May 16, 2006 Newsletter
If it is a Tuesday, Must Be a Primary: Voters in Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania go to the polls to pick party nominees. In Kentucky Democrats in the 3rd Congressional District will choose between Andrew Horne (D-KY) and John Yarmuth (D-KY). Also running are Burrel Charles Farnsley (D-KY) and James Walter Moore (D-KY).
Governor Theodore R. "Ted" Kulongoski (D-OR) is being challenged in the primary by Jim Hill (D-OR) and Peter Sorenson (D-OR). The winner will face either Kevin L. Mannix (R-OR), Ron Saxton (R-OR) or Jason A. Atkinson (R-OR).
In Pennsylvania Democrats will decide whether to keep Catherine Baker Knoll (D-PA) or get a new Lieutenant Governor. Robert P. "Bob" Casey Jr. (D-PA) faces a pair of liberal activists unhappy with the pro-life frontrunner. Other high profile contests will be settled in the 4th and 8th districts. U.S. Representative Donald L. "Don" Sherwood (R-PA) will learn exactly how much his extra-marital affair has cut him support within his district. He faces novice Kathy Scott (R-PA) who has raised little money.
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Nothing In Her Pipe: The Alabama Libertarian Party is working hard to obtain the 41,012 valid signatures needed to get on the ballot this fall. Loretta Nall (L-PA), who is also the national chair of the U.S. Marijuana Party, is hoping to be on the ballot as the Libertarian gubernatorial nominee. The deadline is June 6.
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Battling Back Baxley: Lucy Baxley (D-AL) has battled back from a humiliating divorce to build a successful real estate career before entering politics and winning three statewide elections. Now the Lieutenant Governor is seeking her party's nomination for governor. She faces former Governor Donald E. "Don" Siegelman (D-AL) and five other opponents in the June 6 Democratic primary. Baxley says she wants to be governor because of a love for public service and a kinship with average Alabamians.
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$5 Million of Negative Comments: The price and intensity of the California Democratic gubernatorial primary went up after Steve Westly (D-CA) donated another $5 million to his campaign and released the first negative ad in the race, a commercial assailing Phil Angelides (D-CA) for seeking to impose new taxes on Californians. The Westly ad, which broke his campaign pledge not to initiate negative ads assailing Angelides by name, takes issue with Angelides' call for new taxes on wealthy Californians to fund schools.
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Endorsement is Not Enough: Gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano, Jr. (D-CT) has a small lead over Dannel P. Malloy (D-CT) in the delegate count going the Democratic convention, but both men are promising to continue on to the primary regardless of the outcome.
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I Like You Both: The Florida Education Association endorsed both Jim Davis (D-FL) and Rod Smith (D-FL) for governor of Florida.
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One Mistake, Thirteen Years Ago: Gubernatorial candidate Cathy Cox's (D-GA) vote thirteen years ago while in the state legislature to require schools and other public buildings to fly a state flag that included the Confederate battle emblem is coming back to haunt her as she seeks the support of African-American voters in the Democratic primary. Cox said she signed onto the bill as a freshman lawmaker in the Georgia House because colleagues she trusted told her it was a good idea. The next year, when a similar amendment came up for a vote, she opposed it.
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Split Decision: The Illinois Republican gubernatorial ticket disagrees with itself on whether a gay marriage ban question should appear on the November ballot. State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka (R-IL), the GOP gubernatorial nominee, opposes asking voters whether marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman. Her running mate Joseph E. "Joe" Birkett (R-IL) supports it.
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Fletcher and Ehrlich Could Learn a Lesson From Blagojevich: Governor Rod R. Blagojevich's (D-IL) administration fired two ex-personnel officials over allegations they rigged tests for 28 people seeking state jobs or promotions. His office forwarded the case to federal investigators and credited the state inspector general with uncovering the alleged wrongdoing. But the attorney for the fired employees says that Blagojevich's office "was seeking favored treatment for job applicants," and that the administration blocked efforts by his clients to make hiring in state government more fair. According to interviews done by state investigators, hiring officials said they felt pressure to approve favored job applicants even if they weren't qualified, and that they were beleaguered by a flood of such "special applications" after Blagojevich took office.
