Campaign and Election News – Covering Key Races Around the Country
SSP Daily Digest: 8/11 (Morning Edition)
IL-Sen: Crain’s Chicago Business is reporting that a teabaggish libertarian, Michael Labno, appears to have survived challenges to his petitions and will likely appear on the ballot this fall. Presumably this is good news for Alexi Giannoulias.
NV-Sen: Who knew he was even gone? Sketchball and possibly ersatz teabagger Scott Ashjian had apparently been AWOL for some time, but Jon Ralston has been keeping tabs. The erstwhile Ashjian put out his first press release in however long yesterday, to remind the world that he exists. It also serves the remind the world that he does not know how to use spell check.
AR-01: GOPer Rick Crawford just caught a break: conservative indie candidate Richard Walden just dropped out of the race and threw his backing to the Republican.
IN-09: Another similar story to the AR-01 item above: Indie Ron Kimsey has bailed on the race, in order to help Republican Todd Young beat Rep. Baron Hill.
NM-02: In one of the first independent expenditures aimed at the general election, Defenders of Wildlife plunked down $125,000 for a two-week buy to air an ad against GOP retread Steve Pearce. Big problem, though: The Pearce campaign put out a press release saying they got KOAT-TV to take down the ad on the grounds that it was false and misleading. Really hate to see a Dem ally stumble out of the gate like this.
NY-14: Talk about chutzpah: Reshma Saujani baselessly attacked Carolyn Maloney for the fact that the 9/11 healthcare bill failed to pass, carping that “A real leader would have passed this bill years ago.” Not only did this bill fail purely due to Republican obstructionism, I’d like to know where Saujani was lobbying on this legislation “years ago.” Fortunately, the attack has generated some swift blowback: the president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association says he supports Maloney’s efforts, and the head of the NY AFL-CIO said Saujani’s charges were “absolutely ridiculous.” Now, the chief of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association (a different outfit) has also chimed in, slamming Saujani for her “disingenuous and offensive” attacks.
PA-15: Say what you will about Bill Clinton, but the man is touring America like a fuggin’ champ on behalf of Democratic candidates this year. In addition to stumping on behalf of Joe Sestak yesterday, Clinton stopped by the Lehigh Valley to help Dem John Callahan raise $150K for his race against GOP incumbent Charlie Dent. (JL)
WV-01: Politico reports that the AFL-CIO is threatening to remain neutral in this race, rather than back Dem Mike Oliverio, who hasn’t exactly compiled a very pro-labor record. (Indeed, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers endorsed his Republican opponent, David McKinley.) It could of course all be a ploy to extract promises out of Oliverio. (If so, good.) In any event, the AFL will decide on an endorsement this weekend.
91 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 8/11 (Morning Edition)”
also that NM-02 is weird…if ads can be taken down for being false and misleading, I don’t think we’d even have much political advertising…
Also did an event for Dan Onorato in Philadelphia last night.
I’m really at a loss as to what Ms. Saujani is getting at. It’d be a great talking point of Maloney ha drepeatedly voted something like this down. And I have no idea when Maloney became the “leader” of the NY delegation.
Saujani just sounds ignorant of how thinks work. She is certainly making herself 0 friends with this campaign and poor tactics like this. Silly way to throw away ones potential career.
As is being reported in several places, the former Vice President’s son’s campaign for Congress in Arizona has pretty much crashed and burned, as it’s come out that he was one of the original founders of “The Dirty” — I guess a Phoenix area site that follows the skankier side of the club scene, making crude, sexual comments about women — seems like a more PG13/R rated version of “Girls Gone Wild.” The best part — he wrote under the name Brock Landers (google “Boogie Nights” if you don’t remember the reference!).
To make matters worse for him, he’s doing exactly what every politican in trouble should not do: First denying everything, then saying “Well, I knew the guy,” then saying “I might have had something to do with it at the start a long time ago when it was something different,” etc., etc.
The founder of the website is pissed, saying, among other things, that it’s fine if Ben doesn’t remember doing this, but then saying “I guess I don’t remember the time you banged Tim-Marie (a chick) in my spare bedroom.”
The part of me that still has the sense of humor of a 14 year old finds this very amusing!!!!
Planting a conservative proxy in the race to split the vote sounds like the sort of thing that Reid might do, sure, but I suspect that he would’ve chosen somebody who isn’t a complete joke.
After the Georgia runoff the main thing the media talks about is that this is BAD news for Democrats. Is it no wonder this is going to be a Republican year? It’s been the constant media memo since February 2009, and its been constantly promoted whether accurate or not.
But perhaps the big story in the Handel-Deal runoff was Tuesday’s turnout. More than half a million Republicans – nearly quadruple the average turnout for an off-year election – came to polls to vote in temperatures hitting the high 90s.
That number is likely to put Democrats across America on notice that they’ll face an invigorated GOP base in the general election on Nov. 2.
Lazy journalism for one. They don’t even bother to check what percentage this turnout amounts, and then compare that to other states with close, high-profile, important primaries in say, 2006 or 2002, to see if its really even that high, and then they don’t bother to qualify that this could just be a unique situation due to the competitiveness of it.
I posted these yesterday, but the thread was kind dead by then.
