Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland: Joe Biden should be a great choice in Ohio. He's got a working-class background which should go over very well. We're particularly hoping to use him in the southern part of the state.
Kentucky Senate candidate Bruce Lunsford: "Barack Obama and Joe Biden cannot enact meaningful change with Mitch McConnell still in the Senate...Mitch McConnell has been spending 24 years not making change happen, but preventing change from happening".
NJ-05 candidate Dennis Shulman: "I read Daily Kos every morning!"
Shulman's staffer: "He uses voice software to read it".
(Shulman is a legally blind rabbi, psychologist, and successful high school wrestler).
This morning, I had the opportunity to talk briefly with New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen about her U.S. Senate race this year, against incumbent Republican John Sununu.
Unsurprisingly, the Governor is very gracious, articulate, and pleasant in person.
She stressed the point that while polling has been overwhelmingly favorable for her campaign, she is concerned about Democratic overconfidence. She said that while New Hampshire has been trending Democratic in recent years, "anyone who thinks New Hampshire is a solidly Democratic state, doesn't know New Hampshire".
She also noted that John McCain enjoys a strong base of support in the state, where he won an overwhelming victory in 2000 and was victorious again in 2008. Her polling remains very strong in the state, but the campaign seems deeply concerned that too many people are taking victory for granted in New Hampshire.
Shaheen trails Sununu in the money race - she has outraised Sununu every quarter since she entered the race, but Sununu's war chest from six years in the Senate still leaves him with $3 million more on hand as of last filing.
In addition, third-party organizations have already spent roughly $1.5 million in attack ads (Governor Shaheen called them "lies"). One of the biggest stories in Denver has been the flood of independent attack ads smearing local boy and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall; Shaheen expects more of the same in her own race. Current polling is great, but one never knows when someone will swoop in with $5 million of ad lies and change the game completely.
Finally, she recalled the New Hampshire GOP's "dirty tricks" scandal in 2002, involving the intentional jamming of Democratic phone lines on election day. Two people went to jail for this, and one would expect that an even more desperate Republican Party will stop at nothing in 2008 to keep this seat in GOP hands.
Still, she believes that the political climate is sufficiently changed from 2002, and that Sununu's record as a Senator has been sufficiently bad, that the state is ripe for real change. In 2002, when she lost by a mere four points, Republicans enjoyed an 11-point registration advantage in New Hampshire.
That advantage is down to two points today.
In the wake of 9/11, Bush was at the height of his popularity in the fall of 2002; his favorability is at its lowest ebb today. And he has had few more faithful lieutenants than Senator John Sununu.
She noted that Sununu has stood silently with Bush not only on this disastrous war of ours, but has loyally helped the President drive our once-vibrant economy into a canyon. She pointed out, in particular, that Sununu has done nothing in his six years in the Senate to rein in contractors' abuse and exploitation of government funding, nor has he acted to prevent oil speculation in the Middle East.
One would assume that a Senator Shaheen would be a bit more diligent in accounting for taxpayers' money, should any future President choose to dump it by the planeload into such ill-fated boondoggles.
Overall, I got the sense that the campaign is cautiously optimistic about their chances this November, but are taking absolutely nothing for granted.
And despite Shaheen's double-digit polling leads, neither should we.
based on the capacity of new media to affect traditional media and hold them accountable...
...if one of the critical topics of conversation was how to find effective means of moderating discussion on blogs (and the topic of community moderation was raised)...
...if you were discussing the power of blogs to push stories abandoned by the traditional media, the advertising potential of individual blogs, and the evolution and descent into irrelevance of the "gatekeeper model"...
...how many times do you think Daily Kos would be mentioned?
If this is the panel you're thinking of, the answer is zero.
In keeping with the finest traditions of the Bush Justice department, the feds have been stalking former Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove for alleged connections to a scandal involving the Mississippi Beef Plant.
As Tim Kalich reported in the Greenwood Commonwealth, this was quite likely politically motivated (shades of Don Siegelman):
This past week’s developments in the four-year-old investigation into the failed Mississippi Beef Processors plant seem timed to help derail Democrat Ronnie Musgrove’s bid to snatch one of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats from Republican hands.
Three Georgia businessmen, one by one over the course of four days, entered guilty pleas to federal charges arising out of the Yalobusha County beef plant’s quick and costly demise.
The three, all executives with The Facility Group of Smyrna, Ga., were largely left off the hook on the more serious charges that they had swindled the state out of at least $2 million and had left the plant’s vendors and contractors holding the bag.
Instead, they were allowed in a plea bargain to confess to trying to buy influence with Musgrove by steering $25,000 to the then-governor’s unsuccessful re-election campaign in 2003.
In other words, the Justice Department tailored the charges against Facility, from defrauding the state of Mississippi out of millions of dollars, to making illegal contributions to Musgrove's campaign.
I can't imagine why they would accept the lesser charge, unless to derail Musgrove's Senate campaign. Of course, the Bush Justice Department has a proud history of doing exactly that.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, the case against Facility Group has now been ordered dismissed by a federal judge:
In U.S. District Court records filed Thursday, the government asks and gets the court OK to dismiss federal charges against Facility Holding Corp., doing business as The Facility Group, Facility Management Group Inc., Facility Construction Management Inc. and Facility Design Group Inc. of Smyrna, Ga.
That dismissal was part of an earlier agreement with defendant and company executive Robert L. Moultrie, who pleaded guilty to making an illegal gratuity to the 2003 re-election campaign of then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.
As part of the agreement, TFG has paid $252,000 to the State of Mississippi, which the motion for dismissal describes as representing "disputed claims" in TFG's contract with the state.
Musgrove, now a U.S. Senate candidate, has not been indicted and insists he has done nothing wrong.
This should theoretically put an end to the unfounded allegations of wrongdoing on Musgrove's part. The feds made their bed when they made the case about Musgrove, rather than the law.
With the Democratic convention opening tomorrow, and just over two months left until Election Day, it seems to be a good time to take stock of the current Senate races around the country, and provide a baseline for what to expect as the general-election campaigns begin in earnest.
If the election were held today, Democrats would win five Republican-held seats, in Virginia, New Mexico, Alaska, New Hampshire and Colorado. They would also hold the only two Democratic-held seats considered even slightly vulnerable, in Louisiana and New Jersey. This would give the Democratic Party a total of 56 Senate seats controlled, including Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman.
Following is a breakdown of each competitive race at the moment, ranked according to Democratic chances in the state, and rated on the conventional scale of "Safe Democratic" to "Safe Republican".
