• AR-Sen: Could Arkansas even handle one more Republican in its Senate field, without the entire state collapsing into a singularity? Looks like we’ll find out, as former state Sen. Tim Jim Holt says he’s considering a rematch. Holt, you’ll recall, was Lincoln’s 2004 opposition, coming within 56-44 while running a low-budget, socially conservative campaign.
• AZ-Sen, AZ-Gov: The Cronkite-Eight Poll (conducted by Arizona St. Univ.) finds that AG Terry Goddard is in great shape against incumbent Republican Gov. Jan Brewer; Goddard wins the matchup 47-28. They don’t test any other potential matchups (including the Joe Arpaio possibility, which is suddenly on people’s minds). They also have good news! for John McCain, who beats the unlikely-to-run ex-Gov. Janet Napolitano 50-41. They don’t test the potential McCain/J.D. Hayworth primary. And speaking of Hayworth, I may have been more right than I thought about that throwaway “grifting” comment yesterday. Hayworth has been soliciting donations to pay down his campaign debt, but a quick look at the FEC’s 2008 termination report for Hayworth’s campaign indicates $0 CoH and $0 debt.
• MA-Sen: Rasmussen’s newest poll of the Massachusetts Senate primary shows the closest race that anyone has seen — although AG Martha Coakley is still in pole position. She’s at 36%, followed by Rep. Michael Capuano at 21 (about where he was in the recent Globe poll) and Stephen Pagliuca at 14. The big gainer here (and where the chunk of Coakley votes may have gone) is Alan Khazei, who hasn’t broken out of single digits before but is now also at 14.
• NY-Sen-B: I see lots of weird rumors in my day-to-day work here, and this one is among the weirdest: it has ex-Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (of Tennessee) considering running against Kirsten Gillibrand in the New York senate primary. Ford has been living in New York for the last few years (and is currently an executive at Merrill Lynch — not exactly a good political launching pad these days), so his run would at least be legal, but it’s not clear whether he has the name rec among anyone but news junkies to overcome his lack of roots there. Glenn Thrush actually sources the whole thing to a comment from Democratic Underground, of all places, from a person claiming to have been polled by Ford. Also, a sort-of famous name was considering running as a Republican in the Senate race, but just decided against it: Theodore Roosevelt IV, a wealthy investment banker and environmentalist who sounds, like his great-grandpappy, like he doesn’t have much in common with today’s Republicans.
• VA-Gov: T-Mac may yet be back. Terry McAuliffe is in a high-profile effort to lure a factory to southern Virginia, suggesting to some that he’s trying to remain in Virginia politics, trying to build up chits in the rural parts of the state with an eye toward a 2013 run.
• KS-03: Roll Call highlights a powwow held by the Kansas GOP for potential candidates in the open seat race in the 3rd, and list a few more names that we haven’t heard yet. In addition to likely frontrunner ex-state Sen. Nick Jordan, also present were attorney Greg Musil, former county commission candidate Charlotte O’Hara, state Sen. Karin Brownlee, and state GOP chair Amanda Adkins. State Rep. Kevin Yoder is also running for the GOP, and state Sen. Jeff Colyer and surgeon Steve Reintjes are also listed as GOP possibilities.
• NC-04: We may have a winner for the worst-designed candidate website of all time, from Republican George Hutchins, running against Rep. David Price in the safe 4th. It looks like he ate a lot of pictures of Ronald Reagan and then vomited them all over a flag.
• NJ-03: Former Philadelphia Eagle Jon Runyan confirmed that he’ll be running against freshman Dem Rep. John Adler. Strangely, though, he doesn’t have any immediate plans to start fundraising or hitting the ground in the district; instead, he’s starting a new job. He’ll be playing for the San Diego Chargers for the rest of the season. Maybe his plan is to put all the money he earns toward his campaign, but it doesn’t seem like the right way to get off on the right foot.
• NY-23: So, maybe ACORN didn’t steal the election after all. Doug Hoffman has, by my estimation, now re-re-conceded (after two unconcessions), saying he won’t challenge the election results or ask for a recount, and that the final count of absentee ballots “reaffirm the fact that Bill Owens won.” Hoffman promises to stay active in politics; let’s hope he’s as effective in the campaign in 2010 as he was in the election’s aftermath this year.
• WV-03: Another long-time Democrat in a newly-Republican-leaning Appalachian district is facing a challenge instead of usual free path to re-election, but this time it’s a challenge from a fellow elected Dem. State Rep. Ralph Rodighiero has filed a pre-candidacy to run against Rep. Nick Rahall, who’s been in the House since the 1970s. Rodighiero sounds like he’s running at the behest of coal industry figures; although Rahall voted against cap and trade, the Natural Resources chair has tried to strike more of a balance on environmental issues than they might prefer (and with almost zero Republican bench in this district, this is their only foot in the door).
• IA-St. House: Dems held their own in a special election last night, retaining a Dem-controlled seat in Cedar Rapids. Democrat Kirsten Running-Marquardt got 75% of the vote against Republican Joshua Thurston in HD-33.
Republican State Senator Brad Zaun seeks to challenge Boswell.
http://blogs.desmoinesregister…
Some of the stuff on the republican NC-04 candidate’s website:
*Refers to himself as a proud Jesse Helms republican
*Constant attacks on the evils of the Civil Rights Act?!?!
*Constant references to “stopping Obama-nation socialists.”
*Proud “Tea Party member.”
