SSP Daily Digest: 5/12

  • MO-Sen: Law professor Tom Schweich has publicly floated running for the Missouri GOP Senate nomination. Schweich used to be John Danforth’s chief of staff and was Ambassador for counternarcotics in Afghanistan in the Bush administration. Interestingly, the main motivation for his run that he’s putting out there is the fear (nay, likelihood) that Roy Blunt would lose the general election and that he (as sort of a Danforth proxy) offers a more appealing figure.

  • VA-Gov: Former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe, who’s been demonstrating a lot of momentum in the polls lately, got another big boost: he picked up the endorsement of the SEIU today.

  • NM-Gov: New Mexico’s only current statewide Republican elected official, Land Commissioner Pat Lyons, was a rumored gubernatorial candidate, especially since he’s term-limited out of his current job. In an indication of how popular the GOP brand is in New Mexico right now, Lyons decided to pass on the open seat race, instead running for an open position on New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission.

  • FL-Gov: I hadn’t even considered, with Charlie Crist bolting from Tallahassee, that Jeb! Bush might seek a return engagement as governor. After a Draft Jeb website popped up, Bush politely declined, saying that he will instead “continue to play a constructive role in the future of the Republican Party.”

  • OH-Auditor: David Pepper (D), a Hamilton Co. Commissioner (and former Cinci Councilor/Cinci mayoral candidate who lost by a hair in 2005) is going to run against Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor (R). This is a crucial office because it controls a seat on the Ohio Reapportionment Board (which draws state legislative seats) and the GOP will be making a serious run at the open Secretary of State position that Jennifer Brunner is vacating (which also determines a seat on the board). Taylor says that she will announce whether she’ll run for re-election or in the GOP primary against Rob Portman for Senate later this week. (J)

  • NH-01: Manchester mayor Frank Guinta has been acting like a candidate for a long time, but finally had his official kickoff event yesterday. Guinta hit every note in the libertarian book, singing the praises of tea baggers, criticizing the stimulus package, and saying that EFCA is “blatantly against” New Hampshire’s “live free or die” mentality.

  • IL-06: Lost in the IL-Sen shuffle is Rep. Peter Roskam, who had occasionally been mentioned as a candidate for that (or governor). Roskam says it’s “increasingly less likely” that he’ll run for higher office, and seek to stay put instead.

  • NRCC: The NRCC has launched a new wave of radio ads against theoretically vulnerable Dems in nine districts, still harping on the stimulus package, trying to tie them to John Murtha and his “airport for no one” (riffing on the “bridge to nowhere,” I suppose). Targets were Vic Snyder (AR-02), Mark Schauer (MI-07), Travis Childers (MS-01), Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01), Harry Teague (NM-02), Mike Arcuri (NY-24), Larry Kissell (NC-08), Kurt Schrader (OR-05), and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD-AL).

  • Mayors: Yet more mayoral elections in the news. Today, it’s Omaha, where there’s a faceoff between Democrat Jim Suttle and Republican Hal Daub (a former mayor and former Representative) to replaced retiring Dem mayor Mike Fahey. A recent poll had Daub up 42-39, but there may be a Democratic trend at work in Omaha (as seen in Obama’s victory in NE-02).

73 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 5/12”

  2. That’s very good news.  He’d be very hard to beat.  Thankfully he seems happy making boatloads of cash in the private sector.

  3. Unfortunately, I don’t live in a (politically) hot district, but…do people who do live in hot districts ever get tired of wave after wave of political ads?

    I guess I’m just wondering, how much effect does the NRCC doing this really have?

  4. aside from Indiana, was pretty much a bust for Democrats in the midwest. In 2008 though we picked up three Ohio seats, inculding two we’d come heartbreakingly clsoe to iwnning in 2006. Then we picked up two close races in Michigan, and won two new seats in Illinois and falling short in 2006.

  5. 1.  Does anyone know why Roy Blunt did not run for/win reelection as House Minority Whip?  I was shocked to see Eric Cantor on Day 1 of the 111th Congress as Whip, and I never could find out a reason why Blunt dropped the job.

    2.  What are the chances that Sink gets into the Gov race, and if she does not, who will we root for?

  6. A good reason to vote against Jeb would be his policies, not his last name as some might instinctively do. I hope nobody, in either party, tries to use his particular relative against him. I think itd actually backfire. Alot of voters would be like, ‘I have a less than desirable relative myself, so what are you saying about ME?’. Indeed, many have brothers and fathers and even sons in prison, or have been in prison, but it doesnt make them a bad guy just because their relative might be. Sorry if im making too big a deal out of this, im just someone who likes to judge someone on their own merits. And, with that said, while Im sure hes done some good for FL (particularly with dealing with hurricanes), Jeb Bush would be far from my first choice as Pres. (coming from an independent voter)

  8. http://publicpolicypolling.blo…

    Vote Wisconsin! I would love to see the matchups in both the Senate and Gov races there, I haven’t seen any yet. The rest are either been there done that, or not as relevant. Should be interesting to see if Feingold is vulnerable, and to see how close the Gov race is…

  11. Jim Suttle is ahead by a mere 132 votes with over 40,000 cast:

    Hal Daub – Nonpartisan   49.6% 19,848

    Jim Suttle – Nonpartisan   49.9% 19,980

    Not sure how many precincts are in, the site says zero. The first round had about 46,000 voters.

  13. According to politics1 again, Huckabee is criticizing the “listening tour” being headed by Cantor, Palin (more craven than ideological, heh), Jindal, Romney, Haley Barbour (since when did he get into the mix), and Jeb Bush (…what?).

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