The third poll this week shows Elizabeth Dole's lead collapsing, and Democratic challenger Kay Hagan gaining, in the wake of a series of DSCC and Majority Action ads hitting Dole, and two positive ads from the Hagan campaign.
The DSCC's "Rocking Chairs" ad, which aired earlier this month, is one of my favorite ads to air anywhere this cycle; it's lighthearted, humorous, and hits Dole on her greatest liabilities. With ads like that one airing, and Hagan's own ads improving her statewide profile, it's no wonder this race is tightening so quickly.
Apparently, even the caribou are not pleased with Liddy Dole.
Will the NRSC bail her out? Well, they were gonna...but damn, it turns out they justdon't have the coin.
The NRSC reserved about $6 million in ad buys in North Carolina, according to sources from both parties, which was meant to show that the GOP was ready to play hard in what has become a dead heat race between Dole and Democratic challenger Kay Hagan.
But on Wednesday the NRSC yanked the money because, it turns out, the dough was never available in the first place. One GOP Senate source said it was a "head fake" that pulled the rug out from under Dole. But Dole told Politico in a phone interview Thursday that she realizes in this tough national climate for Republicans that she’s on her own in the race and will have to raise all her own money without relying on the NRSC.
Oh, dear, Dole has to do it herself? That's a darn shame, because she proved to be such an incompetent fundraiser and strategist as NRSC chair in 2006, that the Republicans lost six of seven competitive Senate races that year.
MN-Sen: Meanwhile, another strong poll comes out for Al Franken in Minnesota. This one shows him with a narrow lead over Norm Coleman, in fact. From the University of Minnesota/Humphrey Institute:
Franken (D) 41
Coleman (R) 40
Barkley (I) 8
They polled this race in January, a sufficient enough span of time that I didn't bother to include trendlines. This is also one of the first polls to include the independent candidate (former interim Senator Dean Barkley).
Franken has now shown positive movement in SurveyUSA's latest poll, and with this one coupled with the Rasmussen polling (which has consistently shown a tight race), he may well be closing Coleman's substantial lead.
Here's Franken's new TV ad. It's quite witty:
MS-Sen: So since the U.S. Senate race in Mississippi, pitting Democratic former Governor Ronnie Musgrove against interim GOP Senator Roger Wicker, looks like it will be the closest Senate race in Mississippi in at least twenty years, the Justice Department and Musgrove critics are attempting to tie him to a federal case against former employees of the Mississippi Beef Plant.
Turns out that the U.S. Attorney prosecuting the race is a Roger Wicker donor.
Posted on the Harper’s magazine Web site Wednesday night is a column by Scott Horton, who writes about the contribution and questions whether this new phase of the beef plant case has taken a political turn.
"Wicker has a very powerful ally. His name is Jim Greenlee, and he is a prior donor to Wicker's congressional campaign," Horton writes. "Curiously, Greenlee neglected to note his position when he made the donation. He is the U.S. Attorney appointed by President Bush in northern Mississippi. But as the campaign season opens in earnest, it seems that no one is providing Wicker's campaign with more valuable support than Greenlee."
Horton prefaces those statements with this:
"Washington pundits anticipate significant Democratic pick-ups in the upcoming senate races in which a largely Republican class faces a hostile electorate. One of the surprising vulnerabilities for the Republicans is in Mississippi. Senator Trent Lott resigned his seat before his term expired, with his resignation closely linked in time to the announcement of charges against his brother-in-law Dickie Scruggs. To fill out the remaining year of Lott’s term, Governor Hailey Barbour tapped Roger Wicker, who is now seeking to win the seat in his own right. He's being challenged by former Governor Ronnie Musgrove, who is given strong odds at picking off the seat for the Democrats."
Given the history of Bush's Justice Department engaging in politically motivated investigations (shades of Don Siegelman), this seems like yet another dirty trick.
Meanwhile, the Mississippi Secretary of State clearly fears the potential effect that new voters will have on the Senate race: he wants to move the U.S. Senate matchup to the bottom of the ballot.
Phillips told The Associated Press on Thursday that he's concerned the state Board of Election Commissioners, made up of two Republicans and one Democrat, will recommend that local officials put the Musgrove-Wicker contest at the very bottom of the Nov. 4 ballot.
Phillips said such a decision could mean that "tens of thousands of falloff voters would not vote," in the U.S. Senate race and he believes that would hurt Musgrove, a former governor.
Phillips said he has received two informal opinions from Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann's office in the past few weeks suggesting that Hosemann might recommend putting the Musgrove-Wicker race at the end of the ballot, after contests for the state Court of Appeals.
History shows there is typically a significant drop-off in the number of Mississippians who vote in top-of-the-ticket races such as president and senator and those who vote in races further down the ballot, where the candidates might be less familiar.
ME-Sen: Democrat Tom Allen is on the air with a 60-second bio ad:
House Races
NV-02: Terrific poll out of Nevada's difficult Second District, where Democrat Jill Derby came within five points of beating Republican Dean Heller in their 2006 race.
This was the closest result since the district was created in 1982.
Not much has changed since that time, despite Heller now enjoying the power of incumbency. From Research 2000:
Heller (R) 47
Derby (D) 42
Sven at My Silver State has a nice interview with Jill Derby here. Derby talks about the differences between her 2006 ace, and this one:
There are two significant differences in this race that make it winnable. The first is a fundamental change in partisanship in the Second Congressional District, as indicated by a remarkable shift in registration. Since the 2006 election, the Republican registration advantage has been cut by 40%, more than 18,000 voters. This is more than 50% greater than Dean Heller's margin of victory in 2006.
The second difference is Dean Heller's record. Nevada voters want an independent voice in Washington, a voice that will stand up for Nevadans, not one that will not march in lockstep with a party. Dean Heller has instead decided to be a rubber stamp for a failed GOP agenda, voting 92% of the time with President Bush. He has taken tens of thousands of dollars from Big Oil while voting against renewables and real opportunities to lower gas prices, such as releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He voted against SCHIP, preventing 70,000 children in Nevada from receiving much-needed health care. He voted against pay equity for women (H.R. 2831, the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act ).He voted against reinvigorating the GI Bill to give our veterans an opportunity to get the education they deserve.
Derby's running in a very tough district, but it seems she has a realistic chance at pulling off the upset.
CA-11: Very bad news for the GOP: even their very strongest recruits are struggling, according to the Cook Political Report.
State Assemblyman Dean Andal was considered one of the most dangerous GOP candidates this cycle, as he sought to take out freshman Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney. Cook had rated this race a tossup, but it seems that as Andal has become enmeshed in scandal over the past few months (surprise, surprise), his chances are no longer quite so good. Cook has moved the race to "Leans Democratic":
Although this race is still likely to be very competitive, evidence suggests freshman Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney's prospects of coming back to Washington have improved a bit over the past several months. Not only has former GOP Assemblyman Dean Andal turned in several sub-par fundraising quarters in a row, but he has also spent a lot of the last month on the defensive, answering questions about his role as a consultant for a community college development project.
In June, a San Joaquin civil grand jury report took the San Joaquin Delta College Board of Trustees to task for misappropriation of a $250 million public grant to build a new campus. The report said board members violated the law by leaking information from their deliberations on the location of the campus to a developer, PCCP Mountain House LLC. The report alleged that PCCP's consultant, quickly revealed to be Andal, improperly used his knowledge of the closed-session deliberations to lobby board members to pursue a more expensive location to develop.
Andal has denied ever having improper conversations, but the story has lent Democrats new ammunition for ads. The DCCC was already planning on defining Andal before Andal or his allies could take to the air, and they were planning to portray his legislative voting record as quixotically libertarian. Now, they will be hitting Andal from a few different angles, and environmental groups have expressed interest in piling on by making Andal the same kind of target they made former GOP Rep. Richard Pombo in 2006.
Even the GOP's best hopes for the House are really rather dim.
AZ-08: Another top GOP recruit, Arizona Senate President Tim Bee, is coming under plenty of fire for apparently declining to reimburse the city of Tucson for nearly $100,000 in expenses caused by the Decider's recent visit.
Bush came to town and raised $600,000 for Bee at a swanky private event...but Bee apparently thinks that the cost of this visit should be borne by the taxpayers.
Bee's congressional campaign won't repay the Pima County Sheriff's and Tucson Police departments for the $99,000 they spent while enabling his $600,000 campaign haul.
When President Bush came to Tucson on Bee's behalf July 17-18, some 165 police officers and 161 sheriff's deputies were deployed to help ensure the president's safety, as reported Tuesday by Tucson Citizen political reporter Blake Morlock.
That's money well spent; law enforcement in the Old Pueblo always rises to the occasion to help protect presidents and other dignitaries.
But this visit by the president was for a purely private party in a then-undisclosed Catalina foothills home, for select guests only and for one purpose only: To raise money for Bee's campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in southern Arizona's 8th Congressional District.
It should be noted that when President Clinton came to Tucson on behalf of Giffords in 2006, he held an event open to the public.
WI-08: Meanwhile, Republican congressional candidate John Gard features in Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" segment:
In this day and age, it can be awful hard defending your allegiance to today's Republican Party. For Rep. Chris Shays, it proved so difficult that he's now masquerading as some Obamaesque Democratic/Republican hybrid. Witness:
That's right, lifelong Republican Chris Shays is leading his ads with an image of the Democratic presidential nominee.
Shays is a co-chair of McCain's campaign, of course.
And as for his apparent claims to transcend partisanship and other cool stuff like that...well, the campaign of Orange to Blue candidate Jim Himes would beg to differ. For it seems Shays, despite his bluster, in fact votes with his Republican brethren nine out of ten times - on the closest and most critical of votes.
Some examples:
- Voting against tax cuts for the middle class, including voting against extending credits for college tuition and voting against exempting middle class families from the Alternative Minimum Tax (HR 3996)
- Voting against a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq (HR 1591)
- Voting to allow torture by CIA interrogators (HR 2082)
He inflates his "bipartisan credentials" in other words, by siding with Democrats when he isn't needed.
If Rasmussen's latest poll is accurate, Republican candidate Steve Pearce has experienced a significant polling bounce thanks to a series of negative ads from his campaign and the Club for Growth.
With leaners included, it's 53-44 for Udall, down from an astonishing 61-35 margin last month.
Now, this poll could well be an outlier. Pearce has been advertising statewide of late, hitting Udall on energy, and the Club for Growth has given him a timely assist. Still, it's almost impossible to see how a 26-point edge with leaners could be trimmed to a 9-point lead in less than a month.
Still, this race was bound to tighten up eventually, and perhaps we are seeing the first indications of this phenomenon. This race should still be considered "Likely Democratic" until further polling confirms this result, of course.
This result does speak to the one real ace in the hole that GOP candidates have: they've got a few powerful, well-financed independent organizations like the Club for Growth and Freedom's Watch that have the money to do the dirty work the GOP can't afford to do.
OH-11: First and foremost, we note again with sadness the passing of the late Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, the chairwoman of the House Ethics Committee.
The Congresswoman was a true trailblazer whose career represented a series of firsts - she was the first African-American woman elected to Congress from the state of Ohio, the first ever to sit on the Ways and Means committee, the first to serve as Cuyahoga County Prosecutor.
Our deepest condolences and best wishes go to her family and friends.
National: Courtesy of Jonathan Godfrey and Marisa McNee comes the latest web resource for following U.S. House races online: House Race Tracker.
The site serves as a resource for polling results, cash-on-hand numbers, TV ads, and PVI. Soon, apparently, they hope to expand to including independent expenditures in House races as well.
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the site is its layout; the entire content of HouseRaceTracker is laid out on the front page in user-friendly chart form.
While there's no real commentary on the site as of now, HouseRaceTracker looks to be a nice one-stop shop for elections junkies. It's well worth visiting, and bookmarking, for anyone interested in House races.
NC-Sen: Now, for the exciting polling news! InsiderAdvantage has polled the North Carolina Senate race, and finds Caribou Liddy Dole deadlocked with Democratic challenger Kay Hagan:
Hagan (D) 40
Dole (R) 40
Lot of undecideds in this poll. Here are the most promising indicators: Hagan leads 38% to 27% among independents, and takes a slightly larger share of Republicans than Dole does of Democrats (despite the high percentage of conservative Democrats in North Carolina).
The DSCC and Majority Action have been absolutely hammering Caribou Liddy on the airwaves for the past month or so (including in the DSCC's "Rocking Chairs" ad, one of the very best ads from anyone this cycle).
Meanwhile, Hagan has put up two positive ads to spread her own name recognition.
Pollster's average now shows Dole at 49%, Hagan at 41%, but the last two polls on the race have shown very good movement in Hagan's direction. It appears the race is starting to trend her way.
