Rumors are swirling that John McCain may step down from his Senate seat as to focus on his Presidential Bid.

McCain's office is already denying it of course but Jim Pederson might make another stab at McCain's seat.

Despite the front page taking credit... you can check out my diary here about the Renzi resigntation that is supposed to happen TODAY or I started to hear yesterday that he may wait till Monday.

Rum, Romanism & Rebellion- Arizona's PREMIRE poliitical blog

   
Breaking: Renzi Gone By Friday?

Rick RenziThe zeitgeist both in Phoenix and Washington is that Rick Renzi will be submitting his resignation from the House of Representatives by Friday.

Cool...I got that one out there before Josh Marshall.

A further bit of chisme has it that Ann Kirkpatrick will resign her seat in the legislature early next week and announce her campaign to replace Renzi.

more below...

cross posted on Wactivist.com

The topic for today is myspace, social networking and politics.

I don't take credit for this. This page was the baby of Pederson interns Josh Bresiblatt, Alex Samuels Jamie Bellian. But when i started with Pederson, I knew that we had to be on there, we had to get there first and we had to justify the time expense. So i handed the project off to the trio who took it on as their own and made it into the awesome page that it is\was.

The point I will try to make here is that I and the Pederson campaign wanted to make youth outreach a priority and thats the difference between most political campaigns and what we did and what should be done in the future.

The people of Arizona need look no further than Senator John McCain to understand why some species live longer and others go extinct.  Mr. McCain's policy along with the other Neo-Cons (that he has sold his soul too) are for fighting exactly the same way in the illegal occupation of Iraq as they did in Vietnam: "the losing way".  In fact the new nickname for the theocratic anti-American/ anti-constitutional Neo-Cons should be the Neo-Con Dodo birds of which you are now a part of congratulations.

Crossposted from SmokeyMonkey.org.

I mailed my ballot, so my voting has been done for a week.  I have today nothing but to watch interviews and returns.  On MSNBC, they are providing all day coverage.  I have watched interviews with Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN), Rick Santorum (R-PA), and now Arlen Specter (R-PA) is on as I write.  I am thankful that they are talking more to candidates than offering their own views or those of their "political experts" who are largely idiots.

I'm looking forward to a number of races.  I'm going to talk about a few below and why I'm interested.  Do not expect this to be expert political analysis.  It is simply my opinions as I watch the show, beer in one hand, ham sandwich in the other (not while I'm typing, obviously).

Anyhow, today's rally was supposed to be at ASU, but when I arrived at the location, there was a sign saying it was moved to a park a little outside of campus. This was last minute, and I'm not certain why.

On a wonderfully nice afternoon (full sun, mid-80s .. which is typical, sorry rest of the country) in early fall the AZ Dem. candidates for House, Senate and Govenor, along with the state seats arrived. Here are some photos from before, during and after the event.

Also, the difference between Christians and CHRISTIANS!

Previous The Daily Pulse- Battleground Editions covered North Carolina, Virginia, New York, Tennessee, Idaho, Missouri, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut and Indiana. 

Crosspost from http://www.liquidnixon.com

If the only issue for the American Jewish voter is what's truly best for Israel, then an absolute priority must be a strong U.S., with the diplomatic capital to promote change in the Middle East and help protect Israel from the hostile governments that surround her. Given that priority, the current administration is failing Israel, and Republican Jon Kyl, as one of the staunchest Bush supporters in the Senate, is a contributing factor.

Zimmerman and Marketing Intelligence. 10/25-30. Likely voters. MoE 4.9% (No trend lines)

Kyl is strongest in Maricopa County, by almost 10 points, while Pederson holds about a one-point edge in Pima County and three points around the rest of the state.

Pederson was more popular with voters in the 44 and younger age groups, while Kyl scored higher with those 45 and above.

The DSCC is buying up all available air time, while both parties argue over which side has the early voting advantage.

According to the poll, the state's gay marriage ban is also headed toward defeat.

Caveats: Yes, I read the article and am aware of the MOE, but all polls showed SOME tightening recently. This is IMHO GREAT news

As has been the trend, Kyl is still well under 50% polling 45.8% to Pederson's 41.3%.  9% of voters are Undecided while libertarian candidate polls 3.7%.  The margin of error was 4.9%.  The poll had Kyl leading among men and those in Maricopa county while Pederson led among women, those in Pima County, and those in Rural Arizona.  

National media attention and party money has started focusing on Arizona following a DSCC released poll showing Pederson leading by 4% among early voters.  

Kossacks, it would be difficult to overstate the importance of a Jim Pederson win in AZ!!! Super Bowl HUGE! (Second only to Webb v Allen, but I think that one is in the bank.)

First, Pederson himself has great attributes; 1)he is a true progressive (see his site), 2) a businessman, NOT a professional politician, 3) financed his own campaign and is not beholden to anyone (including the DNC). Also note that he didn't suck money away from other candidates (and we owe him for that).  

(Extended below)

According to our October 29 to 31 survey of 745 likely Arizona voters, fully 30% of the Arizona electorate has already voted. We expect that perhaps up to two-fifths of the voters in this election will vote early or by absentee ballot. In our October 8 to 31 tracking polls (since early voting started) we have interviewed a total of 594 early voters. Among these early voters, Jim Pederson is leading Jon Kyl by 4 points: 44% for Pederson compared to 40% for Kyl, with 4% for other candidates and 12% refused. This 4% Pederson lead is all the more remarkable since registered Republicans and Democrats are equally likely to have voted early, and in fact there are more Republicans than Democrats in this early-voting sample of 594 respondents.

The NRSC is dumping nearly $1 million into Michigan to try and draw DSCC attention. But Stabenow is running strong and at this point, it's wasted money. Arizona, on the other hand, appears legit.

On the web: Jim Pederson for Senate

I have no doubt that Pederson's fortunes improved after he gave up on his "blur the differences" strategy and started running ads like this one:

Suddenly, given a clear choice between the two candidates, Pederson's numbers have surged. Imagine that.

Update: I just got the full DSCC memo, which includes this extra bit of good news:

Furthermore, our latest tracking poll shows that Jim Pederson's margin among early voters is growing as we get closer to the election and as this bloc of early voters expands to virtually one-third of the electorate.  

Maybe folks at DailyKos don't know it, but there's a Democratic tidal wave in the making in Arizona.  Al Gore and Barack Obama sure do.  They visited during the past week in a triple-barrel GOTV barrage.  Popular Gov. Janet Napolitano leads her Republican opponent by 40 points.  40 points in formerly Republican Arizona!  The Dems are looking to pick up three House seats in Arizona.  That's rights - not Connecticut (Although that would be nice, too.) - Arizona!