U.S. Senate Race

Erick Erickson of Redstate.com has called for a boycott of the NRSC after that body endorsed Gov. Charlie Crist for Mel Martinez's seat over Marco Rubio.

Crist's popularity makes him as close to a sure thing as the Republican Party can find for an empty seat in the election - but Rubio is much more appealing to the base. Rubio's youth, Cuban ethnicity and Catholicism are also a breath of fresh air in a party whose national figures (McConnell, Boehner, McCain, Romney et. al.) are short on all three of those characteristics.

Rubio might do better do stay in Florida and run for Governor - a successful term in the Governor's office would make him 2016 Presidential timber. But he hasn't stepped aside, which would lead to a primary race that would be a microcosm of the broader fight between Republican moderates and right-wingers over the direction the Party should go in.

I like Rubio. His ethnic and religious background, as well as his outsider status, are both welcome breaths of fresh air in a party that hasn't really produced any new figures that are taken seriously outside the party's base. He'd also be a very competitive candidate in a battleground state, and if he won he'd be a valuable asset to the Republican candidate in 2016. Despite this, I think he should stand down in favor of Crist - he's as close to a sure thing as can be found for Republicans this election cycle. He'd free up money and other resources to help Republicans on shakier ground, like Mark Kirk in Illinois. And his already-high national profile would only be increased by a successful Senate campaign. Coming form what has been the quintessential battleground state in the last three elections, he would be a highly visible spokesman for the Republican platform in D.C.

The NRSC is not backing down on the endorsement of Crist over Rubio, specifically attacking the "30 senators" stance made famous by Jim DeMint. With Rubio not ceding to the will of the party, things could get ugly in Florida. Who do you think will win? Who should win? And will the donnybrook in the primaries give the Democrats a shot at the seat?

Above is video from a phone interview I conducted with US Senate candidate Jeff Beatty from Massachusetts.

In Colorado's closely-watched U.S. Senate race, it's been a bad week for liberal Democrat Mark Udall. Here's a quick rundown:

1. Coming off the first candidate debate in which he was soundly put on the defensive by Republican Bob Schaffer, Mark Udall appeared to come out a little stronger at Monday's recording of a televised debate. But that all would wash away.

2. At the debate, Mark Udall accepted Bob Schaffer's challenge and promised to vote against a resolution that would adjourn Congress without addressing domestic energy shortages.

3. The very next day, Mark Udall showed up late in Washington after some private campaign fundraising and missed the adjournment resolution vote, which passed 213-212. The Lefty spin machine later tried to excuse Udall by pointing out that he got to participate in the final adjournment vote, but missed the irony in their claim.

4. The Bob Schaffer campaign began pressing Mark Udall to release the names of private donors who were more important than the Coloradans to whom he made the promise.

5. A third consecutive poll was released showing Mark Udall's once significant lead has disappeared and the race in a statistical dead heat.

6. An outside group began airing ads on local TV networks exposing Mark Udall's less-than-conservative record on taxes. As we now like to say at Schaffer v Udall: "The only place Mark Udall wants to drill is your wallet."

All in one week.

In one of the most hotly contested U.S. Senate races in the nation, incumbent Ted Stevens (who has been in the Senate since 1968) will most likely be in a tight race in Alaska with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. (Both candidates have primaries to go through.) Begich comes from the mold of former Democratic Governor Tony Knowles, who lost a Senate race four years ago to junior Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Begich came out with his first ad a few weeks ago, and it is (admittedly) a good ad that starts off by talking about his father who was a Congressman that went missing in a plane accident in the early '70s:

From the outside, Begich looks like a new, fresh candidate that came out of nowhere to be mayor of Alaska's largest city. The fact is that Begich has been a political player with the Democratic Party since the early '80s, when he worked for then Mayor Tony Knowles, and then served on the Anchorage Assembly (city council) for three terms. With a long political history comes a long list of deeds.