AK-Sen: Ted Stevens' bid to get home-field advantage in his federal corruption trial failed miserably, with a federal judge ruling against Stevens' bid to get his trial moved from DC to Alaska.
The upshot of this is that Stevens will also not be able to campaign this fall, a rather unfortunate bit of news as he currently trails Democrat Mark Begich by double digits.
He's also begging his colleagues on the Ethics Committee to permit him to set up a legal defense fund:
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Ted Stevens has asked the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee to approve a legal expense fund to help pay the cost of his criminal defense.
Stevens, R-Alaska, joins Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who set up such a fund earlier this year to help defray the cost of mounting legal expenses connected to a federal probe into campaign donations and other matters.
The Senate Ethics Committee must approve the legal expense fund, but generally does so for senators if the legal expenses are connected to their role as an officeholder. Stevens was indicted last month on seven felony counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts and home repairs from the now-defunct oil services company Veco Inc.
Individuals and political action committees can contribute up to $10,000 to the Senate fund. Lobbyists, corporations, foreign nationals and labor unions are barred from making contributions. The fund, which would be managed by a trustee, would file quarterly reports detailing the contributors. Stevens is not allowed to solicit contributions and said Wednesday he won't accept donations until the ethics committee has signed off on creating the fund.
Alaska's Senate race is beginning to look a lot like a very good production of Shakespeare's Richard II.
CO-Sen: VoteVets nails Bob Schaffer to the wall:
KY-Sen: Bruce Lunsford is fighting the good fight against Mitch McConnell. Here he calls McConnell a failure, to his face, in their recent debate:
And here is Lunsford's latest ad:
House Races
MO-09: Though we are still saddened over the humiliating primary loss of GOP candidate Brock Olivo, there's reason to believe the field may be clear for good old Brock to return in 2010.
This is because, according to a recent internal poll, Democrat Judy Baker stands an excellent shot at winning this R+7 seat. From pollster Momentum Analysis:
Baker (D) 41
Luetkemeyer (R) 39
Millay (R) 3
Baker leads 45% to 36% among women voters, the source of a good bit of her strength.
Most notably, Baker enjoys 30% favorable ratings, against just 13% unfavorable. In fact, she enjoys positive favorable ratings even from Republicans, which is truly impressive.
If the poll is accurate, it's serious trouble for Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer. Apparently, his people know it, too:
"Judy Baker’s poll is like a NASCAR driver bragging about being ahead after the first lap of this weekend’s Sharpie 500, which in case Judy didn’t know is a car race enjoyed by ‘those people’ often derided by liberal Democrats like herself," said Luetkemeyer spokesman Paul Sloca in a statement.
Despite Sloca's hysterics, however, it appears that Judy Baker is in fact quite the NASCAR fan:
State Sen. Chuck Graham and state Rep. Judy Baker announced the plans to designate Route WW from Highway 63 to Olivet Road as "Carl Edwards Drive." Graham said he intended to file legislation in the General Assembly today. If passed, Edwards would join former Kansas City Royals star George Brett and former St. Louis Cardinals star Mark McGwire as the only sports figures to have their names affixed to state highways. "So stay away from steroids and subpoenas from Congress," Graham joked.
Ooooooops.
NH-01: Rep. Carol Shea-Porter is one of the most endangered Democrats in Congress this cycle, but fortunately for her, her Republican opponents, John Stephen and former Rep. Jeb Bradley, seem intent on tearing each other apart in their primary.
Stephen attacking Bradley:
And Bradley attacking Stephen:
Gotta love Republicans eating their own, especially as Shea-Porter is hitting the airwaves with her own ad.
NY-13: Meanwhile, in the district of disgraced Republican Rep. Vito Fossella, the Democratic primary appears to be Mike McMahon's to lose. McMahon faces 2006 candidate Steve Harrison, and leads by more than 45 points:
McMahon (D) 64
Harrison (D) 18
Given the GOP's well-documented difficulties finding anybody halfway decent to run for the seat, Mike McMahon looks like he's going to Congress.
This is a poll, however, of registered voters and not likely voters. So it is possible, even likely, that the race is a good bit closer than the poll indicates. McMahon surely has a significant lead, though.
NC-Sen: Another day, another steaming stack of stupid emanating from the smiling empty seat that is the very senior Senator from the great state of North Carolina.
Responding to criticism from her rather perceptive Democratic opponent, Kay Hagan, that Sen. Dole spends remarkably little time in the state she purports to represent, Liddy had this to offer.
After her speech, Dole said she’s spent lots of time in North Carolina lately.
"Lately", eh? Senator, it would have been nice if you'd paid a modicum of attention to the state at, you know, some point in the last 35 years, when not running for the Senate.
But one can't have everything, I suppose.
Dole said she also supports drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve, where drilling would have a small footprint that wouldn’t harm much wildlife.
"Even the caribou like to snuggle up to the pipeline," she said.
Indeed. Every caribou I have interviewed in the past six months has expressed his support for banging a big fat honking pipeline through his home, so as to give him warmth and comfort as he sleeps.
Would there was oil in New York City, so that I, too, could snuggle up next to a pipeline as I lay me down to sleep. I think some pipeline would look great in my apartment. Really tie the room together, you know.
The overall goal must be to cut reliance on foreign oil imported from nations run by the likes of Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin, she said.
"A lot of that comes from people who don’t necessarily like us," Dole said.
Gee, it might help if our foreign policy had not been an outright fiasco of late, Liddy. And whose fault is that, anyway?
Amid Liddy's laments about gas price, by the way, she has given a boatload in tax breaks to Big Oil. Naturally, MoveOn is all over this:
AK-Sen: A hearing was held this morning in federal court in Washington, DC, to determine whether indicted Senator Ted Stevens would get to move his trial back to his home turf of Alaska.
Meanwhile, the Anchorage Daily News notes the role of new media in affecting public opinion on the Stevens scandal, to the point where new media are a screening point for potential jurors in the Stevens case:
Several joint questions seek to find out if potential jurors are political active or read about politics, especially the insider Capitol Hill publications. Do they listen to talk radio, read political blogs or go to Internet forums? The government, in particular, wants to know if they read the conservative Drudge Report or the liberal Huffington Post online.
Apparently, even Bush's Justice Department thinks reading Daily Kos is OK.
NH-Sen: Jeanne Shaheen is cooking with gas, as she seeks to unseat incumbent Republican John Sununu. Per Rasmussen:
Shaheen (D) 51 (50)
Sununu (R) 40 (45)
Ras' 3-poll average puts the race at 51-41, while Pollster's average has it at Shaheen 52.6%, Sununu 42%.
