Top of the ballot: RNC becomes a punching bag

Top of the ballot Wednesday: Republicans get mileage out of hitting back at RNC; Specter still solid in primary; DCCC up with ad in Hawaii special.

The RNC becomes a punching bag

Republicans are starting to use their party's woes to score political points.

In New Hampshire Republican National Committeeman and likely congressional candidate Sean Mahoney has angrily resigned his position with the committee and is putting the issue front-and-center in his campaign.
 
Mahoney will use the controversy surrounding the reimbursement at a bondage-themed nightclub to cast himself as an outsider looking to reform the party. He’s set to join a primary against Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta and businessman Rich Ashooh, among others, with the winner facing Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.).
 
"Not only has the out-of-touch, free-spending culture of Washington come to completely dominate the United States Congress, but I have watched with growing unease as the same mentality has seeped into our own national party," Mahoney wrote in his resignation letter.
 
A little further South, porn star Stormy Daniels used the RNC scandal to announce that, if she runs against Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), it will be in the GOP primary.
 
“It is time again to inspire positive risks and out-of-the-box thinking in the interest of growing a strong economy and a strong America,” Daniels said in a sly statement. “For me, this spirit can be summed up in the RNC’s investment of donor funds at Voyeur.”

Viewing Daniels’s candidacy as anything more than a political stunt takes some doing (especially when her spokesman is a well-known Democratic operative), but it has gotten attention and – more importantly – drawn attention to Vitter’s previous relationship with a prostitute.

Look for other candidates to add their two cents in the coming hours and days – especially after GOP operative Alex Castellanos’s damaging shots at Steele Tuesday. Some, like Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, will continue to stand by Michael Steele. But others will not.

Specter-Sestak still a snooze

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) maintains a 53-32 lead over Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) in a primary that is starting to be written off by some.

The latest Quinnipiac poll of the race shows Specter with a 60 percent favorability rating among likely primary voters, while Sestak is still unknown to three in five voters.
The question at this point is whether Sestak can offer a compelling alternative. He can’t merely rely on leftover angst toward Specter’s part switch, and we haven’t seen him tack significantly to the left in the race.

With Sestak holding his real firepower until the final month of their campaign (the primary is May 18), we will probably look back on this as either one of the worst primary challenges in history or one of the best.

DCCC up with ad in Hawaii special

The latest sign that Democrats are taking no chances in former Rep. Neil Abercrombie’s (D-Hawaii) district comes with a DCCC ad being launched against Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou.

Djou is the lone Republican in a field that features two Democrats, and that math has Democrats concerned in an open special election where all candidates will be in the same race. The special election is a winner-take-all format so whoever gets a plurality of votes takes the seat.

The DCCC’s ad hits Djou for his record on jobs. The special is May 22.

Other updates:

-Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) will rally together in front of a reported 10,000 attendees at 3 p.m. in Minneapolis. It will likely be carried by at least one cable news outlet. Undersold: the fact that Palin’s potential 2012 opponent, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, will also be in attendance.

-A new poll from St. Norbert College and Wisconsin Public Radio shows former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) leading Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) 45-33 in a prospective matchup, even though Feingold leads a generic Republican 40-37. Of the 10 or so polls done on this prospective race so far, the only ones showing the incumbent with a lead have come from Democratic-leaning firms or sponsors. Thompson has not announced he's running for the Senate but he's also not ruled it out.

-Paul Maroun has dropped out of the race to face Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.). The Franklin County legislator’s exit clears the way for a head-to-head GOP primary matchup between 2009 candidate Doug Hoffman and businessman Matt Doheny, which should play to the lesser-known Doheny’s advantage.

-Army veteran Matt Zeller will be the Democratic candidate in the increasingly unlikely event that New York Gov. David Paterson (D) calls a special election to replace former Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.). County chairs reportedly made the decision over the weekend. If there is no special election, a regular primary will be held before the November election.