• FL-Sen: It’s poorly sourced, but conventional wisdom seems to be reaching some sort of critical mass on the idea that Gov. Charlie Crist will announce within the next week whether or not he will run for the open senate seat in Florida. Some say he is a “near lock” to switch over to the senate race.
• IL-Sen: Chris Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, is now publicly pondering entering the Illinois senate race. Kennedy has never held elective office; he’s a developer who runs Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. On the other hand, he’s been a Chicago fixture most of his life, and has that certain last name. One source says there’s an “85% chance” he’ll do it.
• CA-Sen: In case there was any doubt, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer has officially announced her plans to seek re-election. (J)
• GA-Gov: State senator Eric Johnson has, with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle dropping out of the gubernatorial race, switched from running for lieutenant governor to governor. He joins SoS Karen Handel, Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, and state rep. Austin Scott in the hunt for the GOP nomination.
• AL-Gov: Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, Alabama’s only Democratic appellate judge, is interested in joining the already-crowded field seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. She would have to resign her position (in which case GOP governor Bob Riley would appoint a new chief justice) in order to campaign for governor, though.
• NH-01: Manchester mayor Frank Guinta is the likely candidate to take on Carol Shea-Porter, and he has produced an internal poll showing him trailing Shea-Porter 43-34. Shea-Porter is well-below the danger mark of 50, but on the other hand, Guinta isn’t an unknown; he already represents nearly 20% of the district.
• ID-01: Are you there, God? It’s me, Brain Fade. Ex-Rep. Bill Sali (R) sounds like he’s angling to make a comeback against Democrat Walt Minnick next year. In an email to supporters, Sali says that he’s “increasingly troubled by the direction our country is headed” and is asking his supporters to pray for him as he considers his political future. (J)
• SD-AL: South Dakota’s Republican Secretary of State, Chris Nelson, has made known his interest in running for South Dakota’s at-large House seat. Nelson, who’s term-limited out, didn’t seem to make this contingent on whether or not Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin ran for higher office, like the open governor’s seat (which has been rumored, but doesn’t seem to be taking shape).
• CA-47: The GOP is looking to Vietnamese-American assemblyman Van Tran as a candidate against Rep. Loretta Sanchez in this D+4 Orange County district. This very low-turnout district is about 15% Asian and 70% Hispanic.
• CA-26: Businessman Russ Warner, who ran unsuccessfully against GOP Rep. David Dreier in 2008 (and attempted to do the same in 2006, but ran into a snag in the form of a primary loss), says that he plans to run for a third time next year in this Dem-trending CD. (J)
• DCCC: Everybody’s favorite new villainess, Michele Bachmann, has been so prolific with the oddball fringe-right comments lately that she’s actually getting her own page at the DCCC’s website. Imagine that: from backbencher to public enemy #1 in less than half a year!
I wonder if term-limits could be his deciding factor.
Meaning if he can get elected Senator, he’ll likely have that job as long as he wants thanks to incumbency.
But in FL state office, he’ll eventually be termed out of the job.
How the heck did we manage to get a Democrat elected as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court?
kinda glad to see Russ Warner back in this race. He managed to raise some decent cash and is easily better than any of the other candidates that ran in this district in recent past. Hopefully his increased name rec from a run in the general and added experience from that run will help him garner some national attention this time.
Do you really want to be in a minority party with 35 seats where the party is way too far to the right?
I can already see people poo-pooing this, but I think it’s a legitimate concern. The district is very Hispanic, but clearly a lot of them aren’t citizens. Meanwhile, unlike many Latino-majority districts, the Whites in the area seem to be more conservative. Finally, for some reason, people keep repeating the misnomer that Vietnamese-Americans swung to Obama in 08. I did a paper this semester (in part) on the political patterns of Southeast Asian Americans, and they definitely still voted strongly Republican.
Sanchez was able to solidify herself in this swing district through heavy outreach to the Vietnamese community. I’m not saying they’re going to instantly switch over to Tran, but she’s going to have to remind the Vietnamese community why they’ve supported her for all these years.
It would be grear to have Chris Kennedy continue the family tradition and bring it to Illinois. I volunteer to to be county chair of his comittee for my county
prairiedawg