ass up here in MN. Plus she's going to look like the nicer of the two candidates, and we like that kind of thing

If our candidates run like they've got a pair, we could be looking at 49-50ish seats next year.
It's the war, stupid. And the money its costing the taxpayers... and the fact that that money could be going toward student loans, health care, and other programs that help the middle class

Posted by: Max at March 24, 2006 04:17 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

all this time - and i just found that a cardinale was the proprietor of the site

Posted by: publius at March 24, 2006 07:53 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Stick a Big Fork In(n) it, the line-up is done!

I agree, appears to be the best possible scenario for the senate race to advance toward a win.

As you point out, Monica Lindeen didn't catch the break she may have hoped for.
Until Sunday she is a candidate for Senator Feingold's Progressive Patriots PAC $5,000 windfall donation - she's running second.
I voted for her. That url, if anyone wants to help influence the choice, is http://progressivepatriotsfund.com/

Posted by: Christopher Walker at March 24, 2006 11:07 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Christopher--how can you tell that Monica Lindeen is running second? I can't find a way to view the results anywhere.

Anyway, judging by Feingold's PPF FEC reports, I believe all the patriot finalists will get a financial donation--but its size will be determined by the vote ranking. For example, Busby came in close to last in the first PPF poll, and received a pretty small donation ($100), while other candidates who ranked higher got more of a windfall.

Posted by: HellofaSandwich at March 24, 2006 11:55 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

D'oh, wait, I see it:

http://www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/content/281

Aw, I was rooting for Barry Welsh. Looks like he's got a really long way to go and not much time to do it...

Posted by: HellofaSandwich at March 24, 2006 12:06 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment