SSP Daily Digest: 7/8 (Afternoon Edition)

AK-Sen: Lisa Murkowski, whose primary challenge from Some Dude got much more interesting when Sarah Palin endorsed said Dude (Joe Miller), won’t be able to count on appointed Gov. Sean Parnell’s explicit backing in the primary. When pressed on the issue at a gubernatorial debate last night, Parnell “visibly squirmed” before saying that he would support whoever wins the primary.

LA-Sen: I hope your last few days are going better for you than David Vitter’s last few days: yesterday, he had to face a phalanx of reporters interested in the issue of Brent Furer’s continued presence on Vitter’s staff despite his criminal record. Vitter said that was old news, that Furer had been disciplined two years ago, and moreover that Furer hadn’t been assigned to handle women’s issues. Now it’s come out that several legislative guide books, in fact, do list Furer as Vitter’s point man on women’s issues. (TPM’s link has video of Vitter in front of reporters. Think back to the visuals of his post-prostitution-problem press conference, and note again that Vitter is using his wife literally as a human shield.)

NV-Sen: Ah, Sharron Angle… the gift that just keeps on giving, day after day. Everyone is abuzz that she called the BP oil-spill escrow account a “slush fund,” apparently having learned nothing from Joe Barton getting raked over the coals for saying the same thing (to say nothing of the fact that she threw a dogwhistle reference to Saul Alinsky in there for her ultra-right-wing fans, completely apropos of nothing). After a brief firestorm, Angle is already walking back the “slush fund” comment. And “slush fund” wasn’t even the most outrageous Angle quote that came out today, as it was came out that when she successfully counseled a young girl impregnated after being raped by her father against getting an abortion, she referred to that as turning “a lemon situation into lemonade.” Well, if the GOP was thinking it was OK to let Sharron Angle out of whatever undisclosed bunker they’ve been keeping her in (and Rand Paul and Mark Kirk), it looks like it’s back to the bunker for a few more weeks.

NY-Sen-B: David Malpass gave some clarification to his comments yesterday that he’d like to be on Carl Paladino’s Taxpayer’s line in November: he won’t seek the line if he isn’t also the GOP nominee, in order to not be a spoiler for the Republican candidate. Bad news for fans of cat fud.

OH-Sen: Despite Lee Fisher’s fairly consistent if small lead in the polls in this race, there are almost nine million big reasons to be pessimistic about this race, and that’s Rob Portman’s war chest. Portman raised $2.6 million in the second quarter, leaving him with $8.8 million cash on hand.

PA-Sen: Pat Toomey is out with five (5!) new TV ads, hammering on government spending. His camp says the ads will run “statewide” and for an “indefinite” period of time, but… and you can probably guess what I’m going to say next… no word on the size of the buy.

GA-Gov: If John Oxendine can pull out a Republican primary victory despite his seeming slide in the polls, his money will have a lot to do with it: he raised $850K in the last two months and is currently sitting on $1.83 million CoH (tops among GOPers, but way behind Dem Roy Barnes’ $4 million). Meanwhile, Nathan Deal, sinking into 3rd place, has been brainstorming about what or who Republican base voters really seem to hate these days, and apparently he’s settled on immigrants, as he’s now loudly touting his plans to duplicate Arizona’s anti-illegal immigrant law in Georgia.

KY-Gov: PPP takes an advance look at the Kentucky gubernatorial race in 2011, finding that incumbent Dem Steve Beshear (elected easily against hapless Ernie Fletcher in 2007) has a tough re-election fight ahead of him. Beshear (with 38/35 approval) leads Trey Grayson 41-38, but trails Agriculture Comm. Richie Farmer 40-39.

SC-Gov: The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce is pointedly sticking with its endorsement of Democratic nominee Vincent Sheheen, despite some carping from its internal ranks that they should have endorsed Nikki Haley. The Chamber is framing the issue as that the Governor needs to actually cooperate with the (GOP-controlled) legislature to get things done, something that Mark Sanford didn’t do and that they don’t see Haley changing. The Haley campaign tried playing the TARP card against the Chamber, saying that they’re “a big fan of bailouts and corporate welfare.”

TX-Gov: Despite increasing evidence of links between the Greens’ petition drive and the Texas GOP’s financial kingpins, the Texas Dems seem to sense they aren’t going to get any further on their efforts to kick the Greens off the ballot (having run into an obstacle in the form of the GOP-owned Texas Supreme Court). They dropped their challenge to the Greens staying on the ballot, which clears the way Green candidate Deb Shafto to appear on the gubernatorial ballot to give the shafto to Bill White. (They’re keeping the case alive at the district court level in an effort to get civil penalties imposed, though.)

