Let us pray for the survival of Dan Maes' candidacy. There's a chance that it may not outlive the day:
Top Colorado Republicans are attempting to convince gubernatorial nominee Dan Maes to drop his bid for governor by the end of Friday, a well-placed Republican in the state tells POLITICO.
In a meeting Friday morning, party chairman Dick Wadhams and other members of the state GOP executive committee met with Maes to present what one called "damaging evidence" that hasn't yet been made public but would further erode his standing as a candidate, according to the source.
A second Republican consultant confirmed the account and said while there was no explicit ultimatum presented by the chairman to Maes, the message was clear.
"It was: Do you really want to put your family through this? If you stay in the race, you'll have to endure this and this," said the Republican, citing potential reports by the Denver Post.
Meanwhile, Ken Buck and GOP Rep. Mike Coffman both pulled their support from Maes today. If Maes is gonna get out, he'll need to do so before today's 5pm local deadline (7pm Eastern) to remove his name from the ballot.
Cat fud fans take note -- even if Maes is replaced on the ballot with someone like Jane Norton or state Sen. Josh Penry, Tom Tancredo is telling the Denver Post that he won't back down from his third-party bid. Also, state Sen. Dave Schultheis, a Maes supporter, told the Colorado Springs Gazette that Maes told him he won't back out. The Politico reports that Maes' spokesperson is a lot more circumspect in their language, saying only that Maes "has no plans to exit the race at this time".
5:32PM UPDATE: Dan Maes is saying that he's staying in, apparently. But we won't know for sure for another 90 minutes.
6:37PM UPDATE: From the Facebook page of Dan Maes, we have it straight from the horse's mouth: Dan Maes is going nowhere!!
Incumbent Republican Jan Brewer said Thursday she has no intention of participating in any more events with Democrat Terry Goddard. She said the only reason she debated him on Wednesday is she had to to qualify for more than $1.7 million in public funds for her campaign.
I hope that $1.7 million was worth the embarrassment of her disastrous pre- and post-debate performance, in which she stumbled out of the gate during her opening statement and angrily stormed away from a media scrum after refusing to answer a chorus of questions on her bizarre, unsubstantiated claims about "beheadings in the desert". And by the way, she's still not explaining herself on that score:
"All you guys were doing and talking were beheadings, beheadings, beheadings," the governor said. "That is something that has stuck with you all for so long, and I just felt we needed to move on."
You gotta give Brewer points for honesty; she fully admits that she's ducking out of all future debates because she knows she'll lose:
Anyway, Brewer said, she believes the debates help Goddard more than they benefit her.
"Why would I want to give Terry a chance to redefine himself?" she said.
Market Shares Corp for the Chicago Tribune/WGN (8/28-9/1, likely voters, no trend lines):
Alexi Giannoulias (D): 34
Mark Kirk (R): 34
LeAlan Jones (G): 6
Mike Labno (L): 3
Undecided: 22
(MoE: ±4%)
One area where Giannoulias can gain some ground is among African American voters, who favor him over Kirk by 58-3 margin. This one is shaping up to be a battle of inches, though:
Mark Begich has been a serious mensch, doing everything in his power to help Scott McAdams in his unlikely campaign for senator from Alaska. Now he's trying to work the folks who can open up some serious spigots:
"I'm putting the pressure on," Begich told The Hill. "We're working the DSCC and others right now because I think it's a good investment."
"The DSCC and the national Democratic Party doesn't even know my name. And that's fine by me," he said. "I love the Alaskan Democratic Party, they've been behind me 100 percent, Sen. Mark Begich has been behind me 100 percent, and that's just fine by me."
I love that McAdams is turning that DNC hack's flub (remember the guy who couldn't even ID Big Mac after he won the primary?) into a serious positive. No one can accuse him of being a D.C. Dem after that incident! And it's one of the many reasons I think McAdams, whose pedigree is pure Alaska, will compare well to Miller, who was raised and received his degrees outside the state. (And is also creepily out-of-touch with anything resembling Alaskan values. But that's the subject for another post or seven.)
One thing I will say: If we do want big players like the DSCC to get involved, demonstrating serious grassroots enthusiasm for McAdams is the way to do it. So please help us reach our goal of $2,400 - the equivalent of one maximum federal donation - for Scott McAdams as quickly as possible.
