SSP Daily Digest: 9/30 (Morning Edition)

  • Fundraising: Today is the last day of the fundraising quarter, so now is a good time to donate to any Dems you like out there. Decisions on whom to help will be made in the final weeks of the election season based in part on who shows fundraising strength in this final quarter.
  • AK-Sen: It’s not small – no no no. Republican Joe Miller has failed to file a personal finance disclosure with the Senate, something any candidate who raises or spends more than $5,000 is required to do within 30 days by law. Miller’s been out of compliance with the law since at least April. The penalty? Up to $50,000. Politico caught up with Miller at a fancy DC fundraiser, but he refused to answer any questions about the issue.

    • Meanwhile, Dem Scott McAdams sends out a fundraising ask via email in response to word that the Tea Party Express will be pouring resources into the state to finish the job they started. McAdams reminds us of something we’ve been saying all along: “In some Alaskan towns it costs only $30 to run a radio ad and $200 for a TV spot.” So if you still have some spare change to give, he still needs your help – and it will indeed make a difference, no matter how much you can afford to give.

  • PA-Sen, PA-07, PA-08: VoteVets is launching a half-million dollar canvassing effort on behalf of Joe Sestak, who of course is one of them. They’ll also be helping out another pair of veterans, Bryan Lentz and Patrick Murphy.
  • FL-Gov: Man, dejected gubernatorial loser Bill McCollum is serving up the cat fud personally, on a fucking silver platter. Rick Scott’s been hitting Alex Sink on the airwaves over her alleged mismanagement of the state’s investments while serving as Chief Financial Officer. But at a recent public meeting of the board of trustees of Florida’s pension funds, McCollum made sure to repeatedly question a top administrator about the soundness of the funds – and was assured they were. It’s like he’s fact-checking and doing p.r. for Sink all at once! Someone hire this guy!
  • NY-Gov: Here’s something that’s no surprise: Carl Paladino was awarded the Conservative Party’s ballot line. Here’s something else that’s no surprise: He’s a motherfucking spazz who can’t control his temper – even around reporters, even on camera. The video is fuzzy and the sound quality poor, but watch Paladino get into it with conservative New York Post political columnist Fred Dicker. The most amusing thing is that Paladino seems to think Dicker, who, uh, as I said, works for the Post, is a Cuomo plant.
  • AL-05: This parsing almost reaches Clintonian levels: Dem Steve Raby has been hammering Mo Brooks for opposing earmarks, thanks to some teabagger pledge that Brooks signed. This is not a popular position in Alabama, and Brooks had his name removed from the group’s website – but claimed he was only opposing pork, not earmarks. Someone buy this poor fucker a thesaurus, stat!
  • AZ-05: Harry Mitchell’s got a poll out from Bennett, Petts & Normington, showing him up 43-40 over David Schweikert.
  • LA-03: In the very last primary of the year, coming up this Saturday, a survey by a robopollster called ElectPoll shows Jeff Landry crushing fellow Republican Hunt Downer, 66-34. Can’t say I’m too surprised, given that Landry missed avoiding a runoff by less than 200 votes. I doubt Downer made the right choice by continuing the fight. Meanwhile, Ravi Sangisetty becomes the latest anti-Pelosi Dem, saying he wouldn’t vote to keep her as Speaker of the House. Somehow I doubt he’ll have the chance to vote on that issue one way or another.
  • NM-01: So classic – another anti-government spending Republican who has embraced government spending for himself. It’s really no different than the teabaggers who declare “Hands off my Medicare!” Anyhow, Jon Barela is the latest offender. His film production company has received cash assistance from taxpayers thanks to a special New Mexico rebate program designed to encourage movie-making in the state.
  • NY-20: Always gotta be careful not to read too much into stories about staff departures, but this is awfully late in the game to be losing your campaign manager – which just happened to Republican Chris Gibson. One red flag: That they didn’t have someone lined up to replace Patrick Ziegler, who was supposedly recruited by the RNC to help with broader election efforts in the Hudson Valley. Another: Ziegler had almost no political experience and apparently was overwhelmed by the job. And finally: Ziegler himself has sought the GOP nomination, but dropped out of the race in March. A week later, he was hired by none other than Gibson. So perhaps this was not quite a match made in heaven in the first place.
  • OH-18: SEIU is sending out a mailer attacking Dem Zack Space, who flip-flopped and voted against healthcare reform in the end. No word on how much they’re spending, though it seems to me that this fight really should have happened during the primaries. I mean, would they really prefer Bob Gibbs?
  • PA-06: A nice get for Manan Trivedi: He secured the endorsement of the Sierra Club, one of those groups which likes to back “moderate” Republicans to bolster their supposed bi-partisan cred. While they haven’t backed Jim Gerlach in recent years, they haven’t supported his opponents, either, so it’s good to see them take the right side this time.
  • VA-02: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, typically friend to Republicans the world over, endorsed Democrat Glenn Nye. Somehow I don’t think it’ll stop the attacks that he’s a libruhl who votes with Nancy Pelosi 743% of the time.
  • NRSC: Aaron Blake says Tom Coburn’s going to give $1 million to the NRSC.
  • NRCC: Meanwhile, John Boehner just gave $1 million more to the NRCC, and supposedly succeeded in getting $4 million more in pledges from his buddies.
  • NRA: We are most definitively done with the NRA whip count, which got boring long ago. If you really want to keep checking up on it, keep this link handy.

