Month: August 2008

Yesterday, Jim Inhofe called on his supporters to send their gas receipts into his campaign office so that he can send them to Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader.  Apparently, Inhofe is trying to show his frustrations that Congress adjourned without bringing any relief on energy prices.

Oklahomans, though, should be more frustrated with Jim Inhofe’s decades of doing nothing to avert an energy crisis.

State Sen. Andrew Rice is fed up with opponent’s lack of leadership on this issue.  He’s not going to send Jim Inhofe his gas receipts.  Instead, he’s going to send Jim Inhofe an invoice for $1,076,573 – the amount of money he’s received in campaign contributions from big oil.

(more below the fold)

It’s nothing new for Oklahoma’s senior senator to try to distract from our energy problems by pointing fingers and shifting blame.  Rather than taking responsibility for his own inaction on gas prices and energy independence during his 22 years in Congress, Inhofe chooses to accuse those who disagree with him of “an attempt to misinform and frighten the public” (Inhofe in a July 9, 2002 floor speech) and “fear-mongering” (Inhofe in a January 4, 2005 floor speech).  He used two hours of the Senate’s time last October to discuss Leonardo DiCaprio, the Weather Channel, and his climate change denial, when he could have used that time to put forward solutions to the growing energy crisis.

During the 14 years Inhofe has been in the Senate, gas prices have nearly quadrupled.  Yet he seems content to blame others and takes no responsibility for his own failures.  It’s time Oklahoma’s voters held Jim Inhofe accountable, and it’s time we sent him a message that pointing fingers is no way to lead.

The message Sen. Rice would like to send Sen. Inhofe?  Talk is cheap, but gas is expensive.  It’s time for real leadership in the U.S. Senate.  To add your name to the invoice that Sen. Rice is sending to Jim Inhofe, click here.

In the state senate, Andrew Rice has fought for common-sense solutions to our energy problems that are both fiscally and environmentally responsible.  This week, he endorsed the “Gang of Ten” Plan, a bipartisan energy proposal to diversify our resources to pave the way for a more secure, independent, and responsible energy future.  He will continue this fight in the U.S. Senate, working toward solutions that will help everyday Oklahomans.

With over $1 million dollars in campaign contributions from big oil, Jim Inhofe won’t change his mind on energy.  In the U.S. Senate, Andrew Rice will show real leadership to pave the way for a new energy future.

– Karina Henderson

Rice for U.S. Senate

http://www.andrewforoklahoma.com

Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP

Click on photos for larger versions.  More available on my Flickr page, as always.

Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois was in the state and saw a good chunk of it in a short period of time — at least up and down I-25.  

I’m not quite sure where he met up with Second Congressional District candidate Harry Teague for a fundraiser, but Emanuel stopped by Gabriel’s Restaurant north of Santa Fe for a fundraiser and quick talk with the press (which is to mean myself and Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican).  

Emanuel spoke about the big year Democrats had in 2006 and how we won; it wasn’t just the war.

Yes, the war was a big factor. But the deteriorating economic condition in the middle class was a big factor in the fact that the Democrats took back the House and the Senate.  And it will again be a contributing factor because people realize that under the Republican Party stewardship, the middle class has been hurt.

After the Ben Ray event, it was time for Emanuel to hop in his rented car (I assume) and head down I-25 to Albuquerque for a press conference with Martin Heinrich, Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano, Captain Ahren Griego IAFF Local 244 and other firefighters from IAFF Local 244.  

“We can fund our labs, and create new jobs, and we can fund our police departments across the United States,” Emanuel said in his short speech. “I’m going to be here to help Martin because it’s time for a change.”

President Bush took a beating — not a good sign for his staunch supporter, Darren White.

I got to speak to Heinrich for a few minutes after the event.  “It was a proud day to stand up there with them and to say I’m going to stand with them on these issues where we’ve seen President Bush and his allies cut back the COPS program dramatically, cut things like the Byrne Grants, do things that directly impact our first responders in a negative way.”

Byrne Grants help fund drug enforcement for the police.

But the cuts went deeper for Solano.  After all, he has to deal with the cuts to the funding; he’s a sheriff and knows firsthand what they do.

“Santa Fe County used to get enough money to get about 10-15 bullet proof vests a year.  Which wasn’t enough,” Solano told FBIHOP. “We have a department of about 90 officers, it wasn’t enough to fund it all — but it helped a lot.  Last year, we got funding for one vest, $500.  This year, we don’t expect any funding at all.”

