• CA-10: Lt. Gov. John Garamendi’s candidacy for Ellen Tauscher’s old House seat received a boost this week from the editorial page of the San Francisco Chronicle.
• FL-Sen: The Corrine Brown for Senate exploratory train is chugging along, but Brown says that she’ll need to raise “several million dollars” to be seen as a legitimate contender. The longtime Democratic lawmaker says that she hopes to raise $500,000 by the end of September.
• FL-13: A man who claims that he was coerced by business associates into making illegal donations to GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan and the Florida Republican Party says that key evidence was stolen from his home earlier this month. Police are investigating the burglary, and have sent unidentified DNA evidence to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for further analysis.
• IL-11: Joe Biden’s been on a tear lately, hosting fundraisers for vulnerable House Democrats as “part of a White House effort to safeguard about 70 House seats” targeted by the GOP. After helping out Florida Reps. Alan Grayson and Suzanne Kosmas earlier this week, Amtrak Joe made an appearance at a luncheon fundraiser yesterday for Debbie Halvorson, who’s being challenged by upstart Iraq Vet and ex-McLean County Commissioner Adam Kinzinger.
• LA-Sen: When asked, by a constituent, why he favors prescription drug re-importation from “countries that have socialized medicine”, GOP Sen. David Vitter responded by saying that his goal was for re-importation to “implode” Canada’s cheaper perscription drug regime by swamping it with excess demand from the States. David Vitter sure is one breathtakingly cynical son of a bitch.
• NV-Sen, NV-01: Las Vegas Rep. Shelley Berkley says that she would “take a good look” at a run against disgraced GOP Sen. John Ensign in 2012, but she wouldn’t be eager to give up her safe seat and committee assignments in the House. Needless to say, if Ensign does try for a third term next cycle, I don’t think his non-aggression pact with Harry Reid can stop a serious Democratic opponent from emerging.
• NY-Lt. Gov: Bummer for David Paterson. A four-justice panel from the Second Judicial Department of the Appellate Division unanimously decided that his appointment of Richard Ravitch as the state’s Lt. Governor was unconstitutional. The panel did grant leave for the case to be argued before the Court of Appeals, but it’s not expected that Paterson will find that court, which is still dominated by Pataki appointees, to be a friendlier venue for his arguments.
• TN-04, TN-06: GOP Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Lynn Westmoreland touched down in Tennessee earlier this week to meet with prospective challengers to two Democratic incumbents in reddening seats, Lincoln Davis and Bart Gordon. Rutherford County Republican Chairwoman Lou Ann Zelenik and state Sen. Jim Tracy are both in the mix for challenging Gordon, with Zelenik, who lost a primary race for a state legislative seat last year, “seriously, seriously considering” the race. Already challenging Lincoln Davis is South Pittsburg physician Scott DesJarlais, whom McCarthy and Westmoreland met with in order to screen him for fleas.
• UT-Sen, UT-03: GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz says that he’s “focused on the House” for now, but that didn’t stop him from registering ChaffetzForSenate.com. The freshman Chaffetz, who hasn’t ruled out a challenge to incumbent Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, says that he merely reserved the domain name (as well as similar URLs for several other offices) as a precautionary measure against cyber-squatters, and will make an announcement on his 2010 plans “shortly after the new year”. It looks like ChaffetzForZoningBoard.com and ChaffetzForDogcatcher.com are still available, though.
• WI-Gov: Milwaukee’s Democratic mayor, Tom Barrett, who was recently assaulted by a creep with a tire iron after he attempted to break up a domestic dispute at the state fair, is still staying mum on the question of whether or not he’ll run for Governor next year.
Maybe he’s just angry that diapers are cheaper in Canada?
So it’s pretty much settled, Paterson still has the “Espada option” threat in his quiver.
CQ has an article up about Congressmen who have raised significantly more or less during the past two reporting periods than they did during the same period last year. Most of the ones they name are pretty straightforward. But this one caught my eye: CT-01 rep John Larson (D) raised $463,000 more this cycle than he did last year, according to CQ. I went to the FEC page, and it’s true: Larson raised over $400,000 this quarter alone.
This seems very strange for a guy who’s No. 4 in the House leadership, who’s won his last three elections with over 70% of the vote, and who has no opposition yet for 2010. What’s Larson banking cash for? Is he preparing for a run at Rell, which would seem like an awfully tough fight even in the primary? Is he positioning himself as a fallback if Dodd retires? Is he trying to get a jump on the competition against Lieberman in 2012?
The Reid-Ensign non-aggression pact will be completely irrelevant if Reid manages to blow his own re-election in 2010, which he seems to be going out of his way to do. At this point, the GOP could recruit an actual zombie and it would probably win by default just because Reid has pissed off so much of his own base that if they turn out at all to defeat Gibbons, they’ll still leave the Senate race blank. If it’s an even modestly Republican year, I don’t see how he can win with a 30% approval rating when the GOP has anyone on the ballot at all. Throwing money at the problem doesn’t work when only the GOP grassroots are energized to begin with.
In other words, we could have one hell of an entertaining free-for-all for the Ensign seat in 2012, especially as he and Kyl are the only GOP incumbents left in that class worth challenging.
Now it is between Mallahan and McGinn. McGinn had an interesting coalition, with support from environmentalists who supported more public transportation and conservatives who were opposed to spending money on the tunnel. To win the runoff, he will have to become more than a one issue candidate.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c…
that Blanche Lincoln is going down.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blo…
It’s nice to see that Obama & Emanuel have found an excellent use for him.
But just please stick to the script, Joe, when making remarks.
Is another state moving away from us. I don’t mean to sound like a concern troll, but I’m nervous about TN-4 and TN-6. Obama cratered big time in both districts, and even at the state level they seem to be moving in the Repub direction. Even though Cook rates these districts as Solid D, those new R+13 PVIs are scary.
If the Reps are able to get a solid candidate in either district, look out.