Gary Johnson: former congressional aide, focusing only on young African Americans
Eugene Green: former Bill Jefferson Chief of Staff
I learned something from watching that debate, that House committee that controls redistricting has 11 Republicans, 5 Dems, and 1 ind.
Vitter leads, Traylor polling at some dude level, Jindal very popular
The SMOR poll is out in LA:
Vitter leads Melancon 46-28
Vitter leads Traylor 78-4
Jindal has a 70-27% approval rating.
For those who care, the Lt. Gov race:
SoS Jay Dardenne 26
Country music singer Sammy Kershaw 15
St. Tammany Parish Pres Kevin Davis: 6
LAGOP chair Roger Villere: 2
I don’t see those numbers holding up. I’m expecting a Dardenne-Villere run-off. Villere has the organization and fundraising ability (John McCain and Newt Gingrich are holding fundraisers for him), and Dardenne has a huge cash advantage over everyone, with over 800k. Dardenne and Davis are considered the moderates, with Villere winning the support of the Tea Party crowd. Davis even endorsed Landrieu in 2008. I know one person I won’t be voting for…
I know they use a convention system (pretty sure), but there’s only one possible defeat, where the 16-year inc. Dem leads the son of a famous local politician by three votes. That’s 169 incumbent legislators and only one of them is currently in primary danger.
also that NM-02 is weird…if ads can be taken down for being false and misleading, I don’t think we’d even have much political advertising…
Also did an event for Dan Onorato in Philadelphia last night.
I’m really at a loss as to what Ms. Saujani is getting at. It’d be a great talking point of Maloney ha drepeatedly voted something like this down. And I have no idea when Maloney became the “leader” of the NY delegation.
Saujani just sounds ignorant of how thinks work. She is certainly making herself 0 friends with this campaign and poor tactics like this. Silly way to throw away ones potential career.
http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia_e…
Well, so much for Roy Barnes benefitting.
As is being reported in several places, the former Vice President’s son’s campaign for Congress in Arizona has pretty much crashed and burned, as it’s come out that he was one of the original founders of “The Dirty” — I guess a Phoenix area site that follows the skankier side of the club scene, making crude, sexual comments about women — seems like a more PG13/R rated version of “Girls Gone Wild.” The best part — he wrote under the name Brock Landers (google “Boogie Nights” if you don’t remember the reference!).
To make matters worse for him, he’s doing exactly what every politican in trouble should not do: First denying everything, then saying “Well, I knew the guy,” then saying “I might have had something to do with it at the start a long time ago when it was something different,” etc., etc.
The founder of the website is pissed, saying, among other things, that it’s fine if Ben doesn’t remember doing this, but then saying “I guess I don’t remember the time you banged Tim-Marie (a chick) in my spare bedroom.”
The part of me that still has the sense of humor of a 14 year old finds this very amusing!!!!
http://advocate.com/News/Daily…
He was 82 years old.
Planting a conservative proxy in the race to split the vote sounds like the sort of thing that Reid might do, sure, but I suspect that he would’ve chosen somebody who isn’t a complete joke.
After the Georgia runoff the main thing the media talks about is that this is BAD news for Democrats. Is it no wonder this is going to be a Republican year? It’s been the constant media memo since February 2009, and its been constantly promoted whether accurate or not.
Lazy journalism for one. They don’t even bother to check what percentage this turnout amounts, and then compare that to other states with close, high-profile, important primaries in say, 2006 or 2002, to see if its really even that high, and then they don’t bother to qualify that this could just be a unique situation due to the competitiveness of it.
I posted these yesterday, but the thread was kind dead by then.
LA-02 Dem debate
Darth Jeff, you said you wanted me to post this:
Part I http://www.wdsu.com/video/2458…
Part II http://www.wdsu.com/video/2458…
Part III http://www.wdsu.com/video/2458…
Part IV http://www.wdsu.com/video/2458…
Some backgroud on the candidates:
Juan LaFonta and Cedric Richmond: State Reps
Gary Johnson: former congressional aide, focusing only on young African Americans
Eugene Green: former Bill Jefferson Chief of Staff
I learned something from watching that debate, that House committee that controls redistricting has 11 Republicans, 5 Dems, and 1 ind.
Vitter leads, Traylor polling at some dude level, Jindal very popular
The SMOR poll is out in LA:
Vitter leads Melancon 46-28
Vitter leads Traylor 78-4
Jindal has a 70-27% approval rating.
For those who care, the Lt. Gov race:
SoS Jay Dardenne 26
Country music singer Sammy Kershaw 15
St. Tammany Parish Pres Kevin Davis: 6
LAGOP chair Roger Villere: 2
I don’t see those numbers holding up. I’m expecting a Dardenne-Villere run-off. Villere has the organization and fundraising ability (John McCain and Newt Gingrich are holding fundraisers for him), and Dardenne has a huge cash advantage over everyone, with over 800k. Dardenne and Davis are considered the moderates, with Villere winning the support of the Tea Party crowd. Davis even endorsed Landrieu in 2008. I know one person I won’t be voting for…
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/…
I know they use a convention system (pretty sure), but there’s only one possible defeat, where the 16-year inc. Dem leads the son of a famous local politician by three votes. That’s 169 incumbent legislators and only one of them is currently in primary danger.