This caused Solano to do something he “never would have imagined” doing a year ago — backing the opponent of a law enforcement officer for a Congressional seat.  

“You would think that Darren White, with his connections to Bush would have spoken up for us,” Solano said.  “And I’ve never heard of him doing so.”

In today’s Sacramento Bee newspaper Dr. Bill Durston finally got some press coverage about his race against one of the most well-known California Republicans, Dan Lungren. You can decide whether it was a positive article or not, but one thing is for sure: Bill Durston is putting up a fight for this seat.

Part of Durston’s fight to “take back our government from the special interests that control it, and to restore government of, by, and for the people” is online. He has recently created a video that pieces together clips from a debate he had with Lungren in 2006 about corruption and a more recent ABC News segment in which Lungren is found to be taking luxury vacations paid for by special interests, despite House ethics laws which prohibit such trips. If that video gets you riled up about Lungren, please consider sending Durston some love on his ActBlue page.

Speaking of ethics issues and abuse of power, one of the reasons Durston is having to fight such an uphill battle against Lungren, who refuses to debate him this year, is the fact that Lungren is paying for much of his campaigning with taxpayer money. Lungren has three “town hall meetings” coming up in the district next week and he is promoting them with color advertisements in the Sacramento Bee (a quarter-page full-color ad appeared Aug. 4), automated mass phone calls, and a fancy color mailer touting his “energy plan” that went out to residents of the 3rd congressional district. In tiny text on the mailer is: “This mailing was prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense.” These town hall meetings are nothing more than campaign stops. It’s outrageous that Lungren’s campaign for re-election is being funded by taxpayers like you, me, and Bill Durston himself.

Anzalone-Liszt for Bobby Bright (8/3-6, likely voters):

Bobby Bright (D): 50

Jay Love (R): 40

(MoE: ±4.9%)

Impressive numbers for Bobby Bright, especially when you consider the district’s generic ballot (45R-33D) and partisan self-identification (44R-36D). And while the primary gave Jay Lovin’ a huge boost in name recognition (74%), Bright’s name ID is only five points higher (79%), throwing a bit of sand on the assumption that Love would pull ahead as soon as he increased his profile in the district.

Bright’s personal favorability is very high in the district, with 63% rating him favorably and only 16% unfavorably. Additionally, his job approval ratings as mayor of Montgomery are even higher: 68-9.

By a 3-to-1 margin, voters say that Love is running a negative campaign. So while his primary did boost his numbers somewhat, he’s still dealing with a bit of a hangover from its nasty tone.

SSP currently rates this race as Lean Republican, but we’re liking what we see here today.

(H/T: Political Parlor)

UPDATE: Jay Lovin’ has released his own internal poll. McLaughlin & Associates (7/21-22, likely voters):

Bobby Bright (D): 39

Jay Love (R-inc): 41

(MoE: ±5.7%)

Well, both camps agree on one thing; as they say in tennis “40 Love”. (H/T: Andy Dufresne)

TN-01: Probably the biggest news last night was Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe’s 500-vote victory over incumbent Rep. David Davis. Davis, a freshman, won the open-seat GOP primary last cycle with just 22% (Roe finished fourth), so in some sense this isn’t too surprising. But man is that one short congressional career. Note to Democrats: One of Roe’s most successful lines of attack was to link Davis to “big oil.”

TN-07: Uber-wingnut Rep. Marsha Blackburn held off a challenge by Shelby County Register of Deeds Tom Leatherwood, winning 62-38.

TN-09: Thursday’s best result was progressive Rep. Steve Cohen’s resounding 79-19 thrashing of Nikki Tinker. After running a racist and antisemitic campaign remarkable for its ugliness, Tinker deserved to be humiliated – and was. The other big loser was EMILY’s List, which backed Tinker’s play despite Cohen’s vastly better politics. All in all, a big win for the good guys.

TN-Sen: With just 32% of the vote in a crowded field, former Dem state party chair Bob Tuke earned the right to take on Lamar! Alexander this fall.

Tonight was the deadline for candidates in Wyoming and Washington to file their pre-primary fundraising reports with the FEC in advance of the states’ August 19th primaries. We’ve rounded up the numbers from the two races worth watching in these states below, covering the period from July 1st through the 30th:

All figures are in thousands.

Mark Gordon’s numbers should be taken with a heavy grain of salt, as he actually only “raised” $20K in July; the additional $405K came from a personal contribution (not a loan) to his campaign. In fact, of the $1.15 million in receipts that Gordon’s campaign has raised this cycle, under $100K actually came from individuals or PACs, so his performance isn’t as impressive as meets the eye.