AK-Sen: Joe Miller sure sounds like he's measuring the drapes here, doesn't he, with his talk about how much he'd "love" to serve on the Judiciary and Armed Services committees? Donate to Scott McAdams and help make sure we force Joe Miller to make a humiliating, droopy-dog run back to Neiman Marcus to return those curtains.
DE-Sen: Oh, I'm afraid the Tea Party Express will be QUITE operational by the time Mike Castle arrives! The NYT reports that the TPX is going up with five different ads (two TV and three radio) on behalf of Christine O'Donnell, and they have a rough cut of one of the TV spots (check the link). As for how big a buy we're talking, the TPX just filed its first independent expenditure report, for $46K. Their usual practice is to dribble things out in smallish reports one at a time - but don't worry, it'll snowball.
FL-Sen: Charlie Crist is spending over half a million on a new TV buy. We don't know what ads he'll be running, but the St. Petersburg Times has some pretty good info on where they'll appear (notably in Dem-leaning markets). Check the link for full details.
WI-Sen: GOPer Ron Johnson raised $1.2 million between July 1 and Aug. 25th, while Sen. Russ Feingold took in $920K. Johnson also loaned his campaign another $2.9 million out of his own coffers (which of course have been greatly bolstered over the years by government loans and grants to his plastics company). RonJo has been outspending Feingold, though, and has $1.6 mil in the bank compared to the senator's $3.1 mil.
FL-Gov: Alex Sink has a new ad, touching on the oil spill and calling for a diversification of Florida's economy. NWOTSOTB, but the spot is apparently airing in Florida's panhandle.
GA-Gov: Nathan Deal just performed a classic document dump - and not one that's likely to help him. He made public 28 years of his personal income tax returns, but none of this has anything to do with his auto salvage business which was the focus of a probe by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
CO-04: The House Race Hotline reports that the NRCC has reserved over $1 million in air time in the 4th CD. Let's see if they actually come through with all that scrilla, though.
FL-08: Put away your can openers - no cat fud here. All six of Dan Webster's Republican primary rivals have endorsed him, including teabagger Patricia Sullivan. However, Peg Dunmire is still in the race, on the actual Tea Party line.
IN-02: Joe Donnelly has a new spot out (NWOTSOTB), hitting Jackie Walorski for her support of a 23% national sales tax (as well as her desire to eliminate the home mortgage interest deduction). This issue is one that helped sink GOPer Tim Burns in the PA-12 special, so it has potency. I know that sometimes when Dems sink their teeth into this one, weenie liberals like to whine that what Republicans really mean is that they want to replace other taxes with this one. You know what? Let them make that argument. You don't need to make it for them.
IN-09: Republican Todd Young has a new ad out, featuring footage of Baron Hill imperiously telling a journalism student that she couldn't videotape a town hall. NWOTSOTB, but CQ notes that the spot is "currently airing only in the Louisville, Ky. market."
LA-02: With Al Franken acting, you know, senatorial, it looks like Joe Cao has decided to take up the mantle of Stuart Smalley. Sayeth Cao: "I love the president, and I believe he truly likes me." What a wiener.
MA-09: Labor activist Mac D'Alessandro scored the endorsement of NARAL in his primary bid against anti-choice incumbent Rep. Stephen Lynch. D'Alessandro raised $178K in the pre-primary period (7/1-8/25) and had $158K on hand for the stretch run. Lynch took in only $66K but had a million bucks in the bank.
NJ-03: Dem Rep. John Adler received the endorsement of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which did not back anyone in the race two years ago. They also say they'll provide financial help. (The Courier Post notes that the district includes Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.) Adler's also got a second negative spot out, hitting Republican Jon Runyan for his minimalist voting record. NWOTSOTB, and get a load of this stonewalling: "Campaign manager Geoff Mackler would not disclose the size of the buy, where the ads were committed to air or for how long they would air, saying he does not discuss strategy with reporters." But I don't think that should be the end of the story for a journalist. Hell, one of my jobs on a campaign I worked on in the 90s was to track down enemy ad buys. Reporters can do it, too. (And BTW, if you haven't seen Adler's first ad, I highly recommend you do so.)
