SSP Daily Digest: 8/10 (Afternoon Edition)

AK-Sen: You might have seen mention at other sites of a Tea Party Express “poll” of the GOP Senate primary in Alaska that had Joe Miller within 9 points of Lisa Murkowski. Mother Jones has been digging around, trying to find the poll, and can find no confirmation of its existence or even word of who took the poll, from either the Miller campaign or TPE.

CO-Sen: Jane Norton’s closing argument wasn’t about how great she was, but rather about her “concerns” with Ken Buck. Her interview with Politico this morning alluded to his “issues with spending and ethics.”

IL-Sen: If all else fails, try tying your opponent to Saddam Hussein. That’s what Mark Kirk’s attempting, with an ad that accuses Broadway Bank of having made a 2006 loan to an Iraqi businessman with some sort of Hussein connections. Alexi Giannoulias pointed out that was after he’d already left the bank, but I think a better argument would be that Saddam Hussein was played in South Park Bigger Longer & Uncut by Matt Stone, who was in Baseketball with Greg Grunberg, who was in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.

LA-Sen: Charlie Melancon is out with his very first TV ad, as he and GOP candidate Chet Traylor try to put the squeeze on David Vitter from both directions. The ad (NWOTSOTB for $115K) launches a direct hit on how Vitter “hasn’t been honest.”

PA-Sen: Pat Toomey is out with yet another TV ad, a negative ad against opponent Joe Sestak. Their only word on the size of the buy is “significant.” The Toomey campaign has been on the air with at least five different ads for a month now, without seeming to budge the poll numbers at all. Sestak hasn’t hit the TV airwaves yet, and seems to, as was the case with his successful primary bid, marshalling his resources for a large salvo closer to the election.

KS-Gov: Wow, check out the opponent Sam Brownback dispatched in the GOP gubernatorial primary, if you’re in the mood for serious nutjobbery. Joan Heffington alleges “CIA infiltration of western Kansas” and has faced sanctions for practicing law without a license. At any rate, having garnered 15% in the GOP primary, she’s now saying she’s a GDI (God-driven independent) and shouldn’t have gotten suckered into that whole Republican racket in the first place, and as such is launching a write-in candidacy for November.

MI-Gov: You may remember state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, who pulled the plug on her gubernatorial candidacy on the day of the filing deadline, saying she didn’t want to split the progressive vote (and thus giving a big boost to Lansing mayor and eventual primary winner Virg Bernero). Probably figuring that Bernero owes her big-time and also that he’d like some diversity on the ticket, Smith is now floating her own name for the Lt. Governor slot.

NY-Gov: GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino has gone ahead and pulled the trigger on creating his own ballot line, the Taxpayers Party. It still remains a completely open question as to whether he plans to run on it if he loses the GOP primary, though. (He originally said he wouldn’t be a spoiler in the race against Andrew Cuomo, but then changed to an “options open” position.)

IL-10: Dan Seals got apparently re-endorsed by the Illinois Federation of Teachers today. (He also had their backing in the Dem primary against Julie Hamos.)

IL-11: Rep. Debbie Halvorson didn’t start out near the top of anyone’s list of vulnerable Democrats, but she’s starting to earn her position there. Republican opponent Adam Kinzinger has issued a second internal poll (the first one was in March) giving him a lead over Halvorson. The poll from POS gives him a 51-40 edge. (The article, however, helpfully points out that POS saw Halvorson with only a 2-point lead over the hapless Marty Ozinga six weeks before the election in 2008, a race which she went on to win by 24. Update: In 2008, we wrote about that POS poll here.)

IN-02: Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly, no stranger to occasional use of conservative framing, goes an extra step in his new TV ad hating on those immigrants, using a photo of Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama when saying how he stands apart from “the Washington crowd.” John Boehner’s lurking in the photo’s background, too, so at least it’s bipartisan.

KS-01: Wow, SurveyUSA sure likes polling KS-01, probably one of the likeliest races in the country to stay red. (Or at least KWCH-TV sure likes paying them to poll it.) They find Republican state Sen. Tim Huelskamp, who just won the primary, leading Dem Alan Jilka 65-23. (Jilka is a former mayor of Salina, which may actually make him a pretty big ‘get’ as far as this hopeless district goes.)

NH-02: When is a lobbyist not a lobbyist? It turns out that Katrina Swett, who has denied (gasp) lobbying, in fact filled out the required federal paperwork in 1997 to register as a lobbyist, although now her defense is that she never actually got around to lobbying once she registered. Swett has previously been attacking Dem primary foe Ann McLane Kuster for her own previous lobbying work.

TX-17: Rep. Chet Edwards got a key endorsement in this dark-red, largely rural Texas district: he got the backing of the NRA. It may seem odd to see so many conservaDems getting NRA backing, but the NRA’s policy is where there are two equally pro-gun candidates, the incumbent gets the nod.

