Big Bad John to head NRSC

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmsp…

So CQ Politics has the scoop that John Cornyn will be the next head of the NRSC. Sure has big shoes to fill after Liddy Dole and John Ensign’s sterling performances – if he only hemorrhages 5 seats it’ll be a major coup for the GOP.

This move shouldn’t come as a surprise as the two names previously mentioned for the seat were Cornyn and Norm Coleman, and Coleman’s too busy gaming the recount in Minnesota to focus on recruiting and fundraising for candidates across the nation quite yet.

John Ensign was quoted by the Politico in July:

They both would be very strong candidates,” Ensign said. “Cornyn brings Texas, but Coleman brings a national fundraising list and the Jewish fundraising base. They’ll both be good candidates.

http://www.politico.com/news/s…

Disregarding his Tommy Thompsonesque gaffe assuming Jewish people are inherently wealthy… it’s clear that the Republican Party would have liked to expand its fundraising base and electoral appeal beyond the South. You know, to actually combat the meme that they’re precipitously becoming a regional party?

But instead they get Cornyn, a Texan, Bush’s #1 lackey in the senate. Correct me if I’m wrong, but he’s never seemed like the most politically savvy guy in their caucus.

Quite auspiciously for us, this follows the news that Pete Sessions (R-TX) is Boehner’s pick to chair the NRCC. There’s only so much milkshake in Texas to go around, and it looks like the campaign wings of the GOP are going to be fighting over it, exhausting each other’s resources.

So, looking forward to 2010, it’s hard to predict what headwinds or tail winds the national mood will throw our candidates. But the way things look, we have reason to be hopeful that we at least won’t be outmaneuvered or out-fundraised.

NY-13: It’s Official, Can’t Get Any Weirder

Ok, just read a Daily News report about Frank Powers’s funeral, which occured today.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new…

Apparently, his son and erswhile political opponent Frank Powers Jr. was arrested for punching a cop during the funeral after accosting his step-mother.

The confusing thing about the article is that it states that Frank Powers Jr. was the one who was taken away in an ambulance screaming “I’m not crazy!” … but the picture indicates “Robert John Powers” being taken into custody, and shows a man with, uh, far less hair than his older brother.

So clearly the Daily News has got something mixed up – but clearly something funky’s going on in Staten Island.

Only way this could get stranger is if the Republicans actually nominated Curtis Silwa (potential candidate, right-wing talk radio host, and founder of Guardian Angels) and he began staging vigilante interventions on the Staten Island Ferry to get himself some press…

NY-13: Vincent Gentile To Run

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_…

Hidden amidst  the news that the GOP lost its two top contenders for Fossella’s seat was city councilman Vincent Gentile’s declaration that he’s going to run.

This took me by surprise because he seemed to be the only NY-13 candidate who hadn’t been discussed for a potential run. But he does have more experience in political office than most people in the area – he served in the state senate (in my girlfriend’s district) from ’96-’02 before losing to Republican Marty Golden, and proceeded to win the special election for Marty Golden’s city council seat in ’03.

He is a Brooklynite, and in the Daily News article offers that as a reason for his run, “saying he doesn’t believe the “myth” that a candidate from outside Staten Island can’t win.” I would suggest that the fact that he’s term-limited out of the council in ’09 is probably his real reason behind an unlikely run. Although his prior career as a prosecutor may make him a good match for the district, where lots of policemen live and “tough on crime” attitudes were what made Donovan so attractive a candidate for the GOP.

I don’t know too much about his politics – he did support the corrupt homophobe Noach Dear for Civil Court Judge despite the fact that Dear was not licensed to practice law, lumping him together in the same undesirable company of some other Brooklyn pols such as Marty Markowitz and former NY-13 candidate Domenic Recchia.

http://www.dailygotham.com/blo…

Anyway, I doubt he’s particularly progressive or electable given geography and associations – so I guess we’re still waiting on the two Michaels – McMahon and Cusick – to figure out which one is gonna run.