Month: September 2007

Democrats finally have a challenger to contest the open seat left behind by retiring Republican Rep. Ray LaHood: former NBA coach Dick Versace.  The Peoria Journal-Star has the scoop:

Former NBA and Bradley basketball coach Dick Versace hopes to add another win to his record with a bid for Congress.

“I’m all in,” Versace, a Democrat, said Thursday.

His confirmation ends several weeks of speculation about whether he would seek election for the 18th Congressional District seat held by Ray LaHood, who is not seeking re-election.

He said he’ll hold a news conference to officially announce his bid in the next couple weeks. After that, Versace will take off in a 38-foot motor home he will call “The Common Sense Express.”

“The Common Sense Express is going to visit all 20 counties in the district,” he said. “I’m going to go on a listening tour.”

Versace started his career as a teacher and later became a basketball coach, coaching at Bradley University from 1979 to 1986 and winning three Missouri Valley Conference championships and an NIT title. He later coached in the NBA, as an assistant coach for Detroit and head coach at Indiana. He was a television color commentator for Turner Broadcasting and NBC in Chicago and an assistant coach at Milwaukee. He also led an acquisition team to purchase the Vancouver Grizzlies and was president and later general manager of the team in Memphis.

With a PVI of R+5.5, the 18th District would be tough sledding for any Democrat (Bush won this district by 10% and 16% margins in 2000 and 2004, respectively), but not impossible.  Versace is a wildcard option, but perhaps his semi-celebrity appeal and anti-war stance could spark an interesting campaign here.

Navy vet Chuck Giger has also entered the race as a Democrat, and former state Rep. Bill Edley is also considering joining the fray.  State Rep. Aaron Schock, considered a “rising star” in Illinois GOP circles, is the Republican front runner.

Race Tracker: IL-18

With a barrage of scandals, retirements, and recruitment woes, it’s no shock that the National Republican Congressional Committee is not a fun place to work this cycle, but could it really be this bad?  The Politico’s John Bresnahan and Patrick O’Connor report that things are getting nasty both within the NRCC and between the committee and House Republicans.  Apparently, House Minority Leader John “Small Price” Boehner is upset with NRCC Chair Tom Cole’s stewardship of the organization, and is heavily pressuring Cole to make some significant personnel changes.  Cole has said privately that he would rather resign than bow to such demands.  From the article:

Neither Boehner nor Cole’s offices would comment on the meeting or struggle, but Boehner spokesman Brian Kennedy did say the two leaders have “very frank and candid conversations” about regaining a Republican majority.

The Boehner-Cole fight came to a head during a Sept. 10 meeting, which included “a lot of yelling back-and-forth” between the two over the campaign committee’s operations and effectiveness. House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) also attended but “they didn’t say much,” said a GOP strategist familiar with the session.

Following the meeting, an angry Cole called together the NRCC staff and told them that if they were not happy working at the committee, they might want to consider leaving immediately, said several GOP insiders. That Cole outburst occurred last Monday, said the sources.

But wait, there’s more!

Inside-the-Beltway Republicans have grown frustrated with the NRCC for its unrealistically rosy assessments of an ever-eroding landscape for congressional Republicans.

Lawmakers are frustrated with Cole and his top aides for casting their net too wide by targeting Democratic-controlled seats that Republicans have little chance of picking up next year.

Some also gripe that Cole fails to manage expectations on the Hill when he refuses to acknowledge that the GOP’s chances for regaining the majority fade with every retirement or negative news story about President Bush or other scandal-plagued Republican lawmaker.

The most interesting revelation here is that some House Republicans believe that the Cole and the NRCC are “casting their net too wide”.  I’d be curious to know which recruitment efforts House Republicans consider to be lost causes.  State Sen. Nick Jordan, who is running against Kansas Democrat Dennis Moore, perhaps?  Or state Sen. David Cappiello, who is challenging Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) after his stunning victory over incumbent Nancy Johnson last year?  One can only guess.

(H/T: TPM EC)

One of the hottest House races of the cycle next year promises to be in Connecticut’s 4th District, where Democrat Jim Himes is waging a progressive campaign to smoke out Republican Chris Shays from his Congressional hole.