Shaheen's double-digit lead has remained remarkably consistent this cycle, and she has proven to be a formidable candidate.
House Races
OH-15: Here's the first ad of this cycle from Democratic candidate Mary Jo Kilroy, as she seeks to take the open seat she nearly won in 2006 against incumbent Deborah Pryce.
MN-03: The Minnesota blogs have named this "Ashwin Madia Blog Day", in honor of a fine progressive candidate (and Netroots Nation attendee) in Minnesota's Third District.
If you'd like to learn more about Madia's candidacy on Madia Day, check out MN Blue or MN Publius.
WY-AL: As we noted last night, Wyoming's Republican State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis has won her primary in the state's at-large district.
The Hotline thought her primary opponent, Mark Gordon, was the more formidable of the two:
The party's been searching for a way to stem the growing Dem tide in the region, and a return to its libertarian roots may be the answer. In addition, his profile as a rancher seems to be a better match against '06 nominee Gary Trauner (D) than ex-Treas. Cynthia Lummis (R), with her years of gov't service, can provide.
The most recent Research 2000 poll for Daily Kos shows Trauner leading Lummis, 44% to 41%.
WI-08: Meanwhile, Republican John Gard is still feeding the debunked myth (perhaps we should just start calling it an outright lie) that China is drilling off the coast of Cuba).
NY-25, NY-26, NY-29: Today is the pre-primary filing deadline for New York House candidates. We have no more than three terrific New Yorkers on the Orange to Blue list, and here's a golden opportunity to help them finish the pre-primary period with a bang. They are Jon Powers in NY-26, Eric Massa in NY-29, and Dan Maffei in NY-25.
Please head to the Orange to Blue ActBlue Page and give them a little (or a lot!) of love, as they head towards election day.
Almost every Tuesday is primary day somewhere, it seems, and today Wyoming and Washington state get the honors.
The most hotly contested primary race of interest is the Republican race in Wyoming's at-large U.S. House district, where Republican Barbara Cubin's retirement has created an exciting open-seat race.
Orange to Blue Democrat Gary Trauner is the Democratic nominee, while four Republicans (two of them serious candidates) squared off for the nomination.
The GOP nomination, which was contested primarily between wealthy rancher Mark Gordon and Wyoming State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis, has apparently gone Lummis' way. She won by 9 points, 46% to 37%.
That's just fine for Trauner, as he won't have to face Gordon's self-funding capabilities ($1 million of his $1.2 million raised was out of pocket), nor his favorable profile (seems to be a good fit for Wyoming, as a rancher).
Lummis has won statewide office before, it is true. But she also has a longstanding feud with popular Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal, which may spur the Governor to campaign harder for Trauner this cycle than he did during Trauner's narrow 2006 loss.
As mcjoan noted earlier, this was an exceptionally ugly primary, and there may well be bad blood between Lummis' supporters, and Gordon's, for several months. Also, both GOP candidates have dumped their financial resources into this race, while Trauner, running unopposed, sits on a nice nest egg of $660,000.
Meanwhile, it is also primary day in Washington State, and the inaugural primary for their "top two" system. This is somewhat similar to Louisiana's old "jungle primary" in that the top two finishers advance to the general, regardless of party. However, unlike the jungle primary, you can't win the whole thing by getting 50% on election day; it is a real primary election.
There are no real competitive primaries at the federal level in Washington state this time out, so this is essentially a beauty contest for general-election candidates. Turnout is expected to be high for a primary in Washington, due to their mail-in ballot system. As such, some were touting the Washington primaries as a preview of the general election matchups between Governor Christine Gregoire and her Republican opponent Dino Rossi, and between Republican Rep. Dave Reichert and his opponent, Orange to Blue Democrat Darcy Burner.
If they are previews of the general, however, we haven't learned anything we didn't know before; both election are going to be very close.
Gregoire is currently edging Rossi, 48% to 46%. She will likely finish the night with a slim lead as well.
Meanwhile, Burner trails Reichert, 47% to 44%, as of last note. However, the total Democratic vote in WA-08 currently exceeds 50%, which is good news.
Given the vagaries of the mail-in system, it's unlikely that results will be official until tomorrow or even Thursday. So good night to you all; we will post the percentages for WA-Gov and WA-08 as soon as we can.
Update: It's now 9 AM Eastern, and well under 50% of precincts are in, both statewide and in WA-08. This may take a while.
NC-Sen: Kay Hagan is out with her second TV ad of the cycle:
Hagan is trying to close a relatively narrow gap between herself and incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Polling was tight prior to Dole's June ad blitz, and has seemed to trend slightly up for Hagan in recent weeks as she herself has hit the airwaves. Another positive bio ad such as this one should help the state Senator improve her statewide profile as the general election heats up.
CO-Sen: The DSCC can't get enough of "big oil" ads, it seems. Here's their latest, against Colorado Senate candidate Bob Schaffer:
Meanwhile, the infamous Freedom's Watch is taking to the airwaves themselves, attacking Schaffer's Democratic opponent, Rep. Mark Udall.
Freedom’s Watch, a conservative advocacy group, launched ads Tuesday in Colorado hitting the Democratic Senate nominee, Rep. Mark Udall, for missing a key vote last month on energy policy to attend a fundraiser back home.
The 30-second ad, with amusing graphics and whimsical music, shows gasoline prices rising as a narrator refers to the Congressman as "Skip Udall."
Tim Pearson, deputy communications director for Freedom’s Watch, said the ad buy was "substantial," though he declined to provide specifics. It is airing in the Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction media markets.
The IE buys are only going to get bigger and more frequent over the next few months, on both sides.
AK-Sen: Guess what! Ted Stevens thinks he's above the law!
In 1989, Congress amended the Ethics In Government Act of 1978 to require members of Congress to file financial disclosure reports including income and honoraria exceeding $200. The bill gave the Attorney General the authority to take action against anyone who falsifies the financial disclosure report. Stevens joined the rest of the Senate in a voice vote in favor of the legislation.
Either he's forgotten about this law he supported...or he just doesn't care, now that it's applied to him. As he is trying to get his case thrown out of court:
Last week, lawyers for Senator Ted Stevens filed several motions asserting that Senators are above the law and deserve special treatment. Specifically, the defense explained that since the Department of Justice is part of the executive branch, they cannot investigate Stevens or interview his staff since they are part of the legislative branch. Stevens’ attorneys went as far to say that only Congress can discipline a Senator who violates the law by lying on the financial disclosure forms. However, Stevens voted for the legislation which established the financial disclosure forms. In essence, Stevens’ defense is that legislation he supported is now unconstitutional, and therefore the case should be dismissed.
