Kind of a strange mash-up of topics in one post, but I think it makes sense, as sort of a roundup of Republican moderates in the news. On the one hand, you have a governor thinking about a senate seat and on the other hand you have an ex-senator thinking about a governor’s seat.
“The point was that I am not running for anything, so no one could threaten me, because I’m not running for Senate, I’m not running for Congress, I’m not running for another term as governor,” Schwarzenegger said.
Arnold Schwarzenegger gave his Shermanesque statement to the Sacramento Bee today, in the context of defending unpopular policy choices he seems about to make (probably involving tax hikes). This leaves Barbara Boxer with a pretty clear road to re-election (not that Arnold posed much of a threat anyway).
As Lincoln Chafee celebrates his 56th birthday today, a source tells WRNI that he has decided to run for governor in 2010, and will soon begin to assemble a campaign organization.
On the other hand, Lincoln Chafee seems ready to officially jump into the Rhode Island governor’s race as an independent, according to WRNI. As we discussed last week, both the Dem and GOP fields are unsettled right now as likely frontrunners David Ciccilline (for the Dems) and Steve Laffey (for the GOP) both bowed out… so this may actually begin with Chafee in the driver’s seat.
UPDATE (DavidNYC): With Arnold saying hasta la vista, baby to a senatorial run, we’re taking CA-Sen off of our Races to Watch list.
of the race that is. Isn’t it the AG who is the Dem front-runner?
Can Chafee clear 33% with a strong Democrat in the race? Republicans hate him, and Democrats backed one of their own the last time he was on the ballot.
Now this is some polling I’d love to see.
I was kind of looking forward to Ahhnold being humiliated in the election by diminutive Barbara Boxer (4’11” if Wikipedia is correct).