{"id":6933,"date":"2006-03-23T11:58:14","date_gmt":"2006-03-23T16:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6933"},"modified":"2006-03-23T11:58:14","modified_gmt":"2006-03-23T16:58:14","slug":"thursdays-political-round-up-49","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/thursdays-political-round-up-49\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday&#8217;s political round-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn&#8217;t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:<\/p>\n<p>* Iraq-war veteran Tim Dunn (D) was poised to be a top congressional candidate this year, but he <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20060322\/ap_on_el_st_lo\/congress_north_carolina_1\">dropped out<\/a> of his North Carolina race this week, due in large part to a lack of funds. Dunn, who was taking on Rep. Robin Hayes (R), entered 2006 with less than $50,000 in his campaign coffers, as opposed to Hayes, who had over $700,000. There are still two Dems in the race, however:  Larry Kissell, a social studies teacher, and Mark Ortiz, an unsuccessful candidate in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>* Kathleen Troia &#8220;K.T.&#8221; McFarland&#8217;s (R) Senate campaign in New York is still struggling to get on track. The latest embarrassing revelation comes by way of the NYT, which reported today that McFarland has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/03\/23\/nyregion\/23kt.html?ex=1300770000&#038;en=16e6e378a6df8665&#038;ei=5090&#038;partner=rssuserland&#038;emc=rss\">exaggerated her record<\/a> on her official biography, including falsely taking credit for having written Ronald Reagan&#8217;s &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; speech and claiming that she held the equivalent civilian rank of a three-star general while in the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<p>* In Maine, Gov. John Baldacci (D) enjoys <a href=\"http:\/\/pressherald.mainetoday.com\/news\/state\/060322govrace.shtml\">comfortable leads<\/a> over his Republican rivals in the latest Strategic Marketing Services poll, but the poll also shows a large number of undecided voters. Baldacci leads former Rep. Dave Emery 37% to 23%, state Senator Peter Mills 33% to 20%, and state Sen. Chandler Woodcock 34% to 16%. (<a href=\"http:\/\/politicalwire.com\/archives\/2006\/03\/22\/in_maine_baldacci_leads_all_rivals.html\">via Taegan Goddard<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>* Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) has told reporters that she will &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/news.google.com\/news\/url?sa=t&#038;ct=us\/0-3&#038;fp=442212e6a18fd044&#038;ei=Sc4iRLLqCqqKwQHx-PWpAw&#038;url=http%3A\/\/www.palmbeachpost.com\/politics\/content\/state\/epaper\/2006\/03\/22\/a3a_harris_0322.html&#038;cid=1105198316\">not own anything<\/a>&#8221; after spending $10 million of her personal inheritance to fund her U.S. Senate campaign. She said, &#8220;I am willing to put everything on the line. I am willing to take this widow&#8217;s mite, this pearl of great price and put everything on the line.&#8221; It&#8217;s an accurate claim, just so long as you discount her husband&#8217;s multi-million dollar forture.<\/p>\n<p>* And in Colorado, conventional wisdom said Dems would fight amongst themselves in advance of the state&#8217;s gubernatorial race, while Republicans would rally behind Rep. Bob Beauprez. Instead, we&#8217;ve <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prospect.org\/midterm\/archives\/2006\/03\/index.html#009519\">seen the opposite<\/a>. Among Dems, state leaders have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/search\/ci_3560724\">thrown their support<\/a> behind former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, after some initial hesitation. Among Republicans, former University of Denver President Marc Holtzman is going after Beauprez <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/search\/ci_3390056\">aggressively<\/a>, particularly on immigration. One recent poll showed Ritter <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rasmussenreports.com\/2006\/State%20Polls\/February%202006\/Colorado%20Governor%20February.htm\">leading them both<\/a> by a fairly comfortable margin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn&#8217;t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Iraq-war veteran Tim Dunn (D) was poised to be a top congressional candidate this year, but he dropped out of his North Carolina race this week, due in large part to a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}