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Sunday, April 09, 2006

House News Roundup

Posted by DavidNYC

Just a few things that have caught my attention:

• The Sacramento Bee editorial board tells Rep. John Doolittle - who's been paying his wife a 15% cut of all campaign funds received - that he must "end this unacceptable practice". They nail him really good on his claims that this scam has been approved by the FEC (it hasn't) and that "everyone does it" (the only other person who does is Rep. John Sweeney of NY-20). It's really delightful to see such a clear-minded editorial which doesn't fall for any B.S. spin.

• Speaking of Sweeney, I have a contest for you: Go find his campaign website. No, not his official House website. His campaign site. Take as long as you want. Still looking? I'll wait. Okay, okay - you can stop now. It was a trick question: John Sweeney has no campaign website. For a Republican candidate in a contested race, in a year like this, and in New York, no less, that's pretty amazing. A campaign flack says he'll have one "soon". With all the rumors swirling about Sweeney dropping out due to ill health, that doesn't exactly present an image of vigor and a desire to fight this one through to the end.

• And some news on Sweeney's challenger, Kirsten Gillibrand: She's actually announced her 1Q totals early, and she hauled in an impressive $345,000. That's quite a lot, especially for a challenger, and especially when you consider that Sweeney's only raised $368K in the same time-frame. For an incumbent - on the all-powerful Approriations Committee, no less - to pull in only $20K more than a challenger is weak, weak.

• As far as other House challengers who've announced their fundraising totals early, you may have alread seen that Joe Sestak has raised a monster $420,000, compared to Curt Weldon's $450K.

Do you know of any other campaigns which have released early fundraising figures? If so, please post `em in comments.

Posted at 08:55 PM in 2006 Elections - House | Technorati

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Comments

Off-topic, but I'm starting to get concerned. What are the chances of Cynthia McKinney losing us a seat in GA-04? I know it's an overwhelmingly Democratic district, but McKinney underperformed Kerry there and her current antics (complete with possible indictments on the horizon) could help sneak an un-scary Republican challenger in that seat. Is there any chance McKinney could still face a primary challenge from Denise Majette or anyone else less nutty than she is? If there's still time to solve this problem, I sure hope we do before it puts the seat at risk.

Posted by: Mark at April 9, 2006 11:26 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

And along those same lines, has anyone else than the likely crook William Jefferson stepping up to the plate in LA-02? This district scares the bejeezus out of me.

Posted by: Mark at April 9, 2006 11:27 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I believe McKinney does have a primary challenger. (It really was a shame Majette left her seat so soon for a hopeless senate race.) I dunno if McKinney's challenger is serious, but maybe the same forces that helped eject her the first time are ready for another go-round.

As for Jefferson, I had heard something vague about him retiring post-haste. I really hope that happens, so that we can get a non-crook in there to replace him.

P.S. Mark, I'd at least expect you to have some early fundraising figures from somewhere around the nation for us. :)

Posted by: DavidNYC at April 9, 2006 11:30 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Jefferson retiring? Gosh, I hope so, but I sadly doubt it--there was a fundraiser for him at the DNC HQ (why, Howard, why?!?!) a few weeks ago. Those sorts of things aren't usually done for someone itching to retire.

...Unless... it was a legal defense fundraiser. :P

Posted by: HellofaSandwich at April 9, 2006 11:39 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

These numbers came out a few days ago and were posted over at Breaking Blue on MyDD, but just in case anyone missed them, click here.

Darcy Burner, a first-time candidate, raised twice as much as the incumbent, first-termer Dave Reichart. She raised $320,000 in the recent quarter. (Reichart still holds a Cash-on-Hand advantage, though.) The DCCC has taken noticed, and are expected to pump in $250k into this race.

The 2004 results were:

Reichert: 173,298 (51%)
Ross: 157,148 (47%)

Burner fashions herself as a Patty Murray-style Democrat, which could play well. I was kinda ho-hum about her when I first glanced at her webpage last summer, but money talks and people are taking noticed. She's gotten a pretty good buzz in WA.

Posted by: HellofaSandwich at April 9, 2006 11:54 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that Burner is running in the 8th district of Washington. It went for Gore and Kerry.

Posted by: HellofaSandwich at April 9, 2006 11:55 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Questionable Campaign Tactic of the Day: Call on your opponent to resign "before he's indicted"

Posted by: RBH at April 10, 2006 12:47 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Are you kidding, re DNC doing fundraiser for Jefferson? Crikey. That's gotta be Howard Dean's worst move since coming to the DNC - and I've been a huge fan of his as DNC chair. Why, why? Oh man.

Let's just hope they don't do a fundraiser for Cynthia McKinney.

Posted by: DavidNYC at April 10, 2006 02:43 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I am not kidding, David. I really, really wish I was.

The awful truth:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/3/29/234937/951

Some of the commentators there think that it was a DCCC fundraiser, and not a DNC fundraiser--and that the CREW article mixed up the two because the DCCC operates within DNC headquarters (and own 30% of the building to themselves, apparently). Either way, it was the most moronic thing ever.

Posted by: HellofaSandwich at April 10, 2006 03:18 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Maybe Sweeney figures he can just use his official House site as a campaign site. After all, the White House site essentially turned into an extension of gwbush.com during 2004, and congressional committee websites were posting anti-Kerry stuff on their front pages. This crop of Republicans doesn't make any distinction between campaigning and governing (and they rarely do much governing), so they don't understand the idea of separating them.

Posted by: KCinDC at April 10, 2006 10:43 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Kirsten Gillibrand a former Special Counsel to HUD (Andrew Cuomo) in the Clnton Admin, is definitely an attractive candidate in more ways than one.

The 20th is a winnable district specially with a candidate like this and Spitzer/Clinton coattails.

NY-20
2004 Presidential Vote
Bush (R) 170,307 (54%)
Kerry (D) 145,289 (46%)

2000 Presidential Vote
Bush (R) 146,792 (51%)
Gore (D) 127,419 (44%)

Posted by: Predictor at April 10, 2006 02:24 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment