Monday’s political round-up

October 23, 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:

* In New Jersey, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) seems to have hit his stride against state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R) at just the right time. A new a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll shows Menendez up by nine, 48% to 39%. A month ago, a Monmouth University poll showed Kean with a six-point lead.

* In Washington state, the Seattle Times has inexplicably endorsed Mike McGavick (R) over Sen. Maria Cantwell (D), but it may not matter — neither the RNC nor the NRSC plan to air ads supporting the Republican’s campaign during the last 17 days of the campaign. Apparently, the GOP establishment believes the race isn’t competitive enough, and needs to focus resources elsewhere.

* Speaking of Republicans cutting their losses, the Missoula Missoulian noted that NRSC hasn’t spent any more on advertising to help beleaguered Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) since early August, and rumor has it that “national Republicans have all but given up on Sen. Conrad Burns’ re-election chances.” (via Taegan Goddard)

* In Vermont, Gov. Jim Douglas (R), who co-chaired Bush’s election campaigns in Vermont in 2000 and 2004, now says he is “appalled” at the behavior of Washington Republicans and lays some of the blame on the White House. “I’m appalled, I’m discouraged, I’m offended and, frankly, as someone who’s been in office for many years, it’s awful to see how some people who are given the public trust can breach it,” Douglas said. “It’s not exclusively a Republican problem down there, but it certainly seems that those caught up are predominantly Republicans.” Douglas, who is currently running for a third term, is probably worried about being closely associated with the GOP in a very blue state.

* And on the Hill, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R) is not expected to assume the role of Minority Leader if Dems take back the House, meaning there will be a key opening in the GOP leadership. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) is reportedly interested in the gig, though he “may be tempted to decline offers to move up in anticipation of better political weather.”

I’m curious what the intrepid readers here truly think about the Missouri senate race. I watched Talent and McCaskill’s late debate on C-SPAN and thought Claire performed well. However, Talent is no Conrad Burns. My gut says that Missouri has trended too conservative and Talent pulls out a squeaker, but if anyone in MO has another opinion I’d love to hear it as I’m growing a bit concerned.

Also, as someone who grew up in Boise, Idaho, people might want to check out the Larry Grant-Bill Sali race there for Congress. Sali is a nutjob who is loathed by fellow Republicans and Grant is a smart cookie running a good campaign. In one of the most conservative areas in the country, a Dem pickup would give me the giggles for a month.

  • Hastert will likely have other roles he gets to play, maybe in a courtroom drama.

    After that he can be a fat cat lobbyist, kinda like he is right now.

  • Pence is a right-wing madman, but as a legitimate fiscal conservative/budget hawk he strikes me as preferable to the current batch of utterly unprincipled scumbags. At least the debt wouldn’t get worse–though he’d try to completely destroy social services programs. Actually, that could work to the Democrats’ advantage, as it would make the choice between, say, job training and corporate welfare much more explicit than has been the case–and we win that argument.

  • The Repubs don’t seem to be spending much ad money on just about anybody these days. Could they be starting to hoard it for 2008 already? They’re certainly going to need it. Just wondering.

  • Why do Republican’ts keep up this idea that New Jersey is up for grabs? Are they desperate to knock off even one Democrat early on Election day in the hopes that their surpress the Democratic vote in Tenn and Missouri will not be noticed?

    I spy Diebold and other election fraud.

  • The Seattle Times only cares about getting rid of the estate tax. Therefore they are strongly pro-republican no matter what other issues are at stake.

  • Luke (#1),

    The Missouri race is still a toss-up, as it has been for the entire campaign. The last poll I saw had Talent with a slight lead that was still within the margin of error.

    Funny thing about that last Talent-McCaskill debate in Kansas City. The local ABC affiliate declined to air it live, opting instead for a 24-hour delay so it wouldn’t pre-empt Dancing With the Stars and Lost. Even funnier, the PBS and NPR affiliates also decided to delay the broadcast 24 hours as well. There’s some scuttlebutt they were bullied into that decision by ABC.

    McCaskill has a new ad out with Michael J. Fox on stem cell research that’s excellent although it’s hard to watch. Talent has resorted to smearing McCaskill’s husband and her dead ex-husband. It’s a nasty race.

  • I wouldn’t call Rep. Mike Pence a madman. I believe he knows perfectly well what an extremely fiscally conservative budget would do to social service programs. And he’s entirely fine with that.

    What would I call him: callous comes to mind. Close-minded is another term. Hard-ass might be even better.

    Why people in my area keep re-electing this jerk is beyond me. He’s a hardliner on so many issues — both politically and socially — that he just seems like one of many extreme right-wing types. And I’ve never heard any original ideas out of him; just the same old cut taxes, cut social services, militarize this GOP crap.

    Can’t we find a decent Hoosier Democrat to take this clown down?

  • Why do Republican’ts keep up this idea that New Jersey is up for grabs?

    It may be to keep people from crossing the Delaware and working in close PA races. I wonder if the same has happened with MD Senate race, where there was suddenly 1 poll (S-USA robocall poll) suggesting Cardin and Steele were tied — thus probably discouraging MD Dems in Montgomery and PG County from crossing the Potomac and working for Webb vs. Allen.

  • So Douglas is critical of the White House and Republican leadership? Wait until there is some Bush/Rove/Cheney blood in the water after Nov 7. I suspect even the military will become vocal about the catastrophies under Republican leadership.

  • Ooh! Great point, Thomas! Now get that meme in circulation– we need boots on the ground (combat, not cowboy) in Virginia! I’m going to trek all the way down from NYC to help Webb win!

  • Ooh! Great point, Thomas! Now get that meme in circulation– we need boots on the ground (combat, not cowboy) in Virginia! I’m going to trek all the way down from NYC to help Webb win!

    Comment by The Caped Composer (@12)

    If you come all this way… Consider going farther South than just accross the Potomac. Webb is doing OK-or-better in NoVA, but places like Lynchburg and Roanoke could use help.

  • The Seattle Times is the local right-wing paper, which is why I never read it (I live in Tacoma, about 25 miles south of Seattle). The Post-Intelligencer is more centrist-to-moderate left. The Times’ endorsement is therefore not at all surprising (and fortunately irrelevant).

  • The Seattle Times have always been right-wing douchebags. #6 and 14 got to it before me but they have always been reliably right-wing. They don’t really represent the city anyway. As the local weekly The Stranger likes to point out, all their editorial board members live in the suburbs.

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