SSP Daily Digest: 1/14

CA-Sen, CA-Gov: This shouldn’t surprise anyone, as it’s been telegraphed from far away, but it’s official today: ex-Rep. Tom Campbell is shifting gears, getting out of the Governor’s race and moving over to the penny-ante (relatively speaking) table in the Senate race. This makes his third attempt to get into the Senate. Also, it’s provoking some debate as to whether this hurts Carly Fiorina or Chuck DeVore more. My sense is it hurts Carly Fiorina, as she’s perceived as the “moderate” in the race, but there’s also a school of thought that the libertarian-minded Campbell eats into DeVore’s base of fiscal conservatives (seeing as how social conservatism seems to be of little concern to the teabagging and Club for Growth types currently in the ascendancy in the GOP).

IL-Sen: Rep. Mark Kirk is behaving like a typical front-runner, pretending that his opposition isn’t actually there. He’s refusing to debate his gaggle of GOP primary rivals at a Feb. 2 televised debate sponsored by the local ABC affiliate.

NY-Sen-B: The dissing of Harold Ford Jr. (considering a primary challenge to Kirsten Gillibrand) has gotten taken up a notch. Some of that is coming from Gillibrand herself, engaging the topic for the first time; she said that his views “may be right for Tennessee,” but are out of step with New York voters. She focused in particular on his opposition to health care reform as an example. However, Ford’s former House colleague, Rep. Anthony Weiner, got in the act too, and he got all the good lines. Weiner said that we “don’t need another Joe Lieberman,” and in a reference to Ford’s quote yesterday about visiting the outer boroughs by chopper, said, “Maybe when his helicopter lands in Queens next I can ask him.”

PA-Sen: You know your campaign wasn’t meant to be when the most attention it gets is when you drop out. Pittsburgh-area state Rep. Bill Kortz had been running in the Senate Democratic primary, running to the field’s left and trading on his ties with organized labor. Having had no success fundraising, he opted out yesterday, not endorsing either candidate yet. With former appellate judge Doris Ribner-Smith out too, it’s back to a two-man race between Joe Sestak and Arlen Specter.

MI-Gov: With the potential candidacy of Denise Ilitch seeming to gain ground (her family owns Little Caesar’s Pizza, as well as the Tigers and Red Wings), with her visit to Washington DC to discuss a run, local Democrats are taking a wait-and-see attitude. Labor leaders and other state-level insiders sound unsure about her actual positions, and are wondering what she brings to the table besides business experience. Also, there’s one more business-friendly name to add to the rapidly-growing list of potential Democratic candidates: Tony Earley, the chairman of DTE Energy, who said he’s being arm-twisted to run but will probably back state House speaker Andy Dillon.

MN-Gov: State House speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and the state DFL were each fined by the state’s Campaign Finance Board for their role in a weird campaign finance violation, where Kelliher donors were illegally told to donate to the DFL, which then bought her an expensive voter database. No other candidates were given this favorable arrangement with the DFL.

PA-Gov: AG Tom Corbett chased his main rival, Rep. Jim Gerlach, out of the race, and is now on the verge of locking down a formal endorsement from the state GOP in his gubernatorial run, following a strong showing in a straw poll of party leaders from southeast Pennsylvania. Corbett’s only primary opposition left comes from state Rep. Sam Rohrer, running on the right flank of the already pretty conservative Corbett.

SC-Gov: While Education Superintendent Jim Rex has been seen as having a likely route to the Democratic gubernatorial nod, state Sen. Vince Sheheen has been hanging in there. And Sheheen got a boost today, with an endorsement from one of the state’s most durable political figures, Charleston mayor Joe Riley, who’s been in office for 35 (!) years. That gives Sheheen, who hails from the state’s rural north, an inroads in the Low Country.

FL-10: The CW on Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young is that he’s undecided on re-election. He says he won’t announce anything for a few more weeks, but has indicated that he’s being “heavily lobbied” to run for another term.

IL-10: Fresh off of his endorsement of the hard-to-spell Ovide Lamontagne, Dan Quayle issued another endorsement: Bob Dold. Although this poses the question of whether he thought he was endorsing Bob Dole, and remembered to leave off the “e” from the end of the word this time. (Actually, the real question is: what gives with Dan Quayle’s first trip into the limelight in something like 10 years?) On the Dem side, state Rep. Julie Hamos sports a newly-minted Sierra Club endorsement, while Dan Seals got thumbs-up from another local organization, the Shields Township Democrats.

KS-03: Former Kansas City, Kansas mayor Carol Marinovich has said that she isn’t going to run for the Democratic nomination to replace retiring Rep. Dennis Moore. That appears to clear the path for her mayoral successor, Joe Reardon… if he wants to run. If he doesn’t, that leaves the Dems with a big question mark as they seek to retain this R+3 seat.

