A new Georgia poll shows that incumbent GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss could be vulnerable if former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes should enter the race for the Senate seat. Chambliss only polled 2 points ahead of Barnes in the new InsiderAdvantage poll.
Saxby Chambliss 42%
Roy Barnes 40%
DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones who does not have as much name recognition statewide as Barnes was able to keep Chambliss under 50% in polling as well.
Saxby Chambliss 48%
Vernon Jones 31%
There have been persistent rumors for weeks now that Sen. Orrin Hatch is aggressively seeking to be nominated by President Bush to replace embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The Nation is the most recent publication to report on the possibility that Hatch could be appointed. If Hatch is named that Republican Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman would appoint an interim senator.
It is no longer a secret that Hatch is moving aggressively to position himself as the replacement for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. With the scandal involving Gonzales’ firing of U.S. Attorneys deepening on a daily basis, there is no longer much question that President Bush is going to need someone new to take charge of the Department of Justice. And Hatch has made little secret of the fact that he thinks he is the man for the job.
For those who fear that the disembodied head of Orrin Hatch suspended in a jar will be serving in the U.S. Senate well into the next century, there is good news: Hatch could be up for Attorney General. Utah’s senior senator denies it, but a fellow senator claims Hatch is openly campaigning for the job vacancy after the inevitable departure of embattled AG Alberto Gonzales.
A rumor floating in Washington D.C. has Utah Senator Orrin Hatch openly campaigning for the nomination to be Attorney General’s job, should Alberto Gonzales step down.
Hatch says the rumors are pure speculation, and that he would never campaign for the job because it would make doing his current job as Senator more difficult.
That speculation came to light on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy said Hatch was indeed campaigning for the position – a charge Hatch denies.
Sen. Lamar Alexander has put an end to retirement rumors and said he will run for a second term to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he will not abandon his presidential campaign to mount a challenge against incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor. Huckabee’s name has often been mentioned as a strong GOP challenger against the first term senator.
Despite modest fundraising that continues to trail well behind Republican frontrunners, Mike Huckabee said Friday he remains focused on his 2008 presidential bid and will not challenge Sen. Mark Pryor next year.
“The rumors have been out there and I need to put them to bed. I don’t see it happening,” Huckabee said of the possibility he would drop out of his run for president to take on Pryor, a first-term Democrat.
“There are no ifs on this one. I have a race I’m in, and I’m committed to it.”
The former Arkansas governor was in Washington on Friday for a flurry of fundraisers and media appearances in advance of today’s deadline for quarterly financial statements.
He said the first quarterly report for his presidential exploratory committee will show he has raised about $500,000, which he said was his goal.
A new ARG poll released today shows former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen with a 10 point lead over incumbent Republican Sen. John Sununu.
Jeanne Shaheen 44%
John Sununu 34%
by sidof79
After brief talk of his retirement after his current term expires, Lamar Alexander appears to be posed to defend his seat in 2008. He was a surprisingly vocal opponent of The Surge, and yet still voted with the GOP when the time came. He has hired Tom Ingram as his chief of staff, the same Tom Ingram who helped get Fred Thompson, Bob Corker, and Lamar himself get elected to the Senate (if you still think “flannel shirt” when you hear “Lamar Alexander,” that was Ingram’s idea). Curiously, though, he has raised very little money at this point. With all the talk about being a moderate, calling for bi-partisanship in the Senate, he remains a Bush rubberstamper (anti-gay marriage, pro-gun, pro-Bush tax cuts, pro-capital punishment, pro-life, anti-marijuana legalization, pro-social security privatization, pro-missile defense) and party loyalist. So he needs to go. Maybe they’ll talk him into another presidential run. They’re asking pretty much everybody nowadays. Here’s a look at his possible Democratic replacements.
Niki Tsongas, widow of Democratic presidential candidate Paul Tsongas, is one of the candidates for the special election for Congress in MA-5.
Congressman Meehan has agreed to take the Chancellorship at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and as has been speculated on Blue Mass Group and other outlets, I am indeed running for the US Congress seat he is vacating. As you also may know, it is the same seat my husband, Paul Tsongas held years ago. The University of Massachusetts Lowell is truly fortunate, and I look forward to seeing the Congressman accomplish as much for the Commonwealth’s public universities as he did for the people of 5th.
http://www.bluemassg…
Campaign Web Site
http://nikitsongas.c…
Interview
http://www.leftinlow…
(Judging by Breaux’s statement, does anyone get the sense that he’s feeling a bit more inclined to sit this one out? – promoted by James L.)
Crossposted to BlueSunbelt.Com the Southern netroots site.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco has signaled she will not drop out of the race for Governor in Louisiana even if former U.S. Senator John Breaux enters the race. Many political analysts see Breaux as possibly the only chance Democrats may have to hold the state’s highest office. GOP Congressman Bobby Jindal has so far been outpolling Blanco by landslide proportions.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Wednesday she plans to run for re-election regardless of whether former U.S. Sen. John Breaux jumps into the race.
“My decision is predicated on me and my experience and not on anything that Sen. Breaux and anybody else might be interested in doing,” Blanco said at the State Capitol.
Meanwhile, Breaux, who still is silent on whether or not he is running for governor, issued a statement of support for his fellow Democrat.
“I’ve always said that Gov. Blanco has earned the right to run for re-election. She has a good story to tell the people of our state about how hard she has worked against incredibly difficult circumstances,” Breaux said through his spokesman.
Race Tracker: LA-Gov
A total of 23 states may hold primaries on February 5, 2008. By the end of the day as many as 50% of the delegates will have been chosen. The end of the long primary season is changing the game plans of all candidates as they figure out how to put their resources into the larger delegate rich states and to assess if Iowa and New Hampshire will have as much impact as they had in the past.
The presidential primary system as we have known it for 35 years is dead. History books will record that the era that began with the Democratic National Committee’s post-1968 reforms ended Aug. 19, 2006 at the hands of the very same DNC.
Since Republican Cong. Charles Boustany has now ruled out a race against incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana it appears that she may be in better shape for another term than was originally thought. A January poll published today in the Advocate shows that she leads Republican challenger Jay Dardenne by a wide margin. The Louisiana race has been of much concern to Democratic insiders because of the loss of hundreds of thousands of voters who relocated to other states after Hurricane Katrina.