Campaign and Election News – Covering Key Races Around the Country
SSP Daily Digest: 4/22 (Morning Edition)
AR-Sen: Bill Halter and Blanche Lincoln are having a debate on Friday, and Politico’s Dave Catanese, one of the moderators, is asking for questions. Click the link to find his email address or Twitter account. Meanwhile, Blanche Lincoln, who has refused to return $4,500 she received from Goldman Sachs’s PAC, has cancelled a fundraiser with the firm.
CO-Sen: Struggling GOP front-runner Jane Norton has booted her top advisors in favor of some new names, including one which may sound a bit familiar: Josh Penry. He’s Norton’s new campaign manager… and also happens to be the sitting state Sen. Minority Leader who briefly ran for governor last year before getting pushed aside for ex-Rep. Scott McInnis. The Colorado legislative session is set to end soon (May 12), so maybe this won’t interfere too much with Penry’s day job.
IN-Sen: This is crappy even for John Hostettler, who usually makes the likes of Larry Kissell and Carol Shea-Porter look like fundraising champs: He raised just $37K since joining the race and has just $10K in the bank. Meanwhile, the hapless Dan Coats got an endorsement from fellow Hoosier Mike Pence, the third-ranking Republican in the House, presidential wannabe, and all-around moran.
WA-Sen: Though Dino Rossi has been largely dragging his feet about a run against Sen. Patty Murray, the DSCC is concerned enough that they supposedly have sent a squad of researchers to Washington to start digging up oppo. But wouldn’t Gov. Christine Gregoire, who beat Rossi twice, already have a mile-long file on him? Meanwhile, Teabagger King Jim DeMint says he won’t endorse anyone against Rossi if he gets in the race – and if anything, seems excited to give Rossi his support.
FL-08: The cast of characters running in the GOP primary in Florida’s 8th CD has been an ever-changing, tumultuous mix – and the field is about to get even more shook-up. Former State Sen. Daniel Webster, who said no to a run back in October, looks like he’s ready to change his mind and hop into the race after all. But while Webster might have cleared the field half a year ago, no one seems interested in bowing out for him now. We can only pray for cat fud galore.
Census: The nationwide census participation rate hit 71% earlier this week, just a point below the 2000 response rate, which officials say is unexpectedly high, given what they perceive as a growing mistrust of government. The Census Bureau had budgeted for a response rate of only 67%, so we’ve already saved $425 million.
Polling: Gallup has a new midterm-focused blog up and running called “2010 Central.”
Fundraising: CQ has a great chart compiling Senate fundraising numbers for Q1. SSP will have its usual House chart up at the end of this month.
Wall Street: Is financial regulation finally the issue that will let Dems find their mojo? Back to Dave Catanese again, who says that Paul Hodes, Lee Fisher and – believe it or not – Charlie Melancon are all bashing their opponents for standing in the way of Wall Street reform. Melancon’s cruddy voting record has made it hard for the DSCC to push out a coordinated message on most issues (he’s voted against a lot of big-ticket Dem legislation), but maybe now we can all speak with one voice on this topic.
NV-Sen: Who runs Bartertown? Sue Lowden runs Bartertown!
38 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 4/22 (Morning Edition)”
And she even made it worse by giving us more sound bites. Thanks Sue!
She looks like a total idiot and maybe even mentally ill. I’m betting that Nevada indies (non-teabaggers) are not going to be so hot on the barter economy. I can’t wait till Reid opens up on her after the primary with that 9.5 million.
she’s not a member of congress voting against WSR. Does she have connections or has she seemed overly friendly?
Are they traditional country club Republicans? Or are they Sarah Palin Republicans?
If it’s the latter then there’s still a good chance of Lowden getting the nomination.
was that the Florida GOP scandals are going to turn into something big and damaging to both Rubio and Crist. Halperin and Scarborough both cited contacts with Florida journalists indicating that was the case, but did not elaborate so take it with a grain of salt.
