Tag: Campaign 2010

KY Sen: Democrat Jack Conway Trounced Tea Bagger Rand Paul in Debate on GOP-Fox Channel

Jon Ponder

You probably won’t be hearing about the Kentucky U.S. Senate debate on the GOP-Fox channel on Sunday. Fox certainly is not promoting it — for example, as of now, Monday morning at 6:15, there’s no link to the debate anywhere on the homepage of the Republican channel’s website. (By contrast, there is a link to a story about the California governor’s debate, but nothing about the Kentucky Senate debate that was held on their own network.)

Obviously, if their guy, the infamous tea bagger Rand Paul, had won the debate, it would be front and center on the Fox website. Conversely then, the absence of a link is a tacit admission of the obvious: The Democrat, Attorney General Jack Conway wiped the floor with Dr. Paul.

Conway displayed a command both of the facts and his positions, as well as an energy level that signaled that he had come there to win. Rand Paul came off as a laid-back sad stack — seriously, was he stoned? — who apparently believed that because he was playing on Fox, his home turf, all he had to do was phone it in — and, not to worry, if Conway walloped him, Fox would simply make the story disappear.

Transcript:

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Rove’s Super PAC Sets $52 Million Goal

Trish

$52 million

The fundraising goal of American Crossroads, the “Super PAC” led by Karl Rove whose major donors will not be revealed, thanks to disclosure filing deadlines, until after the midterm election. American Crossroads is one of at least a dozen such rightwing groups, which solicit donations from multinational corporations under the terms of the “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision.

SC Gov: Democrat Vince Sheheen Pulls within 4 Points of Palin’s GOP-Tea Party Pick

Jon Ponder

Vincent Sheheen
Vincent Sheheen
Here’s unexpected good news. A new poll [PDF] in South Carolina shows a tightening in the governor’s race. Democrat Vincent Sheheen has closed in on Palin/tea bagger favorite Nikki Haley, 41 percent to 45 percent — 13 percent undecided.

Haley has been seen as a rising star on the fringe right because of her association with Sarah Palin, whose endorsement helped her in the GOP primary.

Sheheen’s surge comes on the heels of word that conservatives in this fire-engine-red red state were organizing against Haley:

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Meg Before Scandal: ‘You Know What Drives Me Crazy about Career Politicians? They Refuse to Accept Accountability’

Jon Ponder

“But you know what drives me crazy about career politicians? They refuse to accept accountability … If I am governor of California, you can hold me accountable for the things that I say, the things I do, and i think that’s going to be one of the most important changes we have to make in politics. Politicians have got to be accountable…”

“…So I wouldn’t support a path to legalization. We have got to get our arms around what is a very pressing problem … We do have to hold employers accountable for hiring only documented workers, and we do have to enforce that law…”

“…Guess what? The cost of illegal immigration is significant in our budget, and if we can hold employers accountable for hiring documented workers, I think ultimately that will be a budget positive. We’re going to have to work with our federal law enforcement, as well as local law enforcement to enforce this. Illegal immigration is just that. It is illegal. And we have to stop the magnet. Most illegal immigrants come here for the jobs, so we have to go to the source and make it — and you know enforce the laws on the books. We are a rule of law and I think it’s very important to enforce it.”

– Statements made by billionaire Republican candidate for governor of California Meg Whitman during her debate with Democrat Jerry Brown on Tuesday, Sept. 28. The next day it was revealed that Whitman had employed an undocumented worker as a maid for nine years. As the scandal has unfolded, Whitman has behaved like the worst stereotype of a politician. She has blamed everyone — the employment agency from whom she hired the maid, the maid herself and even the Brown campaign — but herself. And she has been caught red-handed misstating facts. Her claim that she and her husband did not know the maid was undocumented was disproved with documentation by the maid’s lawyer.

Dems’ California Firewall Expands – Brown, Boxer Both Up by 9 Points in CNN Poll

Jon Ponder

The new CNN poll finds leads for Democrats in the California races for governor and senator.

In the governor’s race, Democrat Jerry Brown, the state’s attorney general and former governor, leads billionaire former eBay executive Meg Whitman, 52 percent to 43 percent among likely voters. Brown has a 13 point advantage among registered voters, 52 percent to 39 percent.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, seeking a fourth term, leads former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, by the same ratio, 52 percent to 43 percent. Among registered voters, Boxer’s lead widens to 19 points, 56 percent to 37 percent.

This is the first poll in which either candidate for governor has been above 50 percent in recent weeks. It is Boxer’s second 50-plus percent result.