Here's a great "ad watch" response from the NRSC, providing some responses to Mark Begich's ad and his time as politician in Anchorage:

It gets more interesting because while Begich has decided to spend his money on TV ads, his Democratic primary opponent, Ray Metcalfe (who was a former Republican legislator and founder of the now defunct Republican Moderate Party of Alaska) has decided to spend his money on a bus to take people on a "tour of Mark Begich's Anchorage". Metcalfe explains in his own words in a local NBC news affiliate story:

"My campaign has purchased a bus, and we're going to start advertising our three-hour tour," Metcalfe said. "We're going to take people around and show them how real estate is used to launder money into the pockets of politicians. We're going to show them the transactions; explain them. It gets pretty hard to deny when you see it."

I encourage everybody to watch the Stevens vs. Begich race closely this fall. We'll see what Stevens can do without much help from the national Republican organization, and what Begich can do with anticipated millions coming in from the DNC and DSCC along with the possible coattails of the Obama campaign opening up multiple field offices in the state.

Thoughts and comments please!

From the states. -Patrick

Colorado is the site of one of the nation's most hotly contested U.S. Senate races. Republican Bob Schaffer, a strong conservative, faces a Democratic Congressman familiarly known to Coloradans as "Boulder liberal Mark Udall."

Two months ago a Denver Post reporter - apparently seeking some sort of investigative journalism award - penned a series of three front-page stories about Schaffer. The stories, based on sketchy sources, sought to implicate a trip Schaffer made as Congressman to the Marianas Islands with Jack Abramoff, forced labor, and sex slavery.

Okay, LaRocco, it’s far too early to be this desperate (Hat Tip: Kevin Richert.)

“Jim Risch throws around money like an oil executive on a binge. He spends three times more for airplane flights than U.S. Senate candidate Larry LaRocco.

“On Monday, fate put Risch and LaRocco on the same flight to Washington, D.C. LaRocco made the trip in coach with budget-minded travelers. But first, he had to bump past Risch who was luxuriating like a Roman emperor in the first-class cabin.”

Never before has airplane-seat envy made its way into a U.S. Senate. Of course, one has to wonder how LaRocco knows how much Risch spent on his ticket. LaRocco alleges $3,350, compared to LaRocco’s $990 for his working class experience sitting in coach. It could very well be that Risch got a lower price through his connection to this guy:

While LaRocco claims thriftieness for his nearly $1000 coach ticket. Using Priceline, it appears that LaRocco got hosed. Priceline quoted me $440 for a last minute weekend flight to Washington, DC. or more than 55% less than Larry LaRocco’s great price. We don’t know what Jim Risch paid for his ticket (if he didn’t use Priceline, there are Frequent flier discounts out there, rewards miles, etc) but we know the absurd price LaRocco paid to fly coach. So, perhaps we can say it shows the general philosophy that he would bring to the Senate: overpaying for services. LaRocco was part of unreconstructed Democratic Majority of the early 1990s that made our Welfare State out of control with more than 70% of money going to bureaucrats rather than the people on the program. It was only by getting people like Larry LaRocco out of the way that any progress has been made in fixing that out of control entitlement, that like Larry LaRocco’s plane ticket cost far more than it should have.

If we want to talk about airline tickets though, perhaps instead of demogoguing about who rides in what seat, perhaps it would be more appropriate to talk about what has led to higher prices for all travellers. The high price of gas has driven up the cost of travel for all Americans. However, the Democrats have chosen to use the name of Demogoguery that Larry LaRocco used. Our nation hasn’t built a refinery in 32 years, we are sitting on billions of barrels of oil that’s untapped. Since Democrats took over Congress, we’ve had the counterintuitive proposal that by increasing taxes on oil producers,  we will somehow reduce prices to consumers. What has been the result of Democratic governance the past two years?

(Hat Tip: Mazurland Blog.)

Do we want more of this? This is the result of the governance of Pelosi and Reid is clear and a vote for Larry LaRocco is a vote for more of the same despite LaRocco’s phony populist rhetoric.