If you like what you’ve seen from Himes, or if you’d like to learn more about him, please mark the date of Saturday, September 29 on your calendar.  The Swing State Project will be co-hosting a blograiser and pub quiz for Himes in Stamford, CT (all the details can be found in Melissa Ryan’s diary here).  Other local blogging luminaries from My Left Nutmeg, CT Local Politics, Spazeboy, and Connecticut Bob will also be co-hosting the event.

The suggested donation is a modest $25, and I have no doubt that it will be well worth the price of admission.  The Swing State Project, led by people-powered prophet DavidNYC, will be fielding a full team for the pub quiz, and we intend to take no prisoners.  If you’re brave enough to challenge us, and want to gauge your cranial repository for its supply of dusty political trivia, I encourage you to join one of the other blogs’ teams (or form an impromptu one at the event).  They’ll need all the help they can get.

So read all the details, drop a donation to Jim Himes, and RSVP here.  Pizza, beer, and progressive Democratic politics.  I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend a Saturday night.

As reported on front page over at Kos.

With Johanns jumping in and Kerrey backing out, I think I know what the early polling looks like. Personally, I’m willing to get a LOT more excited about a Scott Kleeb or someone else, who will probably also lose, but can get Nebraska Dems excited and working hard.

In a huge boost for Democratic hopes to expand their House majority, Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ) will face a major challenge in his bid for a 14th term in 2008.  Democratic state Sen. John Adler announced yesterday that he will challenge the incumbent.  It would be Adler’s second challenge to Saxton: his first attempt, in 1990 at age 31, fell short by 19 points.  But Democrats believe that Adler, who seasoned himself with lengthy experience in the New Jersey state Senate since his Congressional loss, is their guy to finally oust Saxton.

“Not since Watergate have the Republicans been this low in national public opinion polls — and in New Jersey, Republicans are held in even lower esteem than the national average,” said Steve Ayscue, a Democratic strategist. “If things stay the course, Democrats can expect to make gains in the U.S. House by as many as 20 seats or more next year. It certainly helps that the national Democrats have been busy recruiting top-notch talent to run for Senate and House seats — candidates who can raise substantial money independent of the leadership.”

Ayscue continued: “I’ve never seen this much attention from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on New Jersey races, including the 3rd District — perhaps because this district is strikingly similar, demographically, to Congressman Patrick Murphy’s ‘swing’ district in suburban Pennsylvania. The last time Senator Adler ran for this seat it was 1990 and a very difficult political environment for Democrats. This time around I expect Senator Adler to run a highly effective campaign to prove the need for change, but given Saxton’s lock-step support of the failed Bush-Rove agenda he will make the case for Adler even easier.”

As Democrats aim to expand their House majority, districts like Saxton’s are a good place to start.  While Bush won the district by under 3% in 2004, Al Gore carried the district by a wide 10% margin in 2000.  With the chance of the Democratic Presidential nominee improving upon John Kerry’s mediocre performance in the state, Adler and the DCCC hope to channel voter discontent over the war in Iraq into another pick-up opportunity.  Adler starts the campaign with a leg up over other potential candidates: he has $194,000 available in his coffers — money left over from a Senatorial campaign committee that he opened in 2003 in the event of a retirement from Senator Frank Lautenberg.

(H/T: Blue Jersey)

With the likely retirement of Republican Rep. Tom Davis from the House in order to pursue a Senate bid against Democratic superstar Mark Warner next year, Republicans will be left to defend a House seat in northern Virginia that is trending hard in the Democrats’ favor.  With a PVI of R+0.6, Davis’ district went to Bush twice: by 7% in 2000, but only by a slim 1% margin in 2004.  Additionally, Mark Warner carried this district by a 55.5%-43.8% margin in his 2001 gubernatorial bid.  Democrat Tim Kaine carried it by a 55.67%-42.42% margin in 2005, and Jim Webb edged Republican Sen. George Allen in the district by 54.69%-44.20%.