NH-01, NH-02: John DiStaso has an asburd wealth of updates on New Hampshire's two House races, including word that Charlie Bass is set to release his first ad (watch it here), a $40,000 buy on New Hampshire TV. There's also news of a GOP primary poll in the 1st CD, taken by Cross Target on behalf of the right-wing group Americans for Prosperity. Sean Mahoney is at 33, Frank Guinta at 26, Rich Ashooh at 10, and Bob Bestani at 5. Mahoney's been out with a positive/negative ad comparing his record to Guinta's, making it clear that he thinks this poll is right about who the real contenders are. Guinta apparently has a new response ad coming this week.
NY-24: Mike Arcuri is up with a new ad, a positive bio spot. NWOTSOTB, though he has two slightly different versions, one of which is airing in Utica, the other Syracuse (see both here).
PA-07: A nice break for Dem Bryan Lentz: After a series of adverse rulings, Pat Meehan's campaign withdrew its legal challenge to the candidacy of Jim Schneller, a teabagger who petitioned his way on to the ballot... thanks to a lot of help from Lentz supporters.
PA-10: Interesting: Back when he was a US Attorney, Tom Marino served as a reference for a casino application for a man his office was investigating. In fact, the news was so explosive it led to the DOJ transferring the investigation to another office - and to Marino's resignation as USA. Back in May, though, Marino told a radio host that the DOJ had given him written permission to provide that reference, but he hasn't produced it (yet). Dem Chris Carney is hitting him for this, asking, "Where's the letter?"
WI-08: Steve Kagen is up with his first ad, and it's a good one. Among other things, he touts the fact that he has refused congressional health coverage until everyone in America has health insurance. He also refers to himself as "Dr. Steve Kagen," which is probably a helpful alternative to "Congressman" these days.
Enthusiasm Gap: Tom Jensen takes a look at a painful "what if" - as in, what if there were no enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans this year? Among other things, he thinks Alex Sink would have a double-digit lead and that Elaine Marshall would be running slightly ahead of Richard Burr. But check out his full chart.
Dumping Ground: We've brought up some serious methodological issues in the past that we have with those zone-flooding American Action Fund House race polls, so it's best if we just confine the following to their own quarantine zone. (Those issues, by the way, included extremely aged samples and the fact that the GOP pollster, Ayres McHenry, asked respondents about their opinion of the healthcare bill right before diving into the topline match-ups.)
AZ-01: Ann Kirkpatrick (D-inc) 41%, Paul Gosar (R) 47%
AZ-05: Harry Mitchell (D-inc) 44%, David Schweikert (R) 50%
AZ-08: Gabby Giffords (D-inc) 46%, Jesse Kelly (R) 46%
CA-11: Jerry McNerney (D-inc) 44%, David Harmer (R) 45%
CA-47: Loretta Sanchez (D-inc) 45%, Van Tran (R) 43%
Every so often, people have asked us: Is the Swing State Project going to endorse anyone this cycle? Our answer has never changed: If we think there's a special opportunity where a small blog like ours can make a real difference, we'll seize on it. This cycle, though, we haven't spotted any candidacies that fit the bill.
If you read SSP on a daily basis, you probably won't be surprised by our choice - but we hope you are pleased, and that you'll join us in springing in to action. By now, you are of course familiar with Scott McAdams, the Democratic nominee for senate in the state of Alaska, and it is our pleasure to endorse him. We're setting a goal of raising the equivalent of one maximum federal donation - $2,400 - for his campaign.
So why do we like this race?
McAdams is a bona fide Alaskan with an authentic pedigree as a commercial fishing deckhand and a small-town mayor. I'm not sure you can get more genuinely Alaskan than that.
Joe Miller, his opponent, is a teabagger's teabagger, with views that are pretty crazy even by red-state Republican standards. He wants to eliminate Social Security - as in, get rid of it completely. No exaggeration.
Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent Miller beat to make this race go topsy-turvy, has been notably mum on any endorsement. There's definitely bad blood here, and it could linger.
McAdams is being backed to the hilt by Alaska's senior Dem, Sen. Mark Begich, a true mensch who knows how to win in a very difficult state.
