Hotline Sort: Republicans Already Hitting Heitkamp
By Sean Sullivan and Steven Shepard // November 3, 2011 | 8:30 a.m.
Updated: November 4, 2011 | 11:30 a.m.
Welcome back to Hotline Sort. Cain accuses a Perry consultant of leaking the story about sexual harassment allegations against him, North Dakota Republicans take a preemptive swipe at Heidi Heitkamp, voters are pessimistic about the supercommittee's ability to get things done and Jeff Greene -- yes, that Jeff Greene -- take to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to declare he's part of the 99%. Here's today's rundown:
8) A Suffolk Univ./WSVN-TV poll released late Wednesday queried Florida voters about allegations that Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., may have embellished details about the circumstances of his family's emigration to the United States from Cuba. After a brief explanation of the situation, 41 percent of Sunshine State voters said they thought Rubio exaggerated his story, while 26 percent said they thought he told the truth. A third of voters were undecided.
7) Who's that defending the Occupy Wall Street movement in a Wall Street Journal op-ed? Jeff Greene, the billionaire 2010 Democratic Senate candidate, who is best-known for his booze-fueled yacht parties during last year's campaign.
6) Anticipating former Democratic Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp's entrance into the Senate race, the North Dakota Republican Party has purchased full-page ads in the Bismarck Tribune & the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead that tie Heitkamp to Obama. Democrats are optimistic about Heitkamp's chances; the ads show that Republicans regard her as a threat, as well.
5) Third time's the charm? Washington state Democrat Darcy Burner sure hopes so. After losing two losing competitive races to Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., in the Evergreen State's 8th District, Burnerwill give it a go in the 1st District, where Democratic Rep. Jay Inslee is leaving to run for governor. Burner was a highly touted national recruit and a favorite of liberals both times she ran against Reichert.
Burner is the latest Democratic candidate to lose running in a swing seat, and is now pursuing a more liberal district to run in. Former Democratic Reps. Mary Jo Kilroy, Dina Titus and Alan Grayson are all pursuing comeback campaigns in safely-Democratic districts.
4)
A new Franklin & Marshall College poll, conducted for a number of Pennsylvania media outlets, shows slightly higher job ratings for Sen.
Bob Casey, D-Pa., who is facing a tough reelection campaign next year: 38 percent of Keystone State voters think he is doing an "excellent" or "good job," up from 32 percent in August. Just 9 percent of voters think Casey is going a "poor" job, while 38 percent rate his performance as only "fair." A similar number of voters -- 37 percent -- rate President
Obama as "excellent" or "good," but 31 percent rate him as only "fair," and 32 percent say he is doing a "poor" job in office.
3) Republicans in the Ohio state House will try this afternoon to pass a revised congressional district map to avoid a ballot referendum on the previously-proposed map that passed and angered many Democrats. Here's what's at stake: Republicans hope they can get enough Democratic support to pass the map as an emergency measure to be put into effect, thereby averting referendum on the map passed earlier this year. But it's not clear whether Republicans will get the votes they need. The
Columbus Dispatch has the
complete details here.
2) Voters are very pessimistic about the supercommittee's prospects to develop a plan to reduce the federal budget deficit, according to
a new Quinnipiac University poll released early Thursday that shows less than a quarter of voters think Obama and the Super Committee will agree on a debt-reduction framework.
The Q poll also tested the favorability of both the tea party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement, finding pluralities of voters with similarly unfavorable impressions of both. Most polls have shown slightly higher ratings for the nascent Occupy movement, but the nation's perception of those protests may be changing.
1) Up until Wednesday, Herman Cain's sexual harassment charges were Herman Cain's problem. But now, the entire Republican field threatens to be engulfedin a series of messy nah-nah, so's-your-mother charges and counter-charges. Cain is accusing Rick Perry's campaign of dropping the dime on him, and Perry's camp is pointing the finger at Mitt Romney. It's enough to put a smile on the face of an otherwise beleaguered President Obama.
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