NH-02: After the secret pretty much got let out of the bag yesterday, it’s official today: Katrina Swett is seeking the Democratic nomination in the 2nd. Swett brings with her $850K stockpiled from her cut-short 2008 Senate bid. Her main opponent, Ann McLane Kuster, sought to diminish the impact of that by rolling out endorsements from 50 state legislators (snark all you want about how New Hampshire has something like 8,000 state Representatives, but five of those endorsers were state Senators, of which there are precious few).

NY-St. Sen.: Convicted misdemeanant Hiram Monserrate finds himself one step closer to expulsion, resignation, or some other ignominious end. A nine-member panel of Senators found him “unfit to serve” and recommended an immediate vote to remove him from office.

House: Let’s just call it unscientific, but it’s an interesting conversation piece. The monthly National Journal insiders poll, usually on non-quantifiable topics, asks GOP and Democratic insiders this month what their over/under on losing seats in the House will be this year. GOPers sound optimistic, predicting an average of 33 pickups, with even the most pessimistic predicting in the 20s and 1 in 3 saying they’ll reclaim the majority. Dems are predicting an average of 15 seats lost, with only 1 predicting a loss in control.

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26 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 1/14”

  1. News is breaking that Scott Brown raised over $1,000,000 every day this week, mostly online.

    http://dailycaller.com/2010/01

    One caveat, it’s reported to the daily caller, and has not been varified. It’s possible that it may be an attempt by the Brown campaign to drum up more publicity and momentum but if true would be a bad side.

    It’s important to bear in mind that Coakely and her supporters will likely outspend Brown and reports are coming through that Vikki Kennedy’s fundraising letter has brought in cosiderable funds, rivalling Brown’s money-bomb.

  2. I posted this in the MN-GOV thread below with the Rasmussen numbers, but I’ll repost here to give it more current exposure, since that thread quickly got buried beneath a bunch of posts:

    *****************

    The headline in a St. Paul Pioneer Press article talked about Minnesotans’ opinions on a new Vikings stadium, but also in the poll were numbers on the Governor race and other interesting political numbers.  The poll was conducted by Decision Resources Ltd. (no idea if they are partisan or what their reputation is).

    http://www.twincities.com/ci_1

    Some tidbits:

    — Mark Dayton leads Norm Coleman 41-31, and Dayton leads Marty Seifert (state House member) 41-25

    — Margaret Anderson Kelliher (MN House Speaker) leads Coleman 33-31

    — Minnesotans oppose a Tim Pawlenty run for president by a 2-1 margin;  he has a 29/69 approval disapproval

    — the Minnesota Legislature is at 20/75

    — Al Franken’s positive/negative view is 33/49

    — Michele Bachmann’s is 12/76

    — people IDing as lib/mod/cons:  15% liberal (21% from last year), 48% moderate (35% last year), 34% conservative (29% last year)

    — people IDing as Dem/Rep/ind:  38% Democratic (44% last year), 32% Republican (28% last year), 23% independent (25% last year)

    — 46% said the stimulus helped the economy, 11% said it hurt, and 43% said no difference;  57% oppose passage of another stimulus

    — 57% support the Obama/Democratic health reform plan (yes, that is majority support), 37% oppose it

  3. I really don’t think Campbell is going to make that much of a difference in the Senate race unless he can start to raise some serious money.  His profile is similar to Fiorina’s – kinda sorta moderate from Silicon Valley – but he doesn’t have the establishment backing, the fundraising skills, or the ability to pump millions of his own money in the race to make an impact.  The GOPers that are backing Fiorina are making a pragmatic decision to support the candidate with the best chance to win.  Moreover, DeVore’s support stems from a) he’s from Orange County, which is the heart of the CA GOP and fits their voter preferences much more strongly and b) he’s an outsider.  Campbell’s tenure in Washington will kill him with that group.  He may pull Fiorina supporters, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he finished thrid.

  4. Port Authority Commissoner Bruce Blakeman will officially announce his Senate candidacy this Sunday…

    http://www.nydailynews.com/blo

    Blakeman’s hardly of the stature of a Pataki or Molinari, but I guess the GOP could ultimately do worse. He garnered the party’s nod for State Comptroller in 1998, losing to Carl McCall by a 2-to-1 margin. Still, his Long Island ties could prove helpful in making things somewhat competitive.

  5. A poll for KSL/Deseret News by Dan Jones finds Herbert leading Corroon 48-35 with 18% undecided.

    http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&si

    Herbert has had some bad press lately with his agreement to allow nuclear waste into Utah and the Snake Valley water deal which is seen as letting Las Vegas steal water from Utah.

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