No...your eyes do not deceive you. Just in time for the spirited final six months of the 2010 election cycle, the Wrap returns to its glory days as a five-day-a-week feature. Expect the Wrap to grace your evening reading list every Monday through Thursday, with a Weekend edition, to boot, coming up on every Saturday.
The good news for regular readers: spreading the campaign goodness over five sessions of the Wrap should also bring the word count back down beneath the 10,000 word threshold, meaning it can be read and digested in under an hour (and written in under three). Everybody wins!
THE U.S. SENATE
FL-Sen: Crist Starting to Flex Independent Muscles?
There are a pair of interesting items out of the Sunshine State today. The first deals with a declaration from Florida Governor Charlie Crist that he intends to call a special session of the legislature to consider an amendment for the November ballot that would create a constitutional ban on offshore drilling in the state. Meanwhile, Crist apparently will make his declaration of independence official tomorrow by switching his party registration from Republican to Independent.
NC-Sen: New PPP Polls Shows Dramatic Democratic Gains In Burr Race
After months of relative stagnation in their battle to replace freshman Republican Senator Richard Burr, the two Democrats vying for the chance to battle Burr have all but caught the incumbent. This is according to new numbers from PPP, which has the Republican within the margin of error against either Democratic challenger. Burr leads Elaine Marshall by a single point (43-42), while his lead over Cal Cunningham is only slightly larger (44-39). This result, while exciting, could be owed in part to the increased attention on the Democratic side in the wake of the competitive primary here last week, which resulted in a runoff between Marshall and Cunningham.
NY-Sen: Marist Poll--Huge Lead, Middling Approval, for Gillibrand
This month's incarnation of the Marist Poll has some tough numbers for appointed incumbent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, but the trial heat numbers continue to look very, very good for the Democrat. The Marist Poll claims that Gillibrand has a very middling 27% of voters think she is doing an excellent or good job. The plurality (roughly a third of voters) rate her as doing a "fair job". Only 14% think she is doing a poor job, however, and that might explain why Gillibrand has a large lead over all three potential GOP suitors. She holds a sizeable lead over Joe DioGuardi (50-30), as well as larger advantages over both Bruce Blakeman and David Malpass (52-28).
OR-Sen: Primary Poll Yields No Clear Frontrunner In Wyden Challenge
Not that this will necessarily serve as a surprise to anyone, but Ron Wyden appears to be a safe bet in next week's Oregon primaries, according to a new poll out from SurveyUSA. The poll has Wyden sitting at well over three-quarters of the Democratic primary vote. The GOP side, on the other hand is a bit more muddled. The poll has college professor Jim Huffman leading, but with only 20% of the vote. This is the same Jim Huffman that Rasmussen memorably (and somewhat unbelievably) had holding Wyden to right around 50% of the vote a few months ago.
THE U.S. HOUSE
HI-01: Poll Says Djou Easily Leads Divided Field
The mail-in special election to replace Democrat Neal Abercrombie (who resigned to focus on his gubernatorial bid) has already attracted over ninety thousand voters. And if a new poll from the conservative-leaning local website Civil Beat is to be believed, more of those votes will be going to Republican contender Charles Djou than either of his Democratic rivals. As every other poll has indicated, the combined Democratic vote in the district easily leads Djou, but it is now split evenly, all but ending Democratic hopes of holding this seat in the bizarre special election format. Djou leads in the poll at 39.5%, with Democrats Ed Case and Colleen Hanabusa both sitting on 25.5% of the vote.
MI-01: Dems Coalesce In Stupak Open Seat
After briefly being a darling of progressives for her primary challenge to Rep. Bart Stupak in the midst of the HCR negotiations, Connie Saltonstall abandoned her Congressional bid yesterday, but she did not do so quietly. She ripped party leaders for what she described as an "anointment" of state legislator Gary McDowell. Another potential candidate, former state Rep. Matt Gillard, also left the race, but he endorsed McDowell on his way out the door. Multiple Republicans are also vying for the seat, as the filing deadline closes today.
