Tag: Campaign 2010

IN Sen: Coats Rails against ‘Disastrous Bank Bailout’ – Takes Donation from Bailed-out Bank

Jon Ponder

Washington Post:

The bailouts have become campaign fodder for Republicans to use against their Democratic rivals. In a television commercial, former Republican senator Dan Coats pillories his opponent in the Indiana Senate race, Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D), for supporting “the Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda,” including “the disastrous bank bailout.”

Coats has received more than $30,000 for his Senate campaign from companies, including J.P. Morgan Chase and GM, that took government money. No companies on the bailout list have donated to Ellsworth. Neither campaign responded to a request for comment.

The latest poll from Rasmussen, a polling company notoriously in the tank for the Republican Party, shows Coats with a solid lead over Ellsworth, 52 percent to 34 percent.

Somebody Needs to Drop Out

Trish
RubioCPAC
Marco Rubio, addressing the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) this spring. Like all tea baggers, Rubio denounced Pres. Obama's use of teleprompters in his speech.

It’s time for Kendrick Meek to drop out of the U.S. Senate race in Florida.

A new Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times poll shows Marco Rubio now leading, with 41 percent. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has the support of 26 percent of those queried, while Meek has 20 percent.

Meek can look forward to a lifetime of having earned the nickname “Kendrick Nader”

Why should Meek be the one to drop out? Two reasons. First, his numbers have been no better than they are right now from the beginning. Meek has consistently failed to sway large numbers of voters and there is no reason to expect that to change in the next nine days.

Second, were Crist to back out, Meek would stand virtually no chance of pulling Republican support. Crist backers who are registered “R” will vote “R.” On the other hand, many Democrats are willing to vote for the no party affiliated Crist if it means denying Rubio a victory.

The poll had a margin of error of 4.1 percent, so if Rubio stayed at 41 percent and Crist picked up Meek’s supporters (which he would very likely do), he would garner 46 percent.

Sadly, since early voting has already started, it might be too late even if Meek does decide to do the right thing and step away. Florida appears to be headed toward having a Sen. Rubio in its future. It’s a grim prospect, and Meek can look forward to a lifetime of having earned the nickname “Kendrick Nader” if he makes it happen.

Poll: Home Stretch Rally for Dems in California – Brown up by 13 Points, Boxer by 8

Jon Ponder

The new Los Angeles Times/USC poll suggests that liberals, moderates and independent voters are coalescing around Democratic candidates in California. Here is analysis from the Times:

“I like the little guy; [Jerry Brown] didn’t have the money behind him like she did … We don’t shop at Walmart. We shop at the local store. He just seemed like more of a down-home candidate.That message that they’re sending to people is a very bad choice. We’re looking to people to act their values rather than throw money at causes. People are holding their money really closely and those candidates are really splurging.”
– Paula Bennett, a registered Republican, explaining in an interview with the Times why she is voting for Democrats Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer

[Jerry] Brown, the Democratic attorney general and former governor, led Whitman 52 percent to 39 percent among likely voters, the poll found. His advantage has more than doubled since a Times/USC poll in September.

The abrupt movement in the race for governor came as Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer held onto her 8-point margin over Republican Carly Fiorina in the U.S. Senate contest. Boxer’s 50 percent to 42 percent lead was statistically unchanged from September’s 51 percent to 43 percent edge.

For both Democrats, the month between the two polls found the party’s strongest supporters rallying to the candidates’ sides: liberals, women and Latinos either solidified or expanded their backing for Brown and Boxer. Nonpartisan voters, whom Republicans had counted on to overcome the Democratic advantage in voter registration, moved away from the two Republican candidates, and moderate voters also tilted toward the Democrats…

Most of the nation has seen pronounced enthusiasm by Republican voters as the midterm elections approach. In California, however, Democrats have gained strength and GOP motivation has ebbed slightly in the last month, the poll showed. The current standings represent a reassertion of a more typical profile for the state after an election year convulsed by a foundering economy, widespread discontent about the future and record-breaking spending by Whitman, who has dropped more than $141 million of her own money into her campaign.