Finally, Alaska is a cheap state - damn cheap - and a little money can go a long way here. SSP may not have Chuck Schumer's rolodex, but $2,400 can do a lot in the Land of the Midnight Sun.
We know this has been a tough and in many ways dispiriting cycle. There haven't been a whole lot of bright spots on the horizon. But this race is definitely one of them. We can make a real difference. Help us get started - now.
Jack Conway (D): 37 (42)
Rand Paul (R): 42 (41)
Undecided: 20 (16)
(MoE: ±3.5%)
Braun Research continues their biweekly polling odyssey of Kentucky with a freshly-baked survey showing Rand Paul bouncing back to a five-point lead. For those keeping score, these cn|2 polls have bounced back and forth, from 3 and 10-point Paul leads in their first two rounds, to a 1-point lead for Conway two weeks ago.
I'm not too sure if you can stitch together a narrative from high-MoE sub-samples like these, but it's still interesting:
Paul picked up support from the last poll in Conway's two stronghold areas from the primary, including his backyard of the 3rd Congressional District that covers Louisville. The cn|2 Poll shows Paul leading Conway by 10 points in the 6th Congressional District that covers Lexington and Central Kentucky.
The poll results for congressional districts has a margin of error of about 8.8 points in this cn|2 Poll.
Conway has narrowed previous gaps in the 2nd Congressional District in west-central Kentucky from eight to four points. And support for the Democratic candidate has swung 17 points in the 5th Congressional District - which covers Eastern Kentucky - over the last two weeks. He went from being down three points to going up 14 points in this latest poll.
This is the second poll in a row where Braun found Conway surging in the Eastern 5th CD. A month ago, Conway trailed Paul by 14% in that district, and now leads by the same margin. Are we seeing the effect of Rand Paul's call to pull federal funds from local anti-drug initiatives (a particularly salient issue in Eastern Kentucky) at play here? While still respecting that portly margin of error, I'm guessing so.
Steve Beshear (D-inc): 44
David Williams (R): 38
Undecided: 15
Steve Beshear (D-inc): 49
Phil Moffett (R): 29
Undecided: 19
(MoE: ±3.5%)
By a 44-36 margin, voters say that Beshear deserves a second term. Considering the carnage we're seeing for other incumbent Dem governors this year, those numbers could be a lot worse. Nevertheless, this should be a very competitive race, although likely less so if the tea-flavored ticket led by businessman Phil Moffett can win the primary against state Senate leader David Williams. Remember -- this off-year race is only a year away!
One red flag about this, though, is that I suspect that Braun is using the same likely voter sample for the Senate race as for the Governor's race. Perhaps two separate samples would have yielded similar results, but I don't think this is the most methodologically precise approach.
For their part, the Williams campaign has released an internal poll taken by some firm called Got-Focus, showing Beshear down by 4.
• DE-Sen: Christine O'Donnell's radio interview on a local station yesterday should answer any doubts about whether or not the new Tea Party fave is ready for prime time (the answer: she isn't). Mostly it's notable for how testy it got, but also for O'Donnell pushing back on rumors that Mike Castle is gay - rumors that apparently no one has ever heard until O'Donnell brought them up in the first place. At any rate, Castle isn't content to just stand back and let her dig her own hole: not wanting to fall into the Lisa Murkowski trap, his camp confirms that his last-minute pre-primary ad buy will be negative against O'Donnell. He also said he won't be debating with (or otherwise even talking to) O'Donnell... ordinarily a safe decision for a quasi-incumbent, but who knows, maybe a mid-debate implosion by O'Donnell would be all Castle needs to put this one away.
• FL-Sen: Charlie Crist's out with an internal today from Fredrick Polls, and while it gives him the lead, it's a small enough edge compared with his rather robust leads pre-Dem primary that it shouldn't fill anybody with much confidence about where his trendlines are headed. He leads Marco Rubio and Kendrick Meek 35-34-17. That comes against the backdrop of getting squeezed in both directions, with the NRSC "pledging" (I don't know what that means, but it's not actual reservations) $2.5 million for the race, and Meek airing a new radio ad going after Crist's GOP past, airing Crist's own words, including calling himself "pro-life" and a "Jeb Bush Republican." At least Crist is getting some backing from one rather unusual corner: state Sen. Al Lawson, who just lost the FL-02 primary to Allen Boyd, just endorsed Crist.