As for Darcy Burner… I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Wow.

Polls have now closed in Tennessee. We’ll be using this thread to keep track of the results of the Democratic contest for TN-09, and we’ll keep an eye on TN-01 and TN-07, where there is some hot wingnut on wingnut action taking place.

RESULTS: Associated Press | TN-09

11:49PM: (Exhales) It’s over in TN-01: Phil Roe beats David Davis by 500 votes! What a sadsack loser Davis is. Over in TN-09, Cohen has crushed Tinker by a 38,000-vote margin with 98% in. Hope you enjoyed the evening, EMILY’s List!

11:29PM: I think they’re taking a ganja break over in TN-01.

11:03PM: A few more votes are trickling in: Roe’s lead is now back down to 1200 votes with 84% reporting.

10:43PM: Our back of the envelope analysis says that Davis would have to perform 16 points better than he has all night in the remaining precincts in order to eek out a win. Looks doubtful…

10:36PM: With 83% in, Cohen now has a 34,000 vote lead over the odious Nikki Tinker. That sound you hear is me engraving her political tombstone. And it feels… so… good.

10:22PM: 80% now reporting in TN-01, and Roe is now leading by 1500. Over in TN-09, Steve Cohen has grown his lead to 32,000 votes with 80% in. Fuck yeah!

10:17PM: Over in TN-01, 73% of the vote is in, and Roe is clinging to that 1200 vote lead. Over in Memphis, Nikki Tinker’s political career is dead at 19%.

10:07PM: I sure hope EMILY’s List is enjoying the egg all over their faces right now. With 67% of the vote in, Cohen has a 30,000-strong lead. SSP calls the race for Steve Cohen!

9:54PM: For TN-09 results, check here. With 55% of precincts reporting, Cohen is crushing Tinker by 79-19. (H/T: MinnesotaMike)

9:52PM: In TN-01, Roe is up by 1000 votes with 65% in.

9:44PM: Alright. Finally, some TN-09 numbers. Cohen leads by over 14,000 votes (81-17) so far. Nice.

9:37PM: With 53% counted, Roe has expanded his lead over Davis to nearly 1200 votes.

9:33PM: 38% in now, and Roe is up by 700 votes. Over in TN-07, Leatherwood is officially driftwood.

9:27PM: With 26% in, Roe is up by 500 votes (51-49).

9:10PM: Roe has pulled back ahead by 60 votes with 21% in. Over in TN-07, Leatherwood is getting smoked.

9:07PM: Davis is back on top by a mere 35 votes (16% reporting).

9:02PM: Roe has expanded his lead over Davis to 450 votes (52-48) with 12% in.

8:52PM: Some more votes in: Roe leads Davis by 300 votes with 7% in. Still nothing from Memphis yet.

8:40PM: With 2% reporting in TN-01, Roe has pulled ahead of Davis by a 51-48 margin. Obviously, it’s pretty early in the night. In TN-07, Blackburn has a big early lead: 73-27.

8:30PM ET: With 1% reporting in TN-01, incumbent David Davis is up by 50-49 (and 20 votes) against challenger Phil Roe. Over in TN-07, with 1% reporting, Marsha Blackburn has an early 60-40 lead over Tom Leatherwood. Nothing in TN-09 yet.

While the month started off catastrophically for Darcy Burner when a fire destroyed her home, she sure has ended it on a high note.

Burner’s campaign has just turned in their pre-primary filing with the FEC, and she’s reporting to have raised nearly $351,000 in the month of July, ending the period with close to $1.5 million in the bank. Those are monstrous numbers, especially when you consider that only $18,000 of her total came from PACs.

We’ll let you know what GOP Rep. Dave Reichert raised as soon as he files his report. Wow.

UPDATE: Dave Reichert? $115,000, with $928,000 cash-on-hand. I wonder if he just dropped a brick on the floor of his campaign office.

It looks like the DCCC’s independent expenditure operation is kicking into gear. After spending $100,000 on ads in Illinois’ 11th CD and Texas’ 22nd CD yesterday, the DCCC is spending money today on direct mail in Illinois and New Jersey:

• IL-11: $20,000 in support of Debbie Halvorson
• NJ-07: $13,000 in support of Linda Stender

With over $54 million in the bank, that’s just the start of many, many more expenditures to come. We’ll be sure to keep you up to date as more numbers come in.