Between the education bill and this stuff, it is as if the Florida GOP is trying to give the state back to the Democrats. Time will tell if the Dems can capitalize.
Our best chance statewide is probably in the AG race, where Democrats Dan Gelber and Dave Aronberg are both outraising the Republicans, who have failed to land a real ringer candidate. Sink is next, followed by Meek. The CFO and Ag Commissioner races are probably going R no matter what happens, as the Republicans have recruited heavyweights with loads of $$$.
We also have a boatload of open state legislative races as a result of term limits. The overwhelming majority of them are Republican-held, as one would expect given the dominant Republican majorities in both houses.
Thirty percent (30%) of voters see Crist as politically conservative, while 44% see him as a moderate. Eighteen percent (18%) view him as politically liberal.
Sixty-six percent (66%) see Rubio as a conservative, while 43% say Meek is politically liberal. Like most states, Florida has more conservatives than liberals. A majority consider themselves either moderate or somewhat conservative.
With this, and with Moore’s wife in, I think Dems now have a fighting chance at holding the seat.
We may want to thank Evan Bayh for pulling the rug out from under us by not announcing his retirement until past the filing deadline. None of the three GOP candidates has been able to raise any money and they all have easily exploitable flaws in a contest against Brad Ellsworth. I mean, the campaign ads against Dan Coats practically write themselves.
Also, Sue Lowden is cray cray. Harry Reid may have truly hit the jackpot on this one.
When calling someone a MORON it is generally a good idea to spell the word correctly. It kind of takes away your ability to insult another person’s intelligence when you misspell the word “moron”. Unless of course you meant to call Rep Pence a Jerry Moran or where being ironic with your spelling (which would make me the moron for not getting it).
Rossi may want to take a look at this.
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/s…
And she even made it worse by giving us more sound bites. Thanks Sue!
She looks like a total idiot and maybe even mentally ill. I’m betting that Nevada indies (non-teabaggers) are not going to be so hot on the barter economy. I can’t wait till Reid opens up on her after the primary with that 9.5 million.
she’s not a member of congress voting against WSR. Does she have connections or has she seemed overly friendly?
Are they traditional country club Republicans? Or are they Sarah Palin Republicans?
If it’s the latter then there’s still a good chance of Lowden getting the nomination.
was that the Florida GOP scandals are going to turn into something big and damaging to both Rubio and Crist. Halperin and Scarborough both cited contacts with Florida journalists indicating that was the case, but did not elaborate so take it with a grain of salt.
Between the education bill and this stuff, it is as if the Florida GOP is trying to give the state back to the Democrats. Time will tell if the Dems can capitalize.
Our best chance statewide is probably in the AG race, where Democrats Dan Gelber and Dave Aronberg are both outraising the Republicans, who have failed to land a real ringer candidate. Sink is next, followed by Meek. The CFO and Ag Commissioner races are probably going R no matter what happens, as the Republicans have recruited heavyweights with loads of $$$.
We also have a boatload of open state legislative races as a result of term limits. The overwhelming majority of them are Republican-held, as one would expect given the dominant Republican majorities in both houses.
FWIW
http://www.rasmussenreports.co…
snip
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/ey…
With this, and with Moore’s wife in, I think Dems now have a fighting chance at holding the seat.
We may want to thank Evan Bayh for pulling the rug out from under us by not announcing his retirement until past the filing deadline. None of the three GOP candidates has been able to raise any money and they all have easily exploitable flaws in a contest against Brad Ellsworth. I mean, the campaign ads against Dan Coats practically write themselves.
Also, Sue Lowden is cray cray. Harry Reid may have truly hit the jackpot on this one.
When calling someone a MORON it is generally a good idea to spell the word correctly. It kind of takes away your ability to insult another person’s intelligence when you misspell the word “moron”. Unless of course you meant to call Rep Pence a Jerry Moran or where being ironic with your spelling (which would make me the moron for not getting it).
http://www.capitolweekly.net/a…
that got him $111,591. Even w/ the NRCC staying out and the DCCC putting money he should be able to stay competitive.