• NY-Sen-B, NY-Gov: Maybe I should've been patient yesterday instead of complaining about Quinnipiac's lack of New York primary numbers, because they rolled them out today. At any rate, they find, as I'd suspected, things tightening in the GOP gubernatorial primary: Rick Lazio leads Carl Paladino 47-35. ("Tightening" may not be the right word, as this is their first look at the NY-Gov primary, but it's what other pollsters have seen.) In the Senate special election, Joe DioGuardi leads David Malpass and Bruce Blakeman, 28-12-10. And in another sign that Democratic voters are only dimly aware that there's an election this year, fully 77% of Dem voters have no idea who they'll vote for in the Attorney General's race. Kathleen Rice leads Eric Schneiderman by a margin of 4-3. (That's not a typo.)
• WI-Sen: Ron Johnson has been outspending Russ Feingold 3-to-1 on the TV airwaves, which goes a long way to explaining why this is a tied race, but that may not matter much if he keeps stepping on his own free-market-fundamentalist message. Johnson found himself, in a recent radio interview, tying himself into knots by praising Communist China for having a more favorable investment climate for business than America, in part because of its "certainty." So, let's see... to stop America's descent into socialism, we need to become more like the Communists, because the path to freedom is actually through the kind of "certainty" that comes from a command economy? Finally, this is probably too little too late, but Terence Wall, the guy who dropped out in a huff from the GOP field after the state convention, is now publicly touting the idea of a write-in campaign in the upcoming primary. I don't know if he actually thinks he has a shot against a stumbling Johnson or is just engaged in some last-minute sour grapes.
• WV-Sen: Joe Manchin continues to rake in the bucks in the West Virginia Senate special election. (Facing self-funding John Raese, the money issue is the main threat to Manchin... well, that, and the perilously low approvals for national Dems here.) He reported raising $393K last week, bringing his total to $1.5 million. Raese reported $717K, but $520K of that was self-funded, with only $22K from donors.
• AZ-Gov: This may not get much press in the wake of her amazing debate performance, but Jan Brewer is also engaged in an interesting strategy of retaliation, pulling her campaign ads off the local CBS affiliate, whose news department dared to question Brewer's relationship with a key advisor who's also connected to private prison company Corrections Corporation of America, which stands to make significant money incarcerating illegal immigrants rounded up under Arizona's SB 1070. That's not the same station whose reporter aggressively questioned Brewer post-debate last night... my advice to Brewer would be to go ahead and stop advertising on all local network affiliates as punishment. That'll show 'em!
• CO-Gov: This may be kind of repetitive, but Dan Maes againturned down calls to drop out of the race today, after former state Senate president John Andrews withdrew his endorsement and told him to get out. Andrews wasn't alone in the endorsement rescinding department: it looks like the whole ooops-no-I-actually-wasn't-an-undercover-cop-in-Kansas thing was the fridge too far for former GOP Senator Hank Brown, who is now saying he's "looking around" for a new candidate. Meanwhile, on the touchy subject of water law, maybe Maes should take a page from Scott McInnis and just plagiarize all his work on the subject, as at least that way he wouldn't appear completely ignorant of the law. He just introduced an entirely new water law doctrine with his proclamation that "If it starts in Colorado, it's our water" - ignoring the 7-state compact on use of Colorado River water and the whole concept of prior appropriation. As much as I'd like to see Jan Brewer using the Arizona National Guard to invade Colorado and reclaim its water, I don't think the courts would let it get to that point.
• FL-Gov: Alex Sink is expanding her current TV advertising buy, throwing another $600K into keeping her introductory spot on the air in a number of non-Miami markets. Oddly, Rick Scott has been taking the week off since the primary, at least from advertising.
• OR-Gov: John Kitzhaber has finally decided to go negative on Chris Dudley... it might be too little too late, but at least he's recognizing what he needs to do (as recently as last week, he negged a DGA ad that went negative on Dudley... and this is the first time he's aired a negative ad since 1994). The ad attacks Dudley for having "never managed anything" and never "shown much interest in Oregon" before (as seen in his decision to live in income-tax-free Washington while playing for the Trail Blazers).