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I've Never Had to Pay for It: Gubernatorial candidate Chris Gabrieli (D-MA) has paid a consulting company $82,500 to gather the signatures necessary for him to be on the Democratic primary ballot. He filed 11,277 signatures with the Secretary of Commonwealth last week. Thomas F. "Tom" Reilly (D-MA) and Deval L. Patrick (D-MA) relied on unpaid supporters to gather signatures.
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Alternative Party News - Somewhere Over the Green-Rainbow: Grace Ross (G-MA) it trying to become Massachusetts' next Governor on the back of an organization which recently had its status downgraded from an official party to a political designation. The Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party failed to requalify as a political party after its presidential candidate received less than 0.4% of the vote. Ross is a community organizer with a master's degree from Harvard. Ross made her first foray into politics in the mid-1980s when she joined Nuclear Free Cambridge, which campaigned to ban research that could be used in the making of nuclear weapons.
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Back Flip: In a stunning reversal from the position he has held throughout his gubernatorial campaign, J. Kenneth Blackwell (R-OH) now says that a constitutional amendment is not needed to limit government spending. Blackwell said he would accept legislation that would accomplish the same goal.
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Test Themes: Lieutenant Governor Charles J. Fogarty (D-RI) told the audience at last weeks' Democratic convention that it was Governor Donald L. "Don" Carcieri (R-RI), and not President George W. Bush (R-TX) who has overseen "a spiraling deficit, a growing number of uninsured, anemic job growth, and a lack of confidence in government."
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Single Issue Voting: Governor Marshall C. "Mark" Sanford's (R-SC) veto of a bill that would allow the Lexington Medical Center to open a heart center outside the normal approval channels might result in a political backlash. The chief beneficiary of Sanford's veto is primary rival Oscar Lovelace Jr. (R-SC), but several Lexington Republicans say they might support state Senator Thomas L. "Tom" Moore (D-SC) over Sanford should Moore get the nod.
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Did You Learn about Mud Slugging While a Businessman: State Senator Jim Bryson (R-TN) is touting his business experience and leadership skills as his campaigns for Governor of Tennessee. When asked to differentiate himself from Governor Phil Bredesen (D-TN), Bryson pointed to his recent vote for a bill to allow Tennessee Highway Patrol officers to detain illegal immigrants. Said Bryson, "I want to control illegal immigration in this state."
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Thompson Keeps Name ID Up While Thinking About Running for President: Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson (R-WI) decided not to run for his old job again and will instead serve in an honorary position in the campaign of Mark Green (R-WI). Thompson's statement deliberately left open the possibility that he might still run against U.S. Senator Herbert H. "Herb" Kohl (D-WI), but most political observers consider the likelihood of that happening as slim.
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Less Likely Than Not: U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and his likely Democratic challenger Jim Pederson (D-AZ) agree that the chances of a House-Senate compromise on immigration is "50-50" or less.
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Lamenting Lamont: It appears that the Connecticut Democratic conventions will be contentious and that Senate candidate Edward M. "Ned" Lamont (D-CT) will have enough support to force a primary against U.S. Senator Joseph I. "Joe" Lieberman (D-CT). Lieberman's campaign is predicting that Lamont will force the primary at the convention by landing 30 percent to 35 percent of the votes. However, Lamont's campaign said Lieberman's forces are trying to raise expectations and that they still predict it will be a close call, and they may have to resort to submitting the thousands of signatures they have begun collecting from registered Democrats. Lamont can get on the primary ballot by either getting 15 percent of the votes of the 1,607 delegates attending Saturday's nomination convention or by submitting nearly 15,000 signatures of registered Democrats.