WV-01: Alan Mollohan 2.0? The man is actually talking like he’s eyeing a 2012 comeback, having filed FEC paperwork setting up a 2012 candidacy (although it’s unclear whether that was just to have a fundraising receptacle for donors’ funds to repay a personal loan to his committee). He also just issued a long memo to supporters, bashing, well, everyone, ranging from Republican House members who pursued ethics complaints against him while they were in charge, to Mike Oliverio, who he says defeated him in this year’s Dem primary using those discredited charges.

Census: Next time a Republican complains to you about the ineffective, bloated government, point him in the direction of the Census, which just came in $1.6 billion under budget (out of a total $14.7 billion appropriated) as it wraps up its main phase. A solid 72% initial response rate helped save money on the inevitable follow-up process.

Passages: Sadly, today we bid farewell to Ted Stevens, the long-serving Republican Senator from Alaska and chronicler of the inner workings of the series of tubes. Stevens died last night in a plane crash near the town of Dillingham, at the age of 86. Stevens was the survivor of a previous 1978 plane crash, which killed his first wife. We offer our best wishes to his friends and family.

Rasmussen:

IA-Sen: Roxanne Conlin (D) 35%, Chuck Grassley (R-inc) 55%

IN-Sen: Brad Ellsworth (D) 29%, Dan Coats (R) 50%

NH-Gov: John Lynch (D-inc) 50%, John Stephen (R) 39%

56 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 8/10 (Afternoon Edition)”

  1. Ridiculous.

    Anyway, with TX-17, if the election were held today, Edwards would lose. Good news he is slowly chipping away at Flores, day by day, week by week, turning this into a local race, which Edwards has found key to winning in the past. He already scored a big local victory for himself among the Texas A&M Alumni in College Station with his work in saving the Big 12.

  2. As I said earlier, I have no idea where he’s airing these ads, because I simply haven’t seen them in Philly.  I’ll try to watch the local newscasts tonight and get a sense of it.

    I just don’t know where he could be spending the money.  August in Philadelphia is a time where everyone is outdoors grilling or eating at until like 9 every night and then at the Jersey Shore on the weekend.

    Maybe its targeted at the burbs in Philly.  For Toomey’s sake, I hope he’s getting more bang in Pittsburgh…wait, no I don’t 🙂

  3. It might be good to get a popular local Democrat on the ballot from there, help keep a strong Democratic margin there.Or maybe pick a prominent Macomb Politician, or someone from Flint. Benero needs to work hard to keep the narrow Democratic coalition together. He’s got Lansing covered, Detroit is there regardless, now he just needs Oakland, Washtenaw, Genesee, and the UP to get a narrow victory.  

  4. Ugh. Stupid Wichita TV station. Would it kill them to throw in a question about the gubernatorial race while they’re at it? Then it would actually be worth surveying to get a taste of what Kansas’ most rural, most conservative district thinks. Everyone knows Huelskamp is gonna win KS-01. (though, yes, Jilka is basically as strong of a candidate as Dems could possibly run….he could win if Huelskamp turns out to be a child molester…probably)

  5. I apologize for the sketchiness of this, but I heard today about something Frank Caprio did that makes him unacceptable. Due to the sensitive nature of the incident I can’t give any names or even specifics, but I’ll say it is scandal-ish in nature and, if true, should drive every Dem to Chafee. I feel bad because of how few details I’m providing, but like I said I’m not at liberty to say more. Who knows, maybe someone will step forward and it will be an October surprise, but I just went from leaning towards Chafee to almost positive I’m voting for him, and I will probably leave the gubernatorial race blank when I vote in the primary (not like it matters, lol).

  6. Mike Olivero.

    AFL-CLO staying neutral:

    At this time, there’s probably a good chance that we’ll be neutral in that race. We had a very dear friend in Alan Mollohan, and it’s hard to replace something like that,” said West Virginia AFL-CIO President Kenneth Purdue. “We have not found the current candidates to be strong supporters of labor.”

    The same with other labor unions, one of which even backed McKinley, (it had originally endorse Mollohan). They are a crucial part of the Democratic coalition in this district and they simply don’t like Olivero much, even though he’s tried to get more to the left since the primary. What’s more Ken Hechler is starting a PAC to oppose him, and Alan Mollohan’s already starting a 2012 campaign. I’m starting to think ethical troubles and all, Mollohan would have been a better choice to hold the district.  

  7. The SMOR poll is out in LA:

    Vitter leads Melancon 46-28

    Vitter leads Traylor 78-4

    Jindal has a 70-27% approval rating.

    For those who care, the Lt. Gov race:

    SoS Jay Dardenne 26

    Country music singer Sammy Kershaw 15

    St. Tammany Parish Pres Kevin Davis: 6

    LAGOP chair Roger Villere: 2

    I don’t see those numbers holding up. I’m expecting a Dardenne-Villere run-off. Villere has the organization and fundraising ability (John McCain and Newt Gingrich are holding fundraisers for him), and Dardenne has a huge cash advantage over everyone, with over 800k. Dardenne and Davis are considered the moderates, with Villere winning the support of the Tea Party crowd. Davis even endorsed Landrieu in 2008. I know one person I won’t be voting for…

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