Campaign Diaries

Just when you think New York’s GOP could not possibly sink further, prompting me to write a post titled “The last throes of New York’s Republican Party, ” the state’s Republicans manage to attract even more ridicule. Following the tragic death of their last-minute candidate Frank Powers, the Staten Island GOP has been brainstorming for possible replacements in NY-13. All high-profile candidates — District Attorney Donovan, state Senator Lanza and city councilman Odda — once again declared that they would not run, leaving a list of second-tier candidates who would already face long odds to defeat Democratic candidate Mike McMahon.

But over the past 24 hours, the two potential second-tier candidates have also ruled themselves out! The first is former Assemblyman Matthew Mirones, who declared “I’ve decided on a personal level not to get back into the political arena at this time.” Some Republicans were hopeful about Mirones because he could self-fund his candidacy. His decision seemingly ensured that NY1 reporter Lisa Giovinazzo would get the GOP’s endorsement. She already seemed to be the consensus choice in May before Republicans unexpectedly settled on Powers instead. But today, Giovinazzo stunned nearly everyone by telling the New York Times that she will not run for Congress!

Keep in mind that this is a GOP-held seat in a district that is not that inhospitable to the party. That Republicans are unable to find any candidate willing to run speaks to how dismal the situation of New York’s GOP has become. Forget finding a second or third tier candidate, the party is now hoping to find any candidate at all. The only decent contender the GOP could still turn to is state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Maltese, but he would have to resign his judicial seat before even starting a run and his name has not been mentioned for a few days. The New York Times reports that the only names the GOP is now circulating aren’t even Republicans, as the party could choose to cross-endorse the candidate of the Conservative Party or the Independent Party. And keep in mind that there were some suggestions earlier this week that the GOP might decide to cross-endorse McMahon!

Democrats are having much less recruitment trouble this cycle, as candidates are more eager to run in election years where everything seems possible. Now, the DCCC looks to have put in play LA-07, a conservative district. State Senator Don Cravins has announced he will run against Rep. Charles Boustany and he will be a very strong challenger to the Republican who won an open seat in 2004 following the retirement of a Democratic congressman — underscoring that this is not an impossible seat for Democrats to win despite the fact that Bush won the district with 60% of the vote in 2004 (55% in 2000). LA-07 has a sizable African-American population which could help Cravins this year. This race remains likely retention for the GOP, but it enters the list of contested seats.

It’s also worth pointing to a new poll of NC-10 released by the independent group PPP that implies that it might be worth looking at this seat:

• In a seat Bush won with 67%, McCain only leads Obama 52% to 31% and heavily-favored GOP incumbent Patrick McHenry is ahead of Daniel Johnson 49% to 38%. The only bright spot for the GOP is that gubernatorial candidate Patrick McCrory is polling at the level he needs to win (55-30%).

NC-10 is on few people’s radar screen and it remains to be seen whether the DCCC can expand the map that much, even with their massive amount of cash-on-hand. If they find that they have money left, they will have a vast array of seats to choose from to test the Republican incumbent, and it looks like NC-10 will be one of them. (There were also a number of Senate polls released today but I will include those in the poll roundup).

Meanwhile, Oregon’s Republican Senator Gordon Smith followed up his ad featuring the endorsemeng of two Democratic state legislators with a new spot touting his relationship with… Barack Obama! Sure, Oregon is not Mississippi’s first district, where the NRCC tried to hurt the Democratic candidate by running ads about his being endorsed by the Illinois Senator, but for a GOP Senator to feel that Obama is a shoo-in enough in Oregon to justify airing this ad is nothing short of remarkable:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGDJijGCeO4]

Of course, this says as much about Obama’s chances in Oregon (where polls show him with a lead, albeit not an overwhelming one) as they do about Gordon Smith’s electoral strategy: Appeal to the independents by promoting his bipartisan image and his ability to work across the aisle. Smith has been doing his best to demonstrate his moderate credentials since the beginning of this cycle, when it became evident that the Senator had a target on his back and that his state’s blue leaning would threaten to make him into a new Chaffee.

Smith’s ad comes with risks: If the Republican senatorial candidate is praising Obama, it will make McCain’s hope to contest the state that much more difficult. Furthermore, it might confuse voters as to where Smith stands. After all, the Senator is a McCain supporter. And it will make Smith that much more vulnerable to Obama supporting his opponent Merkley, as it will be justifiably interpreted as a sharp rebuke. Obama wasted no time issuing a statement to remind voters/journalists that he was supporting Merkley.

Finally, to follow up on my discussion of the FISA bill last week, it is worth pointing out to a report that finds that the 94 Democratic House members who once opposed similar FISA bills but voted yes last week received an average of $3000 more from telecommunication companies than Democratic house members who remained opposed to the bill. Nothing surprising here — the power of lobbyists in Washington has been well documented — but still a depressing. The report lists the contributions to all those members, some of which have received a lot of money (and those include many beyond the leadership, including a number of blue dog conservative Democrats who were no doubt going to be the first ones to switch). Note that the Senate vote on the measure was delayed to July, by the way.