Tuesday’s political round-up

June 21, 2005

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* With Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s career spiraling towards indictment, moves are already underway in San Diego to replace him in the House. The most likely successor is former state Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP Senate nomination in 2004. Dems in the district appear to be rallying behind college professor Francine Busby, who took on Cunningham in 2004. Though she only won 37% of the vote last fall, all of a sudden, national and local Democrats — along with independents and moderate Republicans — are showing a keen interest in her candidacy.

* Houston City Councilman Gordon Quan (D), anxious to avoid a divisive primary, dropped out of the race to take on Tom DeLay in 2006 and endorsed former Rep. Nick Lampson (D) Quan also noted that he had conducted polling that showed DeLay has lost support among constituents and that he and Lampson had nearly equal support.

* A new Mason-Dixon poll that will be released today shows Sen. Bill Nelson (D) with a surprisingly large lead over Rep. Katherine Harris (R) in next year’s Senate race. Nelson looked strong with 53% support, while Harris trailed badly with 36%. Nelson also enjoyed an encouraging favorable/unfavorable rating (44-10), as opposed to Harris, who remains a divisive figure in Florida (32-30).

* Despite apparent efforts by some Republicans to coax former Congressman and GOP heavyweight lobbyist Vin Weber into next year’s Senate campaign, Weber said this week that he’s not running.

* When no top-tier Republicans expressed interest in taking on Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D) next year, the Michigan GOP turned to Jane Abraham as a candidate who could make the race competitive. Now, they’re not so sure. Abraham, for example, still has not formally announced her intentions, and patience is wearing thin in Republican circles. A GOP official in Washington said, “It’s just hard to say what she really brings to the ticket other than her last name, which does not really invoke a lot of excitement based on the last Senate race.”

* The Congressional Black Caucus is rallying behind Rep. Harold Ford Jr.’s (D-Tenn.) Senate campaign in Tennessee, already putting together plans to devote time and resources to help Ford win the seat Bill Frist is vacating next year. CBC members say they will help Ford raise money, campaign for him in DC and Tennessee, and serve as his surrogate whenever asked.

June 21, 2005 at 12:48 pm

Hi everybody,

Just wanted to drop a note from the Francine Busby campaign – http://www.busbyforcongress.com – and thank everybody for keeping tabs on our race; the carpbetbagger report has been one of the first and best bloggers on the scene. We’re having great successes, and we hope to have more in the future. If you’re interested in the race, visit our website and sign up for the e-news letter. Send us an email at info@busbyforcongress.org. We’re just starting on reaching out to the (awesome) blog community, so you’ll hear more from us soon!

keep on working for change,

tim (busby for congress)

I can’t wait for Jane Abraham to announce her candidacy to take on Sen. Stabenow in Michigan — she’ll be toast! While Stabenow does leave something to be desired on occasion (e.g., I have yet to forgive her vote in favor of cloture and then the bankruptcy bill itself), she has great name recognition and has been in the forefront in trying to overturn federal regulations that prevents Michigan from keeping Canadian trash out of Michigan landfills. The federal standards are lower than Michigan’s regarding contaminants and toxins permitted in refuse, due to the great likelihood of leaching and contaminating both subterranean waters as well as the Great Lakes, the largest freshwater resevoirs in the world (I know how surprised all of you are that Bush’s rules are more lax than those enacted by states using real science).

As the Carpetbagger notes, the “Abraham” name is known from the former Senator, Spencer Abraham, who lost to Stabenow in 2000, and then he became the Secretary of the Energy Department, where he distinguished himself the most by whitewashing the causes of and fixes for the Great Blackout in August 2003. His wife has no separate identity, and Spencer’s name isn’t well regarded, either. So, Mrs. Jane, bring it on!!

I am a temp here in San Diego (staying in the Duke’s district). Having read that San Diego County is close to even in repub vs dem registration I was optimistic about Busby for the Duke-ster’s district. However, the district runs 160,000-100,000 repub vs dem and the bulk of the wealth in SD county is concentrated there. It is worth a try to be sure (there were nearly as many Kerry-Edwards stickers as W stickers last year to my eye, but mostly no stickers–southern californians do LOVE a clean car to worship!), but I won’t hold my breath.

TPM has a good item on Harris’ link to the MZM guys of “yachtgate” infamy. For those too lazy to scroll:

And perhaps not that hard since the universe of members of Congress spending serious time on the MZM gravy train seems not to have been that large.

Earlier we told you about Rep. Virgil Goode (R) from Southside Virginia. But don’t forget about the rest of folks who got money.

Like Katherine Harris.

In the 2004 cycle the MZM political action committee gave out $34,000 to House candidates. The totals go like this …

Cunningham, Randy “Duke” (R-CA) $6,000
Forbes, J Randy (R-VA) $5,000
Goode, Virgil H Jr (R-VA) $10,000
Harris, Katherine (R-FL) $10,000
Hunter, Duncan (R-CA) $1,000
Renzi, Rick (R-AZ) $2,000

So Katherine Harris got $10,000 from the MZM Pac. And during the same cycle she got another $32,000 from employees of MZM.

Actually, not just during the same cycle. If you look at this read-out from OpenSecrets.org you’ll see that that $32,000 came in 16 checks for $2000 each. And 14 of those $2,000 checks were written out on one day — March 23rd, 2004, a Tuesday.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the reg numbers, dcspeculator. The district is extremely moderate, and we have a very strong response from indpendents and republican voter who we are reaching out to; we have polling and registration numbers that look very good. Of course, we’re also going to be doing a good deal of voter reg on our own, and there are several other reg campaigns going on now, too. One final note of Confidence: Barbarba Boxer won this district. By the way, if you’re in San Diego, check out all the great volunteer opportunities that are availble, like Donna Frye’s Mayoral race or, dare I mention it, with us.

best,

tim (busby for congress)

Tim-

FYI out-of-staters can participate in voter registration drives as well. You just need a national pull to get them involved. By providing calling lists and having a “Cell phone party”, you can boost turnout quite a bit. Moveon.org did something like this in the presidential campaign–who knows, could work at the local level, too, if you can tap into the right group to take an interest.

And it doesn’t cost you anything.

I hate to break it to everyone. But if Congressman Cunningham does resign, thanks to California’s absurd congressional districts, whomever the Republican candidate is will win. This is the most upscale district in San Diego, and one of the wealthiest in the state, including such ultra-posh communities as La Jolla, Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe. The voters are staunch fiscal conservatives, detest taxes and there is a large military population in the entire county. Lets not forget that Bush carried San Diego County, and this district, by about 9 points. This is a safe GOP district and all of this hype surrounding Busby’s candidacy will be in vain come November 2006.

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