• CT-04: Republican state Sen. Dan Debicella offers up a recent internal poll, via National Research. It has him within 4 points of Rep. Jim Himes, trailing 42-38 (the same 4-point margin seen in the recent round of AAF polling).
• FL-25: Here's an offensive opportunity for House Dems that nobody should be writing off. Joe Garcia posted a lead in a recent internal poll (taken in wake of the primary, and revelations about various unsavory moments from Republican opponent David Rivera's past) for his campaign. Garcia leads by 4 points in the poll from Benenson, 40-36 (with 5 for the Tea Party candidate and 1 for the Whig).
• MO-03: Republican challenger Ed Martin got the endorsement of the Missouri Farm Bureau, a change from their backing of Russ Carnahan in previous cycles. Carnahan didn't show up for his meeting with the Farm Bureau, although it's unclear whether that's why he didn't get endorsed or if he felt the endorsement was already lost.
• NH-02: EMILY's List, Planned Parenthood, and NARAL are all coordinating their efforts in favor of Ann McLane Kuster ahead of the Dem primary in the 2nd, where's she's running against Katrina Swett, who has supported parental notification laws. In addition to a joint rally, they're sending out a joint mailer together.
• PA-12: The NRCC is out with a poll, via POS, of the 12th, giving Tim Burns a small lead in his rematch against special election victor Mark Critz. Burns leads 48-43, quite the reversal from Critz's 53-45 win in May. (Bear in mind that POS's final released poll before that election gave Burns a 2-point lead.)
• Rasmussen:
• AK-Sen: Scott McAdams (D) 44%, Joe Miller (R) 50%
• FL-Gov: Alex Sink (D) 44%, Rick Scott (R) 45%
• WA-Sen: Patty Murray (D-inc) 46%, Dino Rossi (R) 48%
Lee Fisher (D): 38 (40)
Rob Portman (R): 45 (38)
Undecided: 18 (22)
(MoE: ±4.5%)
Since Ted Strickland and Lee Fisher have tended to move up and down in concert with each other in polling, it was a pretty foregone conclusion, based on yesterday's PPP OH-Gov numbers (and also more generically on PPP's switch to a likely voter model, and that that generates a sample that went 48-45 for John McCain in 2008), that things would have gotten worse for Fisher. They have: his 2-point lead has turned into a 7-point deficit. Fisher's favorables are now negative at 24/32, while Portman is at 29/28.
A lot of Fisher's problem is that many Dems (21%) are still undecided, and assuming they break his direction, that should push his numbers up. But that still isn't enough to push him back into the lead, based on Portman's 43-30 lead among independents.
SurveyUSA for WDBJ-TV Roanoke (8/31-9/1, likely voters,
Tom Perriello (D-inc): 35 (35)
Rob Hurt (R): 61 (58)
Jeff Clark (I): 2 (4)
Undecided: 2 (3)
(MoE: ±4%)
Brutal stuff. It's worth mentioning that last time, we mentioned some issues with the crosstabs, including Hurt's big support among younger voters. Those issues persist in this poll.
It's worth mentioning that Perriello fared more favorably in the most recent American Action Forum poll, trailing Hurt by 43-49 -- and that poll, conducted by a Republican firm, tested the top line match-up right after asking a question about the healthcare bill.
Could things really be this bad?
UPDATE: Dana has one more issue regarding the poll: a very optimistic voter turnout prediction.
UPDATE: In case any of you can't watch video while you're at work, Markos has the transcripts of the ABC 15 post-debate report. It's a serious fucking doozie.
Behind the scenes here at SSP, I told my co-editors that our daily series of Alaska mega-posts was over now that Lisa Murkowski conceded the race to Joe Miller. But like Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger once said, I Just Can't Stop It!