OH-03: I don’t know how many other states do this instead of allowing selection by party bosses, but Ohio is poised to have an unusual “special primary” in the 3rd, on Tuesday, July 13. This was brought about when Mark MacNealy, the Democratic nominee in the 3rd (to go against Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Turner), dropped out of the race post-primary. This race is on absolutely nobody’s radar (although it’s a swing district, so it could be interesting with a top-tier candidate), so I can’t say we’ll be burning the midnight oil liveblogging Tuesday’s contest.

OH-12: This is a swing district (D+1) with a top-tier Democratic challenger, so the DCCC has been right to tout this as one of our few legitimate offense opportunities. This just may not be the right year, though, if a new internal poll for Rep. Pat Tiberi (from the ubiquitous POS) is to be believed: he leads Dem Franklin Co. Commisioner Paula Brooks by a gaudy 53-28 margin.

WI-07: With Sean Duffy having reported strong fundraising numbers yesterday, it’s good to see that state Sen. Julie Lassa, who’s trying to hold this seat after David Obey’s late retirement announcement, is raking in the money too. She raised $310K in just six weeks.

WV-01: After Mike Oliverio walked back his earlier statements from the primary where he was agnostic about voting for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker, it seems like Oliverio and the Democratic leadership have kissed and made up, sensing a good opportunity for a Democratic hold here. Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn, and Chris Van Hollen have all cut big checks for Oliverio (although, perhaps pointedly, Pelosi herself has not). Oliverio also announced having raised $300K just during the month of June. Given Alan Mollohan’s seeming allergy to fundraising, we may have given ourselves an electoral upgrade here (though definitely not an ideological one).

53 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 7/8 (Afternoon Edition)”

  1. that the Alaska some dude (Joe Miller)will actually do better in his primary than J.D. Hayworth does in his primary.

  2. http://hotlineoncall.nationalj

    Party strategists seem to think she won’t run  They list as back up candidates “Bob Adams, the executive director of the League of American Voters, and John Raese (R), a Morgantown businessman who took 34% of the vote against Byrd in ’06.”  While the article doesn’t list her, I’ve heard former SoS Betty Ireland’s name thrown around elsewhere, though I know little else about her.  

  3. I don’t think Gov. Parnell was “appointed” to the position.  He was the elected Lt. Gov.  Unless it was also “appointed” President Lyndon Johnson.  It would work when discussing appointed Vice President Ford, but gets murky when referencing President Ford, who wasn’t appointed to the position but ascended to it.

  4. Don’t they have a more normal picture of Sharron Angle? Every photo I’ve seen of her either looks like she’s a bit nutty or her smiling in that really creepy way.

  5. He’s way more moderate than Carl Paladino, who himself is far to the right of most New York Republicans. My suspicion is, given the lack of excitement about the race, Bruce Blakeman probably wins the GOP line. Joe DioGuardi wind up on both the Conservative and Paladino lines, but, whatever, I can’t see him getting more than 5%. Indeed, I see this at around a 60-35-5 victory for Gilly.

  6. Not much went on this time. Rodney Alexander got a teabagger challenge in his primary. Democrats still have no candidate for LA-01, 05, 06, 07, or for Lt. Governor.

    Senate: Michael Karlton Brown (I), Sam Houston Melton Jr. (I)

    LA-04: Artis Cash (I)

    LA-05: Todd Slavant (R)

    Lt. Governor: Sammy Kershaw (R), Melanie McKnight (R)

  7.    Chris Mathews beat the snot out of Angle tonight for her comments about the “slush fund.”  There will be more to come, count on it.  Her campaign is in trouble too.  I hear more and more about shouting matches between the local types who have supported her for ages taking on the Washington types, few as they are, who have attempted to civilize her. This animosity has spilled over into her coffee clutch supporters most of whom feel that anyone from Washington that comes to tell them what Their candidate should do might as well get back on the plane.  They are mad as hell and not going to take it!  I support them a hundred percent on that score.  She is stupid and they are proud of it!  Karl Rove wastes his money in NV. Even the issue of Scientology has taken a back seat to the new cult:

    “Sharrontology”  I will watch with great interest as the conservative groups pump money into this sinkhole.  But how long will they continue to do so until they write her off??

  8. I fully expect Manchin to run, but suppose for whatever reason he decides not to.  What other viable Democrats are there in West Virginia to run in his place?

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