• CO-Sen: On the Democratic side, we have a heart-warming love-in between Michael Bennet and Andrew Romanoff, bitter rivals until about 48 hours ago. Romanoff said supporting Bennet was “an easy call,” while Bennet praised Romanoff for his stances on the issues, especially campaign finance reform. On the Republican side, well, there are no plans for a comparable unity event between Ken Buck and Jane Norton. Buck did raise some eyebrows with news that he went the full-on Paulist last year, though, lauding the gold standard and saying the main thing that would keep us from doing it is because there isn’t enough gold available to do so (well, maybe we could stimulate the economy by hiring hundreds of thousands of grizzled prospectors to go out and find us that gold…).
• DE-Sen: Is this a sign of unprecedented confidence in Delaware, as the GOP is spinning it… or worries that they need to bolster their preferred candidate Mike Castle, over unelectable-in-November Christine O’Donnell in the primary? The national party is sending three full-time staffers to work on the ground game in Delaware, which is three more than they do most cycles.
• FL-Sen: Kendrick Meek is out with an internal poll from Diane Feldman, giving him an 8-point lead over Jeff Greene, 38-30, after a week in which Greene’s yacht (and the vomit that it was caked with) seemed to be the main story figuring in the press about the Senate race this week. (Perhaps confirming these numbers: Greene is now engaged in the last refuge of a guy about to lose a race, which is to start threatening libel suits, here against the St. Petersburg Times for its look into his real estate transactions.) Meek’s also bolstered by two new anti-Greene IEs for TV spots, for a total of $260K from “Florida Is Not For Sale.”
• KY-Sen: The GOP seems to have let Rand Paul off his leash a little in the last few weeks, but between his Fancy Farm performance and some new items, they may be rethinking a return to his undisclosed location. Paul just said that eastern Kentucky’s drug problem (where meth runs rampant and marijuana growth is common) is not “a pressing issue,” and he topped that off by ditching local affiliate Fox reporters after taping a national Fox TV appearance in Lexington, in their own studio.
• PA-Sen: If you’ve been wondering where the DSCC was going to launch its first IEs of this year, Pennsylvania seems like it’s a good place to start. They’re spending $452K on running an ad highlighting Pat Toomey’s Wall Street background (good for 300 GRPs in Philly, 400 in Pittsburgh, and more in selected smaller markets). This will let Joe Sestak focus on marshalling his resources, as is his wont, while keeping the pressure on Toomey, who’s been advertising continually.
• SC-Sen: In case you were wondering if South Carolina could get any more farcical, Dem nominee Alvin Greene just finally got indicited on his pending obscenity charges for showing porn to a college student in a computer lab. I have no idea what the trial’s timetable is, but maybe Dems could actually get a new candidate in there if he’s convicted before November?
• CO-Gov: Ruh roh. The Colorado rumor mill has Dan Maes, the guy who swore he wouldn’t drop out, meeting with the state GOP about… dropping out. They’ve already been conspicuous in their silent non-support of Maes, who won Tuesday’s primary. Despite the meeting, though, Colorado Pols still seems to think that the posture from the Maes camp is one of a man who isn’t dropping out, and he’s meeting with them to try and get some additional support. At any rate, something would need to happen by Sep. 3, at which point the November ballot is finalized.
• MD-Gov: Fundraising numbers are out in Maryland. Republican Bob Ehrlich has almost kept pace with Dem incumbent Martin O’Malley over the course of this year, with Ehrlich raising $3.2 million and O’Malley raising $3.3 million in ’10 (and O’Malley couldn’t fundraise until April, because of the legislative session). O’Malley’s been building up funds for a longer time, though; O’Malley’s CoH advantage is 3:1, with $6.7 million banked compared to $2 million for Ehrlich.
• WY-Gov: Hmmm, this should turn the dominant media narrative about next week’s Wyoming GOP gubernatorial primary into “OMG! Palin/Bush proxy battle!” The Bush in question, though is George H.W. (41) Bush, who extended an endorsement today to Colin Simpson, the state House speaker and son of his long-time pal ex-Sen. Alan Simpson.
• MI-01: The final count’s over in MI-01, and it’s Dan Benishek by a whopping 15 votes, over state Sen. Jason Allen. The ball’s in Allen’s court now; he has until Sunday morning to file a written request for a recount that would need to allege mistakes or fraud.
• TX-17: Here’s an interesting stance from Republican challenger Bill Flores, especially considering this is a red enough district that it may be one of the few places in the country where John Boehner has positive ratings. But in response to questions whether he’d support His Orangeness for Speaker if the GOP had a majority in the House, Flores ducked the question, saying he’d cross that bridge if he got elected.