*Supports Fox News
*Numerous attacks on RINOS who he accuses of massive voter fraud in 2008
This guy has to be the single worst candidate the GOP has come up with this election.
has a picture of him and Libby Dole on his website…because that’s who you want to be associated with while running in the Fourt District of North Carolina, Elizabeth freaking Dole. What, did she win like 35% in that district last year?
Why doesn’t he just put up a photo of himself passionately swooning over Bush and get it over it.
was Christopher Reed’s (the hapless GOP candidate against Tom Harkin last year). Unfortunately, it’s been taken down and I didn’t save screenshots. It was unbelievably bad.
What’s his constituency in a challenge against Gillibrand?
That is a really weird rumor.
Hutchins stands against FORCED RACIAL INTEGRATION and FORCED DIVERSITY, and believes the Civil Rights Act must be overturned in order to DEFEAT OBAMA-NATION.
Well…. alright?
It’s a very Democratic-leaning district in Cedar Rapids. The incumbent retired because of some family illness issues. Running-Marquardt is young but has been involved in politics for a long time, most recently working on Congressman Dave Loebsack’s staff in Linn County.
With her victory in the special election, Democrats retain a 56-44 majority in the Iowa House. However, we have a “six-pack” of corporate-friendly Dems who have blocked most pro-union legislation as well as tax reform.
And his positions are even crazier.
He is raising money to pay off legal bills associated with the DOJ investigation into his Ambramoff ties.
If you click on the “Fight Obama-Nation” nonsense on the left sidebar of the front page, you get treated to a blatantly and proudly racist page.
Both Michelle and Barack Obama are compared to characters in Sanford and Son, as well as Henry Louis Gates.
And then, believe it or not, there’s a youtube video of a minstrel show. And of course more denouncing of “forced diversity”.
Your modern day Southern GOP.
RT Rybak is officially kicking off his gubernatorial candidacy on Dec 6th at Varsity Theatre in Dinkytown, which is the neighborhood of the U of Minnesota Twin Cities (50k students.)
He was one of the first high-profile Minnesotans to endorse Obama during the primaries and now it’s pretty evident that he’s aiming for his niche to be the Obama niche. He’s building up his candidacy with college students, who are the main people who get involved in campaigns this early in the cycle. And then I imagine he’ll have a great appeal with also the college educated upper middle class demographic, much like Obama. This is definitely a winning strategy in MN as we have probably one of the highest college populations in the country in comparison to population as a whole.
Then with the college educated, upper middle class. Minneapolis/St Paul suburbs are known to have some of the highest ratios of college educated individuals in the country, and the upper middle class suburbs have trended Dem very quickly, Obama did extremely well out there, and no other candidate really has any natural gravitas to claim these voters.
Although I think Kelliher should be able to really well in the suburbs, she’s the only woman candidate with a shot at this thing so Im sure she’ll get a lot of support from suburban women.
ugh that website is terrible. Whats even worse is what’s written in in – the guy seriously says that the 1964 civil rights act is the worst piece of legislation ever. He wants to end desegregation!
I wonder how the race would change if it were just Coakley vs. Capuano. It’s possible that Pagliuca and Khazei are hurting one or the other disproportionately, although there doesn’t seem to be any intuitive evidence suggesting that they would take more from the other. Either way, if Coakley wins with below 50%, it’s a question that deserves to be asked.
“America is a Great Nation, due to our Diversity; but ONLY WHEN, This Diversity is VOLUNTARY.”
Raise your hand if you volunteered to be born as whatever sex, race, and ethnicity you are — kos
That’s a really weird rumor. I figure he’d run to Gillibrand’s right, and I don’t see how he could win on that basis.
Even though Republicans are playing nice now, I give it 3 months until the moderates and conservatives are at each others’ throats. One hopeful sign for Dems: I’ve counted only one moderate (State Rep. Kevin Yoder, although I’m not sure where Musil stands) interested in the seat. Dems have a good shot if one of the conservatives wins, especially Crazy-Eyes Colyer (with the possible exception of the conservative-but-not-crazy Jordan).
Of course, with only one moderate in the race and a ton of conservatives, a split vote could hand Yoder the nomination–and the seat.
…that McAuliffe would at least attempt the “I told you so” run in 2013. He’ll need to cultivate the known activists, but it’s not like he has a full plate these days.
From CQ Politics: Rating Change: NRCC Takes Spratt to the Mat:
Do you really think Spratt could be in trouble for supporting increased health coverage for his constituents?
I haven’t seen any comments on this item so far.
He’s certainly sufficiently extremist for today’s Republican Party. I think that, should he end up as the Republican nominee, he would lose in a tremendous landslide. His divisive vindictiveness would be the perfect foil for Obama’s inclusiveness and openness to diverging lifestyles and viewpoints.
completely by Gillibrand. He was an awful congressman. I’d know because I lived in his district. Steve Cohen is a 1000xs better. He really communicates with his constituents. And T Mac? Well, he couldn’t do worse than Creigh Deeds. At least I don’t think.
http://publicpolicypolling.blo…
I voted for Illinois. We haven’t seen any primary polls that are not internal. Kinda interested to see what attacks have done to Kirk and Alexi.
Who knew you didn’t even need an invitation to attend the White House state dinner? That could have been ME posing for pictures with the President and Vice-President!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITI…
Republican mayor Liz Feld of Larchmont NY in Westchester County may be considering a senate run against Gillibrand-
http://www.newsday.com/blogs/p…