Author: ChadInFL

This is according to Rasmussen so it could be another push poll.  Gov Brewer is a distant third.  They also give Arpaio with a big lead over Goddard, ehich sounds VERY suspect.

http://www.rasmussenreports.co…

If Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio decides to seek the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona, he will enter the race as the clear favorite. Incumbent Governor Jan Brewer places third in an early look at the 2010 GOP gubernatorial race.

Election 2010: Arizona Governor GOP Primary

Brewer

10%

Arpaio

47%

Martin

22%

Munger

6%

Parker

6%

Some other candidate

3%

Not sure

7%

2010 Arizona Governor Race

Jan Brewer (R)

35%

Terry Goddard (D)

44%

Some Other Candidate

9%

Not Sure

12%

2010 Arizona Governor Race

Joe Arpaio (R)

51%

Terry Goddard (D)

39%

Some Other Candidate

7%

Not Sure

4%

2010 Arizona Governor Race

Dean Martin (R)

38%

Terry Goddard (D)

40%

Some Other Candidate

11%

Not Sure

11%

Doesn’t sound like a serious threat to McCain, but it should make the primary interesting if nothing else.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/…

Social conservatives tolerated John McCain as the party’s nominee, but never trusted him, and he now appears to be facing a serious primary from the right in Arizona next year.

Chris Simcox, the founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and a prominent figure in the anti-immigration movement, will announcing tomorrow at an event on the Mexican border that he’s resigned from the group to run in the 2010 Senate primary.

From a forthcoming release:

“John McCain has failed miserably in his duty to secure this nation’s borders and protect the people of Arizona from the escalating violence and lawlessness,” Simcox said. “He has fought real efforts over the years at every turn, opting to hold our nation’s border security hostage to his amnesty schemes. Coupled with his votes for reckless bailout spending and big government solutions to our nation’s problems, John McCain is out of touch with everyday Arizonans. Enough is enough.”

McCain was forced to abandon his own immigration reform legislation during last year’s Republican Primary, a move that may have cost him substantial Hispanic support to which his record could have given him access.

So he’s basically getting it from both sides on this one.

Simcox, with a national base and a high profile on the right, is well positioned to give McCain a serious local headache. He’ll find some allies among the conservatives who recently took over the Arizona Republican Party from McCain’s allies, and he has a national fundraising base.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

QUESTION: What do you think about the idea of secession or sovereignty for your state?

PERRY: Oh, I think there’s a lot of different scenarios. Texas is a unique place. When we came into the Union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that.

My hope is that America, and Washington in particular, pays attention. We’ve got a great Union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it.

But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what might come out of that.

This man is seriously deranged.  He is getting dangerously close to treason.

Haha.  Despite Governor Douglas’s grandstanding the bill still passed.  Vermont becomes the first state where the legislature successfully passes full marriage equality without intervention of the courts.

Now the time has come to run that clown of a Governor out of office come 2010.

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/w…

Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage – and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote.

The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.

The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.

It’s now the fourth state to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.

Mr. Murtha, a 76-year-old Marine veteran schooled in the blunt-knuckle deal-making that defined politics here, is contrition-free when it comes to his success.

“If I’m corrupt, it’s because I take care of my district,” Mr. Murtha said. “My job as a member of Congress is to make sure that we take care of what we see is necessary. Not the bureaucrats who are unelected over there in whatever White House, whether it’s Republican or Democrat. Those bureaucrats would like to control everything. Every president would like to have all the power and not have Congress change anything. But we’re closest to the people.”

Murtha’s remarks recall another one of CREW’s most corrupt lawmakers, Rep. Don Young (R-AK), who defended his controversial earmarks on the House floor in 2007. “I was always proud of my earmarks. I believe in earmarks, always have, as long as they are exposed. But don’t you ever call that a scandal,” said Young.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/…

Anyone think this could cause him trouble in 2010?  I’m sure his district has known he was corrupt for a long time, but could this be the final straw?  I really wish he and Kanjorski would save us the trouble and retire in 2010.

This is almost to surreal for mere words…

http://www.poststar.com/blogs/…

Republican and Conservative congressional candidate turned down an invitation to participate in the WMHT/Times Union debate on Thursday because he already had his own multi-media event planned, said Adam Kramer, a spokesman.

Tedisco will conduct a “Jim Tedisco in 3-D” campaign forum at 7 p.m. Thursday at his campaign headquarters in Halfmoon, Kramer said.

People will be able to participate in three different ways: in person, via telephone conference call or via the Internet, he said.

Democratic, Independence and Working Families candidate Scott Murphy and Libertarian candidate Eric Sundwall, the same evening, will participate the WMHT/Times Union debate to be televised live on WMHT, WSKG and Mountain Lakes PBS public television stations.

Kramer said the Tedisco and Murphy campaigns had previously agreed to participate in four debates, that did not include the WMHT/Times Union event.

