SSP Daily Digest: 4/15 (Morning Edition)

  • CT-Sen: It looks like Dick Blumenthal, who hasn’t run a competitive race in 20 years, has a lot of rust to shed on the campaign trail. An NYT article paints an unflattering portrait of Blumenthal’s political skills, describing his long-winded and legalistic answers to simple questions, and a flop in a debate against an unknown primary opponent. (Please tell me why Blumenthal’s campaign team consented to a debate against Merrick Alpert in the first place?) None of this is making me feel very good.
  • KY-Sen: Heh – from the king of fuck-yous comes a final hurrah: Retiring Sen. Jim Bunning is endorsing weirdo Rand Paul in the Republican primary to succeed him, snubbing establishment pick Trey Grayson. Considering that Bunning was shoved aside very much against his will to make way for Grayson, this last knife-twist makes sense.
  • NY-Sen-B: Here’s one clear reason why Kirsten Gillibrand has scared off legions of opponents, including George Pataki: She raked in another $1.6 million in the first quarter, bringing her total raised since she became a senator to $8.8 million. No word on her cash-on-hand yet, though.
  • OH-Sen: Dem Lee Fisher’s Q1 haul doesn’t look too pretty – just $550K, and with only $1.8 million on hand, and his warchest will undoubtedly shrink heading into his primary with SoS Jennifer Brunner (Fisher just went up with an introductory TV ad). For her part, Brunner hasn’t released her numbers yet. (GOPer Rob Portman has $7.6 million on hand.)
  • FL-Gov: Yowza. Republican rich guy Rick Scott, who appeared on the gubernatorial scene out of nowhere just days ago, says he’ll spend $1.5 million of his own money on a statewide TV and radio ad buy this week. Is he trying to Meg Whitman his way into contention?
  • PA-12: The NRCC has spent another $50K on media on behalf of Tim Burns. The D-Trip hasn’t laid out any cash here yet.
  • TN-08: We noted in a previous digest that Rob Kirkland has been filing independent expenditures on behalf of his brother, Ron Kirkland, who is in the midst of a competitive GOP primary to replace retiring Rep. John Tanner. The two claim they are no longer communicating (if they did, they’d be violating the no-coordination rules required for IEs), but a local attorney (who is supporting another campaign, but won’t tell which) says he doesn’t buy it and has filed a complaint with the FEC.
  • WATN?: This is very good news: President Obama has nominated former Rep. Don Cazayoux to be U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana. Here’s hoping he is swiftly confirmed. Cazayoux is only 46, so this post would put him in great position to stage a return to electoral politics some day, if he so chooses.

    • 63 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 4/15 (Morning Edition)”

    3. Deadline is today, of course. Here are some early-morning filers:

      DE-AL:

      John Carney (D) – $253k raised, $675k on hand

      HI-01:

      Charles Djou (R) – $298k raised, $492k on hand

      IN-08:

      Trent VanHaaften (D) – $166k raised, $146k on hand

      IN-09:

      Mike Sodrel (R) – $177k raised, $110k on hand

      MA-10:

      William Keating (D) – $123k raised, $121k on hand

      MD-01:

      Andy Harris (R) – $315k raised, $704k on hand

      MI-01:

      Connie Saltonstall (D) – $105k raised + $15k loan, $120k on hand

      NJ-09 (yeah, seriously):

      John Aslanian (R) – $3k + $250k loan, $208k on hand

      NM-01:

      Martin Heinrich (D) – $300k raised, $1.04m on hand

      NY-04:

      Frank Scaturro (R) – $99k raised, $184k on hand

      NY-18:

      Paul Stuart Wasserman (R) – $73k raised + $181k loans, $230k on hand

      NY-20:

      Chris Gibson (R) – $108k raised, $92k on hand

      NY-25:

      Ann Buerkle (R) – $102k raised + $15k loans, $102k on hand

      OH-12:

      Pat Tiberi (R) – $368k raised, $1.5m on hand

      PA-10:

      Chris Carney (D) – $235k raised, $665k on hand

      SC-05:

      John Spratt (D) – $207k raised, $824k on hand

      SD-AL:

      Chris Nelson (R) – $34k raised, $44k on hand (I generally ignore challengers that raise less than six figures a quarter, but this is the guy Scott has tied with Herseth-Sandlin!)

      UT-02:

      Morgan Philpot (R) – $15k raised, $7k on hand (and this is supposed to be the frontrunner to take on Jim Matheson.)

      VA-02:

      Scott Rigell (R) – $408k raised, $620k on hand

      VA-10:

      Jeff Barnett (D) – $127k raised, $95k on hand

      WA-03:

      Denny Heck (D) – $204k raised + $150k loan, $532k on hand

    6. http://www.wigderson.com/index…

      Ted, a retiring State Senator, is ‘movement conservative.’

      He should change his name first. Announcing that he’d oppose our medical marijuana bill a few months ago , he said it would “send the wrong message to our youth. What message would his yard signs send? That his ancestors were Cannabis farmers? (Kanavas is an archaic spelling.)

    8. That is pretty worrisome.  Knowing when you actually need to debate an opponent is pretty much Campaign Managing 101.

    9. On the one hand, he is fairly unpopular (which is the reason he’s retiring in the first place), but on the other he is still the incumbent GOP Senator. His approval ratings among Republicans might shed some light, but we really want to know what his effect on undecided GOP primary voters is. I’m guessing that they’re likely to be lower information vote. What would a low information voter’s opinion of Bunning be? Are his troubles that well known?  

    10. I’m not bullish on his prospects, but teabag-friendly state Sen. Dennis Pyle is primarying Republican Lynn Jenkins from the right.

      http://cjonline.com/news/local…

      FYI- Dems still don’t have a particularly strong candidate, although rural community banker Cheryl Hudspeth is now at least in the race.

    13. We’re gonna lose Delaware and North Dakota.

      We’re gonna hold everywhere else and gain Ohio, Kentucky, Florida and New Hampshire.

      We stand an outside chance of losing Illinois.

      Which would put us back at…60!

      Wow, I’m good.

    14. Case was asked by the Honolulu Advertiser to state why

      people should vote for him.  He called himself a moderate independent Democrat:

      Independent because I reject allegiance to or control by any party or person or special interests and believe my only obligation is to all the people.

      http://www.honoluluadvertiser….

      He rejects allegiance to any party?  This guy could switch parties at the drop of a hat if he thought it would further his political career.  Yet the DCCC can’t get enough of him.

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