Archive for April, 2010
In Colorado, a Politico With a Real Sense of Humor
Posted by: | CommentsAs all of the DC chattering class finds itself enraptured in it’s annual ritual of ”Inside the Beltway” self-congratulatory humor, a politician with a true comedic flair is running for Colorado Governor.
Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper – a former brewer and current Mayor of the Mile High City reveals his self-deprecating sense of humor when he asks, ”When vultures start circling, that’s bad right?” in this fundraising appeal:
Contribute quick, or Hick could be carrion.
Full email text below the fold:
AdMonitor (CA): Vulture Capitalism
Posted by: | CommentsWhat is it with California’s political advertising this year? First it was Carly Fiorina’s infamously creepy “Demon Sheep” ad. Now, it’s GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner using ravenous vultures in an attack on GOP front-runner Meg Whitman and her previous relationship with embattled investment firm Goldman Sachs.
Populist outrage over a near-global fiscal catastrophe and an economic system just back from the brink has brought us this – one billionaire accusing another billionaire of vulture capitalism. It makes one wonder what type of ads Teddy Roosevelt would have run a century ago?
One Accidental Governor Cruising
Posted by: | CommentsUtah’s Gary Herbert (who took over when Obama sent his predecessor Jon Huntsman on a slow boat to China) appears to be escaping the wrath of the anti-incumbent fury engulfing other Republicans in the Beehive State. A Mason-Dixon poll conducted for the Salt Lake Tribune finds Herbert with a whopping 31-point advantage over Democratic challenger Salt Lake City Mayor Peter Corroon.
A poll taken three months ago showed Corroon trailing 55-30, with 15% undecided. Since then, Corroon has been stuck in place at that 30% benchmark (cold that be the ceiling for Democrats in this conservative state?) and Herbert has picked up six percentage points – with undecideds now only at 9%. One of Corroon’s biggest challenges (other than the D next to his name) is a relatively low name ID around the state. After months of campaigning he is still unknown to 20% of voters.
Proclaiming His Manliness, Millionaire Enters Georgia Race
Posted by: | CommentsThe Georgia gubernatorial contest – one of the most crowded in the nation, hasn’t been short twists and turns, got another shocker this week when political neophyte and wealthy businessman Ray Boyd wrote himself a $2 million check and announced he would entirely finance a run for the GOP nomination.
Clearly seeking to tap into the Tea Party’s boiling anti-incumbent anger, Boyd blamed the current economic conditions and partisan political gridlock on professional politicians and proclaimed himself the one with the “testicular fortitude” necessary to fix Georgia’s mess.
“The best qualified person has made himself available for the governor’s office,” Boyd’s campaign Web site, www.boydforgeorgia.com, states. Elsewhere on the site, Boyd says he has “the testicular fortitude it takes to be a leader” and that he feels “duty bound to step forward and offer my best effort to help save America.”
Reached by telephone Wednesday, Boyd said he’s “serious as a heart attack about this run.” He had harsh words for pretty much every incumbent politician in Georgia and in Congress. He spoke frankly, saying he’s “sick of people who are trying to package something, and when you open the box up, it’s not what you get.”
Let’s just take him at his word on what’s in this guy’s package. Not sure we need to open up that box.
Deval Enters the Lion’s Den
Posted by: | CommentsEmbattled Massachusetts Governor (what incumbent running for re-election isn’t endangered this year of the angry electorate?) Deval Patrick walked into the Right Wing echo chamber by appearing on conservative talk radio host Howie Carr’s Boston’s WRKO radio show.
Patrick, who is heard regularly on the Bay State’s radio airwaves with liberal hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan and is facing a close three-way contest in November answered questions on removing toll booths on the Mass Pike and property tax relief, two pet concerns of frequent critic Carr.
Carr also opened with a frequent question he asks on the air and in his column in the Boston Herald: “Where’s my property tax cut?”
Patrick replied, “It’s coming.”
The governor noted he has tried many means to let cities and towns reduce their property tax burdens, including proposing to allow them to put their workers into the state insurance pool, letting them raise their meals and hotel taxes and proposing to give them a portion of the revenues from three casinos he proposed.
“The other tools we got; this one we didn’t,” he said, referring to the Legislature’s rejection of his casino plan.
Patrick, who’s got David Plouffe advising his re-elect effort probably won’t be alone in taking on critics as the campaign unfolds. Politico reports Patrick’s reelection is a top political priority for Team Obama.
the White House is looking to every weapon in its arsenal to help Patrick win a second term.
Patrick has been at the White House at least a half-dozen times in the past year, whether he’s lunching with senior adviser David Axelrod, dropping by the Oval Office for a chat or attending Obama’s first state dinner.
The Massachusetts governor is the only Democrat besides Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and party-switching Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) to get the president to headline a personal fundraiser for him more than a year before the November election. Obama’s former campaign manager, David Plouffe, has been consulting for Patrick’s 2010 bid since last spring, and Axelrod also has lent his expertise.
“We want to be as helpful as we can to him,” said Axelrod, who worked on the Massachusetts governor’s 2006 campaign.
Losing the governorship in the state on the vanguard of health care reform and the scene of this year’s most shocking political upset – the election of Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat – could be a narrative-defining result heading into 2011.
The White House – with an eye on 2012 – will do anything to prevent another Bay State bombshell.