Tedisco had already planned his own event on Thursday when he was invited to the fifth debate, Kramer said.

Kramer called back to emphasize that there are still two other debates prior to the March 31 special election: one on March 24 to be broadcast on WNYT- News Channel 13 and another on March 26 to be broadcast on Time Warner Capital News 9.

There were only three debates for the 2008 presidential campaign, which was spread out over a longer time period than the 20th Congressional District special election race, Kramer said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29…

Official: Locke likely to head Commerce

Former Washington governor would be Obama’s third pick for post

A senior administration official says President Barack Obama’s likely pick to head up the Commerce Department is former Washington Gov. Gary Locke.

Locke will be Obama’s third pick to lead the department. Republican Sen. Judd Gregg withdrew his name from contention on Feb. 12, citing “irresolvable conflicts” over the president’s massive stimulus plan.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson dropped out of the running last month, citing the distraction of a federal investigation into the awarding of a lucrative contract in his state.

Locke served two terms as governor of Washington state.

Lets hope the THIRD time is the charm here!

Pass the popcorn.  It’s going to be a bumpy ride to 2010 in Illinois.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITI…

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn called Friday for Sen. Roland Burris to resign.

“At this time we have a senator who has a cloud over his head,” Quinn said at a news conference. “It’s time (for Burris) to put the interest of the people of the land of Lincoln ahead of his own and step aside and resign from office.

“I think very highly of his career. He’s done so many good things,” Quinn said. “But at this time… to step away and resign (would be) a heroic act.”

It was a “gigantic mistake” for Burris to accept a Senate appointment from disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Quinn said. Quinn replaced Blagojevich when he was removed from office last month.

The Senate Ethics Committee has launched an investigation of Burris in the wake of disclosures that he spoke with Blagojevich’s brother about possibly raising money for the former governor.  Watch troubles mount for Burris »

The Sangamon County, Illinois, state’s attorney is also considering whether to file perjury charges against Burris.

Burris insisted Wednesday that he was innocent of any wrongdoing in his appointment to the Senate seat formerly held by President Obama.

“It is time to “squarely address the issue and do what’s right for the public interest,” Quinn said. iReport.com: Should Burris resign?

Quinn said he supported a bill introduced in the Illinois legislature that would set up a special election for all future U.S. Senate vacancies.

Illinois needs a “clear process for dealing with the issue of vacancies when it comes to the United States Senate,” Quinn said.

The bill would allow the governor to set the date of a special Senate primary within 72 days of the vacancy. A general election would follow within six weeks after the primary.

The governor would be empowered to name a temporary replacement until the special election.

Quinn said that if given the power to name a replacement he would not name someone with an interest in running in the special election.

Quinn was sworn in as Illinois’ governor on January 29. He had been serving as the state’s lieutenant governor until Blagojevich was removed from office.

LOL!  At first glance I thought this had to be some sort of snark.  It’s actually not.

Michael Steele deathwatch time yet?

http://politicalticker.blogs.c…

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says his party is going to launch an “off the hook” public relations campaign that will update the GOP’s image by translating it to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

The new GOP leader told the Washington Times that the party’s defeat in states such as North Carolina and Virginia made it clear they needed a new approach.

“We need messengers to really capture that region – young, Hispanic, black, a cross section…” he said in an interview published Thursday. “We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”

He added, jokingly, that “we need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets.”

Steele described the new multi-platform PR offensive as “avant-garde, technically. It will come to [the] table with things that will surprise everyone – off the hook.” Asked whether that meant cutting-edge tactics, Steele demurred. “I don’t do ‘cutting-edge,'” he said. “That’s what Democrats are doing. We’re going beyond cutting-edge.”

Steele, who began a massive personnel overhaul at the RNC shortly after his election, said he has started meeting weekly with congressional Republicans. He said he’ll be gathering input from House and Senate leaders, not giving instructions – but he criticized national Republican leadership’s focus on party unity as a top priority, saying the failure to devote itself instead to developing fresh faces had cost the GOP.

“We missed the mark in the past, which is why we are in the crapper now,” he said. “We had the White House, the Senate and the House and were not building a farm team over the last years. We could have been ahead of Democrats and their 50-state strategy.”

Steele dismissed the assessments of some Republicans that he needs a deputy to handle areas like logistics, fundraising and candidate recruitment. “I can run this organization just fine,” he said. “There will be no deputy chairman, period. …People who said I can’t make the trains run on time never gave a reason. I say to them, ‘Stuff it.’

“I am not afraid of being held accountable for my leadership,” he said. “The idea I am somehow going to handicap myself before I begin is nuts. I am not going to buy into this mind-set among a few people who probably have never run anything but their mouths.”

Steele defeated a crowded field last month, including sitting RNC chairman Mike Duncan, to claim the party’s top spot.