2010 Elections, Political News

Former pro football player Clint Didier , who lost a Senate primary in Washington state, plans to reveal today whether he’ll get behind the winning Republican, reports USA Today’s Kathy Kiely. What Didier says about GOP candidate Dino Rossi — and whether he gives an endorsement — will be revealing , since Didier hasn’t exactly been reaching for Rossi’s hand and singing “kubaya.” Rossi was the establishment Republican in the race, the one many in the GOP viewed as most electable in the fall. Didier was the preferred candidate of tea party activists and had the endosements of Sarah Palin and Ron Paul. Campaign adviser Kathryn Serkes said Didier’s plans were “about doing what’s right, not what’s politically expedient.” “It’s just the latest example of the GOP’s Tea Party dilemma,” writes Kiely. “In several high-profile races where the small-government activists have been a factor, standard rules of political etiquette dictating primary losers to graciously throw their support behind the party nominee aren’t being followed.” — Katherine Rizzo

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Will Tea Party- And Palin-Backed Primary Loser Toe GOP Line?

Christie Vilsack, the wife of Agriculture Secretary and ex-Gov. Tom Vilsack, tells Radio Iowa that she’s thinking about running for Congress when the time is right — and the time may be right after redistricting changes the boundary lines for 2012. “Nobody will actually have a claim on any particular district, I think, because it’ll be a whole new set of voters and a whole new set of constituents,” she said. — Katherine Rizzo

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Vilsack For Congress?

Whatever way Missouri Democrat Robin Callahan turns, there’s an attack ad writing itself. The Senate candidate told a radio interviewer that she’s reconsidered her position on the Bush tax cuts, and has decided they ought to be renewed, even for the rich. That sets Carnahan apart from most other Democrats, and puts her in sync with her Republican rival for the Senate seat, Rep. Roy Blunt . Follow the to-and-fro on this one at the Post-Dispatch’s Political Fix blog. — Katherine Rizzo

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Missouri: Democrat Carnahan Shifts To Blunt’s Position On Taxes

If Democrats are using this campaign season to spread a message about the benefits of the nation’s new health care law, it’s not making a dent in how people feel about it. The latest CNN Poll finds public opinion on the subject essentially unchanged. For this round of polling, 40 percent said they favor the new law and 56 percent said they oppose it. When the same question was asked in March, 39 percent were for the law and 59 percent were against it. Just as they did in March, the pollsters also asked about components of the law, and found that Americans continue to like the part of the law that tells insurance companies what they have to do but still don’t like the part of the law that tells people what to do. Here are the numbers: On preventing health insurance companies from dropping coverage for people who become seriously ill, the survey found 59 percent in favor of that part of the law and 41 percent opposed. On preventing health insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, the survey found 58 percent in favor and 42 percent opposed. On requiring all Americans who do not have health insurance to get it, the poll found 44 percent in favor and 56 percent opposed. It’ll be interesting to see whether Democrats refine their campaign messages to focus on the parts of the law to which Americans give a clear thumbs-up. The survey was conducted Aug. 6-10 by Opinion Research Corp., which interviewed 1,009 adults, of whom 935 were registered voters. The margin of error is 3 percentage points. — Katherine Rizzo

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CNN Poll: Opinions Of Health Care Law Don’t Budge

Worth a look this morning: the Washington Post’s Sandhya Somashekhar examines efforts by the Democratic Party to win over the oldest voting demographic. Democrats “have struggled to maintain support among seniors in recent years, even as they have racked up large margins among young adults,” writes Somashekhar. “Voters older than 65 were the one age group that did not back Barack Obama in 2008, and their disenchantment has only grown since he took office — especially after his health-care overhaul was passed this year.” The story notes that Democratic leaders in the House suggested that the rank and file take advantage of the 75th anniversary of Social Security to remind older voters that some Republicans want to privatize Social Security, “an idea that met with deep resistance when President George W. Bush proposed it five years ago.” — Katherine Rizzo

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Democrats Try For Oldster Appeal

You know the old saying about making lemonade? Well, life handed some lemons to a House candidate in Massachusetts and he’s making the best of it, as this web video shows. Jon Golnik is trying to turn curiosity about the fire at his campaign office into money, volunteers or both. “Now more than ever I need your support,” Golnik says in an e-mail appeal to backers (subject line: Our Office Burnt Down.) Golnik is running against Rep. Niki Tsongas in a district that CQ-Roll Call rates as Safe Democratic . Check out the ratings for other House contests with our election map . — Katherine Rizzo

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Candidate Turns Office Fire Into Unusual Campaign Plea

Conservative author Ann Coulter has been ditched by the Taking Back America conference because of her decision to be the big draw at GOProud’s HomoCon gathering of gay conservatives. Said Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of World Net Daily : “It would not make sense for us to have Ann speak to a conference about ‘taking America back’ when she clearly does not recognize that the ideals to be espoused there simply do not include the radical and very ‘unconservative’ agenda represented by GOProud.” Coulter’s response, also from World Net Daily’s website: “That’s silly, I speak to a lot of groups and do not endorse them.” There’s more on HomoCon and the Coulter backlast at The Daily Caller . Hat tip: Slate.com — Katherine Rizzo

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Ann Coulter + Gay Republicans = Won’t Be Speaking At WorldNet

Worth a look this morning: The Washington Post maps some of the pivotal races in the campaign for control of Congress. What they have in common, besides political volatility, is easy access to Interstate 70 . — Katherine Rizzo

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Where Campaigns Shift Into High Gear: Interstate 70

Challenger Adam Clayton Powell IV can think of one big reason voters who like Rep. Charles B. Rangel might want to kick him out of office … for his own good. Speaking on “Top Line,” Powell, who’s challenging Rangel in the Democratic primary, said, “The fact is that I believe I would be doing him a favor if I win on Sept. 14, because if that happens, obviously, then all of his ethical issues go away.” You can find the clip here . That part of the interview starts around the 6:10 mark. — Katherine Rizzo

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Doing Rangel A Favor

Worth a look: Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe give their view of the tea party movement. “The tea party movement is not seeking a junior partnership with the Republican Party, but a hostile takeover of it,” they write. “The many branches of the tea party movement have created a virtual marketplace for new ideas, effective innovations and creative tactics. Best practices come from the ground up, around kitchen tables, from Facebook friends, at weekly book clubs, or on Twitter feeds. This is beautiful chaos–or, as the Nobel Prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek put it, spontaneous order.’” — Katherine Rizzo

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Armey: Tea Party Wants Hostile Takeover Of Republican Party