9:08 AM PT: NY-09: Courtesy of the New York Times, this is what Joe Crowley's "good day" looked like, precinct by precinct:
9:16 AM PT: IL-08: A seriously bad-hair day for Joe Walsh also serves as a good lesson for young attorneys in "what the f*ck not to say in court":
A Chicago judge issued a preliminary ruling Wednesday against U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) in his child-support dispute with his ex-wife, ordering the Tea Party favorite to explain why he appears to be $100,000 behind in child-support payments.
Cook County Circuit Judge Raul Vega also wanted to know why Walsh wasn’t in court Wednesday — the McHenry Republican’s ex-wife, Laura Walsh, was there — and initially said he expected him to show up for the next hearing.
In court, Walsh’s attorney, Janet Boyle, asked Vega “for what purpose” he wanted the congressman in court.
Vega gave her a puzzled look — to which Boyle responded: “Mr. Walsh is a U.S. congressman.”
“Well, he’s no different than anyone else,” the judge replied.
I know they don't teach this in law school (that's because it's not called "lawyer school"), but let me make this plain as day: If the judge tells you to bring your f*cking client to court, you say, "Yes, your honor." That's it. You do not talk back to the judge, you do not contradict his wishes, you just say "Yes." Period. Amazingly enough, the judge ultimately changed his mind and let Walsh off the hook here, but if I were wearing the robes, I wouldn't have been so kind. I'm not surprised that this is Walsh's fifth lawyer handling the case.
9:24 AM PT: WA-Sen: Often times, news anchors make pretty decent candidates because they are polished public speakers and also are well-known to their potential constituents thanks to years of appearing on television. This time, though, perhaps not so much. Phillip Yin, who just announced that he'll file papers to seek the GOP nomination in October, is a TV talking head for Bloomberg News… in Hong Kong.
9:33 AM PT: WI-Sen: Big news in Wisconsin: Rep. Ron Kind just announced that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for the state's open Senate seat, specifically saying he wants to avoid a "divisive primary." That's good news for Tammy Baldwin, who so far is the only candidate to enter the race. There is at least one other big name out there, ex-Rep. Steve Kagen, but I wonder if he'll choose to follow Kind's cue. It sure would be interesting to see a primary clear for the most identifiably progressive candidate — not something you see every day in a swing state.
9:47 AM PT: VA-Sen: Man, this race just does not budge. Quinnipiac's new Virginia poll (their second ever) shows Republican George Allen up a single point over Democrat Tim Kaine, 45-44. In June, it was Kaine up one, 43-42. Except for one weird Roanoke poll that had Kaine at 32 (zuh?), every survey this year has come back a dead heat.
10:09 AM PT: OH-03: Dem ex-Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, who had previously signalled her interest in the new Columbus-area district Republicans are proposing, just announced that she will indeed seek the seat. Kilroy represented the old 15th CD for a single term: She was almost certainly dragged over the finish line in 2008 by Barack Obama, winning by less than one percent; in 2010, facing a rematch against Steve Stivers, she was dispatched by a 14-point margin. The new 3rd CD is much more Dem-friendly, but given Kilroy's limited success on the congressional playing field, coupled with the fact that this is now a safe Dem seat, I'd be surprised if she doesn't have to fight for the nomination.
Indeed, Shira Toeplitz has a helpful list of other possible contenders:
Columbus City Councilman Zach Klein, former state House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty, former state Treasurer Kevin Boyce, state Rep. Nancy Garland, state Rep. John Patrick Carney, and Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady
Shira says her sources tell her that Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman is not interested, but he hasn't made any announcement one way or the other yet.
10:27 AM PT: MA-Sen: No surprise at all: EMILY's List just announced they're endorsing Elizabeth Warren for Senate.
11:24 AM PT: GA Redistricting: It happened pretty quietly and was entirely expected, so we didn't catch this one last week, but regardless, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed his state's new congressional redistricting map on Sept. 6.
