2010 Elections, Political News

GOP hopeful Pat Toomey holds an 8-point lead over Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak in the battle for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat, according to polling released Wednesday morning by Rasmussen Reports. Toomey, a Republican activist and former congressman, leads 49 percent to Sestak’s 41 percent among 500 likely voters questioned Sept. 13; the margin of error was 4 points. That’s a slightly larger lead than the 48-42 race reported by Rasmussen late last month. And the poll shows Toomey with the support of nearly 50 percent of the electorate, his best showing to date. The data suggests that President Obama may be a drag on Sestak. While he won Pennsylvania with 55 of the vote, just 47 percent of respondents approved of his overall job performance in the new poll; 51 percent disapproved, a slight improvement. But Toomey also enjoys better favorables than his Democratic opponent. Fifty-seven percent of Pennsylvania voters view the GOP pick as favorable, while 33 percent view him unfavorably. Sestak, meanwhile, enjoys a favorable-unfavorable rating of 47-42 respectively.

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Poll: Toomey widens lead in PA Senate contest

President Obama’s first (last?) midterm general election is almost engaged. Today’s round of primary nominations begins the final push. Last Big Tuesday of Primary Season It’s been a long and fascinating primary season, with most of the heavy action on the GOP side . What A Difference A Month Makes For Castle In early August, CQ Politics traveled to Delaware to report on the race for Vice President Joseph Biden’s old Senate seat. At the time, Republican Rep. Mike Castle was comfortably ahead of his primary opponent, Christine O’Donnell. Ayotte’s Lead Narrows in N.H. GOP Senate Primary Former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte holds a 7-point lead over surging conservative businessman Ovide Lamontagne in the Granite State’s crowded Republican Senate primary, according to a poll released late Sunday night by the Democratic firm, Public Policy Polling. Bill Clinton featured in 11th hour robocall for Rangel Former President Bill Clinton has recorded a robocall supporting New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, who is facing five Democratic challengers in a primary race. GOP Maintains Generic Ballot Edge The latest Gallup tracking poll finds Republicans leading the generic congressional ballot among registered voters by five points, 48% to 43%. While the survey has been volatile over the last few months, Republicans since the beginning of August have averaged 48% and while Democrats have averaged 43% — identical to this week’s results.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Minority Leader John Boehner says he would vote for President Obama’s plan to extend tax cuts only for middle-class earners, not the wealthy, if that were the only option available to House Republicans.

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Boehner says he’d support a middle-class tax cut

Robin Carnahan has been trying to distance herself from President Obama as early as last spring when she passed on his St. Louis fundraiser with McCaskill. It’s not her proximity to Obama that is driving voters off, it’s her incessant approval of his policies. Until she understands that, expect this gap to only widen : Filed under: Election 2010 , missouri

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Blunt Climbs Ahead of Carnahan in the Polls

The director-general of the London-based Al-Arabiya TV criticized President Obama for supporting the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in an August 16 column published in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, according to the Middle East Media

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More Muslim Mosque Criticism

President Obama’s Oval Office address was impressive and perplexing.

President Obama’s Oval Office address was impressive and perplexing.

In light of this Pew Research survey showing that a growing number of Americans are wrong about President Obama’s religion, our Roll Call colleague Matthew Murray put the question to a House candidate he was interviewing. The answer he got was no answer at all. “I don’t have a position on whether he’s a Muslim,” Republican Tom Ganley said. Ganley is challenging Rep. Betty Sutton (D) in Ohio’s 13th district, a race that CQ-Roll Call rates Likely Democratic . The contest is expected to be both expensive and nasty. Ganley has already loaned his campaign $6.5 million and had $6.7 million in cash as of June 30. As of midsummer, Sutton’s campaign had $930,000 in the bank.

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GOP Candidate Won’t Say What He Thinks About Obama’s Religion

Orly Taitz, whose claim to fame is her willingness to engage the courts in her effort to prove that President Obama isn’t a natural-born citizen, lost her final avenue of appeal today but doesn’t sound too worried about all the money she has to pay. Taitz tells TPM’s Ryan J. Reilly that like-minded Americans will help her pay a $20,000 fine for filing frivolous lawsuits. People sent $3,500 in four or five days and “Within a month, I will have the $20,000,” Taitz said. “Most of them are contributing maybe $20, $25 dollars, there’s a lot of support.” — Katherine Rizzo

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Litigious Birther Says Public Will Pony Up To Pay Her $20,000 Fine

Worth a look this morning: Writing in Time , Mark Halperin describes how easy it would be for Republican candidates to back Democrats into a corner over the issue of the Muslim community center proposed to be built near Ground Zero. And then he asks them not to. “What is happening now — the misinformation about the center and its supporters; the open declarations of war on Islam on talk radio, the Internet and other forums; the painful divisions propelled by all the overheated rhetoric — is not worth whatever political gain your party might achieve,” he tells the GOP. “It isn’t clear how the battle over the proposed center should or will end. But two things are profoundly clear: Republicans have a strong chance to win the midterm elections without picking a fight over President Obama’s measured words. “And a national political fight conducted on the terms we have seen in the past few days will lead to a chain reaction at home and abroad that will have one winner — the very extreme and violent jihadists we all can claim as our true enemy.” — Katherine Rizzo

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Halperin: GOP Can Win In November Without ‘Overheated Rhetoric’