What the weekend edition of the Wrap lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quantity quality. New numbers from a couple of different locations, plus I wonder what the right-wing scolds who feel they own this particular day are going to say about one of their own whining about the "hijacking" of his party's primary.
All that (and more!) on the weekend edition of the Wrap...
THE U.S. SENATE
FL-Sen: Florida GOP smacks Crist, who smacks them right back
One has to think this is a dumbass tactic move by the Florida GOP. The last three weeks has been an absolute dream scenario for the GOP and their nominee for the Senate, Marco Rubio. Democrat Kendrick Meek and Independent Charlie Crist have mainly gone after one another, allowing Rubio to hold his fire. Today, inexplicably, the RPOF (Republican Party of Florida) decided to get into Crist's face, threatening to sue the once-Republican for reimbursement of what it deemed as "inappropriate expenses" incurred while Crist was Governor and ally Jim Greer headed the state party. This got Crist pissed at the GOP once again, as the campaign fired off this salvo:
"Given Marco Rubio is the candidate in this race who's under federal investigation for failing to report income to the IRS, it's probably best that the party bosses stop playing the same old political games and take a hard look at their own nominee before attacking the one truly independent candidate for U.S. Senate."
NV-Sen: Ashjian to stay on the ballot following judge's ruling
Conservative efforts to knock Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian off of the ballot in the high-profile Nevada Senate race were tossed aside on Thursday, as Judge James Wilson noted that the complaint had been filed well past the deadline for challenging candidates. The plaintiffs had argued that they sent a letter to the Secretary of State complaining that Ashjian had insufficient signatures. Unfortunately, that was not the same thing as filing an official challenge, which the conservative groups had neglected to do until a full nine weeks past the deadline.
THE U.S. HOUSE
NY-01: Battle of the Republican blowhards!
In advance of the primaries in the Empire State on Tuesday, we get a most enjoyable bout of dispute between two of the more detestable spokespersons for the Republican Party. This week, both former Speaker Newt Gingrich and radio host Rush Limbaugh waded into the crowded and expensive Republican primary in the eastern Long Island-based 1st district. The delicious part? They are backing different horses. Limbaugh is advocating for George Demos, while Gingrich is lauding the candidacy of Randy Altschuler.
OK-02: Boren claims huge lead in internal polling
A number of the most vulnerable Democratic seats this cycle are in districts that leaned heavily to John McCain in 2008 (think Chet Edwards in TX-17, for example). One apparent exception to the rule is southeastern Oklahoma, where right-wing Democratic incumbent Dan Boren released an internal poll from Myers Research showing him up 65-31 over Republican nominee Charles Thompson. While the district is solidly GOP at the presidential level, Boren has not been seriously challenged there, and Thompson lacks the resources to make the race a competitive one.
THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES
HI-Gov: Abercrombie taking control of Dem primary, says new poll
The Merriman River Group, which has done a scant amount of polling this cycle in the rather geographically disparate locales of Massachusetts and Hawaii, is taking a look at the competitive Democratic primary for Governor. The race has been a toss-up throughout, but the pollster is seeing a bit of daylight for former Congressman Neal Abercrombie. The poll gives Abercrombie a 48-31 lead over former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.
MI-Gov: New poll puts Dem down 20 to Snyder
The wave of new polling out of Michigan has been startlingly consistent, which is very bad news for Democratic nominee Virg Bernero. The latest offering comes from The Detroit News, and was conducted by the Glengariff Group (which, like PPP and some other pollsters, does both campaign and independent polling). This poll gives Republican Rick Snyder a 56-36 lead over Bernero.
NV-Gov: Reid narrows gap slightly, but Sandoval still leads handily
The good news: Democrat Rory Reid has shaved a total of six points off of the lead for Republican Brian Sandoval in the Nevada gubernatorial race. The bad news: that means that Sandoval still holds a sixteen-point edge (52-36) over Reid. That's the verdict from the latest Mason-Dixon/Las Vegas Review-Journal poll in the race.
NY-Gov: Lazio's lead disappears, GOP primary now a coin flip
At one point, at least Rick Lazio could hang his hat on being the strong betting favorite to be the Republican nominee. Granted, all that would gain Lazio was a likely beating at the hands of Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo, but at least he could claim a respectable political comeback. Yeah...well...not so much. A new poll from Siena shows that dark horse candidate Carl Paladino has whittled Lazio's lead down to a single point (43-42). The pollsters did a regional breakdown, suggesting that the primary has become a proxy fight between the NYC suburbs (which favor Lazio) and the upstate counties (which favor Paladino).
WI-Gov: Scott Walker, 9/11, and really bad choices of words
One can only imagine the raw tonnage of moral indignation on the Right if a Democratic candidate did this: tweeting today about a union rally against his candidacy in advance of the Wisconsin primaries, Republican Scott Walker thought it appropriate to tweet the following:
Look @ the liberal union rally against me @ the courthouse. They want 2 hijack the primary.
Never mind, for the moment, the merits of the charge that the rally was meant to depress support for Walker in advance of his Republican primary against former Congressman Mark Neumann. How bright is it to conflate union protests to a freaking hijacking?!
Then again, what do you expect from a guy who ran an ad against his likely Democratic opponent, who was badly beaten defending a woman against a domestic abuser one year ago, where he donned boxing gloves and promised to "take the fight to him"?
THE RAS-A-POLL-OOZA
The normally consistent Rasmussen shows a rare sharp shift in a race. Whereas they have had Democratic incumbent Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin trailing for months, they suddenly thrust her into a narrow lead. They also have more Ras-esque numbers out of Oregon, and they keep Connecticut's open-seat Senate race in single digits.
CT-Sen: Richard Blumenthal (D) 53%, Linda McMahon (R) 44%
OR-Gov: Chris Dudley (R) 49%, John Kitzhaber (D) 44%
OR-Sen: Sen. Ron Wyden (D) 53%, Jim Huffman (R) 35%
SD-AL: Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (D) 47%, Kristi Noem (R) 45%