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Never Raise Taxes, Never Will: U.S. Senator Conrad Burns' (R-MT) strategy of getting re-elected while under a cloud of ethical suspicion will focus of demonizing his potential Democratic rivals. In television and radio commercials, Burns is telling voters that John Morrison (D-MT) and Jon Tester (D-MT) have promised to raise their taxes.
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Giving Out Candee: Farmer and U.S. Senate candidate Robert G. Candee (D-MT) started giving out $1,000 scholarships to the graduating seniors of high schools in Sidney, Richey and Forsyth Montana some 17 years ago. Candee is not a rich man but felt he needed to give something back the communities where he has lived all his life and where he is most at home. Counselors at local high schools pick the winners of the Bob Candee scholarships, who are not necessarily the tops in their class but are good kids who need to know someone believes in them. He likes to give out about $10,000 a year to graduating seniors, but a lot of that depends on the rain and how well his crops do.
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Its Not Me, Its Them: U.S. Senator Michael "Mike" DeWine (R-OH) has been called "Nice Mike" because he does not go out of his way to attack, or even discuss, his political challenger, U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown (D-OH). He doesn't have to because the Republican party is doing enough negative campaigning already.
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How Can a Bad Man Raise Such Nice Kids: With his public image at career lows, U.S. Senator Richard J. "Rick" Santorum (R-PA) has been spotlighting his children in hopes that the faces of his children will show his softer side.
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First Thing We Do is Shoot All the Liberals: U.S. Senate candidate Van Hilleary called on primary rival Ed Bryant (R-TN) to join him in a "conservative truce." Explains Hilleary, "In this primary all three candidates sound conservative but the truth is only Ed Bryant and I have conservative records to match our words. Bob Corker (R-TN) on the other hand, sounds conservative but his record is anything but conservative."
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Personal Gain is Just a Happy Coincidence: A map of U.S. Representative Kenneth Calvert's (R-CA) recent real estate holdings reveals that many of them are near the transportation projects he has supported with federal appropriations. Improvements to the transportation infrastructure have contributed to the area's explosive growth. Calvert says he had used earmarking solely to benefit his congressional district. Those appropriations, he claims, have had nothing to do with his investments or financial gains.
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Damn the Torpedos: Although he gained less than 2% of the vote in the special election primary, Bill Hauf (R-CA) is hoping that he will do in the general election primary when it is just him and former U.S. Representative Brian P. Bilbray (R-CA) actively campaigning. The problem is that Hauf's attempt to win the Republican nomination might also result in Francine P. Busby (D-CA) being able to win the special election being held the same day. Hauf's first mail piece is titled "2 Elections; 1 Conservative Choice" and presents a "Republican Report Card" on Bilbray, giving him an "F" on Taxes and Spending, an "F" on Gun Rights, a "D" on Family Values, and an "Incomplete" on immigration.
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Loving Relationship: During a Democratic primary debate, U.S. Representative Robert "Bob" Filner (D-CA) responded to criticism from California Assembly member Juan Vargas (D-CA) about Filner's wife Jane acting as his paid fundraiser, by introducing his wife and saying "Your campaign manager was convicted of bribery. I would take my wife over those people any day."
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Are There Really Millions of Americans Supporting Al-Qaeda: Congressional candidate Peter J. Roskam (R-IL) is defending the Bush administration's decision to create a secret database of tens of millions of phone calls made by U.S. citizens in the name of fighting terrorism. "I think our civil liberties are something precious, but I think it’s also got to be balanced with the idea of securing our borders and protecting us from terrorist attacks," said Roskam.
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More Volunteers, Less Veneer: Congressional candidate Ladda "Tammy" Duckworth (D-IL) shook up her campaign by replacing her campaign manager. A spokesman said Joe Shafer, who was at the helm of Duckworth’s closer-than-expected March 21 primary win, was replaced by Jon Carson, who has experience putting together the volunteer corps Duckworth covets.