    • SSP TV:

    • AR-02: Dem Joyce Elliott touts her non-DC background as a teacher, and links herself to still-popular Gov. Mike Beebe
    • NC-02: Renee Ellmers accuses Bob Etheridge of cutting half a trillion from Medicare to pay for “Obamacare”
    • NM-02: Harry Teague attacks Steve Pearce for being pro-shipping-jobs-to-India
    • SC-02: Rob Miller’s campaign asks people how they know Rep. Joe Wilson has “gone Washington,” but apparently folks need the help of a poster to answer

    111 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 9/30 (Morning Edition)”

    3. …it refers repeatedly to “Congressman” Steve Pearce.

      Just another example of this being an anti-establishment year.  Teague is smartly reinforcing that Pearce is a consummate insider and the very recent incumbent in this seat, not a true challenger who would be any different.

      I could be wrong, but I have a gut feeling Teague is going to end up surviving.  He’s a good fit for the district and is running a great campaign with great ads, both positive and negative.

    4. The SEIU has been pushing the “Skip a Space” campaign, in an effort to defeat Zack Space over his “no” vote on health care reform.  I think that it is absolutely insidious of a democratic-leaning union organization to be pulling this crap in the general election in a year in which the House is up for grabs and we need every seat we can get.  It also makes no sense.  If Space is defeated, you get a republican that will never vote for you on anything.  

      The SEIU here is essentially taking the FireDogLake approach, you’re not a 100% progressive, so we don’t like you.  Hey knuckleheads, OH-18 is R+7 and voted 53-46 for McCain!!  You’re not going to get Dennis Kucinich or Russ Feingold out of here.  

      Absolutely freaking ridiculous.

    5. Sangisetty has absolutely correct positions for his district, but to have good chances to win he must have at least 2 additional factors: Cajun’s name and not so Republican year. Or – very big scandal about Republican candidate immediately before election plus (again) Cajun’s name.

    9. PPP today has Quinn down 42-35, better than the 9-point margin in August, with Whitney and Cohen combining for 10% and most of the undecideds being Democrats who support Giannoulias and Congressional Dems.  The Whitney/Cohen voters also are mostly Dems.  The Libertarian also was named in the survey and got 2%.  The tightening so far isn’t a lot compared to August, when Quinn was down 39-30, but that he’s moved up 5 points combined with the partisan lean of undecided/3rd-party voters are the significant facts.

      Brady’s favorables are underwater at 36-44, far better than Quinn’s awful condition, and yet PPP estimates that this race will still tighten further based on the partisan lean of the undecideds and 3rd-wheel voters.

      If Quinn can just keep it reasonably close, that at least helps prevent him from being a drag on Giannoulias, which is what I REALLY care about.  No offense intended to my SSP brothers and sisters in IL who HAVE to care about the Gov race.

    10. Where George does the opposite of every instinct he has and it works out great for him.

      Paladino is running a campaign based on doing the opposite of what every candidate for public office has ever done. He tells people off, attacks members of his own party, promises to FIRE state workers, calls people crooks, attacks members of the press and answers every questions as bluntly and honestly as he can.

      Yet it is working for him. Paladino’s populatiry is because he pulls stunts like this. He’s NOT like every other candidate and politician.And in NY in this cycle it might work.

      If it was anyone else I would think something like this would kill them. But with Paladino I think people could see it as telling the establishment media off.

      To keep the Seinfeld episode analogy going it might be like when George went up to the beautiful woman in the dinner and said “Hi, I’m George. I’m unemployed and I live with my parents.” He got a date and a job with the Yankees out of the opposite.

      As for Fred Dicker, if you read any of his coloumns you know he is 100% pro-Cuomo.  

    11. I’d been meaning to post this for a while, but with many tight races in states with Gov and Sen on the ballot, can we get a listing of which states list which offices where?  I had heard that in Nevada, it’s Senate on top, which obviously benefits the Reids more…but is it Sen, Gov, then House races, or is it all federal then state?  In other states, Governor always leads the pack.  Perhaps we can create a clearinghouse for info on this, by state.

    13. People keep talking about Sestak closing late. If that’s true, he better hurry the fudge up.

      General question:

      If you’re the DSCC and you have to cut back money, where do you pull from?

      -Pennsylvania?

      -Kentucky?

      -New Hampshire?

      -Missouri?

      -California? (on the other end of the spectrum, obviously)

    14. (ok, totally to be contrarian) but I imagine that republican-leaning sights are probably saying the exact opposite things about Missouri/Kentucky and California respectively.

      The pollster.com average of Boxer-Fiorina is 4.5

      The average of Missouri is 6.3

      I realize that Boxer is jumping out as of late (and ad buys are obviously a huge factor), but I don’t think I’d categorize the differences between those states and Cali as really all that great.

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