As we head into this late Spring weekend, let’s dispense with the small handful of stories in the world of elective politics for this Friday evening. Here is the wrap-up:
NATIONAL: Support For Gays In Military Now Over 2/3 Of Electorate
Are there any Democrats out there still trembling at the political peril of the President going after gay discrimination issues? If so, they will want to peruse this Gallup poll. Over two-thirds of voters (69%) support gays and lesbians being allowed to serve openly in the military. That is up six points from a similar survey in 2004. Even 58% of REPUBLICANS and 58% of CONSERVATIVES are on board.
FL-SEN: New Poll Shows Crist Way Up In Primary and General Elections
Strategic Vision, a GOP polling firm, has put out an early poll on Charlie Crist’s prospects in the open U.S. Senate race in the Sunshine State. Crist leads Marco Rubio in the Republican primary by thirty-seven points (59-22), and leads Democratic frontrunner Kendrick Meek 59-29 in the general election.
FL-GOV: McCollum Might Be Weaker Than Thought, According To Poll
That same Strategic Vision poll (linked to above) has numbers on the gubernatorial contest. In the general election, Republican Bill McCollum holds a lead over Democrat Alex Sink within the margin of error (41-39). This is a bit closer than other recent surveys have shown. Meanwhile, the real surprise is in a possible GOP primary with state Senator Paula Dockery. SV only has McCollum up 44-24 in such a contest. Given that this is a contest between a statewide elected official (who has run statewide without stopping, it seems, since 2000) and a locally elected state Senator, this is a bit underwhelming for the front-runner. Dockery, for what it’s worth, has not officially launched a bid yet.
LA-SEN: “Sinning Senator” Spooked By Stormy?
This is a pretty classic one from Ryan at the Daily Kingfish. He looks at a recent major-dollar fundraising pitch by incumbent Republican David Vitter, and ties it to his fear of potential GOP primary opponent (and adult film actress) Stormy Daniels. It is worth a read for the humor alone, which includes the repeated conversational references to Vitter as “the sinning senator.”
MA-GOV: Governor Patrick May Be Staffing Up, BIG-Time
Via Taegan’s Political Wire: This is an interesting one. In a pretty sure sign that incumbent Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick is serious about holding onto his governorship in Massachusetts, he is apparently looking to bring on some serious Democratic firepower in his campaign—none other than Obama campaign guru David Plouffe. Given some fairly weak poll numbers, there was some speculation that he might be ambivalent about seeking a second term. This ought to put that speculation to permanent rest.
MN...GOV? SEN?: Norm, We Can’t Miss You Until You Actually GO AWAY
SIGH......
According to TPMDC, former Senator Norm Coleman spoke to reporters today at something called the Conservative Heartland Leadership Conference. In doing so, he said two things bound to make large swaths of the political world cry out in frustration: he is not ruling out continuing to empty the box of legal challenges if the Minnesota Supreme Court (as expected) sides with Al Franken. Also, just in case THAT does not work out for him, he is also not ruling out running for Governor of Minnesota in 2010.
NY-23: A Good Early Look At The Newest Open House Race
No real news today out of upstate New York, but reporter Tim Sahd over at Hotline On Call has a pretty good overview of the potentiality of an interesting special election in the New York 23rd, now vacated by Secretary of the Army-designate John McHugh. Also, Steve Cornacki at PolitickerNY has an interesting take: could winning the NY-23 special election actually give the Democrats fits, come the 2012 re-districting?? For what it is worth, it'd be safe to suspect that New York Democrats and the DCCC would be more than willing to take that risk, if it means reducing the GOP delegation in New York to TWO Republicans.
VA-GOV: A Look At Early Turnout Plus Great Analysis Of A Curious Endorsement
Two interesting stories about next week’s Democratic gubernatorial primary in Virginia in the mix today. First off, there is an intriguing analysis from Josh Goodman at Ballot Box. He sees the curious endorsement of Terry McAuliffe by Montana Governor (and head of the Democratic Governors Association) Brian Schweitzer as a decision that has little to do with politics in 2009, and more to do with politics in 2016. Meanwhile, Taegan Goddard reports that the return of absentee ballots in Virginia indicates a potentially small turnout. Tomorrow, I will be looking at who might benefit from a small primary-day turnout. Here is a hint—a plausible argument could be made for ANY of the three leading candidates.
