SSP Daily Digest: 8/16 (Morning Edition)

  • FL-Sen: As any attentive swingnut will now tell you, when you hear “Jeff Greene” and “Cuba” in the same sentence, you’re gonna think of the booze cruise he took their on his vomit-caked yacht a few years back. Well, Greene is (desperately?) trying to change the subject, saying that he now is open to lifting the Cuban embargo. Less than two weeks ago, though, he declared his firm support for it. Perhaps running to the right on Cuba is no longer the automatic option in Democratic primaries in Florida?
  • LA-Sen: Charlie Melancon has a new ad up just lacerating David Vitter for his record on women’s issues. I highly suggest you check it out – I think it’s very well done. NWOTSOTB, but Josh Kraushaar says the ad “is airing on broadcast and cable television throughout the state.”
  • MA-Sen: In a long profile with the Boston Globe, Vicki Kennedy (Ted’s widow) says she won’t challenge Scott Brown in 2012.
  • MO-Sen: Robin Carnahan is up with her first ad of the cycle, a negative spot hitting Roy Blunt for his support of the bailout. NWOTSOTB, but the ad (which you can view here) “is running statewide.”
  • SC-Sen: Looks like we’re stuck with the recently-indicted Alvin Greene as our candidate. In fact, say local election officials, “even if he were to be convicted before the election, the law appears to read that he could still serve and be on the ballot.” Memo to all state Democratic parties everywhere: Fix your bylaws!
  • FL-Gov: Dem Alex Sink is up with her first ad, ribbing her Republican rivals for their negative campaigning against each other. The Orlando Sentinel says that Sink “has bought $950,000 in TV from now through the Aug. 24 primary,” but I’m not sure if all of that is devoted to this one ad.
  • GA-Gov: It’s a continuing theme this digest: Roy Barnes is also up with his first ad of the general election, hitting Nathan Deal for his ethical issues. (Recall that Deal resigned from Congress earlier this year to avoid an Ethics Committee investigation.) NWOTSOTB.
  • TN-Gov: One more: Republican Bill Haslam is on the air with his first ad of the general election campaign, a super-cheesy one-minute spot in which (among other things) he name-checks his opponent’s dad, former Gov. Ned McWherter. NWOTSOTB.
  • WI-Gov: Obama alert! The POTUS will stop in Milwaukee on Monday to do a fundraiser for Dem gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett. Nice to see that a guy like Barrett, running in a swing state which probably doesn’t feel too warmly toward Obama these days, isn’t afraid to appear with the president.
  • AZ-03: Ben Quayle seems to be acting like one of those defendants whose attorneys are begging him to stop talking to the papers, but who just can’t shut up. He put out a statement berating his opponents and the media for linking him to the sickeningly odious “Dirty Scottsdale” website (now thedirty.com – not linking them)… which of course can only have the effect of keeping this story alive even longer. Wonder where he gets these genius genes from….
  • AZ-08: Air Force vet Brian Miller, citing a lack of money, announced he was dropping out of the Republican primary and endorsing former state Sen. Jonathan Paton, rather than fellow veteran Jesse Kelly.
  • CA-52: Uh, wow. Just read the link.
  • CO-04: The conservative 501(c)4 group “Americans for Prosperity” is launching a $330K ad buy against Dem Rep. Betsy Markey. You can view the ad (which does not strike me as having the highest of production values) here.
  • IL-10: Both Dan Seals and his Republican opponent, Bob Dold!, are up on cable with their first ads of the general election. NWOTSOTB (either of them).
  • MA-10: Republican Jeff Perry’s resume takes another hit – literally. Turns out he’d been touting a “degree” he earned from a school called Columbia State University… which was, in fact, a notorious diploma mill until it was shut down by the authorities. Cape Cod Today was first on the story, and now it’s being picked up in other media outlets as well.
  • MI-01: Major bummer: State Sen. Jason Allen, who trails physician Dan Benishek by just fifteen votes following a re-canvass, won’t seek a recount. Still, I think Dems probably got our preferred candidate here.
  • NY-19: Rep. John Hall is trying to knock his Republican opponent, Nan Hayworth, off the Independence Party line, saying that her petitions contain too many invalid signatures.
  • NY-24: GOPer Richard Hanna is up with his first ad of the election campaign, a positive bio spot. NWOTSOTB.
  • PA-06, PA-07: Howard Dean is coming to suburban Philly next month to do a joint fundraiser for two Dems, Manan Trivedi and Bryan Lentz.
  • SD-AL: Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin has a new ad up (“running statewide,” but NWOTSOTB) which features her two-year-old son pooping. Not kidding. Supposedly this is some kind of analogy to Congress (which likes to “eat, and eat, and eat”) that I am truly not getting.

    • 71 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 8/16 (Morning Edition)”

    1. McDowell vs. Allen could exploit the regional split of the district, but with Benishek being from the UP, he probably has a better chance at putting together a coalition to win.

    2. that herseth sandlin’s ad looks similar to blanche lincoln’s ad where people were throwing money around?  apparently for midwest dems, comparing congress to children seems (to them at least) like a good move.

    6. Republican Jeff Perry’s resume takes another hit – literally.

      Literally? {frowns} Someone hit his resume? I hope it wasn’t the Word file of it, because hitting computer screens is not a wise thing to do.

      Seriously – that’s not how you use “literally”. Perry’s resume very much only got hit figuratively. Sorry, pet peeve.

    7. I guess no one can question the guy’s committment, but maybe can question whether he should be committed.  Hunger strikes and isolation booths, especially in this upscale, suburban district?  I’m sorry, but it makes him seem self-righteous and one taco short of the Number 3 Combo Platter.

    8.   That’s a lot of ads.  Why are they beginning in the middle of August?  

       Ugh, I am pissed that I will not be able to attend Howard Dean’s fundraiser for Lentz and Trivedi!

       Carnahan’s and Melancon’s ads were great.  Carnahan is such a great candidate it would be a shame for her to lose.

       I have never liked Dan Seals and was pissed when he narrowly won the primary over Hamos.  His ads are always boring and generic.  Seals will probably make what should be a slam-dunk, close.

    9. Are we still stuck in “it’s a jungle of a primary” (no pun intended) mode for the R side and Grayson stunning people with his unexpected moves on his side?  Have there been any polls apart from that Zogby poll for Todd Long?

    10. No way he didn’t know that the college had been shut down for being fraudulent and even if he didn’t, ignorance is no excuse for something as important as your own education.

    11. I’d forgotten he was still alive.  I’m not sure PA-06 and PA-07 are greta places where he can raise money.  But he should be prancing around so of the liberal places nationwide and in New England as well to help raise money.  Its cant all be Clinton and Obama with the fundraisers.

    14. Oh hell yes! That ad from Melancon is brutal–because it’s true. Even better, what’s Vitter going to do besides obliquely attack Melancon for negative campaigning? If Vitter even mentions that ad specifically, it’s just going to bring up all the horrible things he’s done. Note to other politicians: if you’re running against a horrifically awful sleazebag slimeball creep, you really should point that out to voters. Melancon just earned himself a $20 donation from me. Goddam, he’s running a good campaign.  

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