SSP Daily Digest: 8/12 (Morning Edition)

  • AZ-Sen: The AP ran a story about J.D. Hayworth’s recent criticisms of John McCain, featuring a provocative headline: “Hayworth suggests McCain would be worse than Obama.” This caused Hayworth to flip the fuck out – and put him in the exquisitely agonizing situation of having to defend McCain. Talk about having your nuts squeezed!
  • CO-Sen: Some off-message messaging from Ken Buck, fresh off his primary win over Jane Norton: “I think Republicans realize that Republicans are every bit as much to blame for the mess that we are in in D.C. as the Democrats.”
  • IN-Sen: Dick Lugar, 78 years young, indicated that he would likely seek re-election in 2012. In case you want to parse the tea leaves, his exact words were: “I suppose there will be a place and a time to do that, to rally the forces, to get the fundraisers going and all of that type of thing. But that’s my intent day by day. Most people in the Senate know I will be around, therefore they have to deal with me on that basis.”
  • KY-Sen: Do you ever feel like sometimes, life sounds just like an episode of Arrested Development?

    • Rand Paul Not a Kidnapper “In a Legal Sense,” Accuser Says

    It was really just some light… abduction.

  • CO-Gov: Tom Tancredo is going nowhere! As in, he ain’t quitting the race. If anything, he looks more set on staying in than ever, digging in his heels in response to GOP chair Dick Wadhams’ broadsides. Said Wadhams: “Tom Tancredo makes it unwinnable if he remains a third-party candidate.” Responded the Tanc: “I have a better chance of winning in a three-way race than Maes has in a two-way race.”
  • FL-Gov: The Florida Independent, a member of the American Independent News Network, has a new investigative report about Rick Scott’s current healthcare company. Rather than try to summarize, I’ll just quote a bit:

    • Two doctors – both former employees of Solantic, the chain of clinics launched by Scott and in which he is a majority investor – allege that Solantic repeatedly used their name and medical license information without their permission or knowledge. Both doctors state that by allegedly misappropriating their information, the company was able to keep clinics operating in contravention of state law.

    One of the doctors asserts that he also came upon evidence of billing irregularities involving Medicare, which, if true, would be the second time a Scott-run company was accused of improperly billing Medicare.

  • ID-01: Walt Minnick keeps racking up support from the right (and sometimes far-right): the conservative “Council for Citizens Against Government Waste” just named Minnick as the lone Democratic “Taxpayer Hero” of 2009. Whatever it takes, huh?
  • NY-10: Kevin Powell, who lost badly to Rep. Ed Towns in a 2008 primary challenge and is trying again this year, put out a press release saying he beat back Towns’ attempt to disqualify his petitions and remove him from the ballot. Towns is a terrible elected official and is definitely vulnerable – he won a primary in 1998 with just 52% and has been challenged many times. In a year like this, he could definitely go down, but I doubt Powell (who has no money) is the right guy to do it.
  • PA-10: Rep. Chris Carney is going up on the air with his first ads – and this time, there is word on the size of the buy. Carney’s spending $60K, which may not sound like a lot, but this is a really cheap-ass media market. Carney also has a huge cash advantage over his GOP opponent, ex-US Attorney Tom Marino: $800K to 11K as of June 30th, though Marino claims he has more than five times that (WOW!) on hand now.
  • TN-06: On election night, the Republican primary in the 6th CD ended crazily close, with a 31-30-30 near-tie between three candidates. The last place dude, Jim Tracy, finally conceded and endorsed Diane Black, the first-place dude. The second place dude (and yes, at SSP, we use “dude” to refer to all genders), Lou Ann Zelenik, is still contesting the results.
  • VA-05: What a weiner! Challengers usually jump at the chance for debates with incumbents, endlessly wheedling and begging and cajoling for any opportunity to raise their profile. But in a bizarre role reversal, Republican Rob Hurt is refusing to debate Rep. Tom Perriello – all because indy teabagger Jeff Clark was also invited to participate. Perriello both goaded and bear-hugged Hurt, saying: “If you’re too scared to make your case to the voters, then how easily are you going to get crushed up in Washington in terms of having any independence? It’s an important part of the process and I hope Sen. Hurt will show up and try to make his case.”
  • Teabaggers v. CoC: Sounds pretty dirty, doesn’t it? Well, I won’t tell you to get your mind out of the gutter, because that’s where SSP’s always is. Anyhow, the Huffington Post has a good rundown of the cycle-long war that’s been waged between the Chamber of Commerce, which likes their wingnuts anti-tax but establish-minty, and the teabaggers, who like their wingnuts deep-fried and weapons-grade. So far, the baggers have had an edge in primaries, despite the Chamber’s mighty resources. Loves it.

    • 65 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 8/12 (Morning Edition)”

    4. I understand why this ad has elderly and middle-aged people in it, but why are they pretty much all Caucasians who look like they’ve been culled from the tea party?

      It doesn’t seem to be any improvement off of her previous ads she has done with the town hall setting.

      Another think I noticed is that it accuses Reid of voting against protecting social security, but doesn’t cite any votes or newspapers (which most ads do by posting a footnote on the same frame where they make the claim about the candidate).

      Finally, doesn’t she know that “Lock Box” social security was part of the platform of Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential race?

    5. I’m no great fan of Towns either, but I’m not voting for Powell who just doesn’t seem very serious to me.

      Anyone know if Towns has plans to retire in the next cycle or two?  There is some promising young talent in the area–Hakeem Jeffries, Eric Adams, Daniel Squadron…

    7. I was never one who thought he would retire.  He likes being in the Senate, is healthy and looks younger than 78, and I don’t think he’s going anywhere.  Democrats will not put up a top-tier challenger (and in fact last time didn’t run anyone at all).  However, I do think he’ll be teabagged.  I think Lugar is probably more popular among moderate Democrats in Indiana than he is among hard-core conservatives — and his votes to confirm President Obama’s two supreme court justices just added fuel to their fire.

    12. Unless the GOP can arm-twist Maes off the ballot, they probably are better off with a three-way where Tancredo will become the de-facto Republican, a-la Doug Hoffman.

      They’re still screwed, of course 😉

    14. Have to post this addendum to a comment I made on another thread. I speculated that it might not be a good sign for Democrats in Colorado that turnout was higher for Republicans. As it turns out, not only has that been true for the past decade but the difference in turnout is actually getting smaller. This is from Sean Treadle at Real Clear Politics:

      “It is true that more Republicans voted in Colorado than Democrats. But that has always been the case in Colorado this decade. In 2002, 189,998 Republicans voted while only 104,603 Democrats voted (both parties had uncontested primaries), a ratio of 1.8 Republicans for every Democrat. In 2004 the ratio of Republicans to Democrats was 1.4, in 2006 it was 1.35 and in 2008 it was 1.23. Last night it was down again, to 1.20.”

      So this might be a good sign for Dems come November.  

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