This is not altogether surprising really. If Stevens had any respect for the rule of law, he wouldn't be in this nasty situation to begin with.
ME-Sen: Down East has a new article on the state of the Maine Senate race. In general, it's a sober analysis of what looks to be a pretty tough, though viable, race for Democratic Rep. Tom Allen, who faces off against incumbent Sen. Susan Collins.
Allen starts at a disadvantage in name recognition, polling and money (though the DSCC has committed a great deal of money to this race, which should even the financial playing field somewhat). That said, Allen is quoted one major advantage: his ground game.
The grassroots is the only area where Allen has an undisputed edge in this race. The Democratic Party has 29 offices open across the state, with more opening every week, and has a dedicated and energized volunteer base, due in part to the excitement caused by Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The Republican Party has just four offices and many fewer volunteers.
The Democrats are working on registering thousands of new voters and making sure they get to the polls, an effort that could shift the political landscape in the Senate race. However, with less competitive races in Maine for president and for the other congressional seats, which democrats will likely win, Maine's ticket-splitting voters may choose to make Collins the one Republican they support. In the latest poll, 29% of Democratic voters abandoned Allen.
It's likely that there will be at least a decent number of ticket splitters this fall in Maine, but
House Races
FL-24: Republican Rep. Tom Feeney must be awfully nervous about his electoral prospects against former Democratic state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas.
Because Feeney has paid for robocalls across the district in support of Kosmas' primary opponent, fellow Democrat and 2006 loser Clint Curtis.
The third-term lawmaker from Oviedo -– who defeated Curtis in 2006 -– has paid for "tens of thousands" of robo-calls to Democratic voters on behalf of Curtis, who is running again for the House District 24 seat, this time as an underdog in the Democratic primary against former state lawmaker Suzanne Kosmas.
In calls to Central Florida residents, a volunteer for the Feeney campaign lauds Curtis and calls him the "only Democrat taking on Tom Feeney that has consistently opposed the war in Iraq." At the end of the call, the female volunteer said the calls were "paid for by Tom Feeney for Congress."
This isn't the first time that Feeney has tried to help a challenger. In a release sent a few weeks ago, Feeney touted independent candidate Gaurav Bhola as "the only candidate talking sense" at a candidate debate that Feeney never attended.
A clip of the robo call was provided by the Kosmas campaign. Paul Dunn, her campaign manager, called it one of Feeney’s "dirty tricks" and said it was proof that Feeney fears Kosmas, who has more money on hand than the incumbent.
Yes, I think it's safe to say that Feeney's running scared. Given that he's mucking about in Democratic primaries, you know.
Fortunately, given Curtis' bankroll of $7,000, it's highly unlikely Feeney will get his wish.
TX-07: Democrat Michael Skelly's newest ad:
OH-02: Daredevil Jean Schmidt's latest scandal: she and her sisters own a multi-million dollar property in Cincinnati, via their late father's real estate company, on which they pay all of $95 per year in property taxes.
For how come? Because they grow a few thousand dollars' worth of soybeans on the property. The property isn't primarily used as farmland...but naming it as such saves them a boatload, it seems:
The Schmidt campaign vehemently denies any wrongdoing (they do pretty much everything vehemently, in fact), and legally, they're almost certainly covered. Still, as the video notes, it sure doesn't look good.
NY-26: Finally, the first ad from Orange to Blue candidate Jon Powers:
Last week, the DSCC released a poll showing Democratic Senate candidate Jim Martin, riding the wave of a convincing primary runoff victory, trailing Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss by only six points.
The smallest margin recorded in any poll, prior to the DSCC's stunner, had been the 11-point Chambliss lead which Rasmussen demonstrated in July.
Rasmussen's latest, however, confirms the DSCC poll, and suggests that Georgia's Senate race is highly competitive right now.
With leaners included, Chambliss leads 50% to 44%.
As this is independent confirmation of the DSCC's previous poll, it can probably be taken more or less at face value. It reflects a pretty healthy primary bump for Martin, one which may well fade a little as Chambliss uses his formidable war chest to go on the air.
But if Martin - the beneficiary of healthy name recognition from his 2006 bid for lieutenant governor - can stay relatively competitive financially, and avoid being drowned on the airwaves, he has an outside shot at winning this race. Martin's success will also depend in part on Democratic efforts to register hundreds of thousands of new voters in Georgia. The Obama campaign has made this a priority, and in a close race, it could prove to be a boon to Martin's candidacy.
We're quite fortunate to have a candidate like Jim Martin in the race. He's essentially turned a no-hope race into a serious challenge, and is a candidate progressives can be proud of. Georgia's Senate race was barely on the radar just a few months ago, but it has become one of the top sleeper races this cycle.
With this poll added to the pile, Pollster's average now indicates an eight-point race, with Chambliss averaging 50% to Martin's 42.3%
Georgia's Senate race can now be considered "Likely Republican". Chambliss has a big money advantage (though Martin's own fundraising has been fairly good in a fairly short time, and the DSCC has a good bit of money themselves). Given Chambliss' money, Georgia's red tilt, and Chambliss' lead, he has to be favored.
But Chambliss has a legitimately tough race on his hands, and that should warm the hearts of Democrats across the nation.
Up to this point, polling results on the Minnesota Senate race over the past several months had fallen into two categories:
Rasmussen polling, and
everybody else's polling.
Rasmussen has consistently been the most favorable to DFL and Orange to Blue candidate Al Franken, showing a consistent 2-3 point race with incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman. In several polls, Franken actually showed a small lead.
Other pollsters, however, such as SurveyUSA and Quinnipiac, had shown the race in something of a holding pattern, with Coleman enjoying a consistent double-digit lead.
SUSA's most recent poll, however, has broken the cycle.
SurveyUSA has not seen Franken's own numbers change much since their February poll, when he drew 46% support. Other than that, he has fluctuated between 39% and 41% support, as he does now.
Coleman, on the other hand, has shown a significant drop for the first time in SUSA's polling.
The other most recent poll on this race comes from Rasmussen, and it is in line with the rest of their Minnesota polling. It shows the two candidates tied at 45%, with Coleman leading 49-46 with leaners included. Coleman is actually gaining in that poll; the numbers were reversed in July.