No Endorsement: We previously noted that Lisa Murkowski walked off the stage on Tuesday night without endorsing Joe Miller -- and, for the time being at least, that continues to be the case. The Miller campaign is trying to get a chorus of Kumbaya going, but Murkowski can only muster up a "No comment" when asked if she'll endorse Jumbo Joe. Democrat Scott McAdams was quick to capitalize on the disunity, going on local TV just before Murkowski conceded to tell Alaskans that he's "a lot closer" to Murkowski's "centrist" politics than the radicalism of Joe Miller.
Joe Miller, Pension Killer: This is what I like about Joe Miller -- he's not shy about heaping on the crazy. From an interview with CNN's John King:
The party has hit Miller on Social Security, accusing him of wanting to "phase out" the program, a charge the candidate addressed Wednesday. [...]
Ultimately, Miller said, he favors transferring power "back to the states so that states can take up the mantle of those programs if they so desire."
Asked by King whether it would be fair to say a person born tomorrow might grow up in an America without a federal social security program if Miller had his way, the candidate responded, "Absolutely."
Now, Miller defenders will be quick to point out that he's not arguing to take away "the contracts that we've made with our seniors", but good luck disarming that live grenade that Miller just handed you.
Standing On His Own, For Us: I'm not sure if the DSCC's silence on this race since Miller's primary win is a deliberate strategy not to taint McAdams with the disgusting touch of Washington, D.C., or if the committee still hasn't figured out what its strategy is for this race. That's why I like this kind of attitude on display from Scott McAdams:
It remains to be seen whether McAdams will receive support from the Democratic National Committee or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. McAdams says it doesn't matter.
"The DSCC and the national Democratic Party doesn't even know my name. And that's fine by me," he said. "I love the Alaskan Democratic Party, they've been behind me 100 percent, Sen. Mark Begich has been behind me 100 percent, and that's just fine by me." ...
"I'm not sure exactly what their strategy's going to be. I'm not sure what their plan is," he said. "This is a small population state. We can raise enough money to win. Nobody knew who Joe Miller was on the 31st of May."
The DSCC appears to still be locked in "evaluation mode", and the Associated Press reports that they're going into the field with a poll to determine if their investment would be worthwhile. For his part, McAdams is taking his campaign to the next level thanks in part to the generosity of Mark Begich:
Ten days ago, Scott McAdams had a volunteer treasurer and a few thousand dollars to help him pursue the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator in Alaska.
With the shocking upset victory by tea party darling Joe Miller over U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for the Republican nomination, volunteers and money are flowing his way.
A pair of staffers from the office of U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, are taking leave to assist the campaign. McAdams has hired a spokeswoman. [...]
Wednesday evening, McAdams was listed among the top fundraisers on ActBlue.com, which helps Democrats set up fundraising campaigns for candidates, with $76,117 in donations. McAdams expects his campaign to have collected $100,000 by end of the week as Alaskans pitch in to help him defeat the Republican endorsed by former Gov. Sarah Palin.
"Things are ramping up," McAdams said Wednesday in an interview at a picnic table in Anchorage's Elderberry Park.
Indeed, Begich has been all over this action, sending out an email for McAdams in an effort to raise $250K in two weeks. (They've already made a dent in that figure.) Roll Call has more on the Democratic excitement on the ground:
"It's night and day," a Democratic source close to the campaign said about the feeling on the ground in the state since the primary. "People are excited. People are stunned." ...
"It is happening, and there's a new surge of energy and excitement into Democratic headquarters out here," Alaska Democratic Party spokeswoman Kay Brown said. "Scott's a good guy, a real Alaskan, and I think he's going to look good and compare favorably against Joe Miller." ...
The Democratic source said that McAdams could pick up Republican votes in places like the Aleutian Islands, which is home to the largest fishing port in the country and relies on significant federal funding - something some in the state believe could diminish with Miller in office.
"People are freaked out out here about this Joe Miller guy," the source said.
Next on tap for McAdams: a $250-per-person fundraiser tonight at the home of state Sen. Hollis French. Happy to see French working it for Team Blue despite losing the gubernatorial primary to Ethan Berkowitz last week.
Every so often, people have asked us: Is the Swing State Project going to endorse anyone this cycle? Our answer has never changed: If we think there's a special opportunity where a small blog like ours can make a real difference, we'll seize on it. This cycle, though, we haven't spotted any candidacies that fit the bill.
