Tag: Elections

Invitations declined : In her role as the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) is getting less than stellar results in both her main tasks: Raising money for GOP senatorial candidates and recruiting Republican candidates out in the states.

The Senate Democrats, headed by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, are well ahead of Dole and her group in fundraising, and there has been a string of lost recruitment opportunities on the Republican side. Most recently, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-VW)
opted out of running against Sen. Robert Byrd, the venerable West Virginia Democrat:

Capito’s decision comes on the heels of North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven’s decision to pass on a race against Dem Kent Conrad. Vermont’s Republican Governor Jim Douglas refused to take on Bernie Sanders. And so on. In fact, the NRSC’s only high-profile challenger is one they wish would go away — Florida’s Katherine Harris. (The GOP has a strong candidate in the open Minnesota seat.)

Maybe it’s the national mood — we’re seeing strong Democratic challengers arise in the House as well as Democrats sense a change in fortune. Or perhaps Dole is completely clueless. Or both. But in any case, we can rest assured that in the early going, our Chuck Schumer has beat the crap out of Dole — in both money and candidate recruitment.

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) is a particularly odious Republican, so it is heartening to learn that Bryan Lentz, a Democratic war vet, is taking him on in the 2006 elections.

Here is a bit of what we learned from the Lentz for Congress website:

Bryan Lentz is a native son of southeastern Pennsylvania, where the 7th District is located. He is a decorated Army veteran who served with distinction in the Iraq War and with MFO and NATO peacekeeping missions in the Sinai Peninsula and Bosnia, where he oversaw millions of dollars in infrastructure development, including the first-ever Russian, Romanian, Muslim and Serbian joint bridge and road projects. Among his official commendations are the War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and the Bronze Star.

In Iraq, Bryan commanded a civil affairs unit responsible for rebuilding the infrastructure in Mosul. His experience on the ground makes him a sharp and reliable critic of the Bush administration’s failure to plan properly for the war and the rebuilding effort.

In his civilian life, Bryan served for six years as a prosecutor with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, where he earned a tough reputation for his wide-ranging prosecution of gang members, rapists, and other violent offenders. Since 1999, Bryan has worked as an attorney in private practice.

UPDATE: We plan to do a profile of Paul Scoles too, and have contacted him by email. The story on Bryan Lentz is part of our coverage of Democratic Iraq war vets who are running for Congress. We strongly support any candidate who can beat Curt Weldon. – Jon

A harbinger, perhaps: The number three man in the Republican Party’s leadership in the U.S. Senate is polling very badly in his bid for reelection next year. A new poll shows that a scant 37 percent of Pennsylvania voters plan to vote for GOP Sen. Rick Santorum in 2006, while half say they plan to vote for his opponent, Demoratic State Treasurer William Casey:

In the Senate race, [the survey] showed Casey beating Santorum … by a 50 percent to 37 percent in a hypothetical election, with 13 percent undecided…

A Keystone poll in June showed Casey, the likely Democratic nominee, ahead of Santorum by 44 percent to 37 percent. Recent surveys by other polling organizations also have shown Santorum trailing Casey who, like Scranton, lives in Scranton.

Santorum’s problems are mostly self-inflicted. He tends to make news with frequent bursts of wingnuttery – equating gay sex with bestiality a few years ago, for example. More recently he suggested that disaster victims should be sanctioned if they found themselves unprepared for calamity.

He holds the position of Republican Conference Chair in the Senate leadership.

Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC) broke his word to his constituents last year by voting for CAFTA.

Now an Iraqi war Democrat has:

Tim Dunn, a trial lawyer and military veteran from Fayetteville who served recently in Iraq, announced his intention Wednesday to challenge four-term Republican U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes for his seat in Congress.

Dunn, a Democrat, cited Hayes’ July vote switch on the Central American Free Trade Agreement as a key motivation for his campaign. Hayes had said repeatedly he opposed CAFTA, then changed his vote at the last moment to ensure passage of the agreement.

“He broke his promise to the people of the 8th Congressional District,” Dunn said in a telephone interview. “With NAFTA, fast-track and now with CAFTA, those are things that … will severely hurt our jobs here.” […]

The new Washington Post-ABC poll found that President George Bush’s job approval rating is at 45 percent, down seven points since January and the lowest ever recorded for the president in Post-ABC surveys. Fifty-three percent disapproved of the job Bush is doing.

We hate to sound like a broken record but these numbers are still ridiculously high for a failed presidency. The reason Mr. Bush’s poll numbers are not in the low 30’s is because people still give this administration credit for preventing another terrorist attack in the United States. Never mind that the 9/11 attacks took place nine years after the first World Trade Center bombings.

What is new in this poll is the fact that gas prices took a toll on the president’s approval rating. Six in 10 Americans said there are steps the administration could take to reduce gas prices.

Yeah, you’d think a couple of oil men would be able to fix the price of oil. Oh, wait! They did!