SSP Daily Digest: 3/8 (Morning Edition)

  • FL-Sen: Appointed Republican Sen. George LeMieux apparently has no intention of being a mere seat-warmer. He’s carving out a pretty active profile, and the speculation is that he wants to take on Bill Nelson in 2012.
  • SC-Gov: The once-expansive Democratic gubernatorial primary in South Carolina has been whittled down even further with the exit of attorney/lobbyist Dwight Drake on Friday. We’re now essentially left with a two-way race between state Superintendent Jim Rex and state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, although underfunded state Sen. Robert Ford is also in the mix. (JL)
  • IN-04: Republican pollster Public Opinion Strategies has a pair of surveys out in two adjacent, dark red Hoosier State districts. The first poll, taken for Secretary of State Todd Rokita, has him at 40%, with a 50-6 approval rating. State Sen. Mike Young is in second place at 10%, and two other dudes are in single digits. Everyone tested apart from Rokita has sub-30% name ID. A ton of candidates have filed for this seat, and the primary is just two months away.
  • IN-05: Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Dan Burton is also brandishing a POS poll, this one showing him with 46% of the vote and no one else in double digits. Burton barely survived a challenge from Marion County coroner John McGoff in 2008 (winning 52-45), though I don’t think that internal looks all that great. McGoff is running again, but in Burton’s favor, so are five other dudes.
  • MA-10: State Sen. Robert O’Leary (D) is officially in the race to succeed Bill Delahunt. Many other Dems are likely to jump in, including Norfolk D.A. William Keating. State House Assistant Majority Leader Ronald Mariano is also weighing a run. Incidentally, we ran the numbers, and MA-10 is the most Irish district in America, at 33%. (The rest of the top ten: PA-07, MA-09, PA-13, PA-08, MA-06, NY-01, MA-07, NY-03, and NJ-01.)
  • NY-29: Politico reports that former Corning Mayor Tom Reed is becoming the consensus choice for the Republican Party. Seven of eight county chairs in the district have backed Reed, and these are the guys who will pick a nominee if there’s a special election. Considering that Reed hadn’t raised very much, and that other big names are now weighing the race, this is a somewhat surprising development.
  • TX-23: Ex-CIA spook Will Hurd, in a runoff with richie rich Quico Canseco, picked up the endorsement of the third-place finisher, physician Robert Lowery, who scored 22% in the first round of the Republican primary. 2008 nominee Lyle Larson, who himself beat Quico in a primary, also threw his support to Hurd.
  • Consultants: The Hotline has a monster-sized searchable database of consultants – you can see which consultants worked for which campaigns, or vice-versa, in several different specialties (polling, mail, media, etc.). Very cool.
  • Number Crunching: Did you know that Microsoft Excel 2010 Beta is available as a free download? A list of key new features is here.

    • 66 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 3/8 (Morning Edition)”

    1. …. if he were running against just one other challenger. He not only is facing off against “five other dudes,” but several top-shelf candidates.  Luke Messer is former head of the Republican Party in the state, Mike Murphy a well though of (in conservative circles) state Rep, Brose McVey gave Julia Carson her toughest re-election campaign in 2002, and Dr. McGoff, the former Marion County coroner.  Of course, the problem is that the are going to split the anti-Burton vote, and have started to get testy with each other — heads-up, I think any of them could beat him.

    2. http://rothenbergpoliticalrepo…

      This has relevance to another Ras poll from the past week or two, which found O’Malley up 49-43 in a rematch.  Not helpful to have another Guv seat in play, but I think we’ll hold this one by 5-10.  Maryland is so tough for the Republicans now.  It’s very blue and trending bluer, plus sharing the ticket with a shoo-in in Mikulski.  O’Malley seems to have recovered from shaky approvals early in his tenure.

    3. http://politicalwire.com/archi…

      So the Democrats are so desperate for a one-vote shift on healthcare that they engineered a story that cost them at least a negative news cycle.  OK Eric.  

      That said, the comment that Massa allegedly made sounds like bad locker room humor.  It does not necessarily suggest to me that he’s (a) gay or (b) actually coming on to the male staffer.  I guess I would have had to have been there and know Massa better to divine his intention.

    4. I love how Repubs keep shooting themselves in the foot here by beating up on Quico.  He is their best shot, and he keeps getting beaten by people who are not electable in this majority-minority district.  On its way to happening again.  Way to go, GOP!

    6. from the Politico story

      Several New York sources speculated that with his administration mired in scandal and the state in financial crisis, Paterson could wait until the fall to schedule an election that coincides with the already scheduled November ballot.

      The story suggests that the special election would take place 30-40 days after the proclamation.

      It’s a bit difficult for me to believe that Patterson (or whomever might be Gov in Sept) could wait that long to declare that seat vacant. Though I suppose that depends in part on the actual date of Massa’s resignation.

      If the NY Gov could wait that long, it would be helpful to have the D candidate running on the Cuomo/Schumer/Gillibrand coattails.

    9. Anyone here know anything about our field?  I’m not expecting them to be the most progressive Dems in the world, but how are they ideologically?

    Comments are closed.