11:38 AM PT: NC-04: There's nothing especially newsy here, but I like Joshua Miller's run-down of the primary battle shaping up between fellow Dem Reps. Brad Miller and David Price, which gives a pretty good overall feel for the race. One small tidbit hints at some possible testiness further down the line: the piece cites unnamed local Dems who say "Price has been less than pleased with Miller’s recent comments in the media." Miller's given a few interviews but he certainly hasn't said anything negative; nonetheless, he told Roll Call that he "had communicated enough through the press already" and wouldn't say anything more about the primary.
11:47 AM PT: WATN?: Former OK-02 Rep. Brad Carson, whose name surfaced earlier this year as a possible Democratic replacement for retiring Rep. Dan Boren, was just nominated by President Obama to serve as the next general counsel of the Army. Carson served in Iraq as a Naval Reserve officer after leaving office, though unsurprisingly, Republican James Inhofe (Carson's home-state senior senator) is already suggesting he might block the appointment. Sheesh.
12:09 PM PT: OH-06: This is quite interesting. Two-term former Rep. Charlie Wilson says he's thinking about a rematch against the guy who beat him last year, the rather anonymous freshman GOPer Bill Johnson — even though the redrawn 6th CD looks to be more Republican-friendly. Even more interesting is that ex-Rep. John Boccieri, who represented the old 16th CD for a single term, says that he, too, is considering a run in this district.
Boccieri also adds that he's looking at other seats as well. His hometown of Alliance (on the border between Mahoning and Stark Counties) is near the intersection of three districts: Johnson's seat, Democrat Tim Ryan's redrawn district (renumbered the 13th from the 17th), and Republican Bob Gibbs' redesigned 7th CD (Gibbs currently reps the 18th). Alliance itself was actually placed inside Ryan's district, which Boccieri acknowledged was aimed at discouraging him from running. But prior to 2008, Boccieri lived in New Middletown, which is at the far northeastern corner of the 6th.
12:20 PM PT: UT-Sen: Liljenquist, Liljenquist, he's our man? The Republican state senator (first name Dan) just held the first in a planned series of 10 town halls, stretching from now until November, at which point he says he'll decide whether to challenge Sen. Orrin Hatch for the GOP nomination.
12:24 PM PT: Passings: Former Wyoming Sen. Malcolm Wallop died yesterday at the age of 78. He served three terms, from 1997 to 1995. Interesting inter-parliamentary factoid: Wallop's grandfather served in the British House of Lords.
12:27 PM PT: NV-02: Sharron Angle, denied the GOP nomination for the recently-concluded special election, is apparently not ruling out a primary challenge to newly-elected Rep. Mark Amodei for 2012. I'm not going to get my hopes up… but can I say "Oh please, oh please"?
12:35 PM PT: CA-16 (?): It looks like the NRCC is trying to encourage Dem Rep. Dennis Cardoza to retire. Cardoza doesn't have a lot of good options for re-election, seeing as he was drawn into the same district as his BFF Jim Costa. (These are the two doofballs who voted for each other for Speaker of the House earlier this year.) Costa seems very revved up for another run, but Cardoza pointedly refused to rule out retirement when asked directly last month. Now the NRCC is launching a "three-week cable TV buy," hitting Cardoza over spending, perhaps trying to show him this is a taste of more to come?
1:15 PM PT: NC-Gov: Tom's most recent North Carolina poll has some interesting numbers regarding a hypothetical GOP gubernatorial primary involving Republican Jesus:
[Pat] McCrory developed a reputation as a moderate during his time as Mayor of Charlotte and that could come back to haunt him if he receives a challenge from the right in the primary. 46% of Republicans would prefer a generic 'more conservative Tea Party challenger' to only 40% who say they would support McCrory against a candidate from the right.
