SSP Daily Digest: 3/5 (Morning Edition)

  • AR-Sen: SSP hero and perfect fuckup Bill Sali held yard sales to raise money for his flailing campaign. GOP senate hopeful Kim Hendren is doing him one better: He’s selling five of his black angus cows. Moo.
  • KY-Sen: Like rival Jack Conway, Dem Dan Mongiardo is making a small, made-for-media ad buy criticizing Jim Bunning’s fight against unemployment benefits, and specifically calls out teabaggers. Mongiardo being Mongiardo, though, his spokesbot can’t resist taking a douchey shot at Conway’s ad. Seems like sour grapes, since Conway’s team thought of the idea first.
  • NY-Gov: Headline for the times, from the Times: “Paterson Still Governor, for Now.” Also, Generalissimo Francisco Franco still dead. Only one of these statements is likely to remain true for much longer.
  • TX-Gov: The battle lines have been drawn, and it’ll be secessionista Rick Perry vs. former Houston Mayor Bill White. Rasmussen sees Perry leading 49-43, not much changed from the 47-41 he had it in late February. White has 54-34 favorables, while Perry is at 54-46. Though since Ras (contra every other pollster) likes to look at only “very favorable” and “very unfavorable” scores, it’s worth noting that Perry is at just 18-23 by that metric, while White is at 25-13. Whoops!
  • AL-05: Minority Leader John Boehner is bringing his orange perma-tan with him to Alabama to do a fundraiser for turncoat Parker Griffith. Griffith’s two teabaggy opponents are furious about this turn of events and trying to get some mileage out of casting Griffith as the establishment choice. With DC as toxic as it’s ever been, maybe that’ll work. Still, I think Griffith is most likely to be defeated if the uber-wingnuts unite around a single candidate (see IL-14).
  • FL-08: Dem Rep. Alan Grayson released a stunty poll of the Republican primary in his race… but included his own name – and he’s leading the pack. I’ve never heard of the pollster, Middleton Market Research, but their CEO is listed on LinkedIn as a “Senior Account Executive at To be determined.”
  • FL-17: Another candidate got into the race to replace Kendrick Meek today: North Miami City Commissioner Scott Galvin. Galvin is the first white candidate in this 58% African American district.
  • GA-09: GOP Rep. Nathan Deal now says that he’ll delay his resignation from the House until March 31st, so that he can vote against any healthcare legislation. This is probably a stunt to help Deal impress the Republican electorate, since he’s trailed badly in all polling for the GA-Gov GOP nomination. Deal doesn’t want to stay too much longer, though, since he’s just one step ahead of an Ethics Committee investigation.
  • MS-01: Ah, cat fud. FOX Newser Angela McGlowan, a GOP candidate vying to take on Travis Childers, won’t commit to backing the establishment favorite, state Sen. Alan Nunnelee if he should win the primary. This is exactly what the Republicans don’t want, of course, since a bitterly divided primary in 2008 helped hand this seat to Childers in the first place. It’s all the more remarkabe given how much effort the NRCC put into clearing the field for Nunnelee. I almost wonder if state Sen. Merle Flowers, who deferred to Nunnelee but did not endorse him, might be re-considering.
  • NY-29: Is this going to get worse before it gets better? The House Committee just launched an investigation into whatever it is Eric Massa is alleged to have done. Meanwhile, Massa is laying low – he’s missed several votes (including one on the jobs bill) since his announcement.
  • PA-12: Former Murtha aide Mark Critz says that he’s raised over $100,000 so far for his special election bid to replace his boss. Meanwhile, Critz’s opponent for the Democratic nomination, ex-Treasurer Barbara Hafer, is pre-emptively doing all she can to discredit the nomination process, as well as pressing for the release of Critz’s testimony to the House Ethics Committee. (J) On the Republican side, businessman Tim Burns has launched a teeny-weeny radio ad buy.
  • Netroots Nation: Thinking about heading to the progressive confab that is Netroots Nation? Well, MT Gov. Brian Schweitzer has already reserved a seat. He’ll be the keynote speaker on the convention’s opening night.
  • Redistricting: The National Democratic Redistricting Trust, a new group designed to support Dems in the inevitable legal battles over redistricting, has asked the FEC whether member of Congress can raise soft money to support the trust’s efforts.

    • 24 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 3/5 (Morning Edition)”

    1. For TX-Gov. Imagine the compromised 2012 redistricting map 🙂

      I think that may save, what, 3 or 4 seats of Dems maybe? No more Delay-mander 🙂

      That on top of FL-Init to give an independent panel say in redistricting, I think 2012 could be a nice year for Congressional Dems if things shape up.

      Anyone feel like drawing a compromise map for Texas using Dave’s app?

    2. This is some great news, and I bet this won’t be an isolated instance for the Republicans.  I know that the Dems are being drug down by an anti-incumbency movement, but the Republicans are also being drug down by purity tests within their caucus.  I imagine we will see more of this all over the nation.  Parker Griffith will most likely be drug down if he wins his primary.  Many within his district will not vote for him whether he has a “D” or an “R” behind his name.

    3. DavidNYC you forgot that in Alabama primaries use a run-off system, so there is no need for the anti-Griffith forces to unite now, they just need to keep him under 50% for. Both Phillip and Brooks would defeat Griffith 1v1 in a runoff easily (and rightly so for this turncoat). A shame there is no credible Democrat to pick up the pieces in the general but I guess its just a bad year for Dems to try to pick up (or even hold) strongly conservative seats.

    5. Kildee has dropped out.

      So it’s basically between Dillon and Bernero now.

      Wheeler Smith may affect the black vote on the margins which could throw the nomination either way in a tight contest.

    6. Yeah, I get that Grayson might have some crossover appeal for his various crusades against the Fed and so on, but… yeah. That ‘poll’ is just weird.  

    7. I would like it noted that Walt Minnick voted for the jobs bill, gee I wonder where Bill Sali would have come down on that one.  Of course this will probably end up biting Walt in the end.  

    9. Which is good news in my understanding–he’s the downstate nutcase.  Hard to see him getting much traction in the Chicago burbs, and he’s polling further back than Dillard.

    10. Flowers can’t jump in at this point, as the filing deadline has already passed. The Republican primary is between McGlowan, Nunnelee, and a former small-town mayor named Henry Ross.

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