- Minnesota: The “One Dollar a Day to Make Norm Coleman Go Away” effort is just a hair shy of the $150,000 mark. Give it a hand nudging it over the top.
- Pennsylvania: Greenberg Quinlan Rosner recently released a poll showing Arlen Specter leading Congressman Joe Sestak 55-34 in a potential 2010 Democratic Senate primary match-up. But that’s not the real story of the poll:
Sestak already leads among voters who know both candidates: Perhaps the most remarkable number of all in this poll is that Joe Sestak is already leading Arlen Specter among the 30% of voters who know both candidates (p. 4-5):
Among voters that know Sestak (mostly in the Philadelphia inner suburbs) he enjoys an 18 – 4 favorable-unfavorable ratio, and among voters who already identify both candidates, Sestak actually leads Specter in the initial head to head 52 – 44 percent.
With numbers like these, claims from Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell that Sestak has no chance are unmasked as either absurd or desperate. Sestak is already winning among Democrats who know both candidates. Rendell might have even seen this poll before he made those remarks, since it was completed ten days beforehand.
To repeat: among Pennsylvania Democrats who know both Specter and Sestak, Sestak leads 52-44! Quite a jumping off point. In related news, Congressman Sestak is not pulling any punches, in a message on his campaign website:
Many of you may have heard about the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate race and Arlen Specter’s decision to abandon the Republican Party and switch to the Democratic Party because he believed that he would have lost in next year’s Republican Primary, ending his political career.We are at such a critical point in Pennsylvania’s history, and our nation’s, that who you are running against pales in comparison to what are you running for. So while Arlen’s decision may be good for himself, politically, to avoid running against someone he could not beat, his decision begs what he is running for, and whether he is the best candidate to shape the future of Pennsylvania.
Arlen Specter is running for Arlen Specter. Joe Sestak is running for Pennsylvania. And Joe Sestak will make that difference clear. Elsewhere, Barney Frank does not <3 Arlen Specter, but Arlen Specter does <3 Joe Sestak. Also, Chris Bowers has rounded up some of Arlen Specter’s Greatest Hits, including being a rabid flat tax proponent and moving to the right in a dozen consecutive Congresses.
- Nevada: A right-wing reactionary group whose sole purpose is to oust Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid is doing a lousy job of attracting support:
Fundraising appeals sent out by a group that launched a supposedly major anti-Reid campaign last month reveal that the Our Country Deserves Better PAC is struggling financially.”Ouch folks, this is not too good” was the subject line on an e-mail sent Wednesday. It said only 75 people had chipped in less than $2,800 to the latest push for the “Defeat Harry Reid” campaign against the Senate majority leader from Nevada.
So Senator Reid should watch out for literally a couple seconds of negative radio air time on the horizon thanks to the right-wing juggernaut. Oh, and the effort only notes two donors who are actually from Nevada. For all of the GOP’s desperate efforts to portray Senator Reid as vulnerable, all they have been able to illustrate is how safe Senator Reid’s re-election chances are.
- Illinois: If the 2010 Democratic Senate primary is a heads-up match between state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and businessman Chris Kennedy, the primary could devolve into a contest of who is tighter with President Obama:
The only announced candidate in the race, Giannoulias, is personally close with Obama and is well-known for being one of his basketball buddies in Illinois. But Rep. [Patrick] Kennedy [Chris Kennedy's cousin] was bullish about his cousin getting support from the White House in the race, saying nobody had done more to wave the “Obama banner” in the 2008 election than his family.”A couple hundred grand to Barack and playing hoops on the court with Barack, and you weigh that political capital next to the endorsement of my family for Barack at the critical juncture for his campaign when he did,” Rep. Kennedy said. “And to me, if that were a fight, they’d have to stop it because it’s a slam dunk for the Kennedys.”
In a phone interview, Giannoulias responded to Rep. Kennedy’s statement by touting his long-standing relationship with Obama.
“I’ve been friends with the president for a long time,” Giannoulias said. “He is like a mentor to me. He is one of the reasons I got involved in politics. I don’t want to get into an argument about who knows him better.”
Congressman Kennedy may be doing his cousin a grave disservice by trying to turn Chris Kennedy’s nascent bid into a statement on the Kennedy family rather than on who can best serve Illinois in the U.S. Senate. For the time being though, I’m guessing that Chris Kennedy is keeping his powder dry until state Attorney General Lisa Madigan, possibly Illinois’ most popular elected official, makes up her mind as to her 2010 electoral plans, which could include a Senate bid (though she is leaning toward a gubernatorial run according to all reports).
- Florida: Charlie Crist has been nominated by the conservative Club for Growth for a “Comrade of the Month” award for breaking his no-tax pledge. I’m sure that 2010 Republican Senate primary opponent Marco Rubio will alert Florida Republicans of Crist’s latest honor. This could also encourage more national CfG money Rubio’s way.
- New York: An internal poll for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (conducted by a colleague of the imminently credible – snark – Mark Penn) shows her narrowly leading and in a statistical dead heat with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in a potential 2010 Democratic Senate primary match-up. When an independent poll shows Maloney with any kind of lead, I’ll be impressed.
- Utah: The water in the UT-GOP 2010 Senate primary pool must be warm because everyone is jumping in. The latest is businessman James Williams.
- Rankings: Campaign Diaries offers a thoughtful and thorough look at the 2010 Senate races.
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