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August 26, 2010
Rep. Bobby Bright (D-AL) dodged criticism about voting for Nancy Pelosi (D) as House Speaker by suggesting she might not be available for the job next year if Democrats retain control, the
Montgomery Advertiser reports.
The freshman congressman joked that Pelosi "might lose her own election, decide not to run for the speaker's job or otherwise not be available. He suggested, jokingly he insisted to his audience, that Pelosi could fall ill and die in coming months. That remark drew laughter from the crowd."
The latest
Rasmussen survey in California shows Meg Whitman (R) leading Jerry Brown (D) among likely voters for California governor, 48% to 40%.
Earlier this month, Rasmussen found Brown with a 43% to 41% lead.
First Read: "One of the more profound changes in American politics is how much more conservative the nominees inside the Republican Party have become..."
"This rightward movement inside the GOP appears likely to pay big dividends this fall. Republicans are energized, Democrats are not (right now), and the economy is hardly humming -- all of which are a recipe for significant Republican gains in November. But when we head into the 2012 presidential election, when the electorate expands, you got to wonder if a Republican Party that doesn't have room for a John McCain of 2001-2007, a Charlie Crist of 2007-2008, or a Lisa Murkowski of 2010 can reclaim the center of American politics and the presidency, even if they gain control of Congress in the fall."
Rep. Kendrick Meek's (D) victory in Florida's Democratic U.S. Senate primary ensures many Democrats are unlikely to bolt to Gov. Charlie Crist's (D) independent candidacy as they might have if the baggage-laden Jeff Greene (D) were the party's nominee.
"All of which leaves Crist in the position of having to perform Houdini-like marvels of contortion to find a large enough space in the political middle to keep his independent bid on track,"
Politico notes.
For the final two months of the campaign, Crist "will have to chart a narrow, largely untested course between both parties. He'll have finite financial resources and few outside allies who can ride to his rescue. In short, he'll have to be a political one-man band, relying ever more on his skills as a sunny, relentless and elastic campaigner who bends to where he thinks the people, and victory, are found."
With
Reuter/Ipsos poll showing Sen. Michael Bennet (D) trailing challenger Ken Buck (R) in Colorado's U.S. Senate race,
The Fix reports Bennet's campaign will release an internal poll showing the incumbent leading 44% to 40%.
Noentheless, both polls "suggest that Buck is a credible candidate who presents a real threat to the incumbent this fall."
"Top Democrats are growing markedly more pessimistic about holding the House, privately conceding that the summertime economic and political recovery they were banking on will not likely materialize by Election Day,"
Politico reports.
"In conversations with more than two dozen party insiders, most of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly about the state of play, Democrats in and out of Washington say they are increasingly alarmed about the economic and polling data they have seen in recent weeks."
Meanwhile, the latest CQ-Roll Call survey of the
political landscape "finds an environment that continues to worsen for Democrats and new race ratings to reflect Republicans on the ascent."
Former Rep. James Traficant has won more time to prove he collected enough petition signatures to run for Congress this fall as an independent, the
AP reports.
A new
Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania shows Pat Toomey (R) leading Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in the U.S. Senate race among likely voters, 40% to 31%.
The contest is closer among all registered voters, with Toomey leading by only 3 points.
Said pollster Terry Madonna: "The Democratic Party's difficulty in this election is their voters do not have the same motivation and they're less likely to vote. That is a huge problem for them."
Key finding: 35% say President Obama is doing a "poor" job,
while only 37% feel he is doing an "excellent" or "good" job as
president.
The Hotline: "It's hard to see how Sestak wins his Senate match up against Toomey if Obama remains so unpopular."
A new
Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania shows Tom Corbett (R) leading Dan Onorato (D) in the race for governor among likely voters, 38% to 27%.
Among registered voters, the race is a toss up with Corbett ahead by just one point.
August 25, 2010
Joe Miller's (R) lead over Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) "slightly narrowed to 1,668 votes with all the election precincts counted on Wednesday. A stunned Murkowski said she is not giving up hope until absentee ballots are counted starting next week," the
Anchorage Daily News reports.
More than 16,000 absentees were requested, and about 7,600 of them have been returned, but Alaska law allows absentees to come in within 10 days of the election for ballots sent within the United States and 15 days for overseas.
The first count of absentees will be done on August 31 with additional counts scheduled for September 3 and September 8.
Though Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R)
reportedly said he wasn't running for president in an interview with the
Louisville Journal-Courier, a video indicates he hasn't quite shut the door on the idea.
Said Daniels: "I've used the phrase sometimes that I'll stop
one step short of Sherman, but I've done that at really the request of an awful lot of people who've -- for reasons they'd have to explain -- think this would be a good idea, or haven't thought of a better idea yet."
"While not on the ballot, another group of often-maligned politicos also won big on Tuesday: automated pollsters, whose numbers in Florida correctly predicted that Scott would overcome state Attorney General Bill McCollum to claim the GOP nomination," according to
Politico.
