SSP Daily Digest: 4/8

• IL-05: Congratulations to our newest House member, Mike Quigley. The Cook County Commissioner won the special election in this safe Dem seat last night, defeating GOPer Rosanna Pulido 70-24 (with the balance going to Green Party candidate Matt Reichel). (There were only about 34,000 votes cast in this election, compared with about 58,000 in the primary, since that’s where all the action was.)

• AK-Sen: Gov. Sarah Palin will not be challenging Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the 2010 senate primary; in fact, she’ll be assisting Murkowski with raising money (despite simmering tensions between the two factions). It remains to be seen whether she’ll be running for re-election as governor in 2010, or bailing out after one term to focus on the 2012 presidential race (which, geographically speaking, is hard to do from Alaska).

• VA-Gov: If there’s one thing Terry McAuliffe is good at, it’s raising money. He raked in $4.2 million in the first quarter for his gubernatorial campaign. He started April with $2.5 million CoH as the race heads toward the June 9 primary.

• IA-Gov: With Iowa’s Supreme Court having effectively made same-sex marriages legal, the 2010 governor’s race could turn into a proxy referendum on the issue (with Gov. Chet Culver unwilling to amend the state constitution to block the courts). And this may draw a higher-profile challenger to the race: nutty GOP Rep. Steve King, whose name has been occasionally associated with this race, says the sudden rise of this issue makes him “more likely” to enter the race.

• GA-Gov: As noted by fitchfan28 in diaries, state House minority leader Dubose Porter has thrown his hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination for Georgia governor. He joins AG Thurbert Baker and former SoS David Poythress as announced candidates, with former governor Roy Barnes scoping out the race as well.

• NJ-12: Rush Holt may receive a credible challenge in 2010, from Fair Haven mayor Mike Halfacre, who just filed exploratory paperwork. Fair Haven is in Republican-leaning Monmouth County; the district as a whole, though, is blue, if not overwhelming so (Obama won 58-41).

• EFCA: In the wake of yesterday’s announcement that Blanche Lincoln would oppose EFCA’s current form, two more moderate Dem wafflers got off the fence in favor of EFCA (or, more technically, in favor of cloture): Mark Udall and Mark Warner. Campaign Diaries has a very handy head count, indicating that possible passage is still very close, and an unpacked version of the bill (for instance, containing the binding arbitration portion, leaving ‘card check’ for another year) may still be passed.

• CfG: With Pat Toomey about to leave the helm of the Club for Growth to pursue his senate bid against Arlen Specter, they need someone new to wave the sword for the circular firing squad. Looks like the job may fall to yet another ex-Rep who brought the crazy to a swing district, Chris Chocola. (Chocola got bounced from IN-02 in 2006 by Joe Donnelly.)

• Omaha-Mayor: In last night’s Omaha mayoral all-party primary election, former GOP Rep. Hal Daub (himself a former Omaha mayor) squeaked into first place with 35.6% of the vote to Democratic concilman Jim Suttle’s 34.3%. Republican Councilman Jim Vokal came in third, picking up 28.2% of the vote. New Nebraska Network’s Kyle Michaelis argues that despite the Republican candidates picking up more votes overall, Daub’s weak finish is not a good sign for his chances in the general election. (J)

53 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 4/8”

  1. He’d get his ass kicked, western IA is the remaining part of the state that is still Wingnutistan, the rest being at least fairly sane…

  3. It’s a state that has been slowly trending our way.  Who is our candidate should Palin not run for governor?  Please not Knowles again or Begich.

  5. Quigley’s easy win demonstrates how strongly Democratic  House districts in the city of Chicago are.  Meanwhile, in Chicago’s suburbs, Republicans Kirk, Roskam, and Biggert hang on in districts carried by Obama.  This suggests strongly that Democrats could oust all three Republican with newly drawn lines that don’t waste so many Democrats in the inner city districts.  This could happen in 2012, but only if Democrats still control the governorship.

  6. Is there anyone else here who’s practically puking in trashcans over NY-20? I for one have spent the entire day refreshing PolitickerNY, TPM, and the NY BoE website, trying not to become manifestly overwhelmed with the anxiety that stems from being behind 17 stinking votes.

  7. very good news. Daub was supposed to do much better then that.  Suttle now has a very good shot. After all, he’s not Subtle about Omaha (actual joke used in all of his campaign ads).

    Also Democrat Chris Jerrem made it to the second round for Vokal’s seat. He’s got a good shot to beat his crazy Republican opponent which would pick us up a seat on the council.

  9. http://www.politico.com/news/s…

    Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is urging Florida Republicans to send delegates who “look like Florida” to the next GOP National Convention.

    “Could you help a brother out? No more national conventions with 36 people of color in the room,” Steele told fellow Republicans on Monday, according to the Miami Herald.

    “Please send some folks to the convention that look like Florida,” he implored.

    Steele told Republicans that it was “time to get busy” and fight back against Democrats who have been building on a voter registration edge in Florida.

    “We want to turn around those voter registration numbers. We want to turn around the turnout. And we want to keep Florida competitive for the Republican Party and not cede any ground, any area or any vote to the Democrats,” he said.

    Steele declined to weigh in on the prospects of Republican Gov. Charlie Crist running for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).

    “Whatever the governor decides to do, I wish him well,” Steele said.

  10. According to http://www.thealbanyproject.com, Murphy has just picked up 33 votes to regain the lead by 15!  Delaware County (carried by Tedisco) completed counting their absentees, and Murphy picked up a net of 20.  Murphy also gained 13 in Dutchess County where they are still counting.

  11. The first round of elections to replace Mark Begich resulted in a runoff between Republican Dan Sullivan and Democrat Eric Croft:

    Dan Sullivan 21,362 43.06%

    Eric Croft 9,639 19.43%

    Sheila Selkregg 8,204 16.54%

    Walt Monegan 4,380 8.83%

    Matt Claman 2,859 5.76%

    Paul Honeman 2,306 4.65%

    Paul D. Kendall 121 0.24%

    Dominic S.F. Lee 120 0.24%

    Billy Ray Powers 113 0.23%

    Phil Isley 101 0.20%

    Bob Lupo 74 0.15%

    Jacob Seth Kern 67 0.14%

    Larry Shooshanian 44 0.09%

    Richard Wanda 41 0.08%

    Merica Hlatcu 40 0.08%

    Sullivan needed a 45% plurality to win outright.

    Incidentally, the acting mayor was Matt Claman, in 5th place. And yes, that is the Walt Monegan.

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