We’re going to try out a new feature for weekday afternoons here at Swing State Project: four or five links to various items that we want to get out there but don’t feel like investing a diary’s worth of effort on. Enjoy the bullet points! (We encourage you to add your own bullet points in the comments, and otherwise treat this as an open thread.)
• UT-Sen: Daily Kos polls the 2010 Utah Senate race, where the action appears to be in the primary, but Bob Bennett looks safe for another 6 years. Bennett beats David Leavitt 44-23 in the primary, and, in the general, manhandles Rep. Jim Matheson 55-32 and Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings 57-21, not that we should expect either of them to run.
• OH-Sen: A third Dem has jumped into the primary field for the 2010 Senate race: state representative Tyrone Yates. He doesn’t have the stature of Fisher or Brunner, but as the only African-American and only Cincinnati-area candidate, he may well complicate things.
• WA-08: The first Dem challenger has announced, and it’s another wealthy ex-Microsoft executive, Suzan DelBene. Don’t look for her to have the field to herself this time, though.
• MN-Sen: In an indication that the Coleman camp has exhausted every possible legal argument that can win in court, he’s moved onto arguing that it was basically a tie so let’s just have a do-over election. Not the kind of thing that someone who has a hope of winning in court ever says.
• Census: The Congressional Black Caucus is pushing the White House to keep the Census within its portfolio even though reliable Dem Gary Locke will now be taking over at Commerce.
• Blogospheria: Blogger brainpower (including Jane Hamsher, Glenn Greenwald, Markos Moulitsas, and Nate Silver) and union bucks come together in the new Accountability Now PAC. The goal is to pressure (and where there’s a good target, primary) bad Dems and create more space for good Dems to maneuver on the left.
• RI-01: Republican state representative John Loughlin is strongly considering a suicide mission against challenge to Rep. Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy got 69% against no-names in his last two elections, but apparently his approval ratings are softening.
• HI-01: In another district where you might be surprised to know there’s an elected Republican, Honolulu city councilor Charles Djou has announced his candidacy for HI-01, which is expected to be vacated by Neil Abercrombie as he goes for governor. Djou claims the endorsement of every Republican in Hawaii’s legislature (all 7 of them).
• NC-Sen: Former state treasurer, and gubernatorial primary loser, Richard Moore won’t be getting involved in the Dem primary to take on Richard Burr in 2010. The field looks clearer for AG Roy Cooper.
That’s not terrible for Matheson. His starting point (32%) is 2 points less than where Obama finished (34%). He’s also got some good favorable/unfavorable/unknown numbers (45%/27%/28%). He may make a race out of an open seat contest in the future, however it would likely end like OK-Sen 2004.
Still, not bad.
approval rating in Utah. Can we finally now dispense with the post-partisan BS? It really gives me heartburn.
Meanwhile, further suggestions that Allyson Schwartz isn’t running for Senate.
n/t
-Roy Cooper needs to run. I used to tolerate, even support, Heath Shuler, believing him to be an economically liberal, socially conservative Democrat (which I can live with). But he’s become a new Zell Miller, and the idea of him in the Senate makes me gag. He might actually win, if given a shot at Burr. We need Roy to run.
-I’ve given up on challenging Reichert. He seems to have embedded himself into his district.
-Utah is never going to happen. I still wonder how LBJ won it in ’64.
Tyrone Yates is not only African American.
Cuyahoga County Commish Peter Lawson Jones is also an African American.
But John Kerry is funny?
Link
The bit about John McLaughlin and Pat Buchanan at the end was priceless!
Big Republican fundraiser in Nevada is endorsing Reid for 2010. http://www.politico.com/blogs/…
“”Right now, I see the landscape as pretty promising,” the Texan said.
He identified open seats in Ohio, Missouri and Florida that the party will target and added that “unexpected opportunities” to gain Senate seats may arise in New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada, and California.”
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmsp…
Good luck with that Big John.