"The more traditional pollsters, who used the more expensive and trusted method of live telephone interviews to conduct their surveys, rejected the notion that their numbers this week had been flawed -- and offered data to back them up... Still, if there was any doubt that newer, less traditional pollsters are here to stay, Tuesday's elections virtually removed it... For PPP, and a host of other automated pollsters including the ubiquitous Scott Rasmussen, offering those top-line numbers -- and offering them in spades -- has offered a clear path to influence and commercial success."
Former RNC chairman Ken Mehlman decided to announce publicly that he is gay,
Marc Ambinder reports.
"He agreed to answer a reporter's questions, he said, because, now in private life, he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage and anticipated that questions would be asked about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group that supported the legal challenge to California's ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition 8."
Said Mehlman: "It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life. Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I've told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they've been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that's made me a happier and better person. It's something I wish I had done years ago."
A new
Rasmussen Reports poll in Illinois finds Alexi Giannoulias (D) leading Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) by the slimmest of margins in their race for President Obama's former Senate seat, 42% to 40%.
The poll shows the race virtually unchanged since last month.
A new
Public Policy Polling survey in Louisiana finds Sen. David Vitter (R) leading Rep. Charlie Melancon (D) in the U.S. Senate race by ten points, 51% to 41%, essentially no change from the previous two polls.
Key findings: "Vitter has a 53% approval rating with 41% of voters disapproving of him. That actually makes him, along with Barbara Mikulski and Dick Durbin, one of only three Senators PPP has found with approval ratings over 50% in all of 2010. He is significantly ahead of the curve in terms of his personal popularity."
With Joe Miller (R)
on the verge of unseating Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Alaska, the
Daily Beast reports Murkowski is considering her options as a possible write-in or third party candidate. The filing deadline for an independent bid has passed but "a source within the Murkowski campaign says they know of one possible legal option to pursue a third party run."
Making the race even more interesting are
reports that Democrats could try to push aside their nominee, Scott McAdams (D), and give the nomination to former Gov. Tony Knowles (D) instead.
In an interview with
WKOW-TV, Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson (R) blasted government subsidies.
Said Johnson: "I'm in business. I have never lobbied for some special treatment or for a government payment.... When you subsidize things...it doesn't work through the free market system very well."
However, it turns out Johnson actually received a $2.5 million government subsidized loan to expand his company back in 1985.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) acknowledged his administration "made a clerical error that blew its chance at winning $400 million in federal money for schools, but he blamed Obama administration bureaucrats for not giving New Jersey a chance to correct the mistake," the
Newark Star Ledger reports.
Said Christie: "This is the stuff, candidly, that drives people crazy about government and crazy about Washington."
An email appeal from President Obama to his supporters for Jerry Brown's (D) run for California governor led to the crash of his website, the
Los Angeles Times reports.
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Marc Ambinder: "Joe Scarborough, former congressman from Florida and co-host of MSNBC's agenda-setting wake-up show Morning Joe, has protested, kindly and loudly (he is kind and loud), when speculation arises about his presidential ambitions. He points out that MSNBC is not the platform a conservative would use to build street credentials among his base. He insists he enjoys his current job, turning down entreaties from Republicans to run for Senate by noting that he has more influence as a broadcaster than as a member of the saucer cooler. Nonetheless, a studio apartment industry has arisen of conservatives who think that Scarborough might just be the type of Republican who can be successful in the future."
"Scarborough describes himself as a conservative with libertarian leanings. He's a fiscal hawk who cares more about the debt because it's a genuine burden than because it's an opportunity to prevent liberals from spending. He is not a denialist. He doesn't traffic in fear-based politics. He doesn't like cant, and has been trained, as an off-the-cuff broadcaster, to speak more like the normal person he is than the politician he once was. "
Nate Silver's latest Senate forecast shows the Democratic majority in increasing jeopardy.
The simulation finds Democrats now have an approximately 20% chance of losing 10 or more seats in the Senate which would cost them control of the chamber -- unless Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wins his race and decides to caucus with them.
On average, Democrats are projected to lose a net of six and a half Senate seats, which would leave them with 52 or 53 senators.
A new
Reuters/Ipsos poll in Colorado shows Tom Tancredo (I) "appears to be playing a spoiler's role" in the race for governor.
John Hickenlooper (D) leads Dan Maes (R) among likely voters, 41% to 33%, with Tancredo at 16%. Without Tancredo in the race, Maes and Hickenlooper would be tied at 45% each.
A new
Reuters/Ipsos poll in Colorado shows Ken Buck (R) leading Sen. Michael Bennet (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 49% to 40%.
Little is known about the Kennedy family fortune, but
WPRI-TV notes recently-filed financial disclosure forms from Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) shows he "will retire from Congress a much wealthier man after receiving a multimillion-dollar inheritance from his father, the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died a year ago today."
The disclosure "shows Kennedy's net worth rose last year to more than $6 million, and likely much more than that, according to an analysis by Eyewitness News. His annual income from dividends and other sources was more than $205,006, on top of his congressional salary of $174,000."
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