So does this SUSA poll - the first one to really break a trend - indicate a tightening race? It's possible. Over the last month, Franken has shaken up his campaign staff, released a few strong ads, and hopefully dealt with the "back taxes" flap once and for all. Meanwhile, Coleman himself has taken heat over a sweetheart deal he received on his DC apartment, a deal potentially in violation of Senate ethics rules.
This poll - and the seven-point gap it shows - is directly in line with Pollster's average, which also indicates a seven-point Coleman lead (50% to 43%, on average).
If that is accurate, and Coleman's edge is in high single digits, this is still a very competitive race. With Coleman and Franken both exceptional fundraisers, there is still a lot of money to be spent on this race and a lot of ads yet to be aired. It is also still unclear how dramatic an effect the presidential race will have downticket in Minnesota.
It's been a long time coming, but a pollster other than Rasmussen now gives Democrats reason for optimism in Minnesota.
The DSCC has released a new poll which shows Orange to Blue candidate Andrew Rice closing swiftly on incumbent Senator James Inhofe, in the wake of Rice's first statewide ad buys.
Since the DSCC's last poll two months ago, Rice has cut Inhofe's lead in half, and trails now by single digits, with Inhofe teetering on the magical 50% re-elect line. With June numbers in parentheses:
Inhofe (R) 50 (53)
Rice (D) 41 (33)
This is a partisan poll commissioned by the DSCC, but the June results from this same poll were almost directly in line with independent polling on the race conducted around the same time (in this case, Research 2000's poll commissioned by Daily Kos). So there's reason to believe that the pollster (Benenson) is accurate.
Andrew Rice has purchased his first statewide ads within the last month, so it stands to reason that his own numbers (and favorability) would have increased during this time (while Inhofe's numbers stayed more or less constant).
Rice's name ID is still only at 52%, while Inhofe's is near universal. In addition (and unsurprisingly), Oklahomans who do know Inhofe don't appear to especially care for him. As the Rice campaign noted in a Daily Kos post earlier in the day:
For the first time in the course of our race, Jim Inhofe’s job disapproval rating is lower than his approval (46% Approve; 47% Disapprove). More and more Oklahomans are realizing that after 22 years in Washington, Jim Inhofe has lost his way. He’s not putting Oklahomans first; he’s voting in line with his party and for the benefit of special interests that have filled his campaign war chest.
And we still have room to move. In our last poll, Sen. Rice’s name ID was only 29%. It’s now at 52%. For those who know Sen. Rice enough to form an opinion of him, their opinion is 3:1 favorable over unfavorable. Again, we’ve known it all along – when Oklahoma voters get to know Andrew Rice, they support him.
We went head-to-head with Sen. Inhofe on TV, and we more than halved his lead over Andrew Rice.
Andrew Rice is a special candidate, and he has a unique opportunity to take out a genuine troglodyte of a Senator. The apparent success of his statewide ad campaign has already demonstrated the profound effect that just a little bit of money can have on this race, and the potential that his candidacy has to bring us a progressive Senator from one of the nation's reddest states.
So go to the Orange to Blue ActBlue Page, and help Andrew Rice amass the resources he needs to stay in this fight, and win.
CO-Sen: Bob Schaffer, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, apparently thinks we ought to pity the poor oil companies, as the federal government is raking in the cash off of their hard labor.
Pity Big Oil? You couldn't make this stuff up.
MS-Sen: The DSCC has released a new ad against interim Senator Roger Wicker ("interim" Senator is their term, and I rather like it), also related to gas prices.
Meanwhile, Tim Kalich of the Greenwood Commonwealth suggests that Republicans are trying to use the investigative and prosecutorial power of the Justice Department to swing the election Wicker's way.
When the Democrats and their attorneys began claiming last year that the Bush administration was using its prosecutorial might to target opposition candidates and their major financial supporters, I greeted the allegation with a skeptical eye.
I’m not so sure anymore.
This past week’s developments in the four-year-old investigation into the failed Mississippi Beef Processors plant seem timed to help derail Democrat Ronnie Musgrove’s bid to snatch one of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats from Republican hands.
Shades of Don Siegelman.
OR-Sen: The DSCC has another "oil" ad out, this one nailing Oregon Republican Gordon Smith.
Evidently the DSCC is working with a theme here.
AK-Sen: The Washington Post reports on the changing political dynamic in Alaska; thanks in part to a boatload of Republican scandals in the state, the longtime GOP stronghold may be shifting back to the Democratic Party at long last.
"We come here for the edge, and we love the edge. But this is ridiculous," said Francine Lastufka Taylor, a former musician and arts administrator who arrived from "outside" in 1961. "The place was so young, and there was a lot of nut cases, but they weren't in charge."
"Crazy politics up here," declared a smiling Howard Enbysk, 74, retired from the Air Force. "It's different."
It might be even more different after Nov. 4. The relentless tattoo of scandal -- coupled with the drag of presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain's tepid local support and a Democratic field offering a new generation of political leadership -- threatens a Republican stranglehold on Alaska politics that dates to the oil boom of the 1970s.
"I expect us to have, for the first time in 28 years, at least one Democrat in the congressional delegation," said Gerald McBeath, a political scientist at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "I expect (Senator Ted) Stevens's chances of survival are better than those of (Congressman Don) Young."
If Stevens is the Republican more likely to survive of the two - and he trails Democrat Mark Begich by an average of 18 points - things are very, very bad for Rep. Don Young.
House Races
IL-18: Aaron Schock - the fresh young face of ultra-conservatism - is apparently spewing the same old tired bullshit that Republicans have been throwing at Democrats since the era of Tail Gunner Joe McCarthy.
Which is to say, "The Democratic Presidential nominee is a SOCIALIST!"
"The last time we had this level of socialism being proposed and inexperience at the helm was Jimmy Carter," said Schock (who was born four months after Democrat Carter left office in 1981).
What level of socialism?
"Well, he’s promoting what I would term a government takeover of the health system," Schock said. "He has said he wants to mandate free college tuition for every student in America.
"Unlike Ted Kennedy (he meant Jack Kennedy, of course) who said, don’t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country ... he (Obama) says, we’re the wealthiest country in the world; you should get this, you should get that. You’re entitled to this, you’re entitled to that. To me, that’s a move toward socialism."
Schock, of course, is not good with specifics. Understandable, since he's specifics don't support his nonsensical ramblings.