• Rasmussen:
• CO-Gov: John Hickenlooper (D) 43%, Dan Maes (R) 31%, Tom Tancredo (I) 18%
• CT-Sen: Richard Blumenthal (D) 47%, Linda McMahon (R) 40%
• GA-Gov: Roy Barnes (D) 42%, Nathan Deal (R) 51%
• MN-Gov: Mark Dayton (D) 45%, Tom Emmer (R) 36%, Tom Horner (I) 10%
I shall show the most edited Wikipedia page I have ever seen. Prepare yourselves it is one big press release made into a wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K…
if he drops out?
What a weird election. The Colorado GOP really screwed things up this year.
For a long time, we’ve talked on SSP about whether Paul’s “weirdness” could alienate rural voters in Kentucky, and I think this is an excellent example of just that. I had personally expected him to damage himself more on issues relating to farmers, but these comments about drug enforcement work just as well. Better, in fact.
Firstly, there’s now a recurring trend of Paul demonstrating a lack of knowledge about the various localities of the state he wants to represent. Things like the Harlan County flap or his more recent comment about “beer throwing” at Fancy Farm are fun to laugh at, but not truly significant. These comments about anti-drug programs are, however. Rural drug abuse is a “pressing issue”, contrary to Paul’s assertions. I personally come from a relatively sparsely populated part of Indiana right across the Ohio River from KY, and we have plenty of problems combating the methamphetamine trade out here, to the point that almost any candidate for a position like county sheriff addresses drugs before practically any other issue. Paul, making these comments, comes off as either ignorant and out of his depth, or just indifferent to these problems because of his ‘principles’ when it comes to federal spending.
The other thing here is that Jack Conway, despite having not been state AG for very long, has a pretty decent “law and order” reputation, although beyond the prescription drug bust that Bluegrass Politics mentions, most of Conway’s better publicized efforts were in areas such as combating Medicare fraud and price gouging at gas stations. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic opening for a strong contrast to be made between Conway, the top law enforcement official in the state, and Paul.
I think, properly exploited, these comments could be far more damaging to Paul’s campaign than even his statements about the Civil Rights Act were. There’s just so many angles to hit him from on this, and besides that, this is an issue that frankly I think is far more relevant to the types of voters Conway needs to win.
is great news for roy barnes(and of course, john mccain)
IL_10:
Seals:
Dold:
And this is the first ad from the DSCC:
OH-1 (8/4/10 – 1001 Registered Voters)
(D) Steve Driehaus 38.70%
(R) Steve Chabot 50.77%
OH-12 (8/4/10 – 995 Registered Voters)
(R) Patrick Tiberi 51.10%
(D) Paula Brooks 34.42%
OH-15 (8/4/10 – 998 Registered Voters)
(D) Mary Jo Kilroy 40.64%
(R) Steve Stivers 46.33%
http://weaskamerica.com/2010/0…
Even they cant find close to a GOP lead. Although I do think Emmer could only be at a low point currently, he just needs to figure out how to not say stupid things. Which if Paul, Angle, and hometown girl Bachmann are any indication, he’s screwed. But he had his fuck-up period and got away with it because it was the summer and there was a DFL primary, but next time he says something as stupid as servers make $100k a year and new their wages already at the minimum cut to below that.
I predict Dayton will cream him in Greater MN, Emmer will take the exurbs and the further out suburbs, and Horner will be able to break double digits very easily in the 2nd ring, upper class suburbs T-Paw relied on to win. Emmer simply cannot win with the same map T-Paw did because of Horner and his only option is to go Greater MN and Dayton has that covered Klobuchar style.
I figured out how to atleast get Tancredo out in CO. Haley Barbour is probably a lot better with words than Wadhams, and may get a message across better than Tancredo. I think Tancredo would drop out if Wadhams resigned and he was promised consideration for the replacement if Maes drops out. Thats the problem though: Getting Maes out. The guy is nuts, so maybe if we told him the UN would take over his neighborhood if he stayed in the race because he discovered their secret plot, he’d get out? I know, all wishful thinking.
show Hickenlooper about 5 points weaker than I’ve seen him in any poll in a month and two incredibly toxic conservative challengers adding up to easily beat him. What a load of shit that pollster is.
In other news, I read something that gave me more hope for November:
I wonder if it’s a radically Republican south that’s giving the Republicans a narrow edge in other Generic ballot polls? If so it makes me more confident Shea-Porter and other tough Democratic seats in the northeast will pull through, and it also tells me the midwest might not be as bad as I feared. In Ohio I think the real battle is to protect Space, Kilroy and Bocceri, imminently doable. Dreihaus will probably lose and Democrats might be able to get him a more favorable district and he can run again and maybe win in 2012.