Happy Holidays, everybody! Here’s a mercifully brief edition of the Daily Digest for your perusal today.
• CO-Sen: Former GOP Lt. Gov. Jane Norton is looking to “channel” the passion of teabaggers who insist that Barack Obama is a baby-killing Muslim into a fearsome GOTV operation for her campaign against Sen. Michael Bennet. Sadly, this is no exaggeration.
• CT-Sen: In the wake of Joe Lieberman’s nutfuckery in the healthcare reform process, a new CNN/Opinion Research poll shows that his standing has taken a big hit back home across the country — his favorable rating is at 31-34, down from 40-28 two weeks earlier. (Update: Whoops; I didn’t realize that this was a poll of “adult Americans”, not Connecticut voters. That’s not exactly as useful.)
• AL-05: Democrats have a pair of credible candidates giving consideration to a run against newborn GOP Rep. Parker Griffith. State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks has stated that he’s thinking about switching from his gubernatorial bid over to a Congressional campaign. Another very appealing candidate is state PSC Commissioner Susan Parker, whose ties to the district are stronger than Sparks’. Parker says she’s giving the race consideration, and will make an announcement after the holidays.
• MN-06: PPP has some up-ballot observations from their latest House poll. Namely, Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton are damaged goods.
• PA-10: It’s looking more and more clear that John McCain and other national Republicans completely crumbed the play in their efforts to snag a second defection from the Democratic House ranks. Not only did they hand Carney a beautiful talking point (“Hey, John McCain thinks highly enough of me to ask me to join the GOP caucus!”), but they’ve also set the state Republican Party scrambling to disassociate themselves from the national play. The PA GOP says that they had no part in the recruitment effort, saying that they’re looking for “real Republicans” to beat Carney. Meanwhile, Snyder County Commissioner Malcolm Derck, himself the only candidate of note in the GOP primary, called McCain’s efforts “a slap in the face to all rank-and-file Republicans working to take back the seat”. At least this is still excellent news… for John McCain!
• NY-State Sen: SSP data guru jeffmd takes a look at Obama’s performance in each of New York’s state Senate districts in an effort to answer the question: why does the GOP control so many seats?
• Judges: Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is leading a new campaign to eliminate the election of judges. (Good idea.)
what happened to yesterday’s digest? Slow day?
If the absolute worst his favorable gets is a net-negative of three, I imagine he’s still more than competitive enough for a ’12 run.
Is there anyway the teabagging crowd can consolidate support around one candidate to go after Griffith so the power of incumbency doesn’t automatically win or is a wild free for all the way we want it?
A full 35% of CT voters don’t have an opinion of Liberman. I find that hard to believe
Jonathan Narcisse, an activist and owner of several African American-oriented publications in Iowa, is exploring a run for governor either as a Democrat or an independent. Narcisse supported and campaigned for Culver in the 2006 primary. He won’t draw a lot of votes but could definitely hurt Culver with the Democratic base. I spoke with Narcisse yesterday, and I will have a diary up on this in the next couple of days.
The good news is that Narcisse decided to announce his plans right before Christmas, when most people aren’t watching the news and those that are are focused on the big ice storm or the health care vote.
They are assuming that Bachmann will be seeking higher office, though which one I wouldn’t be able to imagine. I honestly can’t see anyone electing her as Governor after all the craziness that’s come from her mouth.
Is my preferred way of choosing judges. The judge is selected by a commission and voted on by the people every seven years (I think seven, maybe six). The election method, partisan or otherwise forces judges to rely on special interest groups to get elected, whether it is big biz, unions, teachers, executives, etc etc. If a judge is backed completely by big biz, who do you think he’ll rule in favor of? Same for unions etc. Still, the people need a method of removing an ineffective or corrupt judge from office. While it has problems, I think the Missouri plan is best. (I did a lit review on it for research methods class a few years back).
Ive never understood why Dayton would retire from a statewide position because he thought he’d lose, only to run for another.
Same for Coleman, you’ve lost to Jesse Ventura, Al Franken, and who squeaked out a victory because the opponent who was going to kick his ass died in a plane crash 2 weeks before the election, in an extremely good GOP year.
They both need to go the way of the Dodd, and so does Dodd!
He has resurrected his 2006 website from his run for Lt. Gov. It has a banner saying Jim Holt 2010, and he has a fundraisier scheduled for next week
http://www.jimholt2010.com/
but what to do people think about the idea of swapping Blanche Lincoln with Bill Clinton for the senate seat in 2010.
Nothing would be better in 2010 then watching Parker get defeated in the General Election against Democrat. It would be one of the best “I told you so” moments in 2010!
I just braved a blizzard on my drive back from work.
Nancy Pelosi stripped him of his committee assignments. Do the Republicans get to give him anything (besides grief), or will Griffith remain committeeless for the rest of this Congress?
1. What statewide elected official has a sibling who is an elected official in England?
2. Who represents the only congressional district that voted for Gore and Kerry, but then voted for McCain?
3. NYT writer Andrew Ross Sorkin and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin both graduated from New York’s Scarsdale High School. Are they related, and if so, how?
4. Since 1950, who became a U.S. Congressman AND a U.S. Senator only following the deaths of his/her predecessors to both seats?
5. Since 1960, what former Senator has actually run for the Senate in two different states, and under two different political parties?
Who can answer these without using Wikipedia or any links provided at SSP? 🙂
“Former GOP Lt. Gov. Jane Norton is looking to “channel” the passion of teabaggers who insist that Barack Obama is a baby-killing Muslim into a fearsome GOTV operation for her campaign against Sen. Michael Bennet. Sadly, this is no exaggeration.”
Really? Sounds like an exaggeration to me. You make it sound like she sought out those sentiments and tried to whip them into a frenzy. My read is that she was attempting, admittedly quite weakly, to defuse the situation some and focus more on the campaign than on hang-ups about Obama’s religion or nationality.
I agree that Norton should have called out those statements as lies. That would have been responsible and admirable. But I think it is precisely a matter of exaggeration to portray her as seeking to cultivate those sentiments and build a campaign around them. I think she was embarrassed by them, but didn’t have the courage to take those people on.