"I’m familiar with what his work was here at the state Capitol, and to me, the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior," Schock said. "And he has supported what I would consider to be socialistic moves on health care as a state senator."
"I don’t remember the exact bills," he said.
Of course you can't, Aaron. Of course you can't.
Where does the Golden Boy get these talking points? Straight from the top, of course.
"Do you think hes a socialist, Barack Obama?" Helling asks.
McCain responds with a with a shrug, "I don't know."
NC-08: An internal poll from the campaign of endangered GOP Rep. Robin Hayes shows him at exactly 50% in his reelection campaign against Democrat Larry Kissell, who came within a few hundred votes of upsetting Hayes in 2006.
Hayes (R) 50
Kissell (D) 40
The good news for Kissell is that this was taken before his first ads went up. In addition, the poll pegs his name recognition at a mere 25%, which seems ridiculously low for someone who ran a fairly high-profile race last cycle. As SSP notes, independent polling has put Kissell's name recognition at 52%, which seems much more reasonable.
AZ-03: Apparently, John Shadegg believes that the oil market actually listens to his bizarre ramblings and pays attention to ridiculous Republican stunts on the House floor.
Seems the market is a living, breathing entity. Who knew?
Fortunately, there is a sane candidate in this race: Orange to Blue candidate Bob Lord.
MO-09: Swing State Project diarist RBH has an excellent analysis of primary voting in Missouri's 9th District - one of the hottest races in the Midwest this cycle - and of what to expct from the general-election matchup between progressive Democrat Judy Baker and right-wing Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer.
One of the issues to emerge quickly as the general-election campaign gets under way has been SCHIP expansion. Naturally, Baker is all for it:
Judy Baker, the Democratic candidate for the Ninth District, said yesterday that expanding SCHIP would be the first legislation she sponsors if she prevails in the 25-county district.
"The expansion of the SCHIP program represents a truly common-sense and bipartisan solution that is plaguing many families, especially those in our Ninth Congressional District," Baker said at a news conference at the Columbia/Boone County Health Department. "And I pledge to you I will fight this fight until we win."
And Luetkemeyer is not digging it:
Blaine Luetkemeyer, the Republican candidate for the Ninth District seat, said through a spokesman he would have voted against the legislation that was before Congress in 2007.
Shocking.
NJ-05: Very funny video from the campaign of Democratic candidate Dennis Shulman, as they go after Republican incumbent Scott Garrett for, yes, his ties to Big Oil.
AL-02: Democratic candidate Bobby Bright has scored a major endorsement in his race to take the R+13 seat of retiring Republican Terry Everett.
Republican Dothan Mayor Pat Thomas crossed the aisle today to endorse Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright’s Democratic bid for the 2nd Congressional District seat. Thomas is the John McCain campaign’s Mayoral Chair for the state of Alabama, has served on the Republican Executive Committee of Houston County, and says that he has never voted for a Democrat on a national level. Thomas was also a member of the Wiregrass’s "unofficial Congressional Selection Committee" that united early behind the candidacy of Republican state Sen. Harri Anne Smith in an effort to ensure that the next Representative from AL-02 was from the Wiregrass.
Dothan is the largest municipality in the district after Montgomery which itself is divided between the 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts.
Dothan is not only one of the critical population centers of the district (along with Bright's own base of Montgomery), but it is former Republican candidate Harri Anne Smith's hometown.
It appears that Smith's nasty primary with ultimate Republican nominee Jay Love has left scars.
When last we checked in with checkered GOP Congressional candidate Mike Erickson, he was busy denying allegations that he used to throw wild cocaine parties on his private yacht, claiming to have had no idea what cocaine looks like:
"I've never used cocaine. I wouldn't know what it looks like," Erickson said, adding that he has never used illegal drugs or tobacco.
That's as may be (though if it's true, I can only wonder if Erickson has been to the movies since 1975, or uses baking soda). However, the Oregonian has come out with evidence that Erickson is certainly no stranger to the high life.
Mike Erickson, Republican candidate for the U.S. House, made a six-day visit to Cuba in 2004 that he described as a "humanitarian trip" to help disabled Cubans oppressed by Fidel Castro. But the visit was actually a vacation that included marlin fishing, nightclub visits and Cuban cigars.
See, Erickson has been boasting that he traveled to Cuba to provide aid and comfort to the oppressed multitudes:
Four years ago I was given an opportunity to make a humanitarian trip to Cuba, providing medical supplies and equipment to the disabled and Cuba's impoverished. The Cuban American Alliance Education Fund was looking for donors to help raise money and deliver supplies and equipment to Cuba's less fortunate. I was able to purchase badly needed medical supplies and equipment from the US and bring them to Cuba's disabled and poverty stricken communities.
The trip also provided me the opportunity to see firsthand just how horrific Castro's stronghold on the nation had oppressed and mistreated people. The living conditions and healthcare were horrible.
Yeah, but see, the Oregonian obtained a copy of Erickson's itinerary for the trip. It seems difficult to imagine him having much time for humanitarian activities, fitting them in between such enjoyable pastimes as
- Mojitos and cigars at cocktail hours
- Dove shooting
- Cock fighting
- Cigar conventions and a tour of a notable cigar factory
- Rides in vintage automobiles
- Lodging in five-star hotels
- And the creme de la creme, the centerpiece of the trip..."Comandante Fidel Castro's Annual Gala Cigar Dinner And Auction".
Well. That is a lot of cigars, for someone who has claimed never to have used tobacco.
It's also a lot of leisurely activities for someone traveling to Cuba for "humanitarian" purposes. Since, you know, actually vacationing there is forbidden.
Oh, and Erickson's trip was not sponsored by the "Cuban American Alliance Education Fund", but rather by an organization called "Safari Clubs International". They may be in hot water themselves, as the most damning part of their itinerary indicates:
I will provide each person with the information on how to acquire the travel license if they want to fulfill the obligations set forth under a humanitarian license. If not, I provide itemized, personal, hotel receipts and leter from concierge from the Hyatt Regency in Cancun, Mexico to show a proof of visit to Mexico not Cuba from February 25 Marc 2, 2004.
I believe this is also called "forging documents". Which is, I am told, very illegal.
So here is a candidate for the United States House of Representatives, who went on a $1700, top-shelf vacation to Cuba, hung out at Fidel Castro's gala parties, gamed the system by calling it a humanitarian trip, and traveled with an organization which offered to illegally forge papers for its guests.
Any guesses on what might have happened if a Democrat had done this?
