Short diary, but I wanted to pass on the latest GA poll.  It's an Insiders Advantage poll and shows:
McCain   46
Obama   44
Barr        4

http://www.southernpoliticalreport.c...

The poll is of likely voters and was taken by telephone yesterday, July 2.  Georgia is the 9th largest prize for EV's, with 15.    

Along with today's Montana poll, it seems Obama is doing quite well in very different red states -- both west and south.      

The activities of Dean Andal, the Republican nominee running against Jerry McNerney for Congress in CA-11, have come up in a grand jury investigation.
 
This week, the San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury released its report investigating misconduct by the San Joaquin Delta College Board of Trustees.  It found that the Board had "squandered millions of dollars in taxpayer money and breached open government laws by sharing closed-session information to developers outside regular meetings."  Tracy Press  The confidential information apparently disclosed illegally was given to Andal and his associate, big Republican contributor and Sacramento developer Gerry Kamilos.

The lead Republican incumbent Collins has held over Democrat Tom Allen continues to degrade.  According to Rasmussen, in April, the lead was 16.  In May, it was 10.  Now the June poll has the lead down to 7.  At present the poll is:
Collins 49
Allen   42

Drip. Drip.  Drip.  
http://rasmussenreports.com/...

MSNBC has just released a new national survey (NBC/WSJ poll) showing Obama leading McCain 47% to 41%.  

Obama leads among women: 52-33%
Obama leads among those who voted for Clinton: 61-19
Obama leads among Hispanics:  62-28
Obama leads among white women:  46-39

Hardly a day goes by when I do not hear more negative news about our world's environment.  A new oil spill; another endangered specie; massive cracks in Arctic ice; record ozone hole;
hottest year on record; and on and on.  So when I hear something good, I like to share.

Plastic waste has proven to be a major environmental problem.  In the North Pacific, a trash dump more than twice the size of Texas sits—on the surface and many feet down.  The vast majority of the trash is plastic—from dolls to nets to beach balls to nurdles the size of fish eggs.  Our society generates more and more plastic, and other than the small percentage that is recycled, it fills landfills, becomes litter, or pollutes streams, lakes, wetlands, and the ocean.  Animals eat it, or become tangled in it, and die.  

And then there are the plastic grocery bags.  Millions are generated, used once, and thrown away.  Some cities here in the SF Bay area have begun to ban them.  And people everywhere are being encouraged to bring their own reusable bags to the grocery.  Still, our waste-generating society is slow to change.  And when a plastic bag is discarded, it can take 1,000 years to decompose.

In the Senate landscape for 2008, we all recognize the chances for significant Democratic gains.  In my view, the democratic candidate is now favored in VA, NM, CO, and NH.  We also have races that are now toss-ups or at least potential toss-ups including MN, AK, NC, ME, and OR.  It is my hope that we can move each of these five into the "toss-up" category (or better) on every pundit's list.  As the voters in Oregon have just determined the Democratic candidate to take on Gordon Smith (R-OR), I'd like to urge everyone to take a minute learn something about him.  He is not just some corporate democrat.  He is a tough progressive.  He reminds me of Jon Tester.  Then, get excited.  We can win in Oregon.  Obama is going to carry it in November and this race is already close.  In fact, Smith is already running ads that do not mention that he is a Republican.  Finally, please do what you can to help Merkley RIGHT NOW.  More below.  

Remember the 2006 Montana Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat?  The two candidates, Jon Tester and John Morrison, attacked and attacked – but not each other.  They each attacked the incumbent Republican Conrad Burns.  As the primary campaign season went on, Burns's favorable ratings went down and so did his reelection prospects.  When Tester won the nomination, Morrison joined him on a statewide tour.   Tester went on to win in November.  

By contrast, remember the 2006 Democratic primary for Governor of California?  Arnold went into 2006 badly wounded, having just lost every single state proposition he had put on the ballot in November 2005.  His popularity was at an all-time low.  So what did the Democratic candidates do?  They each attacked the other.  Each one managed to piss off half of the Democrats in the state.  Arnold was unopposed in his primary.  So while the Democratic candidates hit each other again and again with negatives, Arnold raised money, polished up his image, and moved toward the middle.  After the primaries, Arnold had lots of money, was well ahead in the polls, and the Democratic candidate was broke.  In November, Arnold won a landslide.  

A Rasmussen poll has just been released with Democratic candidate Tom Udall leading each of his potential rivals by single digits.  The numbers:

Udall        50%
Wilson      43%

Udall         50%
Pearce       42%
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/...

