FL-Sen: Insider Advantage, polling on behalf of the Florida Times Union, confirms what PPP sees in the GOP primary. They have Marco Rubio eviscerating Charlie Crist, 60-26. Charlie Crist better figure out his exit strategy in a hurry, or else he'll have a lot more time to spend on back waxes come September.
KY-Sen: Some Dude Bill Johnson said he's bailing on the GOP primary to succeed Jim Bunning, saying his internal polling looked cruddy. He'd spent a few hundred grand of his own money, but yeah, I never heard of him either. He does have a perfect Some Dude name - according to the SSP tags, there's another Bill Johnson running in Ohio this cycle, and still another running in Alabama!
NV-Sen: How is this man still in office? The New York Times reports:"Previously undisclosed e-mail messages turned over to the F.B.I. and Senate ethics investigators provide new evidence about Senator John Ensign's efforts to steer lobbying work to the embittered husband of his former mistress...."
CO-Gov: In an apparent bid to out-nut his party-mate Jane Norton when it comes to outlandishly conservative proposals on the "restructuring" of basic governance, Scott McInnis was caught on tape at a recent Tea Party candidate forum suggesting that the state Department of Education be looked at as a possible target for elimination. (JL)
GA-Gov: Georgia Dems are pressing the House Ethics Committee to wrap up its investigation of Rep. Nathan Deal, who is slated to resign from the House at the end of the month. If they don't finish by then, there's a good chance they'll just drop the investigation - something, in fact, they just did with regard to Eric Massa.
HI-Gov: This is interesting. We noted the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's endorsement of Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hanneman in the Dem primary yesterday, but we didn't look at their rationale. One of their reasons ought to appeal to progressives: Hanneman, like the ILWU and Sens. Dan Akaka and Dan Inouye, has backed Colleen Hanabusa over Ed Case for the HI-01 May special election. Rival Neil Abercrombie has stayed neutral, which looks like a big mistake, given how powerful the ILWU is in Hawaii.
NY-Gov: Trying to forestall attempts to find a better candidate (or shove him from the race), Rick Lazio rolled out a bunch of endorsements from a bunch of Republicans who are all retired these days: former Gov. George Pataki and former Reps. Amo Houghton, Sherwood Boehlert, and George Wortley. I had to look up Wortley - he hasn't served since 1989.
MI-07: Look out, John Kasich! Tim Walberg says "I was Tea Party before there was a Tea party." He also says he lost in 2008 "because McCain was not a true conservative and people were tired of moderates."
NY-14: With Democratic majorities at risk and progressive power in Congress at a troubling ebb, too many powerful New Yorkers seem only too happy to back an unabashed pro-bankster neophyte challenging a liberal female incumbent. I'm talking about Reshma Saujani, who's running on a platform of kissing Wall Street's ass ("If you go to Texas, you'll never hear a Congressional member speak poorly of the oil industry") against Rep. Carolyn Maloney. Oh, but don't worry - Saujani's got all the important things covered. At a recent women's fundraiser, one of her supporters assured the crowd, "But it gets better, look how fashionable she is. She'll definitely be the best dressed person in Congress."
NY-29: Former Rep. Randy Kuhl has decided he won't try to win his old seat back. Instead, he's endorsing ex-Corning Mayor Tom Reed. Incidentally, Kuhl must have had the worst oppo team ever when he was actually running for office, no?
SC-02: Ugh - Dem Rob Miller, who raked in a couple mil he never otherwise would have seen after Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" outburst, is making some unforced errors. He kicked a TV reporter and camera crew out of a speech to a local Democratic club, and then tried to later claim he had done no such thing. Unfortunately, contemporaneous emails contradicted Miller's claims. I really hope that Miller's elevation to Red to Blue status means he's going to get some professional campaign assistance, and that he's not just being fleeced for his Brewster's millions.
Redistricting: I love this diary - possumtracker takes us on a magical mystery tour of some of the most extreme possible majority-minority districts, in places you probably never thought such districts could exist. Let's hope actual map-drawers (or the DoJ) don't take too many cues, though, since these kinds of districts would likely kill many neighboring Democratic seats.
Robocalls: The Republican Attorney General of Indiana, Greg Zoeller, chastised the NRCC yesterday for its use of robocalls introduced by a live operator. Zoeller says that, while legal, the NRCC's tactics violate the spirit of a tri-partisan treaty signed between the state's Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties banning the use of robocalls in the state. Zoeller asked the NRCC to suspend its use of robocalling in the state. Typical for the NRCC, they told Zoeller to go twist. (JL)
An alert Bleeding Heartland reader got a recorded phone call around dinnertime Monday, featuring former Republican Governor Terry Branstad.
Apparently there were a couple of questions about how Governor Chet Culver is doing and his handling of spending and the budget. Branstad's recorded voice touted his own record on economic policy.
The call also asked if the listener would support a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to between one man and one woman, and if the listener would vote for Branstad in the upcoming Republican primary.
According to my e-mail tipster, the call said it was paid for by the Branstad for Governor comittee, and gave a phone number as well as the address for Branstad's campaign website.
Skip this diary if you think it's too early to start talking about the 2012 presidential campaign just because Barack Obama hasn't been inaugurated yet.
