Another Democrat is entering the race to replace Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).
According to the Ogemaw County Herald, state Rep. Joel Sheltrown is trading in his state Senate campaign for a congressional bid:
Following the announcement last Friday that Rep. Bart Stupak would be
retiring after 18 years in Congress, State Representative Joel
Sheltrown (D-West Branch) announced Monday that he will be seeking
election to the 1st Congressional District seat.
Sheltrown told
the Herald Monday that when Stupak announced his retirement, he gave a
couple of names of people who he felt would be qualified to run for the
seat. Sheltrown’s name was on that list.
“Immediately after, I
received a call asking me to run,” Sheltrown said.
Sheltrown,
who was already involved in a state Senate campaign, said he had to talk
to his wife and his strategists before he could make a decision.
“It’s an absolutely huge commitment,” Sheltrown said, adding that he
understands that this is the largest district east of the Mississippi.
“Once I put all the pieces together and it appeared that the door was
open — if a door is open, I’ve never been one to walk up to it and close
it.”
Sheltrown joins former Charlevoix County Commissioner Connie Saltonstall in the primary. Saltonstall was endorsed by Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America and the National Organization for Women before Stupak retired, but Democratic leaders may look for a more well-known candidate.
State Rep. Michael Lahti is reportedly also considering a run for the Democratic nod, and state Rep. Gary McDowell has also been mentioned.
On the GOP side, physician Dan Benishek is raising good money, and state House Minority Leader Kevin Elsenheimer is also considering the race.
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) earned a key endorsement from the Pennsylvania chapter of AFL-CIO in his bid for a sixth term.
The union was a key backer for Specter during his 2004 reelection campaign, when he was still a Republican. On Tuesday, it again backed him over a primary opponent -- Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.).
Specter tweeted Tuesday from his verified account @SenArlenSpecter:
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, PA AFL-CIO. I'm proud to have your endorsement and support."
The former Republican has already received the endorsement of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
Poll
numbers show the incumbent leading by a wide margin in the May 18 primary. Sestak has failed
to build name recognition across the state at this point, but he had about $5 million in the bank at the end of the year.
Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R), the likely Republican nominee, is running neck-and-neck with Specter in the general election.
The Cleveland Plain-Dealer is endorsing early in the Ohio Democratic Senate primary, and it's choice is Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher.
The paper praises Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner for fighting the party establishment in the race, but says Fisher would be a superior senator. It also finds fault with some of Brunner's work in her current post:
But Brunner's preference for quick decisions and her disdain for
nuance and second thoughts are also her undoing. As secretary of state,
she made some good calls: Dissolving Cuyahoga County's dysfunctional
elections board leaps to mind. And she made some terrible calls,
including an egregious decision to reject thousands of GOP absentee
ballot requests on a technicality. Although she now says the job taught
her to collaborate, Brunner's style tends to be tough and top-down. She
needlessly alienated some local elections officials and experts and
still leaves the impression that she'd cross a busy street to argue with
a Republican.
As much as Brunner's contentiousness may excite the Democratic base,
it's unlikely to change the ugly tone in Washington. In the end, she and
Fisher would compile very similar voting records, but Fisher's smooth,
seasoned approach seems more likely to build the alliances and strike
the pragmatic compromises that successful legislating requires
Fisher is a heavy favorite to win the May 4 primary, given the establishment support and the fact that Brunner has struggled to raise basically any money. She remains within striking distance in the polls, though.
Minnesota state Sen. Tarryl Clark has won the state Democratic party endorsement to face Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).
Clark was expected to win the backing and has rounded up much of the establishment support from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. But Dr. Maureen Reed is raising good money and has said she will run against Clark in the August primary.
Whoever wins that primary is expected to be a top Democratic hope for a takeover in November.
Bachmann was reelected in 2008 with plenty of help from a third-party candidate. She was held to less than 50 percent of the vote, but she defeated Democrat El Tinklenberg 46-43.
NARAL Pro-Choice America, which endorsed Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) primary challenger Wednesday, is considering backing other primary challengers around the country.
NARAL joined Planned Parenthood in backing former Charlevoix County Commissioner Connie Saltonstall in her weeks-old primary challenge to Stupak, an anti-abortion rights Democrat who inflamed party activists by holding out for abortion language in the recently passed healthcare bill.
But the group isn't done yet. Asked whether other Democrats who joined with Stupak or opposed the bill should be concerned, NARAL political director Elizabeth Shipp said, "Definitely."
