Conservative rebellion against Washington GOP establishment heating up
An internecine war is heating up between the professional political consultants who run the Washington GOP establishment and insurgent conservatives beyond the Washington Beltway, who are fed up with seeing their money go to anti-life, big-spending, tax-hiking people like Arlen Specter and Lincoln Chaffee.
Florida: Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce: Charlie Crist, tax hiker! In fact, the tax hike that Charlie Crist signed is expected to take an extra $900 million a year out of Floridians' pockets. I'm sure this will delight Florida's conservative Republican anti-tax primary voters.
Pennsylvania: New Quinnipiac poll numbers show Arlen Specter losing a bit of ground against Republican right-winger Pat Toomey. In Q's May 4 poll, Specter led Toomey by 20 points, 53-33. The lead is now down to 9 points, 46-37. Congressman Joe Sestak also leads Pat Toomey, 37-35. The GOP primary shows Toomey leading (currently gubernatorial candidate) Jim Gerlach 38-10, with anti-abortion rights activist Peg Luksik getting only 3% (which is why it might be wise for Luksik to run for Senate under the Constitution Party banner, as she did when she ran for Governor).
Q puts the Democratic primary at Specter 50, Sestak 21. I find that interesting. A Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll has Specter at 55% in the primary, while a DSCC poll has Specter at 56%. My impression is that the mid-50s will prove to be Specter's high point in the primary. He enjoys high name recognition from decades in the Senate, and Democrats have been generally content with him as a "moderate" Republican. When Sestak introduces himself, outlines where he will be (and has been) a much better Democrat on the issues than Specter, labor likely comes out for him, and people absorb the notion that Arlen is only in it for Arlen, Democratic voters will leave the fake Democrat for the real Democrat. In fact, I'll make this prediction now: if Congressman Joe Sestak enters the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2010, he will be the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, the below video is how Ed Schultz kicked off Thursday's edition of The Ed Show on MSNBC - if it's any indication, Ed should be talking up Congressman Sestak for some time.
New York: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has announced her latest endorsement, New York's first African-American statewide elected officeholder, former Comptroller H. Carl McCall.
Kentucky: An internal poll by Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo shows him unsurprisingly leading state Attorney General Jack Conway in the 2010 Democratic Senate primary, 43-28. In addition to being an internal poll, the poll also has a relatively high 5.4% margin of error, so take it with a large grain of salt.
Sen. David Vitter, (R-LA), is doing everything he can to keep his earmark-loving reputation alive by seeking roughly $1.1 billion earmarks in the federal 2010 budget. This, despite the fact that Vitter's Website says his "top budget priority is to establish greater fiscal discipline."
What else would you expect from someone with zero integrity?
The 30-second spot set to air statewide in Connecticut on Friday features Obama praising the Democrat for his work crafting the new credit card reform bill that the president signed into law last week. Dodd chairs the Senate Banking Committee.
"I want to give a special shout-out to Chris Dodd, who has been a relentless fighter to get this done," Obama says. The president's comments were made at a Rose Garden signing ceremony for the bill last week.
Dodd's campaign is spending more than $100,000 for a week of air time. Dodd has $1.4 million in campaign cash and is expected to maintain a fundraising advantage over his rivals.
