| I wholeheartedly believe that Tax Day should be moved to the first Monday in November.
POTUS
Romney: Mitt and Ann will give their first sit-down interview of the year tonight on Nightline, at Fenway Park with Diane Sawyer. Over-under on the number of times Sawyer asks the Romneys about gay marriage? (The linked Roll Call article also has some good fundraising data for Senate races in New Mexico and Utah.)
Rosen: Hilary Rosen's attack on Ann Romney has stayed in the headlines and was a featured story on the Sunday talk shows. Yes, the Rosen story has helped Romney, but the bigger issue is that Sandra Fluke, Trayvon Martin, and now Rosen have dominated the news for a month now. The media is very bored with the Obama-Romney matchup already and is looking for anything controversial to stir the pot.
Geithner: After three years of running the Treasury department, Tim Geithner has decided that there's nothing he can do about the economy because it's all the GOP's fault. Apparently Republicans have controlled both houses of Congress for Obama's entire term and Geithner and Democrats never had a chance to pass their agenda.
Veepstakes: Ed Gillespie, the former RNC Chairman and the newest addition to Romney's inner circle, refuted reports that he had been tapped to run the VP search (which Cheney did for Bush in 2000). Gillespie did not give a timetable for a VP announcement, which I expect will come in August.
Gingrich: Yeah, Newt's still running (as, for different reasons, is Ron Paul), and he publicly asked for Santorum's endorsement this weekend. Sigh.
Senate
Hawaii: Linda Lingle outraised Mazie Hirono again, $1.3M to $1.0M. Ed Case has yet to report.
Ohio: Sherrod Brown had another strong quarter, with $2.4M raised and $6.3M in the bank. Josh Mandel (who had an excellent Q4) hasn't released his figures yet.
Wisconsin: A bit of a disappointing quarter for the Republicans in this race: $660K for Tommy Thompson, $650K for Mark Neumann, and $110K (plus, apparently, a large self-loan) for Eric Hovde. Jeff Fitzgerald didn't release Q1 numbers but has only $35K on hand, so he may be a non-factor. Meanwhile, Tammy Baldwin snared $2M.
House
AZ-08: Roll Call takes a look at tomorrow's most interesting election, the special GOP primary in the open Giffords district. St. Sen. Frank Antenori has struggled with fundraising, Jesse Kelly looks like the favorite but has the baggage of his 2010 loss, and first-timer Martha McSally, whom the article focuses on, may be the best candidate of the bunch but hasn't had the time to build name rec. McSally may run again in the August primary, no matter who wins the special in June.
LA-03: Charles Boustany won the quarter again, but Jeff Landry has closed the CoH gap, and Politico is now featuring a member vs. member race that we've been closely watching since Day 1. The particularly fun thing about this one is that since it's Louisiana, there is no primary, and if no one gets a majority on the jungle ballot in November, there's a December runoff. There's no third wheel in the race now, but a Blue Dog could create some interesting calculus for Boustany and Landry.
MA-06: Richard Tisei (R) outraised John Tierney again in Q1, $354K to $320K. This will be the only competitive race in Massachusetts this fall.
MI-07: Joe Schwarz says he'll make a decision this week on whether to challenge Rep. Tim Walberg as a Democrat. The ex-Republican, whose home is no longer in the district, twice promised us decisions last week, so don't hold your breath.
NC-11: Young businessman Ethan Wingfield is the second Republican to go up on TV in this open district, matching Mark Meadows' $25K buy from last week. Wingfield's ad references Scripture, not a bad idea in this very Christian district.
NY-08: Rep. Ed Towns will retire, ending a long, undistinguished career. This sets up a primary between Asbm. Hakeen Jeffries and all-time RRH legend Charles Barron. The GOP has no presence in the 8th, which is majority-black and based in Bed-Stuy, so we're free to root our hearts out for Charles here. Note that the modifications to the special master's map played a big role here, as the original draft excluded Jeffries' base from the new 8th.
WA-??: Help Dennis Decide! A quick visit to Dennis Kucinich's campaign site allows you to take a survey: Should Dennis Run in Washington State? That's right: Dennis is asking we, the people, to decide whether the show will go on. If you ever wondered what a call to action looked like, this is it.
Redistricting
Kansas: Still no progress here, but at least we have a deadline: May 15, or preferably, the end of the legislative session on May 10. The linked article does a great job of explaining the various factions and reasons why Kansas will finish 50th in this redistricting cycle, but in short, the Senate map is holding everything up. State and federal courts would take over if there's no deal by the 15th.
New York: The NYS Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Senate GOP, allowing them to add a 63rd seat to the chamber over the protests of Democrats. The new district, in suburban Albany, is competitive but is drawn to favor GOP Assemblyman George Amedore.
Pennsylvania: The redistricting commission released revised legislative maps on Friday after the courts struck down the originals. The overall result, compared to the first draft, seems to be a wash, with a few seats becoming more or less competitive and a few Democrats complaining. |
