• IL-Sen: Tempted by Lisa Madigan’s titanic poll numbers against all comers, and her public statement of reconsidering the Senate race, the DSCC has started actively courting Madigan to get into the Senate race. This news comes from Madigan herself, who still maintains that her main focus is the governor’s race (but, if you read the fine print, seems to be firing warning shots across Chris Kennedy’s bow to keep him from jumping into the Senate race). Madigan’s interest can’t be good news for Alexi Giannoulias, especially as concerns over his handling of the state college savings program are taking a bit of the bloom off his rose.
• FL-Sen: Movement conservatives are tying themselves in knots trying to decide how to react to apostate Charlie Crist’s entry into the Senate race in Florida. The Club for Growth gave a tepid reaction, saying that Crist can still redeem himself by opposing the tax hikes proposed in the new state budget. On the other hand, Grover Norquist, the CfG’s patron saint, sounded a note of realpolitik, saying that Crist may be the best candidate “in Florida.” The conservative blogosphere, however, isn’t giving an inch, trying to organize a boycott on giving funds to the NRSC after John Cornyn weighed in on Crist’s behalf.
• MN-Sen: Norm Coleman is getting buried under legal bills, and not all of them are related to his tiresome contesting of Al Franken’s election. He just requested for FEC permission to start tapping his campaign funds for defense attorney fees related to allegations that sketchy Coleman benefactor Nasser Kazeminy was funneling payouts to Coleman through Coleman’s wife. Would GOP donors be willing to keep funding Coleman if they knew their donations were going to his defense attorneys and not the futile Franken fight? That hasn’t stopped Coleman’s Senate friends from continuing to solicit donations for him, as compiled in this video.
• MO-Sen: Rep. Roy Blunt pulled down a couple of expected but important endorsements in his quest to become Missouri’s next Senator: Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, the last member of Missouri’s House Republicans to get behind him, and Sen. Kit Bond, whose seat Blunt is looking to fill.
• OH-15: Ohio voters may get the chance to add even more Steves to their House delegation. Former GOP state Sen. Steve Stivers, who narrowly lost the open seat race in OH-15 to Mary Jo Kilroy last year, is contemplating another shot at the race, with lots of urging from John Boehner. (Ex-Rep. Steve Chabot is already committed to a rematch against Rep. Steve Driehaus in nearby OH-01.)
• SC-02: Speaking of rematches, backbench GOP Rep. Joe Wilson will have to face off again versus Iraq vet Rob Miller, who held Wilson to a surprising 54-46 margin in 2008 without DCCC help. Miller should be able to count on a higher-profile run this time.
• Mayors: City councilor Jim Suttle squeaked past Republican Hal Daub (former mayor and Representative) to hold the open Omaha mayor’s seat for Democrats. (The position is officially nonpartisan, but the race was fought along clearly partisan lines, which favored Suttle as Democrats hold a 44-33 registration edge within the city.) Suttle won by 1,500 votes, by a 51-49 margin.
“A new Dartmouth College poll shows Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) narrowly beating two Republican opponents in next year’s U.S. Senate race in New Hampshire.
Hodes edges former Rep. Charlie Bass (R-NH), 31% to 30% with 39% undecided, and tops former Sen. John Sununu (R-NH), 38% to 35% with 27% undecided.”
Sununu looks DOA.
Norm Coleman feels now that his political career is officially on welfare, since he seems to be no longer self sustaining it financially. Kind of ironic since Republicans are usually anti-welfare, but it’s not surprising since they seem to be backtracking on a lot of their core beliefs these last few years (i.e. massive gov’t spending, ownership of corporations, etc…)
Dem wins by an inch.
The DSCC shouldn’t be trying to get Madigan into the Senate race. Any credible Democrat could beat Burris in the primary and win the general. They should let Madigan run for governor and Giannoulias run for Senate.
on broadcast TV in the New York DMA. He’s running as a “real conservative” against income tax.
It would be awesome if he won the Republican primary.
I first started regular posting here at the height of the primary wars when MyDD and Kos became unreadable. I have just been reading through some of the comments at Kos. Particularly, with regard to the decision to withold release of the torture photographs. It is sad to say that I am now experiencing similar feelings to this time last year. To say I was horrified with some of the comments would be an understatement. What are they thinking? I can only feel their hatred of Bush/Cheney et al is clouding their judgment. They cannot see the wood for the trees. Basically, I just wanted to get that off my chest on my return to grownup country. It is a true pleasure to be part of this community. Thank you. That is all.
I wondered why this diary had so many damn comments on it. lol Good ol’ torture talk. To all my fellow nerds out there, all I will say is, “There are FOUR lights!!” If you know what that means, you know where I stand.