It is "Friday light" on the campaign trail: few new items, as has been somewhat customary lately. A couple of new polls (both, arguably, with good news for Democrats) and a smattering of political news (most of it, arguably, less good for Democrats). Let's put this week in the rearview mirror by looking at the Friday Wrap.
TX-Gov: Perry Stretches Out Primary Lead, According to Ras
Rasmussen polls the high-profile Texas GOP gubernatorial primary, and finds incumbent Governor Rick Perry out to a considerable lead over US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Perry not only sports an eleven-point advantage, but he is also nearing the 50% threshold: he leads with 46% of the vote, with KBH trailing at 35% and teabagger candidate Debra Molina way behind at 4%. It'll be interesting to see if KBH's decision today to hedge her bets by staying in the Senate while campaigning for Governor will impact her standing in the polls.
MA-Sen: Democrats Near-Lock To Hold Kennedy Seat
According to the Suffolk poll (the gubernatorial results of which were released yesterday), the Democrats would be strongly favored to hold onto the Senate seat once occupied by the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Only Democratic primary backmarker Alan Khazei makes for a competitive race with near-certain GOP nominee Scott Brown. The other three prospective Democratic candidates have large leads over Brown. Democratic frontrunner Martha Coakley has the widest edge at thirty-one points (58-27), but both Steve Pagliuca (49-27) and Michael Capuano (48-29) also would be extremely likely to keep the Senate seat in Democratic hands. The primary election is on December 8th, with the general election to follow on January 19th.
IN POLITICAL NEWS....
- NC-Sen: When youthful former state senator Cal Cunningham elected not to make a Senate bid in North Carolina, all eyes turned to Congressman Bobby Etheridge. Those eyes can now turn elsewhere, as Etheridge today announced that he would not be running for the Senate. For Democrats, this is part disappointment (he polled better than other prospective candidates) and part upside (his House seat would have been a tough, though not impossible, defense). Secretary of State Elaine Marshall now stands as the leading viable candidate
- TX-Gov: Speaking of the Texas Governor's race: here is another bit of interesting news. The Democratic field might get a little bit bigger--there is some speculation that longtime state senator Eliot Shapleigh may run. His lengthy list of reasons why Perry is beatable, which he gave in an emailed response to the Dallas Morning News, is going to do little to dispel that speculation. One of the best things about it--a scathing rip of Shapleigh in the comments section by someone who gave himself/herself the moniker "Texans for Tom". Tom Schieffer, perhaps?
- CT-Sen: Ralph Nader is mulling over a third-party bid. No, not for President (again). He is thinking about jumping into the U.S. Senate race in 2010, where incumbent Democrat Chris Dodd is in a very real degree of peril. Nader claims that there is a large popular groundswell of support for him to make a bid. He has not committed to it, but he is clearly considering it.
- VA-05: Give the teabagger community of Virginia some credit for creativity. Not for deciding to burn an effigy tomorrow in the likeness of local Congressman Tom Perriello. That's pretty juvenile, but hardly a novel concept. It is the name that they have given to their little teabagger festival of arson: "Fired Up For Freedom". I kid you not.
- IL-11: National Republicans are pretty high on young candidate Adam Kinzinger, who is challenging freshman Democrat Deborah Halvorson. That confidence might be shaken by this: the imagery of Kinzinger fleeing a debate site in a tantrum after one of the candidates had a tracker there with a video camera. Kinzinger's campaign team said no cameras were allowed in the debate rules. Maybe so, but way to look bad. With cameras rolling.