MI-15: Dingell Back For Round Twenty-Eight
He has already served in Congress longer than roughly half of his House colleagues have been alive. And, now, it looks like the dean of the House, Michigan Democrat John Dingell, wants two more years in the House. The 83 year-old Dingell filed for re-election to his Detroit-area seat yesterday. He has served in the House since 1955, and can be expected to win re-election easily in his reliably Democratic district.
NY-13: McMahon Holds Big Lead, According to Internal Polling
The poll is a little dusty (in the field during the first half of April), but freshman Democrat Stephen McMahon is looking awfully good in his re-election bid, according to an internal poll conducted by the Global Strategy Group. McMahon leads former FBI agent Mike Grimm by a 56-23 margin, and also leads former Bloomberg aide Michael Allegretti by a similar 56-24 edge. Of course, let's keep in mind, people: the poll did not include potential NY-13 GOP challenger Vito Fossella.
THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES
AL-Gov: The Holy Crap Television Ad of the Cycle
Taegan Goddard has caught wind of the most amazing political attack ad of the year. The target of the advertisement (which was an independent expenditure hit) is Republican Bradley Byrne, and it is an absolute doozy.
So...ask yourself: which is worse? A political attack ad in 2010 mocking a candidate for supporting the idea of teaching evolution in schools, or the candidate-in-question feeling the reflexive need to attack the premise by highlighting his desire to teach only creationism in the schools?
FL-Gov: McCollum Next To Get Bennett-ed?
Bill McCollum doesn't need to even look to Utah for a presumptive GOP incumbent being morphed into an also-ran. He can look in his own home state, where the same dynamics drove Charlie Crist from the party. And, from the looks of things, McCollum might be next. Hospital mogul Rick Scott, who entered the race last month, is already being fairly brutal in drawing contrasts between himself and the longtime GOP gubernatorial frontrunner. In a new radio ad, he draws a sharp line on the issue of immigration, embracing the controversial Arizona law that McCollum expressed no small amount of distaste for. A Mason-Dixon poll released last week showed Scott surprisingly competitive with McCollum, holding him to a 38-24 lead.
NY-Gov: Cuomo Dominates GOP Field With 60%+ Of the Vote
The new Marist poll out of New York also polls the gubernatorial race, and shows Democratic state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo obliterating the GOP field. With 65% of voters finding his job performance to be excellent or good (with only 6% saying he does a poor job), Cuomo leads all three Republican hopefuls by a two-to-one margin or better. Suffolk County Executive (and recent GOP convert) Steve Levy does the best, but "best" is a relative term on this one: he trails by a 63-25 margin. Former Congressman Rick Lazio (65-25) and businessman Carl Paladino (67-22) fare even worse.
OR-Gov: Gubernatorial Frontrunners Clear in SUSA Poll
SurveyUSA also follows up their poll (which was actually an April poll released a little while back) with another poll in Oregon, and they find the frontrunners on both sides to be reasonably well established. On the Republican side, former NBA ballplayer Chris Dudley now holds a double digit lead over Allen Alley (42-24). The balance of the GOP field all rest in the single digits, leaving the impression that this will be a two-man contest. On the Democratic side, it still appears largely to be a one-man contest, as former Governor John Kitzhaber has a thirty-five point lead over former Secretary of State Bill Bradbury (59-25).
PA-Gov: Is There Real Tightening In Dem Primary?
One gets the growing sense that there could be some movement in the Democratic primary to replace outgoing Governor Ed Rendell. Whereas Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato had a lead of close to thirty points just a handful of days ago, that lead in the Muhlenberg tracking poll (PDF File) is now under twenty points. Onorato still leads handily, however, with 33% of the vote. Anthony Williams is standing pat in second place with 15% of the vote, with Joe Hoeffel still a fairly distant third at 10%.
THE RAS-A-PALOOZA
Rasmussen actually was incredibly silent today, as they only had one-campaign related poll today. The poll, however, is a real beaut. It doesn't cover the 2010 elections, but looks ahead to 2012. And let's just say that if Sarah Palin is the GOP standard bearer in 2012, apparently even Alaska would come into play potentially.