It’s no surprise then, that local and national Democrats are eyeing this district hungrily.  Navy vet Doug Denneny was the first to declare for the seat, and others are expected to follow.  According to Lowell over at Raising Kaine, a familiar Virginia name is soon to follow:

Today, former 11th District Congresswoman Leslie Byrne filed an exploratory committee: “Byrne for Congress Exploratory Committee.”  Looks like the race to replace Tom Davis is heating up!

Byrne, as you may recall, represented the 11th District for one term after the 1992 elections, before being routed in the Republican sweep of 1994.  She lost the primary for the Democratic Senate nomination in 1996 (to Mark Warner, no less), but narrowly won election as a state Senator for a single term from 1999-2003.  In 2005, she ran as the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor.  Not favored to win statewide, the Democratic tide in the state lifted her to within 1% of Republican Bill Bolling’s vote total.

I don’t have a moose in this race, but I’m very curious to see how this primary unfolds, and if this development will affect the decision-making process of Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly.

Race Tracker: VA-11

According to Roll Call, embattled GOP Rep. Jerry Weller will confirm his retirement on Friday:

Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.), who has had to fend off allegations in recent weeks about questionable Central American land deals, will announce Friday that he will not seek an eighth term in 2008, inside sources confirmed late Thursday.

After the news of his retirement first leaked yesterday, Weller’s campaign manager worked to put a damper on the news, insisting that the congressman was going to run again.  It looks like Weller will put that to rest tomorrow.

How much do you want to bet that Weller seeks asylum with his in-laws in Nicaragua?

Race Tracker: IL-11

In case you doubted that New England’s sole remaining Republican in the House, Chris Shays of Connecticut, was not a moderate, his recent assault against the 1st Amendment during a speech on the Iraq War to a college audience should erase any of those doubts:

“Abu Ghraib was about a military unit run amuck. With proper oversight the abuses would have been easy to correct, and been corrected, without a lot of fanfare or publicity,” Shays said.

“The press would not have had a story. Our nation’s reputation wouldn’t have been in question, and a primary recruitment cry of Al Qaeda would never have existed.

“As it was, Abu Ghraib happened. The press ran the story with little obligation or inclination to contain it. Al Jazeera and Al Qaeda used it to inflame the Muslim world and hundreds of American soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen and women died as a result,” he said.

So for Chris Shays, because the media shed light on the abuses at Abu Ghraib, they have been complicit in the deaths of hundreds of American servicemen and women.  It’s as blunt as that.  Shays had a few more unkind words for the media:

“When it comes to Iraq, the former Republican Congress was blatantly partisan. The new Democratic Congress has returned the favor. And the press, rather than encouraging Republicans and Democrats, the White House and Congress to come together, has picked sides and marshaled the facts to fit their arguments,” Shays said. “It is hard, I might add, to know with a press that is accountable to no one, where you can go to get the unadulterated facts.” […]

“In our Constitution there are checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches but the so-called Fourth Estate, the press, is on its own,” Shays said.

Perhaps Shays would feel more comfortable if we removed the media “filter” and got all our breaking news from White House Press Secretary Dana Perino directly.

(Hat-tip: My Left Nutmeg)

Race Tracker: CT-04

(From the PetersForCongress blog, add it to your RSS reader!)

Today Peters For Congress is proud to announce the endorsement of the AFL-CIO!

The AFL-CIO represents over 1 million members in Michigan. This endorsement is unique because it is the earliest they have EVER endorsed a congressional candidate. It is hard to believe, but the election is still over a year away.

For a Michigan candidate, the support of unions, especially the AFL-CIO, dictates success in a primary and ultimately the general election. Working families in Michigan’s 9th are one step closer to having a Representative who will fight for their jobs and their rights.

With this early endorsement the AFL-CIO joins the majority of elected Democrats in MI-09, other labor unions and progressives organizations in uniting behind Peters for Congress.

Gary Peters has a strong record of supporting working families and core Democratic values. As a State Senator he helped write the bill that banned drilling in the Great Lakes, fighting the oil lobby every step of the way.

In an email to supporters, Peters says that since he has entered the race MI-09 has become one of the nation’s top targeted races. Polling data confirms that he is one of the strongest Democratic challengers in the country.

Learn more about Gary at Peters For Congress