Funny how much smaller the weekend edition of the Wrap becomes when you actually have an edition or two (or four) during the week....
THE U.S. SENATE
CT-Sen: McMahon's curious homage to "Drill, baby, Drill!"
Well, you have to give Connecticut GOP Senate aspirant Linda McMahon scads of credit for timing. In a mailer sent out to Connecticut voters where she chronicles how to get Connecticut's economy moving again. One of her myriad answers: more oil drilling. Leaving aside for the moment that apparently only McMahon believes that the Long Island Sound is the new North Slope, maybe McMahon wanted to wait until BP figures out how to cap their Gulf oil volcano before playing that particular card?
IN-Sen: Indiana Senate battle is now joined--Ellsworth nominated
Less than two weeks after Indiana Republicans settled on their standard bearer (going back to the future in giving the nod to former Senator Dan Coats), Indiana Democrats used this weekend to formally replace retiring Senator Evan Bayh. As has long been expected, Congressman Brad Ellsworth will take the baton for the Democrats. Ellsworth has represented southern Indiana's 8th congressional district since 2006, when he blew out longtime incumbent John Hostettler.
PA-Sen: Tracking poll moves closer to parity in Keystone State
The Muhlenberg tracking poll has bounced around like a cork in a hurricane over the past two weeks, moving from a sizeable Specter lead to a modest Sestak lead and back to a tiny Specter lead. Today, it is essentially tied (PDF file). Specter holds just a one-point advantage over Sestak (44-43) in the new survey. Clearly, this will be the race of the night on Tuesday.
Also, this reminder: I will be previewing all the festivities on Tuesday in a special essay tomorrow morning during Sunday Kos.
THE U.S. HOUSE
OR-01: Primary poll points to Wu-Cornilles showdown
Someone (either the pollster or the television affiliate that sponsored the poll) must think that there might be a sleeper race in November in the great Northwest. That is the only justifiable reason why SurveyUSA decided to poll the primary elections in Oregon's 1st Congressional District, held rather easily for over a decade by Democrat David Wu. Wu is the sure victor on the Democratic side, but there is a semi-competitive primary on the Republican side. Sports business consultant Rob Cornilles (the establishment choice in the race) leads mortgage broker (and teabagger) John Kuzmanich by a 31-19 margin, with several other candidates further behind.
PA-04: Buchanan stumbling to finish line; ripe for the upset?
Former U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan was considered a tier-one recruit when she agreed earlier in the year to challenge sophomore Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire. Instead, her campaign has been mildly disastrous, and it is only getting worse. Buchanan's campaign has been hamstrung by repeated blows landed by GOP opponent Keith Rothfus, who is charging her with (ta-da!) insufficient conservatism. Yesterday, Buchanan went for a counterpunch, and failed miserably. She distributed copies of a printout which she claimed proved that Rothfus had been a Democrat for 13 years. The problem: the "evidence" proved nothing of the sort. All it proved was that Rothfus had been a Democrat at the time of the printout (something that he had already copped to, in an effort to keep Ed Rendell from being the gubernatorial nominee in 2002). This comes on the immediate heels of Buchanan getting dinged for using an NRA logo (presumably to imply an endorsement) without the organization's permission.
PA-12: Critz wins newspaper primary as race enters final weekend
We won't know until Tuesday evening whether Democrat Mark Critz will follow his former boss (the late Rep. John Murtha) into Congress. What we do know, however, is that Critz is the victor in the newspaper endorsement primary. Critz has earned the endorsement of virtually all of the district's newspapers. The sole exception: the right-wing Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, which endorsed Critz's Republican opponent, Tim Burns.
THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES
AL-Gov: Dueling endorsements add intrigue to Democratic primary
Give Artur Davis credit for rapid response. Friday, Davis rolled out endorsements from two of the most prominent names in African-American politics. Both Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) and Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) endorsed Davis' gubernatorial campaign. This came a day after two prominent African-American organizations in Birmingham (the Jefferson County Progressive Council and the New Jefferson County Citizens Coalition) had endorsed Ron Sparks for Governor, in part because of Davis' health care vote and in part because Davis had refused to meet with them.
Meanwhile, over on the GOP side of the gubernatorial fence, a new poll out from Baselice Associates hints at a two-man race for the nomination. The poll has Bradley "Don't Call Me A Believer in Science, Dammit" Byrne leading Tim "Son of Fob" James by a single point (24-23). Judge Roy Moore, somewhat surprisingly, has lost a bit of ground, running third with 18% of the vote.
FL-Gov: Famous name could complicate Democratic primary
Less than a month after Republican frontrunner Bill McCollum's path to the nomination got waylaid by the late candidacy of hospital mogul Rick Scott, Democratic frontrunner Alex Sink got some surprising news of her own: she, too, might have a high-profile primary challenger. In Sink's case, the potential challenger is Lawton "Bud" Chiles III, the son of the former Governor who served during much of the 1990s. While there had been some intraparty grumbling about Sink's campaign, her position had improved substantially over the past month or so, and she was now within striking distance of McCollum and slightly ahead of Scott.
NY-Gov: The longest exploratory period ever due to end?
After what seems like several years as a presumed-yet-undeclared candidate, it now looks like we are just a few weeks away from an Andrew Cuomo gubernatorial announcement. Teagan Goddard cites a Bloomberg report, which states that Cuomo will announce sometime around the end of this month, probably coinciding with the state Democratic Convention.
PA-Gov: Stagnation on Dem side heading into final weekend
The field appears to be frozen in the Democratic primary to replace Governor Ed Rendell, and that is good news for Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato. According to this morning's (PDF file) Muhlenberg tracking poll, Onorato still holds a substantial lead (38-14) over Philly-area state senator Anthony Williams, with Joe Hoeffel and Jack Wagner further back. In other Keystone State gubernatorial news, Dan Onorato picked up a trio of endorsements in the Lehigh Valley on Friday, including the endorsement of Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan, who is the likely Democratic nominee to challenge Charlie Dent in the 15th district.
THE RAS-A-POLL-OOZA
(Awesome new title for this segment courtesy of Mark27)
The House of Ras closes the week issue-heavy, rather than campaign heavy. The end result--just a pair of new states get covered by the monstrously prolific pollster. In California, we will be waiting on the gubernatorial numbers, but we have some interesting Senate numbers to tide us over. And Idaho is Idaho, which is not necessarily good news for Democrats.
CA-Sen: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) 42%, Tom Campbell (R) 41%
CA-Sen: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) 46%, Chuck DeVore (R) 40%
CA-Sen: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) 45%, Carly Fiorina (R) 38%
ID-Gov: Gov. Butch Otter (R) 54%, Keith Allred (D) 32%
ID-Sen: Sen. Michael Crapo (R) 66%, Tom Sullivan (D) 22%