Wednesday’s political round-up

July 26, 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 good news for Rep. [tag]Katherine Harris[/tag]’ Senate campaign in Florida is that it’s almost at the point in which it has no where to go but up. A new Mason-Dixon poll shows incumbent Sen. [tag]Bill Nelson[/tag] (D) leading Harris, 57% to 29%. The 28-point margin is significantly worse than the 16-point gap from a Mason-Dixon poll conducted in March.

* Speaking of Florida, a new Quinnipiac poll shows [tag]Charlie Crist[/tag] (R) with a big lead over [tag]Tom Gallagher[/tag] (R) in the Republican’s gubernatorial primary 55% to 32%. On the other side of the aisle, Rep. [tag]Jim Davis[/tag] is still leading state Sen. [tag]Rod Smith[/tag] in the Dem primary, 47% to 19%. Crist still leads Davis in a hypothetical general-election match-up, 44% to 38%, and leads Smith, 45% to 36%.

* Roll Call reported today that [tag]Coleen Rowley[/tag], Time’s Person of the Year in 2002, is having a very tough time in her House campaign against incumbent Rep. [tag]John Kline[/tag] (R-Minn.), so much so that state and national Dems have all but given up hope. Rowley’s campaign manager recently quit, and the situation worsened when the FBI’s inspector general released a report criticizing her work during her tenure at the bureau. Complicating matters, Rowley’s fundraising has been slow and she badly trails Kline in cash on hand. “It’s evident the campaign hasn’t materialized as well as we’d hoped,” said one national Dem official.

* Yesterday was primary day in Oklahoma, and there were no surprises. Rep. [tag]Ernest Istook[/tag] won the GOP gubernatorial primary and will face Gov. [tag]Brad Henry[/tag] (D) in November, while Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin and Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett were to the top two vote-getters in the GOP primary to replace Istook. They’ll meet in an Aug. 22 runoff.

* Also in Oklahoma, [tag]Al McAffrey[/tag] (D), a funeral director, member of the Choctaw Nation, Navy veteran and former Oklahoma City police officer, became the first openly gay lawmaker to the state legislature yesterday. (McAffrey won a Dem primary, and no Republican has filed to run for the seat.) Keith Smith, a state lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, called McAffrey’s election historic. “It shows that Oklahoma is evolving and moving,” he said. “(This will help) all misconceptions about gay people start to fall away.” (thanks to Edward Copeland for the tip)

Oklahoma again? A gay, Native American, ex-cop, ex-Navy, funeral direcor? I cannot help myself and mean no disrespect but are you sure he wasn’t ever a construction worker?

http://us.ent4.yimg.com/entertainment.yahoo.com/images/ent/ap/20050716/nyet666_multimedia_4530735

This guy is the entire Village People!
Oklahoma = cowboy
Cop = Cop
Navy = Navy
Gay = Leather dude
Native American = Native American

WOW!

  • After Inhoffe and Coburn’s latest insanities, Al McAffrey getting into the state legislature is JUUUUST TOOOO GOOOOD.

  • “The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power… That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That’s a gay agenda.” – Sen Tom Coburn, Oklahoma

    “Also in Oklahoma, Al McAffrey (D), a funeral director, member of the Choctaw Nation, Navy veteran and former Oklahoma City police officer, became the first openly gay lawmaker to the state legislature yesterday.” – CB

    You just have got to smile about that 😉

  • Thanks, CB and Edward Copeland, for the Al McAffrey item. It is good news, indeed. WA state got its first openly gay legislator 35 years ago. He was Cal Anderson, who passed away before realizing the fruits of his labor. It’s been a long haul but this year the legislature FINALLY enacted Cal’s bill, removing discrimination against gays in housing and employment. Needless to say, the hate-filled wackos still aren’t done. Good Christians all, apparently, they’re already cranking up a series of legal challenges.

  • It’s evident the campaign hasn’t materialized as well as we’d hoped,” said one national Dem official.

    Well, that’s a “national Dem official” for you: waiting for a campaign to “materialize” like its a ghost or a ship in the night. Republicans, meanwhile, continue to make campaigns successful themselves, rather than hoping Jim Morrison will get off his lazy, dead ass and re-start progressivism in this country by helping campaigns cross over.

  • Dems are falling prey to oversimplification. Coleen Rowley is an extraordinary woman who took her job seriously and heroically spoke out against powerful superiors on a critical issue.

    That does not make her a good candidate.

    While time on the speaking circuit surely has helped, I saw her speak shortly after her whistleblowing and there was a real shyness and reserve to her, along with something like a pride in being a little unpolished. I was a little surprised when she announced. I had hoped she would do well, because she brings much to the table, but even talking about her whistleblowing she sounded analytical and strangely lacking in a communicable passion. I just never saw her having the skills for a modern campaign.

    That said, if the Dems could actually figure out how to help her (and here I think the establishment may be guilty of a “cut and run”), she brings some of the moral compass to the task that has been sadly lacking.

  • Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That’s a gay agenda.” – Sen Tom Coburn, Oklahoma

    Abortion is a gay agenda item? Huh?! I mean I new Coburn was a wacko, but how could abortion reasonably be considered part of the Gay agenda?

  • “It shows that Oklahoma is evolving and moving,” he said.

    Oh boy. Bad enough that one of Them is now in the legislature–but absolutely intolerable, from a theofascist standpoint, that he’s working in the evolution allusion…

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