CA-Gov: This video (the second one on the page) is a couple of months old but is worth watching if you haven’t seen it yet. I think it goes a ways toward explaining Meg Whitman’s glass jaw. It’s a local news piece detailing an ugly snub of the media by Whitman at a campaign stop she specifically invited the press to – and it’s about as harshly negative as a straight news piece can be. When ordinary people imagine rich douchebags behaving douchily, this is what we envision.
KY-Sen: Republican muckety-muck Cathy Bailey, who almost ran in this race herself, endorsed Rand Paul, while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorse Trey Grayson. They must love fiat currency.
PA-Sen, PA-07: Joe Sestak just endorsed Bryan Lentz to succeed him in PA-07… but Lentz faces zero primary opposition. The real news is that Lentz in turn endorsed Sestak, which may help him snare an extra vote or two in the Philly burbs.
UT-Sen: Is Orrin Hatch setting himself up to be Bob Bennett 2.0? He said that the teabaggers “don’t have an open mind and they won’t listen.”
FL-Gov: Rick Scott loves his chocolate milk: The uber-wealthy gubernatorial candidate (who has been flooding the Florida airwaves) opposes a Charlie Crist-backed amendment to the state constitution which would ban offshore drilling. It’s interesting to see how this is playing among conservative circles, where even Bill McCollum largely supports Crist’s idea. On the flipside, both Scott and McCollum luv Arizona’s new immigration law.
MA-04: Consultant and Marine vet Sean Bielat announced that he will challenge Rep. Barney Frank as a Republican.
MI-13: Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick may survive yet another primary. She narrowly escaped last cycle thanks to a split field again, and may yet do so again. Four opponents filed against her, including state Sen. Hansen Clarke.
NY-23: Keep the cat fud a-comin’: Conservative Party chair (and newfound progressive hero) Mike Long sent out a memo to North Country GOP leaders explicitly comparing Matt Doheny to Dede Scozzafava and pleding to stick with Doug Hoffman. Long points out that Doheney (who sought his party’s nomination last year) maxed out to Dede after she got the nod, and also said, “I’m going to do everything I can for her, and more.” If Doheny wins the Republican primary, it could be Hoffman’s turn to play spoiler on the Conservative line. History is definitely starting to rhyme.
OH-18: There were fat ladies… all around… but he never heard them singing…. State Sen. Bob Gibbs “declared victory” over a disgruntled Fred Dailey, even though official results have not yet been declared. Dailey called the move presumptuous and said the fat lady ain’t sung. The Secretary of State doesn’t have to certify results until 20 days after the election, and then, since the margin of victory was less than half a percent, we could see a recount – which might take until June. You know Zack Space is doing a happy dance.
PA-12: Big Dog coming to town: Bill Clinton is coming to Johnstown on May 16th to do a rally for Dem Mark Critz.
PA-17 (PDF): Susquehanna Polling & Research (5/7-8, likely voters, no trendlines):
Tim Holden (D-inc): 54
Sheila Dow-Ford (D): 27
Undecided: 18
(MoE: ±4.9%)
David Argall (R): 21
Frank Ryan (R): 17
John First (R): 7
Allen Griffth (R): 5
Undecided: 47
(MoE: ±4.3%)
While Dow-Ford probably can’t unseat Holden, these are some uninspiring numbers for the incumbent, who only gets 38% re-elects. Obama’s job approval is 32-56.
SD-AL: Chris Nelson, South Dakota’s Republican Secretary of State who is hoping to take on Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, is at least birther-curious, claiming that “many people” contacted him as SoS “asking how Obama could be on our ballot given this controversy.” Nelson’s primary opponents (who were asked the same question) didn’t take the bait, so you gotta wonder if Nelson is trying to out-teabag them.
NY State Sen.: Among his many un-endearing habits, Mike Bloomberg has long used his zillions to prop up Republicans in the state Senate. However, Bloombo flack Howard Wolfson is now hinting that this tradition may come to an end. His Bloombleness has already endorsed Dem Craig Johnson of Long Island.
NRSC: Michael DuHaime, a top strategist for Chris Christie’s gubernatorial campaign (and before that, political director for John McCain’s presidential bid), is being tapped by the NRSC to head up their independent expenditure arm this year.
Hatch will probably retire. He’s going to be 78 in 2012 and seems to realize that his electoral goose is cooked if he runs again. Hatch may have been a tremendous jackass over the years, but he’s not an idiot. He probably wouldn’t be going Ted Stevens on the teabaggers now unless he wasn’t planning on running again.
All things considered, if we strike Hatch and all of the other rumored/likely retirements (Lugar, Akaka, Kohl, and maybe Byrd), the Senate in 2013 will be a much younger place, for better or for worse.
I’m sorry if I sound rude but the more I read about the guy that defeated Allan Mollohan Mike Oliverio, the more I think we just elected a future party switcher. I went to his website last night and read how anti-government he is and went to his wikipedia page and it scared the crap out of me, particularly this gem on how elections are decided by God:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M…
Beautiful, just beautiful.
n/t
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs…
Minnick 50, Generic R 20 – To boot, the bulk of the undecideds are apparently in a part of the district where Minnick performs best.
Vaughn Ward up 34-16 on State Rep. Raul Labrador, with 50% undecided in the primary.
The poll was by local pollster Greg Smith & Associates, which appears to be non-partisan based on my cursory review.
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x132…
Preferably from my house instead of phone bank parties or things like that. I have some time free and it looks like we still have a shot here.
http://capitaltonight.com/2010…
http://calitics.com/diary/1166…
In a poll conducted for the Garman campaign she leads Winograd 58-17. Harman also posts 64-18 favorables, versus Winograd’s 20-6.
http://calitics.com/diary/1166…
A Tulchin poll (which appears to have been conducted independently) shows San Francisco Mayor Newsom with a big statewide lead, beating LA City Councilwoman Janice Hahn 47-26.
Charlie Cook has PA-12 has “Lean GOP.”
Question: Should Critz (D) defeat Burns (R) next week in the special, would this cause Cook and other political prognosticators to re-evaluate their ranking systems? I’m not talking the Politico or the talking heads, but people like Cook who are supposed to know what they are talking about.
Taegan is running the possibility of Gregoire for Kagan’s position.
If Gregoire’s confirmed before Oct. 3, there would have to be a special for the final two years of her term.
What’s the political game here? Stall the confirmation, or do the special?
Per MyDD, this is from a D firm, nevertheless… http://www.examiner.com/x-3489…
Rory’s still polling behind Sandoval, 41-46.
Specter will brag about how he voted against convicting Clinton in 1999. If I were running his campaign I would want to get that message out there to Democrats.
Does Sestak have any ground game? That’s a concern I have if the PA State Democratic Party machinery is kicking in for Specter.
…For November 2nd! What a fuck up. He is calling an election for someone to serve…2 months! Why not make it the day of the primary? http://rocnow.com/article/loca…
What affect could Christine Gregoire being confirmed and appointed as Solicitor General before Oct. 3 have on the Sen and gov races? If it looks like there will be a special election for gov, could Dino Rossi decide to run for Senate, seeing that the establishment would likely rally around Rob McKenna? Or, could McKenna, seeing that there will likely not be an open seat gov race in 2012, decide to run for Senate?