The CNN poll is also the fourth consecutive poll that shows the Democrats ahead in California.

Verbatim

Trish

They say it is easier to get people to dislike a politician than to like him or her, but I wonder if automobile makers spent all their time accusing each other of making lousy and dangerous cars, whether anybody would buy one at all. Which maybe is one reason more people don’t vote.

–St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler, commenting on advertising for the midterm election.

CA Gov: Meg Whitman’s Housekeeper Said to Have ‘Explosive’ Allegations, Has Hired Attorney Gloria Allred

Jon Ponder

photo-meg-whitman-handHere’s some news breaking in the California governor’s race that is doubly intriguing because it is not coming from the political press — it’s from the Sunset Strip-based gossip-on-steroids outfit, TMZ:

The former housekeeper for Meg Whitman — the Republican candidate for Governor of California — is about to make “controversial and explosive allegations about her former employer,” TMZ has learned.

We’re told the housekeeper has lawyered up with none other than Gloria Allred. The housekeeper and Allred will hold a news conference today in Gloria’s office at 11 AM PT, “to tell how she suffered as a long-time, Latina household employee in Meg Whitman’s home.

We’re told the housekeeper will be filing a legal claim against Ms. Whitman.

From what we’re hearing, the disclosures could have a significant impact on the campaign and possibly the election.

If the allegations involved anger issues at Casa Whitman, they would not be the first.

Update 2:24 p.m.: The issue turned out to the fact that the maid was an undocumented alien when she worked for the Whitman-Harsh household for nine years. This comes one day after Whitman’s debate with Democrat Jerry Brown, during which she called for tough sanctions against employers of undocumented workers:

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NV Sen: Angle Confirms That She and Her Husband Receive Socialist Health Care

Jon Ponder

Despite tea baggers’ misuse of the term, “socialism” applies to any system in which citizens pool resources to provide a service for the community — in other words, any service that is not private and provided on a fee basis. Public education, as well as public police, fire and emergency services, public hospitals and, of course, government-run pensions, like Social Security, and health-care, like Medicare, are all bona fide socialist services.

So it is a surprise — although, on second thought, it shouldn’t be — to learn that tea bagger queen Sharron Angle, who rails against the evils of socialism on the campaign trail, is actually a dyed-in-the-wool socialist herself:

Angle’s campaign acknowledged to Nevada journalist Jon Ralston Monday that both the candidate and her husband receive health care from the federal government. Spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said in a statement: “Mr. Ted Angle receives his pension through the (federal) Civil Service Retirement System. While it is not supplemented by the federal government, current civil servants pay into the program to pay the schedule of those already retired — much like how the Social Security Program works today. Mr. Angle does not qualify [for] — nor does he receive Social Security benefits. His health insurance plan (the Federal Employee Health Program), which also covers Sharron, is a continuation of what he was receiving while he worked for the federal government.”

If government-provided health care is so abhorrent to Sharron Angle, then she and her husband should reject it and buy insurance on the open market. I’m sure they could find a plan with similar coverage that would cost them less than $1,500 a month somewhere. Otherwise, she reveals herself to be just another rage-aholic tea bagger railing about socialism while apparently unaware that she is, in fact, soaking in it.

New Crist Endorsement Flummoxes Florida Democrats

Trish

An endorsement from the “Fire Breathing Liberal” himself has upped the hang-wringing quotient among Florida Democrats who buy into the false premise that they must defeat Gov. Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate race.

Former U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-South Florida) came out in support of Crist over the weekend.

“There is a special time in which elected officials have to put country before party, and this is one of those times,” the seven-term congressman told a crowd of his former constituents at Century Village west of Boca Raton. “I am here to endorse Gov. Charlie Crist because he has earned it. He has truly earned it.”

Almost every traditional shorthand measure for this election fails us

How Crist “earned it” is anyone’s guess, although he has shown signs of being a vertebrate with election-year vetoes of egregious legislation passed by Florida’s Republican-majority lawmakers. Still, Democrats expected Wexler to endorse U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, whose tagline since Crist went no party affiliation (NPA) is that he is a “lifelong Democrat.”

The often overlooked detail in the three-way race between the newly NPA Crist, the Democrat Meek, and the Tea Party Republican Marco Rubio is that all that has to happen for Rubio not to be the next U.S. Senator from Florida is for him to capture less than 33 percent of the vote. So Democrats can vote for Crist or Meek, just so long as they don’t vote for Rubio.

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