PA12: Tea Party’s Tim Burns Takes Corporate Lobbyists’ Donations Funneled by Ultimate DC Insider John Boehner

Jon Ponder

Burns aligns with tea party but takes corporate lobbyists' donations
Burns aligns with tea party but takes corporate lobbyists' donations
Pennsylvania’s 12th District is best known as the late Democratic Rep. John Murtha’s district. In a special election in the spring, conservative Democrat Mark Critz took the seat. Now he’s in a rematch with Tim Burns, who proudly aligns himself with tea party extremism.

Burns’ tea party anti-establishment credentials are in tatters now, or at least they should be. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Burns had taken corporate lobbyist donations that were laundered through the office of the ultimate boozing, schmoozing Washington insider, Speaker Wanna-Be John Boehner of Ohio:

One tea-party-backed candidate to get Boehner’s help is Tim Burns, the former pharmaceutical software entrepreneur who is vying for Rep. John Murtha’s (D) former seat in Pennsylvania. Burns has campaigned hard against Washington and has publicly dismissed his opponent, a former congressional district manager for Murtha, as a Washington insider.

His spokesman Jake Parsons said that the financial support from Boehner and other Republican leaders – he got $19,000 from Boehner – “has been critical to helping get Tim’s message of ‘fixing Washington’ out.”

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FiveThiryEight Forecasts GOP Taking House 228-207 – Well Over 218 Required for Majority

Jon Ponder
Click this map to access FiveThirtyEight's interactive map at NYT.com.
Click this map to access FiveThirtyEight's interactive map at NYT.com.

Putting John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and the rest back in charge really is like appointing arsonists as fire marshals. This will be a big win for Wall Street, megabanks, super PACs, foreign corporations, religious extremism — a giant leap backwards for the United States.

Analysis from Nate Silver here.

What Meg Whitman Bought with $140 Mil – Over-Exposure and Unpopularity

Jon Ponder

Whitman, after nearly 14 months of constant broadcast bombardment, may be overexposed in voters’ living rooms. Viewers may be muting her out. She’s also not particularly well liked. A Los Angeles Times/USC Poll last month found the voters’ impressions of her to be only 37 percent favorable, and 47 percent unfavorable. Voters were evenly divided over Brown.

– Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton

Poll: 62% of Californians Don’t Like GOP – Dem Brown Up By 8 in Gov Race, Sen. Boxer up by 5

Jon Ponder
Most striking, only 55 percent of registered Republicans have a favorable impression of the GOP; 39 percent look on it unfavorably. By contrast, 75 percent of Democrats are favorably impressed with their party.

A new poll from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California finds that Democrat Jerry Brown leads Republican Meg Whitman by eight points — 44 percent to 36 percent — and Sen. Barbara Boxer leads her GOP opponent by five points 43 percent to 38 percent.

The survey also found that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a 29 percent job approval.

Why are California Republicans trailing in a year when the GOP and its tea party base are said to be ascendant in the rest of the country? Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton suggests it is because they are Republicans:

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What Is This Election Really About? Not the Deficit, the Stimulus or Big Govt – Watch Maddow Bust the Media Myths about the 2010 Mid-Terms

Jon Ponder

MADDOW: It‘s not the deficit. It‘s not big government. It‘s not the stimulus.

It‘s not Obamacare. It‘s not populism. It‘s not that all of these people are outsiders.

It‘s none of these things. These things are all provably not what‘s going on. They‘re not bolstered by the facts no matter how many times you hear from the Beltway media. This is not what‘s happening.

But the media dressing these guys up like there is some coherent narrative, like there is some cogent argument here, that conveniently obscures what‘s really going here, which is that we are on the precipice of elevating the federal office, the most extreme and in some cases strange set of conservative candidates in a lifetime…

There are extremist candidates who from time to time survive the churn of electoral politics and actually make it into the mainstream. There‘s always a few. But there has never been this many.

None of this makes any sense. We‘re just about to elect a whole bunch of extremists … unless thing change in the next two week.

Complete Transcript:

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