SSP Daily Digest: 8/3 (Afternoon Edition)

CO-Sen: Now it’s Michael Bennet’s turn to dip into his personal funds to pay for the closing days of the Democratic Senate primary. After Andrew Romanoff posted a lead in the most recent poll of the primary (and sold his house to finance his last push), now Bennet’s fronting himself $300K. Here’s some good news, though, if Romanoff does succeed in pulling off the upset: he’s reversed course on his previous refusals of DSCC help (seemingly aware of the difficulty of winning without it, with him having burned through all his money on the primary). Meanwhile, on the GOP side of the fence, John McCain is providing some good news! for Jane Norton. He’ll be stumping on her behalf soon, and also sent around a fundraising e-mail, asking for another $200K for Norton and attacking Ken Buck’s past prosecutorial misconduct. (Buck responded by saying that McCain and “his lobbyist friends” were “greasing the power brokers” for Norton. “Greasing the power brokers?” I’m not even sure what that means, and I don’t know if I want to.)

PA-Sen: Diarist cilerder86 does some digging into Joe Sestak’s Act Blue contributions, and finds that his fundraising isn’t letting up at all. In fact, based on Act Blue data (which seems to have a stable relationship with his overall fundraising), he extrapolates Sestak having raised at least $1.1 million in July, and on track to raise at least $3 million this quarter.

CO-Gov: It looks like John Hickenlooper had the right idea emptying his coffers to reserve cheap ad space and hope they’d get refilled quickly, because they did. Of course, it helps that he got a big assist from Scott McInnis’s well-timed implosion. Hickenlooper’s pre-primary report had $203K raised in the last two weeks of July, compared with $41K for McInnis and $20K for fellow GOPer Dan Maes.

GA-Gov: With Barack Obama speaking in Atlanta, Dem nominee Roy Barnes managed to be found in a totally different part of the state, meeting in rural Monroe County with 28 county sheriffs who are supporting his candidacy at a previously-scheduled engagement. Barnes said, “I’d rather be with these folks, if you want to know the truth. I’m not running for governor of Washington D.C. I’m running for governor of Georgia.”

HI-Gov: Mufi Hannemann is the money leader in the Hawaii governor’s race. He raised $822K in the first half of the year, and is sitting on $2 million CoH. Democratic primary rival Neil Abercrombie raised $712K in that period, but spent considerably, leaving him with only $469K CoH. Republican Duke Aiona raised $374K in the first half, and has $719K CoH.

MI-Gov: There’s word of one more poll out in Michigan of the Dem gubernatorial primary. Details are, well, sketchy; all I can tell you is that it’s from a firm I’ve never heard of, Foster McCollum White & Associates, and I have no idea whether it’s a public poll or an internal from Virg Bernero or an ally. At any rate, it’s more evidence for a late Bernero surge, giving him a 50-22 lead over Andy Dillon.

MA-10: With most of the attention having fallen on the flawed Republican candidates in this open seat race, it’s easy to forget there’s still a competitive Democratic primary between two well-established fixtures here too. State Sen. Robert O’Leary has the lead in his own internal poll, conducted by Gerstein-Agne. He leads Norfolk Co. DA William Keating 44-38, with a 57-38 lead among voters who know both candidates.

NY-25: Dueling internals got rolled out in the 25th, which is pretty low on people’s priority lists in New York, but still needs to be watched carefully, given the climate of the day. Republican challenger Ann Marie Buerkle (one of the more obscure Mama Grizzlies) offered a poll from McLaughlin & Associates giving Democratic incumbent Dan Maffei a 46-37 lead (and closer numbers among those who’ve heard of both). Maffei responded with a Kiley & Co. poll giving him a 54-35 lead instead.

Rasmussen:

AZ-Sen: Rodney Glassman (D) 34%, John McCain (R-inc) 53%

AZ-Sen: Rodney Glassman (D) 43%, J.D. Hayworth (R) 38%

CO-Gov: John Hickenlooper (D) 43%, Scott McInnis (R) 25%, Tom Tancredo (I) 24%

CO-Gov: John Hickenlooper (D) 42%, Dan Maes (R) 27%, Tom Tancredo (I) 24%

NY-Sen-B: Kirsten Gillibrand (D-inc) 50%, Joe DioGuardi (R) 33%

NY-Sen-B: Kirsten Gillibrand (D-inc) 48%, Bruce Blakeman (R) 34%

NY-Sen-B: Kirsten Gillibrand (D-inc) 51%, David Malpass (R) 31%

SC-Sen: Alvin Greene (D) 20%, Jim DeMint (R-inc) 62%