leading challenger Bill White

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Said pollster Daron Shaw: "Bill White is hanging tough against Rick Perry, but with just 12 days before Texans head to the polls for early voting and with just 3% of voters undecided in this race,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], White's path to victory remains difficult to see."
Paladino's Support Collapses in New York A new Quinnipiac poll in New York finds Andrew Cuomo (D) regaining a wide lead over Carl Paladino (R) in the race for governor among likely voters, 55% to 37%.
A similar poll two weeks ago had Cuomo ahead by just six points.
Said pollster Maurice Carroll: "Since Quinnipiac University's last poll two weeks ago, it's been a looney-tunes time for Paladino in the news media - one time in a face-to-face fight with a reporter - and it shows. Cuomo moves into a double-digit lead. After the dust settled from Paladino's big primary win, the big switch was in the independent vote - a small edge for Paladino two weeks ago turns into a small edge for Cuomo this time."
October 06, 2010
More Subpoenas Issued in Edwards Investigation "A federal grand jury in Raleigh has issued a number of new subpoenas in its investigation of two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards," WRAL-TV reports.
"The grand jury has been investigating for more than a year whether any money from the Edwards campaign was used illegally to hide his affair with Rielle Hunter."
Ben Smith: "It isn't totally clear what charges they'd pursue, but they're likely connected to disclosure. A lawyer points out to me that hush money, properly reported, would probably be legal."
Nearly Half View Palin Unfavorably A new CBS News poll finds Sarah Palin is viewed unfavorably by 48% of Americans.
She is viewed favorably by just 22% -- including just 44% of Republicans, 21% of independents and 6% of Democrats.
Bonus Quote of the Day "Running for president is like having sex: you don't do it once and forget about it. It has a high, high recidivism rate."
Blumenthal Still Up by Double-Digits A new CNN/Time/Opinion Research survey in Connecticut finds Richard Blumenthal (D) leading Linda McMahon (R) by double digits among likely voters, 54% to 41%.
Blunt Holds Wide Lead Over Carnahan A new CNN/Time/Opinion Research poll in Missouri shows Roy Blunt (R) with a double digit lead over Robin Carnahan (D) in U.S. Senate race, 53% to 40%.
Explains pollster Keating Holland: "Blunt is achieving what many Republicans can only wish for - he has nearly a majority of the women's vote in Missouri. Among women it's 49% for Blunt and just 44% for Carnahan. That's bad news for any Democrat, but for a Democratic woman, it's a major problem."
Angle Edges Reid in New Poll A new CNN/Time/Opinion Research poll in Nevada shows Sharron Angle (R) leading Sen. Harry Reid (D) in the race for U.S. Senate, 42% to 40%, with 7% for Scott Ashjian with 10% planning to vote for "none of the above."
Said pollster Keating Holland: "It's a two-point race with Ashjian on the ballot, but it's also a two-point race when voters are asked a hypothetical question about a race with only Reid and Angle's name on the ballot. That suggests that Ashjian is pulling his support about evenly from both sides, rather than taking most of his support from the Republican. Only about one in ten supporters of the Tea Party movement choose Ashjian in the three-way race."
Another Poll Shows Tight South Carolina Race A new Hamilton Campaigns (D) poll in South Carolina shows Nikki Haley (R) with a five point lead over Vincent Sheheen (D) in the race for governor, 49% to 44% with 7% still undecided.
Sestak Ties Toomey to Palin and Santorum Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) is out with a tough new ad in which he uses Toomey's own words to liken him to Sarah Palin and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA).
Quote of the Day "But it turns out we'd gotten our wires crossed and Joe hadn't said anything like what I'd been told. So there's no story here except the fact that the press put our personal emails online again, and again couldn't even be bothered to conceal our email addresses or take any steps to protect our privacy."
Explaining the Enthusiasm Gap Nate Silver: "The enthusiasm gap has more to do with abnormally high levels of Republican interest in the election than with despondent Democrats... stories that cite the enthusiasm gap as evidence of malaise among the Democratic base are probably miswritten. Such stories may conflate the priorities of certain subsections of the Democrats' broad constituency -- or of some especially vocal activists -- with those of Democratic voters writ large, most of whom are focused on the poor economy and the government's efforts to respond to it, as voters of all political persuasions are. Such analyses may also ignore the history of midterm elections, which suggest that Democrats usually do suffer from an 'enthusiasm gap' of some kind. Finally, they may be burying the lead, which is the unprecedented level of political engagement by Republicans this year."
Malloy Leads in Connecticut A new Public Policy Polling survey in Connecticut finds Dan Malloy (D) leads Tom Foley (R) by 10 points in the race for governor, 50% to 40%.
Key findings: "The formula for a Republican to win in Connecticut is three fold: 1) get virtually all of the Republican vote, 2) get a fair amount of crossover support from Democrats, and 3) post a big lead with independents. Right now Foley is doing none of those things."
October Surprise for Democrats? In a new strategy memo, Democratic strategists James Carville and Stan Greenberg see a possible Democratic surge in the last month before the midterm elections.