John McCain's Arizona Senate seat is up in 2010.  With McCain the all-but-certain Republican nominee, the WSJ's Washington Wire considered today whether McCain would resign his senate seat to campaign, as Bob Dole did in 1996.  It seems that McCain was asked whether he would resign last week.  He replied:  "If I get the nomination, we'll figure it out."  
http://blogs.wsj.com/...

One of our Congressional toughest races last year was John Yarmuth's 51-48 victory over Mitch McConnell's protégé, Anne Northup.  Northup had held this Louisville seat for ten years, beating challenger after challenger.  Like McConnell and Tom DeLay, she always raised oodles of money from lobbyists and those Republican sweethearts, oil companies, tobacco companies, and drug companies, among others.

Since his election, Yarmuth has proven to be an excellent progressive representative.  In fact, his Progressive Punch score is 94.3% progressive, ranking him #33 of 433 in Congress.  

Last year, Northup ran for governor in the Republican primary against incumbent Ernie Fletcher, and got thumped.  Many read that race as a sign of a very divided Republican party, as Northup ran with the blessing of McConnell, who hoped she could win the seat in the fall, when Fletcher was near-certain to lose.  She lost; then so did Fletcher.  

Now, after two straight losses, Northup is back.  

Public Policy Polling has released polling numbers in the NC senate race against republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole.  Senator Dole's approve-disapprove numbers continue to be very weak.  44 approve; 33 disapprove.  

In the head-to-head numbers against the two potential democratic opponents, Dole leads, but is under 50%.  Dole leads State Senator Kay Hagan 48-35.  She leads businessman Jim Neal 49-30.  http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot....

Rasmussen has released today a poll from Virginia on the senate race and on head-to-head races for president.  

Senate numbers:  
Warner     53
Gilmore    38

These are the same results as the October poll.  I continue to consider this race a likely democratic pick-up.  Warner will need to mess up to lose.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/...  

Today's new poll on general election match-ups from CNN shows that presently, the strongest candidate against the Republicans is John Edwards.  It's been a while since I have seen a GE poll that included a number of Democrats matched against a number of Republicans.  The results are below the fold.

The Swing State project is reporting that the DCCC has reported spending over $150,000 on a media production (an ad) and a media purchase to fight in this Ohio special election.  http://www.swingstateproject.com/...
A win in this republican-leaning district will be heard across the country.  

On Wednesday, around 8:30 a.m., a ship hit the San Francisco bay bridge and leaked heavy Bunker fuel oil, essentially a waste product from refining gasoline that is used as fuel in ships.  It is very heavy, thick. sticky, and full of toxics.  The toxics include PNH's, benzene, and heavy metals.  Wednesday news stories were calm—only 140 gallons had spilled.  No reason to get alarmed.  Move along folks.

In fact, 58,000 gallons spilled.  The Coast Guard, EPA, California Fish and Game, etc. all say that they knew nothing about the spill being worse than 140 gallons until 4 p.m.  By then it was getting dark.  They did not tell the public until after 9 p.m.  

In sports, coaches often need to remind players not to look past this week's game, but to focus on each game one at a time.  In politics, we should do the same.  

For most of us, election day is a long, long way off and it's easy to forget that in 11 days, there will be elections in Virginia, Kentucky, and Mississippi.  Some of these races matter to all of us and it is time to wake up; volunteer; and contribute.

More below.

So much for supporting the troops.  The vote was actually 56-44 in favor of a vote on the Webb Amendment, but under a procedural agreement, because 60 votes were not obtained, the amendment was withdrawn.  

What I would really like to know is why the Democrats do not force the Republicans to stand up and filibuster on a "support the troops" amendment like this one.  So disappointing.  Let the public SEE who is enabling the war and who is refusing to treat the troops with respect.  

OR "What a difference an election makes."  

One could say that there is a lot that is the matter with Kansas.  It's Republican and it's conservative.  And until January 2007, the second congressional district ("KS-02") was "represented" by ultra-right winger Jim Ryan, who voted in lock step with Tom DeLay – wrong on virtually everything.  Few believed a democrat had a chance here.  KS-02 has a PVI of R+7 (meaning that the district votes 7% more republican than the county as a whole).   But in 2006, Nancy Boyda turned this district blue while being outspent by 50%.  Only two seats in the country more red than this one turned blue in 2006 (IN-08 and TX 22).