FL-Sen: Some more lulzy shit from Charlie Crist: Now he says he won’t engage in any more negative campaigning. He also re-iterated that he’s pro-life (jeez) and that he doesn’t like Arizona’s new immigration law. I think there might be six people in America who belong to his crazy-ass, Garanimals-style mix-n-match political party. Meanwhile, ex-North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns is abandoning the Democratic primary (where he never got even the slightest bit of traction) and running for the state senate seat being vacated by Dem Dan Gelber, who is running for AG.
NV-Gov: Ralph Waldo Emerson surely had Brian Sandoval in mind when he sagely observed that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. When he ran for state AG in 2002, he told the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he viewed it as the AG’s job to defend any state law, no matter how constitutionally suspect. Since he was clearly out sick the day they taught the Socratic method in law school, Sandoval, when pressed, even said that he would enforce a law requiring Jews to wear yellow stars. Yeah. But now it’s Gov. Jim Gibbons’ turn to sound ridiculous, since he put out a press release that directly compared Sandoval to the Nazis. Sigh. I would have flunked Sandoval had I been his civpro professor, but this charge is a bit much, to say the least.
IL-14: The Tarrance Group (R) for Randy Hultgren (5/3-4, likely voters, no trendlines):
Bill Foster (D-inc): 44
Randy Hultgren (R): 45
(MoE: ±5.7%)
MO-08: GOP Rep. Jo Ann Emerson was reportedly short-listed to become chair of the Credit Union National Association (whose current chief will step down at the end of the year), but she’s denying that she’s interested. Dem Tommy Sowers, who has shown some surprising fundraising prowess in this deep red district, had been making some hay about this.
MS-01: Former FOX News talking head Angela McGlowan flip-flopped and now says she’ll support whoever the Republican nominee is against Travis Childers. Previously, she said she refused to back NRCC fave Alan Nunnelee if he won the GOP nod, citing some tax apostasy.
OH-18: Four local labor unions (SEIU, CWA, UFCW and UAW) held a rally to announce that they officially plan to withhold their support from Rep. Zack Space. Space, as you’ll recall, switched his vote from “yes” to “no” on the healthcare bill. SEIU is actually encouraging folks to “Skip a Space” and not vote for him altogether (though the other unions did not go that far).
CT-AG: It’s official (for now) – Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz can run for AG. You may recall a weird issue came up some months ago – namely, CT requires that its attorneys general have “actively practiced” law for ten years. A Superior Court judge ruled today that Bysiewicz’s service as SoS, which involved ruling on legal matters related to elections, met that requirement. (Had it not, she would have failed to qualify.) The state GOP may still appeal.
Campaign Finance: A little-noticed provision of the so-called DISCLOSE Act, which is aimed at blunting the impact of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, would have a major impact on party committees like the DCCC and NRCC. As you know, every two years, these committees must set up walled-off departments which make independent expenditures on behalf of campaigns – but can never communicate with those same campaigns. The DISCLOSE Act would redefine the test for impermissible coordination, only barring the party committees from making IEs if they are “controlled by, or made at the direction of” the candidate. That will be a pretty easy problem to avoid, if the bill passes. Mr. Reid, Ms. Pelosi – tear down that wall!
A one-point difference in a partisan poll? Good news. Problem means Foster is ahead by a few points.
Cutting your nose off to spite your face. It’s not like the legislation was the second coming of Medicare. Stupid move.
This is just a showing of what is wrong with labor unions with regard to electoral politics. They have no feel for their representatives and what they must do to hold their seats. Representative Space has done a fantastic job holding down one of the more republican seats in the state of Ohio, even netting 60% of the vote in 2008, a 15% overperformance from Barack Obama’s 45%. Sure he hasn’t voted with the democratic leadership all the time, but he has voted for cap-n-trade, along with HCR the 1st time, and other important democratic legislation.
If they want to defeat Space in a primary, that’s one thing. But to actively encourage democrats not to vote in November so that the Republican candidate can beat him is sheer idiocy on their part.
NV-Gov, not NV-Sen.
circular firing squad news. Yeah, I’m talking to you Colleen Hanabusa, Jennifer Brunner, “bone tired” coward David Obey, and now the unions in Southeast Ohio. This is the kind of chaos that will cause us to lose the House even though we don’t have to.
Rasmussen finds McMahon down 13% (a 7-point improvement) against Blumenthal, while Simmons is lagging by 23% (a 9-point decline from their prior poll).
http://www.rasmussenreports.co…
http://stevepoizner.com/blog/2…
This poll seems a bit fishy to me, though. I cannot imagine 44% of the GOP electorate is still undecided on this thing, and I find it amusing that Poizner’s championing a poll which still has him at a whopping 28%.
This is a very good new. I glad Bysiewicz can run, because I think she can be the democratic frontrunner for Lieberman’s seat in 2012.