In the midst of a holiday weekend, it looks like the weekend edition of the Wrap will not distract you from your revelry for long. As might be expected, no one is eager to make big news on a weekend where...well...not as many folks are watching or paying attention to the news.
That doesn't mean that no campaign headlines have been made since your last rendezvous with the Wrap on Thursday night, however. A GOP pollster raises eyebrows in the state of Maryland, a prominent teachers union is asking you to vote Republican (there's a catch, of course), and a "freedom festival" in Utah doesn't mean the freedom to participate, if you are challenging the area's popular Republican incumbent.
That, and more, on the weekend edition of the Wrap...
THE U.S. SENATE
NV-Sen: Another curve ball from a GOP-friendly interest group?
After watching the Chamber of Commerce wade into competitive House and Gubernatorial races this week in order to endorse Democrats, perhaps nothing should surprise us in this election cycle. Nevertheless, the rumor that the National Rifle Association is perhaps mulling over an endorsement of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a bit of an eye-opener, to be sure. There is some operant logic to the NRA's machinations, if Reid were to lose this year, his role as Senate Majority Leader would likely be filled by either Illinois Democrat Richard Durbin or New Yorker Charles Schumer. Both men, from urban states, are immeasurably more hostile to the gun movement than is Reid. That said, local Republicans and the right-wing blogosphere are furious, arguing that the GOP nominee, Sharron Angle, is far better on the issue of gunowners rights than is Reid.
WV-Sen: Elections chief reverses course, calls for special election
Given up for dead only a day earlier, the prospects for a 2010 special election to replace the late Senator Robert Byrd were resurrected on Friday, with the news that West Virginia's Secretary of State, Natalie Tennant, is urging Governor Joe Manchin to schedule the election this year. It was Tennant, in the immediate wake of the Byrd passing, who announced that WV election law made it impossible to schedule the election before 2012. She is calling for the legislature and Governor to change existing election law, something that on Thursday Manchin indicated he was unlikely to call the legislature into special session to accomplish.
THE U.S. HOUSE
UT-03: "Freedom" parade not free to Dem House challenger
Democratic nominee Karen Hyer was already fighting an uphill battle, trying to compete as a Dem in one of the most staunchly Republican districts in the nation, as well as facing GOP rising star Jason Chaffetz for the nod. But Hyer thinks even local parade organizers are tilting the playing field. Hyer is protesting the policies of the Utah County "Freedom Festival", which bans candidates from marching in the parade. It does not, however, ban officeholders from marching, which means Chaffetz can appear solo in the parade, while Hyer can only latch onto the float for the Utah County Democratic Party. Hyer notes that since the vast majority of Utah County officeholders are Republicans, this gives the GOP an unfair level of exposure denied to her own party. Festival organizers counter that Republican Senate nominee Mike Lee was excluded on the same grounds, and that Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson was asked to participate, but declined.
THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES
AL-Gov: Teachers union asks members to weigh in on GOP runoff
The Alabama Education Association, the politically active teachers union in the state of Alabama, is asking its members to participate in the state's GOP gubernatorial runoff in ten days. While they aren't issuing a formal endorsement, they are saying that their members seem to prefer state legislator Robert Bentley. This appears to be the latest go-round between the AEA and the other combatant in the GOP runoff: former state school administrator Bradley Byrne. Byrne is trying to make political hay of the AEA's actions, pointing out that members of the AEA board are also involved in the state Democratic Party. The AEA counters that the majority of their memebrs are Republicans in this deep-red state, and therefore they thought it was their civic duty to encourage member participation.
MD-Gov: GOP pollster first to put Ehrlich in lead in guv rematch
A requisite grain of salt, of course, seeing how this is a partisan pollster coming up with the results: the newly prolific polling crew at Magellan Research has headed to the state of Maryland, and they are the first in the cycle to release numbers showing former Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich in the lead. Team Magellan puts Ehrlich in front of Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley by a 46-43 margin. In one piece of good news for the incumbent, it looks like he will no longer have to concern himself with a competitive Democratic primary. His main challenger, state legislator George Owings, dropped out of the race.
NE-Gov: Dem nominee exits race amid campaign finance snafu
This is embarrassing, to be sure, and potentially problematic: Democratic nominee for Governor Mark Lakers has withdrawn from the race, amid an investigation into his campaign finance reporting practices. From the looks of it, Team Lakers filed some pledges for contributions as actual contributions, which led to the embarrassment of several folks coming forward complaining that they were listed as contributors, when in fact they had not contributed. The Lincoln Journal-Star has a decent timeline of the events which led to Lakers' departure from the race. The issue for the Democrats is finding someone willing to run in his stead. The state's Republican Governor, Dave Heineman, is pretty popular, and sitting on $1.5 million. The party will likely name a replacement during their conventions in three weeks. If they fail to do so, Heineman will be the first Nebraska Governor to run unopposed in decades.
TN-Gov: Competitive GOP primary heads to the final month
The Memphis Commercial-Appeal puts together a solid profile of the three leading Republican candidates competing to challenge the all-but-certain Democratic nominee (Mike McWherter) for the gubernatorial seat being vacated by Democrat Phil Bredesen. Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam is considered the frontrunner, by virtue of his war chest, which tops out just shy of $9 million. The wealthy mayor, whose family owns Pilot Travel Centers, is being dinged by his two rivals as a Richie Rich without any real plans for Tennessee. Meanwhile, Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey appears to be the candidate that is romancing the teabaggers the hardest, while Congressman Zach Wamp (best name in Congress since Dick Swett left the House in 1994, by the name) is going the Rick Perry "state sovereignty" route.
TX-Gov: Perry ducks debate, while Greens get (temporary?) reprieve
One of the earliest debates of the 2010 general election in the Lone Star State will go on as scheduled, but with one of the bigger players in the campaign represented by an empty chair. Governor Rick Perry is missing the Kerrville debate, which will be attended by both Democratic nominee Bill White and Libertarian nominee Kathie Glass. Perry is hiding behind the tissue-paper thin excuse that he is forgoing any debates because White has released only recent tax returns, and not ones from a decade ago when he served in the Clinton administration.
Meanwhile, Perry caught another break, as the Green Party spoiler campaign (likely to have been orchestrated by advocates of his campaign) was given new life. The GOP-dominated state Supreme Court lifted the ban on the Green Party's candidates put into place by a lower court judge the week before. The state Supremes could still act on the matter: this order only allowed the Greens onto the ballot pending a later resolution of the suit by the state Democratic Party. The Dems, in their suit, charged that the Greens only were able to make the ballot after a massive (and illegal) in-kind contribution by Republican operatives with connections to the Perry campaign. That contribution was the financing of the petition campaign for the Greens, the cost of which topped half a million dollars.
WI-Gov: Barrett gets big-named endorsement in NYC Mayor Bloomberg
For a campaign that needed a shot in the arm, you could do worse than this, I imagine: likely Democratic nominee Tom Barrett has nabbed the endorsement of New York City's Republican Independent Republican Mayor, Michael Bloomberg. The two have a past of sorts, as Barrett (the mayor of Milwaukee) and Bloomberg have worked on some urban initiatives together in their official roles. Barrett will face the winner of the Republican primary, which pits former Congressman Mark Neumann in an uphill battle against Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker.
THE RAS-A-POLL-OOZA
Obviously, Team Ras left the office early to stock up of fireworks, or something. Only one new poll is handed down from the House of Ras, and that was in the state of Ohio. Unlike two other pollsters this week, the Ras-sies see the Republican candidate up by a few in the Buckeye State.
OH-Sen: Rob Portman (R) 43%, Lee Fisher (D) 39%