Monday’s political round-up

February 13, 2006

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:

* The latest Quinnipiac poll in Pennsylvania continues to show Treasurer Bob Casey (D) with a big lead over Sen. Rick Santorum, this time by a 15-point margin — 51% to 36%. Moreover, a majority of Pennsylvania voters said Casey holds more “mainstream views” than Santorum.

* A growing number of Dems in Ohio are ratcheting up their efforts to convince Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett to drop his Senate bid and instead run for the House against Rep. Jean Schmidt (R). “This isn’t talking behind the scenes; I’m saying it publicly. … I’m petitioning Paul Hackett to run for Congress,” Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Sunday. Even Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who has endorsed Hackett’s Senate campaign, is asking Hackett to reconsider. “If he stays in the Senate race, I’m with Paul Hackett, but this is about the House race and giving us another member of the Democratic caucus,” Ryan said.

* In the race to take on vulnerable GOP incumbent Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), one Dem military veteran has dropped out to make room for another. Iraq war veteran Bryan Lentz announced that after discussions with local party leaders and Gov. Ed Rendell, he decided it was in the best interest of the party to step aside. Lentz will instead run for the state legislature. Recently retired three-star Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak (D) is now slated to take on Weldon without a primary challenger.

* Air America Radio’s Al Franken continues to move towards a Senate campaign in Minnesota in 2008, including an expansion of his Midwest Values political action committee. “This is using my sort of prominence — leveraging that to get people involved in doing grass-roots stuff,” Franken told Roll Call. In all, Franken raised $168,000 in 2005 in support of Dem candidates nationwide. Asked if the effort was part of a burgeoning Senate campaign, Franken said, “I think that’s a fair inference to draw.”

* In Rhode Island, the latest Rasmussen poll shows good news and bad news for Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI). The good news for Chafee is that he leads both of his Dem rivals in hypothetical general election match-ups. The bad news is, the lead is fairly small and Chafee can’t break through the 50% threshold. Chafee leads Rhode Island Secretary of State Matt Brown (D) 47% to 40%, and is ahead of former state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse (D) 50% to 38%.

* In the latest sign that Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) really is running for president, Huckabee will run this year’s Little Rock Marathon and, because he’s the governor, he can request a racing number to wear. Last year, he chose #1. This year, a Huckabee staffer requested #2008.

In regard to Paul Hackett, I’m starting to reluctantly come around to the idea of him switching to the House race instead of the Senate, for two main reasons:

1) As irritating as it was for Sherrod Brown to jump into the Senate race after first saying he wouldn’t, the last poll I recall showed he had a better chance of picking up the seat than Hackett, and that’s really what it’s all about, after all.

2) Jean Schmidt has got to be the weakest opponent in the history of the planet, and even if she gets dumped in the primary the new candidate will still bear the stench of her presence throughout the campaign. We need seats in the House as well as the Senate, and if Hackett and Brown can pull off a two-fer between them then so much the better.

  • If Republicans do ditch Mean Jean in OH-02, and it doesn’t get worse for the Repubs in general (I’m thinking of Iraq or other mess they happen to manufacture), I think the district goes back to being pretty safe for them. I just don’t see that district really going blue in anything other than a protest vote.

    I wonder if there’s also a realization that Hackett’s firebrand style is likely to play better as a House candidate than as a Senate candidate.

    If the district doesn’t have the good sense to dump Schmidt after she humiliated herself going after Murtha, I’m not sure I can ever go home again. Any opponent can just play that tape over and over and say “is this who you want representing you in Washington?”

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