North Carolina: The DSCC has released a new TV ad against Bush-rubber-stamp Elizabeth Dole. The ad mocks the "age card," declaring effectiveness and independence (from George W. Bush in particular) to be far more important, noting that Dole fails on both counts:
Oregon & New Hampshire: The SEIU is putting $500,000 in Oregon and $600,000 in New Hampshire into the below ads critiquing the failed records of Republicans Gordon Smith and John Sununu, noting their stooge-hood for Big Pharma and HMOs:
Oregon: Republican Gordon Smith continues his mad dash away from his Republican Party as he renounced his Honorary Co-Chairman status with John W. McCain's Presidential campaign. The reason Republican Gordon Smith cites? He's focused on his re-election campaign. What that has to do with something not remotely time-consuming or effortful (it is literally just lending his name to the list on John W. McCain's website), who knows? It's just another example of Republican Gordon Smith willing to do or say anything to mislead Oregonians.
Maine: Republican Susan Collins says that she tries "not to judge people's personal lives" and then says of John Edwards with a fiendish grin on her face "Don't you think he is the father of the child?" Collins admits that her staff is "appalled" that she is discussing this. I would imagine that many others are appalled, too. "The hypocrisy of it!" Susan Collins exclaims. Of course, Collins knows a little something about hypocrisy. Susan Collins seems far less taken aback by the marital infidelities of her preferred candidate for President, John W. McCain. If Susan Collins has the slightest shred of integrity, she hides it very well.
Minnesota: Smilin' Norm Coleman's ApartmentGate scandal is only about to get worse. It appears that, in addition to enjoying well-below-market rent (when Coleman bothered to pay rent), Coleman also rarely, if ever, paid utilities. Media questions have gone unanswered, and Coleman's campaign manager is now saying that Coleman had an agreement with his landlord (who is also a Republican operative) that Coleman would pay his utilities for the year at the end of the year. A likely story that will continue to unfold. In other news, the substance-free distractions that Smilin' Norm Coleman presents to Minnesotans as campaign ads have been quantifiably deemed to be failures.
A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Republican Dick Zimmer within seven points of the four-term incumbent, Democrat Frank Lautenberg (48%-41%), but it seems that the National Republican Senatorial Committee has already written off the former three-term Congressman. In an interview with Dow Jones Newswire, Rebecca Fisher, a spokeswoman for the NRSC, said that Louisiana's Mary Landrieu is their priority and "admitted the party had no other hopes of unseating an incumbent Democrat."
As Kos points out, this is unfortunate, as it would have been terrific to watch the NRSC waste millions in the Garden State.
Colorado: An independent media examination of ads criticizing the record of Backwards Bob Schaffer finds absolutely nothing untruthful about them. Schaffer's record really is just that bad.
Kansas: Bush-cover-up-artist Pat Roberts is the latest Republican Senator to announce that he will skip the Republican National Convention, perhaps fearing any association with the sinking ship that is the national GOP. I guess Roberts has no desire in going to a "funeral." In other news, despite Roberts' myriad misleading attack ads against former Congressman Jim Slattery, Rasmussen Reports has seen Roberts' lead over Slattery shrink from 27 points to 19 points, 55-36. It's still an uphill climb, in large part thanks to Roberts' barrage of misleading negative attack ads, but the numbers are moving in the correct direction.
Virginia: Popular Democratic former Governor Mark Warner will deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. This may raise Governor Warner's profile just high enough to give him a real shot at winning his 2008 Senate race.
