« CT: Unions Switch from Lieberman to Lamont | Main | VA: The Debates, and More »

September 20, 2006

Headlines

CT: Rasmussen's newest poll shows Lieberman leading Lamont by just 2 points, 45% to 43%. Schlesinger gets 5%. Lamont has the momentum to win this.

AZ: A new SUSA poll shows Kyl leading Pederson 48% to 43%. If this poll is accurate (we'll need another poll or two to confirm), this race might be competitive. So far, its been a disappointment, but it looks like Pederson is moving in the right direction.

HI: A new poll shows Akaka defeating challenger Case 51% to 38%. The primary is next Tuesday.

RI: Chafee might have won his primary, but he's going to lose the general. Rasmussen has Whitehouse beating Chafee 51% to 43% (+/- 4.5%)

MN: Klobuchar leads Kennedy 56% to 32% in the latest Minnesota Poll. I doubt that Klobuchar really holds such a big lead, but I don't doubt that she has a solid lead, and will win this race.

OH: Rasmussen has Brown defeating DeWine, 47% to 41%. This is Brown's biggest lead in a Rasmussen poll. With Strickland's considerable lead over Blackwell in the Governor's race, it seems like Ohio is going blue this year.

MT: Conrad Burns gets more corrupt every day. From the Billings Gazette:

Sen. Conrad Burns flew on a private plane chartered by Vonage Holdings Corp., just days after he pushed legislation that the company has advocated for more than a year.

Burns accompanied Vonage lobbyist Frank Cavaliere on the company's chartered plane to and from the "13th Annual Burns Classic Golf Weekend" in Bigfork on Saturday. Cavaliere and a Burns spokesman both confirmed the plane trip.

PA: The GOP sponsored Green party candidate is still fighting to get on the ballot. The state supreme court is giving him a final appeal to get on the ballot. From the Post-Gazette:

Mr. Romanelli is challenging a Commonwealth Court ruling that upheld an unusually high 67,000-signature threshold for independent candidates seeking a spot on the ballot.

State law specifies that an independent's nominating petitions must include a signature total equal to 2 percent of the votes collected by the highest vote-getter in the previous statewide election. Election officials, in a decision endorsed by Commonwealth Court, said that means Bob Casey's 2004 election landslide for treasurer is the base for the calculation.

Mr. Romanelli's legal team is arguing that a 2005 judicial retention election, with a much lower turnout, should have been used, resulting in a much lower signature requirement.

The case could be crucial to the Senate election. Lawyers for the Democratic Party are trying to keep Mr. Romanelli off the ballot for fear the Green candidate, who favors abortion rights and an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, might siphon liberal votes from Mr. Casey. The same analysis led GOP donors, reportedly with the active encouragement of the Santorum campaign, to fund the signature drive for Mr. Romanelli's nominating petitions.

Posted by Max at September 20, 2006 01:33 AM

Comments

I just received an e-mail from Barbara Boxer's PAC. It's a fund-raising appeal for Debbie Stabenow, which is fine, of course - but does anyone else think it's slightly odd timing, for Boxer to suddenly throw weight behind Stabenow, when the most recent poll shows her ahead by 7 points, rather than cranking up an e-mail to support one of the tighter races, like NJ, VA, or Mo?

Posted by: Christopher Walker at September 21, 2006 02:46 PM

I could be wrong, but I believe Boxer focuses much of her PAC money on helping incumbents. Other than Menendez in NJ, Stabenow is the only Dem incumbent who even has a race since McGavick in WA hasn't been able to recover from the DUI admission.

Posted by: Safi at September 21, 2006 05:08 PM

The HI primary is tomorrow, actually -- Saturday, Sept. 23.

Posted by: Tim Wolfe at September 22, 2006 11:33 AM

The SUSA poll confirms the results of a 2 week old Harstad Research poll posted on Hotline. That poll showed Pederson trailing Kyl by 6. Pederson is running some great ads educating Arizonans on Kyl's record of supporting special-interests at the expense of Arizona families. That said, Pederson probably needs more money in order to be able to run the same number of ads as Kyl right before the election.

Posted by: Andrea at September 22, 2006 02:41 PM

Pederson is extremely wealthy and is self-funding his campaign. He does not need more money in order to run as many ds as Kyl.

Posted by: Ohio guy at September 22, 2006 10:19 PM