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Close Casting: The slate of congressional candidates seeking to replace retiring U.S. Representative Lane A. Evans (D-IL) is now complete following a nomination meeting. The candidates include Rock Island Mayor Mark W. Schwiebert (D-IL), state Senator John M. Sullivan (D-IL), Evans aide Phil Hare (D-IL), teacher Rob Mellon (D-IL) and state Representative Mike Boland (D-IL). Schwiebert, Boland and Sullivan touted their electability, while Mellon told the precinct committeemen he brings a fresh face and new ideas, while Hare spoke of his endorsements from labor groups and from Evans. Three hundred and ninety-seven elected precinct committeemen will vote among the candidates.
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It Is Time to Go: The Washington Post opines that there "doesn't seem to be much question" that U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson (D-LA) will have to give up his congressional seat. "The only mystery appears to be the timing: to be precise, how long Mr. Jefferson tries to tough it out." The paper goes on to say that Louisiana's Second Congressional District "was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina; it needs a representative who can devote his full attention to its woes rather than his own."
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Long History: Congressional candidate Keith Ellison's (DFL-MN) style and personal history are receiving close attention now that he has won the endorsement of the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party. Some people are concerned about Ellison participation in the Million Man March in 1995 and his presence at a speech by Khalid Abdul Muhammad which was described as "as part homophobic hyperbole, part racist ranting, part black power." Ellison has responded by saying of Muhammad, "I deplore what he said. I regret being associated with him." Ellison is also being criticized for his remarks after the Rodney King beating in 1992, when he said, "black people do not live under a democracy. You don't have an obligation to obey a government that considers you to be less than human."
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Why Boost An Opponent's Name Recognition: Congressional candidate Albio Sires (D-NJ) has begun airing his first television commercials, touting his record as a state assemblyman and taking on President George W. Bush (R-TX) and the Iraqi War. His commercials do not make any mention of his Democratic primary rival Joseph Vas (D-NJ).
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Taking To the Cleaner By A Newcomer: Only a few years ago, U.S. Representative John E. Sweeney (R-NY) was a rising star in New York Republican circles. But with Congressional elections just six months away, Sweeney finds himself in the political battle of his life, and from a political novice, Kirsten E. Rutnik Gillibrand (D-NY), no less.
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Hopefully They Won't Get a Yeast Infection: Ohio congressional candidates Betty Sutton (D-OH) and Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) spent a day in Washington, hobnobbing at events organized by the EMILY's List political network.
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Up From Obscurity: Democrats are placing their hopes of defeating freshman U.S. Representative Dave Reichert (R-WA) in the hands of former Microsoft executive Darcy Burner (D-WA), who has emerged from obscurity in the past four months to become a darling of the party establishment.
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Investigation But No Election Impact: Starting in the 1990s, U.S. Representative Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV) set up a network of nonprofit organizations to administer the millions of dollars in public endeavors in his poverty-ridden district. Over the same period of time, Mollohan's personal fortunes soared. From 2000 to 2004, his assets grew from no more than $565,000 to at least $6.3 million. But the increased scrutiny of these facts has had little impact of his re-election thus far. Mollohan faces a widening federal investigation. The FBI has notified his nonprofit organizations that they will be subpoenaed soon and a subpoena has already been served on a real estate company in which he has invested. In addition, Mollohan plans to divulge that he misstated on House financial disclosure forms the amount of loans and income from some of his real estate holdings.
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Poll Updates: Updated poll information have been posted (for subscribers only). New polls were posted in the last two days in the following contests: Arkansas Lieutenant Governor, Massachusetts Governor and Oregon Governor Primary .
Supporting Cast - And You Thought These Guys Always Ran As Republicans: Alabama Democratic candidate for Attorney General Larry Darby (D-AL) denies the Holocaust occurred and said he will speak this weekend to a "pro-white" organization, the National Vanguard. Larry Darby concedes his views are radical, but he said they should help him win wide support among Alabama voters as he tries to "reawaken white racial awareness" with his campaign against Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, Jr. (D-AL).
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