Wednesday’s political round-up
My new daily feature about campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* In a major surprise, Rep. James Langevin (R.I.) announced he will not run against Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R) next year. Langevin’s campaign was not only a foregone conclusion among most Dems, but polls showed him with a comfortable lead. Attention now shifts to Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D), who indicated he might consider the race if Langevin didn’t run.
* Speaking of surprises, newly elected Sen. Ken Salazar (D) raised eyebrows across Colorado yesterday when he said he hadn’t ruled out running for governor next year. “I love what I’m doing as a U.S. senator, and you know I expect that I will continue on as a U.S. senator,” Salazar said. “But I also don’t want to say never to a possibility that I will change my mind between now and 2006. I love the state of Colorado, and I think there are things I could do as governor in Colorado; but I also am very much enjoying serving the people in the state in my current position.”
* Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said yesterday that his party’s top goal in the 2006 elections is to keep Sen. Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum in office. “There is no higher priority for our party,” Mehlman said in an interview.
* Karl Rove and Rep. Katherine Harris (R.) have been chatting quite a bit lately about whether she’ll take on Sen. Bill Nelson (D.) in Florida next year. The strange part is, no one’s sure which way the conversations have been going. Some believe Harris wants to run and Rove is offering advice to help her win, while others believe Rove is trying to drill home Bush’s opposition to a Harris Senate candidacy. “The president doesn’t want her to run, short of a natural disaster,” one Republican source said.
* Talk that Dems need to be more open in discussing religious issues appears to have reached DNC Chairman Howard Dean. Speaking in Tennessee yesterday, Dean made a few more biblical references than usual. In the first one, he said Jesus’ directive to ”love thy neighbor” didn’t mean one could choose which ones to love. He then remarked that Republicans never brought up the scriptural verse saying it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. ”We should never let anybody tell us we don’t respect faith,” Dean said.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for office pledging to overturn a system “corrupted by dirty money, closed doors and back-room dealing.” Now, however, some are taken aback by the governor’s aggressive corporate fundraising, much of it in big checks from the pharmaceutical, insurance and energy industries. Schwarzenegger’s predecesor Gov. Gray Davis, suffered politically when voters were turned off by his constant fundraising efforts, but the actor-turned-politician is blazing an even worse trail. “This is Gray Davis on steroids,” said Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica consumer group.
* Texas’ decision to bar Ralph Nader from the presidential ballot last year sparked a lawsuit and multiple appeals. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court brought the issue to a close by rejecting the case. Texas rules establish deadlines and signature requirements, both of which Nader’s campaign failed. Nader sued, saying the standards weren’t easy enough.
* And John Edwards goes back to work today, this time as head of the University of North Carolina law school’s new Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. “We have millions of Americans who work full time and still live in poverty, and that is absolutely wrong,” Edwards said. His salary is paid from private funds raised by the university.