AR-Sen: We knew the SEIU wasn’t going to fuck around. Their newest (and probably final) ad buy on behalf of Bill Halter (which we mentioned yesterday) is on the order of $370K. The League of Conservation Voters is also putting down $100K for a buy of their own, also in support of Halter.
KY-Sen: Rand Paul, the son of Ayn Rand and a Somali warlord, must be dying inside: He actually felt compelled to call for more regulation of offshore drilling. Upon hearing this, a thousand Austrian School economists tried to jump off a bridge, but couldn’t find one as the free market had decided a bridge was unnecessary.
NH-Sen: Former AG Kelly Ayotte is being called to testify before a state senate committee investigating the collapse of a mortgage company called FRM which is accused of running a Ponzi scheme – and which was allowed to continue in operation while Ayotte’s department was supposedly regulating it. It’s belated, but at least someone is watching the watchmen.
AL-Gov: Artur Davis: “I have no interest in running for political office again. The voters spoke in a very decisive way across every sector and in every section of the state. A candidate that fails across-the-board like that obviously needs to find something else productive to do with his life.”
NM-Gov: Diane Denish is already out with a negative ad trying to paint GOP opponent Susana Martinez as an ineffective prosecutor, saying she went soft on DWI felons and had the worst conviction record in New Mexico. No word on the size of the buy, though the Denish campaign says, according to Heath Haussamen, that the ad “is running statewide on network and cable television.”
NY-Gov: Andrew Cuomo is trying to kill off the Working Families Party. He says he doesn’t want their ballot line this fall, without which the WFP has almost no hope of getting the 50,000 votes it needs to stay on the ballot for the next four years. The party is under investigation by the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office, and hyper-ventilators like the Daily News editorial page accuse it of sponsoring a “job-killing agenda,” so you might think there’s sufficient reason for Cuomo to avoid the WFP on the merits.
But I don’t think that adds up, because few voters pay attention to this stuff, which means that Cuomo will miss out on more votes without the WFP line than he’d risk losing by accepting the party’s endorsement – so it looks like a power play to me. (Note that state lawmakers friendly to the WFP are trying to introduce legislation which would allow a party to remain on the ballot if it got 50K votes in any statewide election, which would allow the party to bootstrap itself to, say, the Schumer or Gillibrand campaigns.)
FL-08: Uh, is this really an endorsement that you want? Former state House Speaker Daniel Webster, hoping to challenge Alan Grayson in the fall, secured the backing of ex-Rep. Tom Feeney. Feeney was last seen apologizing to voters for his role in the Abramoff scandal while getting his ass kicked by Suzanne Kosmas.
ID-01: I know we all miss Vaughn Ward terribly, but I think we’ll enjoy having Raul Labrador to kick around, too. It turns out that Labrador forgot to get his cooties vaccination, because the NRCC is keeping him in one of those glove-box containment zones. GOP brass has no plans, says Politico, to add the Lab to their Young Guns list – even though it already contains an absurd 110 names. Michael Steele, though, seems to like Raul just fine (which makes sense), sending some cash to help the Idaho GOP.
AL-Ag. Comm’r: May the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless Dale Peterson:
Boy! We put up a tough fight in round one. The thugs made a full court press to stop me by making hundreds of thousands of “robo calls” with lies about me.
Rest assured, Dummy and the thugs at ALFA will not go quietly – so expect them to launch a full-scale attack against John McMillan in the coming weeks as the July 13 runoff draws near. Just remember, the word “truth” is not in their vocabulary.
Because good ol’ Dale gives a RIIIIIP about Alabama, he promises that he’s “not going away.” Hooray!
Rasmussen: Commenters here have been all over it, but Markos lays out in bright orange letters exactly how fucked up Rasmussen’s recent polling in CT-Sen and KY-Sen has been.
Run, Dale, Run!
Republicans filed in every district except MA-08. Last time they filed in 9/10 districts was 1996; if they had filed a full slate, it would have been the first time since 1956.
Well, at least Davis finally appears to have gotten the message. I give him credit for that much.
And NM-Gov is seriously on the table now. Denish wouldn’t risk going negative this early unless either she believes Martinez to be winning or is getting some spectacularly bad campaign advice. Combined with probably losing our shot at FL-Gov with Chiles in the race, not a good week for Dem gubernatorial prospects.
At least the Senate’s looking a lot better lately.
He’s the one who pulled the plug on the Liberal Party back in 2002 by formally dropping out just before the election.
Heard this rumor about two weeks ago including a suggestion that the WFP might be looking for a celebrity candidate such as Alec Baldwin to help them keep their ballot line.
Two things to keep in mind. The WFP scared many Democrats to death in 2009 when they organized and took out more than one incumbent in the NYC Democratic primaries.
Second that the labor unions are none too happy with Democrats over proposed cuts affecting public employees. This unhappiness while it won’t affect the top of the ticket (Governor/US Senator) may well hurt us in holding the state Senate. Having Cuomo try to kill the union ballot line won’t help.
This time 11 points in favor of Toomey, who now “leads” 45-38 after being down 46-42 maybe two weeks ago.
http://www.rasmussenreports.co…
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/…
The supposed blockbuster employment report has turned out to be pretty anemic.
Be prepared for Republicans endlessly harping on the near non-existent private sector job growth.
Lincoln is already done for. Save that money for Kentucky or wherever come November. Halter or Lincoln are toast in November regardless. Do they not have a strategist thinker in that crowd?
Hell, spend it against Jim DeMint. That would be a better investment at the moment.
Looks like the final pre-primary Field Poll will be released in dribs and drabs. First up, Whitman leads Poizner, 51-25.
http://www.field.com/fieldpoll…
http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/…
I found this article to be an excellent recap of many of the points discussed here at SSP.
One thing I think was implied in the expectations game — if Ds hold both houses with a reasonable margin, Ds will have an “unexpected victory” and will have some momentum to continue to legislate in the next Congress.
I know Iowa is far from one of our highest pickup opportunities, but Grassley’s 57-31 lead on Conlin is still upsetting. Do you know why he’s winning 25% of Dems when he spread so many vicious lies about HCR? Surely Iowa is no AR or WV when it comes to DINOs.
She can be the next.