"This is not a fool's errand. In the 1998 election, we conducted national polls starting in September to see if Democrats could push back against the Republican overreach on Ken Starr and impeachment, as Democrats faced the prospect of historic losses in both the House and Sen- ate. Only two weeks before the election did the plates shift and a Democratic counter-message on impeachment became effective in our polls. In the end, Democrats lost no net seats in Senate, gained five House seats and Newt Gingrich resigned."
Democrats' Secret Weapon in 2012: Marijuana? The Wall Street Journal reports that Democratic strategists "are studying a California marijuana-legalization initiative to see if similar ballot measures could energize young, liberal voters in swing states for the 2012 presidential election."
"Democratic strategists liken the marijuana effort to the 2004 ballot drives to ban gay marriage in Ohio and 10 other states. Whether those measures helped then-President George W. Bush win that year remains a point of debate, as turnout was high even in states without the issue on the ballot. But many conservatives say the measure drove thousands to the polls in Ohio,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the election's central battleground, where Mr. Bush won by just two percentage points, or about 118,000 votes."
Gillibrand Leads by Double-Digits A new Public Policy Polling survey in New York finds Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) leads challenger Joe DioGuardi (R) by ten points in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 40%.
Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) leads his re-election race against Jay Townsend (R) by a huge margin, 59% to 37%.
Abercrombie Holds Slim Lead in Hawaii A new DailyKos/Public Policy Polling survey in Hawaii shows Neil Abercrombie (D) barely leading Duke Aiona (R) in the race for governor, 49% to 47%.
Interesting: "As with most midterm contests, this race is going to come down to turnout. If turnout were like it was in 2008, the race wouldn't be close -- Abercrombie would be ahead by double-digits, 56% to 40%."
Two Big Negatives for Candidates An interesting new Pew Research survey finds two factors have emerged as major potential negatives for candidates during the midterm elections: "Fully 46% say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who supported government loans to banks during the financial crisis two years ago, while nearly as many (42%) say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate backed by Sarah Palin."
White House Denies Obama-Clinton Ticket White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denied the red-hot speculation, fueled by Bob Woodward in a CNN interview, that President Obama may ask Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be his running mate in 2012.
Said Gibbs: "No one in the White House is discussing this as a possibility."
CNN also asked Clinton, who responded, "I don't believe what I read. I have absolutely no interest and no reason for doing anything other than just dismissing these stories and moving on."
The Coakley Lesson First Read: "Here's something worth paying attention to: the DSCC is advertising in Connecticut (despite the fact that Dick Blumenthal is leading), and the NRSC is now upping its advertising in Kentucky (even though Rand Paul is ahead). A theory why this is occurring -- the parties are fearful of screwing up these races. Call it the Martha Coakley lesson."
Spitzer's Show Bombs Variety: "Eliot Spitzer might want to reconsider politics. The former New York governor's CNN talkshow Parker Spitzer opened poorly Monday with only 454,000 viewers in the 8 o'clock slot. That trailed the 3.1 million for Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor and 1.1 million for MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olbermann."
Palin Didn't Like McCain's Book As she ends her book tour for Dirty Sexy Politics, Meghan McCain says she was exasperated that the media "only focused on Sarah Palin. In every interview and review it was all Sarah all the time."
She also notes that Palin "made it known to me, via an email to a third party, that she was not pleased with me or what I wrote in my book."
Santorum Forms Iowa PAC Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) is fueling speculation he's serious about a 2012 presidential run by forming a political action committee in Iowa to assist local candidates running for office.
GOP Casting Call A new NRSC ad "shows a couple of guys at the counter of a diner, wearing ball caps and plaid shirts as they take shots" at West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin but Politico learns the ad "was shot with actors, from a script, in Philadelphia."
From a talent agency's casting call: "We are going for a 'Hicky' Blue Collar look. These characters are from West Virginia so think coal miner/trucker looks."
"Clothing Suggestions" for the actors included jeans, work boots, flannel shirt, denim shirt, "Dickie's [sic] type jacket with t-shirt underneath," down-filled vest, "John Deer [sic] hats (not brand new, preferably beat up)," and "Trucker Hats (not brand new, preferably beat up)."
Perry Still Leads in Texas A new Texas Lyceum poll shows Gov. Rick Perry (R) leading challenger Bill White (D) in the race for governor by five points, 48% to 43%.
Working for Dobbs An investigation by The Nation finds that former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs -- who has heaped scorn on businesses that hire undocumented immigrants -- actually employed five undocumented immigrants himself at his New Jersey horse farm.
Marc Ambinder: "It's easy to, ah,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], pooh-pooh, Santorum's chances for 2012. Santorum is off national radar screens, but he's got a national radio show and has kept a core of loyal fundraisers. But Iowa conservatives are finicky and tend to like to surprise prognosticators. And they do reward candidates who spend time getting to know them."
While White has an edge among both moderate and independent voters, Perry has a significant lead among conservatives.