Those numbers are consistent with what happened in the 2008 Republican primary when McCrory received only 46% of the vote against a field of candidates generally to his right. He was able to slip through because the anti-McCrory vote split three ways but he could find himself in more trouble if he ended up in a one on one contest. […]
McCrory may trail a generic opponent but he does quite well against two actual Republicans we tested against him on this poll. He leads Congresswoman Renee Ellmers 61-10 in a head to head and has a 51-15 advantage over Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. In a hypothetical involving all three McCrory polls at 52% to 19% for Troxler and 10% for Ellmers. McCrory's leads are largely a function of name recognition though. 62% of primary voters have an opinion about him compared to only 32% each for Ellmers and Troxler.
1:32 PM PT: CT Redistricting: Unsurprisingly, the bipartisan legislative panel working on redistricting in Connecticut said they will not complete their work by Thursday and asked Gov. Dan Malloy for more time. Explains the AP:
Malloy is expected to reappoint the same legislators to a new redistricting commission. Afterward, that group will have 30 days to name a ninth member. The newly formed commission will have until Nov. 30 to come up with a plan.
Since the commission is composed of four Democrats and four Republicans, the ninth member traditionally is just a figurehead, since neither side wants to risk tapping someone who might lean toward the other guys. The guy who performed this role the last two times, former state House Speaker Nelson Brown, just died last week at the age of 89, so obviously the commission will have to look to someone new. (Brown, by the way, served as Speaker in 1957.) If the commission can't reach agreement on new maps, the whole thing gets tossed to the State Supreme Court, but that hasn't happened any time in recent memory.
2:19 PM PT: IL-14: State Rep. Jack Franks, who had been considering a run in the new 14th CD, says instead he'll seek re-election to the state House. The redrawn 14th is a deliberate GOP vote sink, but Franks' own district is similarly red, so he seemed like the kind of Democrat would could potentially pull off an upset here. Dems do actually have another candidate, though: former McHenry Alderman Frank McClatchey.
2:23 PM PT: CA-07: Buried in the middle of an op-ed in the Modesto Bee is news that Assemblywoman Alyson Huber will not challenge GOP Rep. Dan Lungren, even though she had previously filed paperwork with the FEC. Instead, she'll seek re-election to the Assembly. This is probably a good thing for Democrats, who already have a very strong candidate in the form of Ami Bera. (Hat-tip to Whitty for the good catch)
2:39 PM PT: WV-Gov: With election day just a month away, acting Dem Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is going all Pace Picante on businessman Bill Maloney with his first negative ad, attacking Maloney as an outsider (from New York, of course) who doesn't care about West Virginia. At the same time, the RGA is running ads attacking Tomblin for alleged self-dealing during his years in the legislature. Click the links to watch the various spots.
Meanwhile, Dave Catanese suggests that in a debate earlier this week (the only one scheduled for the whole race), Maloney missed the chance to land some blows on Tomblin — or as David Jarman put it, Maloney "Pawlentied it up."
2:56 PM PT: MI-Sen: Is there a split in the Amway empire? While Dark Empress Betsy DeVos was quick out the gate with an endorsement of Christian private schools entrepreneur Clark Durant, her brother-in-law Doug DeVos was among a handful of Amway executives who just feted ex-Rep. Pete Hoekstra at a Grand Rapids fundraiser earlier this week.
Hoekstra also picked up the backing of former state AG Mike Cox, an opponent of his in last year's gubernatorial primary, and two-thirds of his home-state Republican delegation are hosting an event for him next week in DC: Candice Miller, Dan Benishek, Bill Huizenga, Mike Rogers, Fred Upton, and Tim Walberg.
Meanwhile, after that initial burst of big-name endorsements, the pace has slowed down for Durant, who recently announced that Bob Lutz would become his campaign's general finance chair. Bob who? He's a General Motors exec who Michigander Dana Houle summed up to me like so: "Nobody has had more prominent roles in the poor management of all three American auto companies than Bob Lutz."