I asked if NARAL was eyeing anyone specifically.
"Yes, but none that I'm ready to talk about yet," Shipp said.
One logical choice would be Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.), a Democrat with a mixed abortion rights record who represents a heavily African-American district. Barrow easily dispatched state Sen. Regina Thomas last cycle, thanks to some help from President Obama, but recently the black community has bristled at his healthcare vote.
Thomas is running again, but now attention has shifted to Lester Jackson, another African-American state senator.
The district is 44 percent black, meaning a concerted effort against Barrow could pay dividends in the primary.
Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway, like many other Democrats in tough primaries, is making healthcare an issue.
And he's doing it by trying to tie primary opponent Dan Mongiardo to Kentucky's other senator, Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Conway's ad calls Mongiardo "Senator No" and "Dr. No" for saying he would have opposed the healthcare bill. The ad features footage of McConnell citing his opposition to the legislation, which was signed into law on Tuesday.
Washingtonians may be reminded of another "Senator No" however: Sen. Tom Coburn. The Oklahoma Republican, who's a doctor by trade, has earned the moniker for his constant holds and objections to legislation.
Conway has a reason to hit Mongiardo hard. The latest Daily Kos/R2000 poll has Mongiardo up 16 points, leading 47 to 31.
A pair of pro-life Democrats have learned that the hard way, earning rebukes from opposite sides of the abortion spectrum thanks to their 'yes' votes on the healthcare bill.
Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) work to obtain an abortion funding compromise has earned him the primary opposition of the two powerful PACs -- Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL Pro-Choice America. Meanwhile, Stupak ally Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio) lost the endorsement of Ohio Right to Life on Wednesday to former Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio).
Right to Life seems like it was unlikely to back Driehaus over Chabot, though it did back his sister in her campaign to succeed him in the state House in 2008. But the group could have stayed silent too, as it has in other races.
"Whether Steve Driehaus was duped by the offer of a worthless Obama executive order or was merely attempting to provide himself political cover, he bears responsibility for the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade," said Ohio Right to Life PAC executive director Mike Gonidakis. "Pro-lifers in the 1st Congressional district will remember his health care vote in November.”
Stupak is being challenged in the primary by former state House candidate Connie Saltonstall.
NARAL president Nancy Keenan said Stupak has earned himself a one-way ticket home.
"The voters in Michigan’s 1st District are looking for an alternative to Bart Stupak," she said. "For years, he has attacked women’s freedom and privacy and, for the last several months, seized the national spotlight as he held health care reform hostage to his anti-choice political views. The clock is ticking on Mr. Stupak’s ‘15 minutes of fame.’"
The Democratic Senate primary in Pennsylvania remains wide open, but Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) has gained virtually no traction with eight weeks to go, according to a new poll.
The latest Franklin and Marshall poll shows Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) well under 50 percent, at 32 percent. But Sestak has barely climbed out of the single digits, taking just 12 percent of the vote.
Franklin and Marshall tends to have high numbers of undecideds, but Sestak should still be registering more than 12 percent if he wants to make it a competitive primary. At this point, he doesn't appear to have made a compelling case as an alternative to Specter. The good news, is, he has a little less than two months. The bad news is, he has a little less than two months.
Sestak hasn't made much headway in any poll that regularly tests the race. He has run a (notoriously) lean campaign, and even though he had $5 million in the bank, he doesn't seem to have used much of it so far.
There's an opening with Specter in the primary, but as we've seen May 18 Senate primaries take off in other states (Arkansas and Kentucky), the Pennsylvania race has thus far been a pretty one-sided contest.
It will be interesting to see what Sestak has planned.
Things are getting very interesting in Michigan, where a
crowded GOP primary field looks wide open at this point.
State Attorney General Mike Cox and Rep. Pete Hoekstra
(R-Mich.) are now in an effective three-way tie with businessman Rick Snyder,
whose personal money and “One Tough Nerd” campaign slogan have boosted him
early on.
A new Inside Michigan Politics/Marketing Research Group poll
shows the erstwhile frontrunner Cox at 21 percent, with Hoekstra also at 21 and
Snyder at 20. Mike Bouchard, who you might recall challenged Sen. Debbie
Stabenow in 2006, is at 10 percent.
This is Michigan, but it’s also a top takeover hope for the
Republican Governors Association. Democrats have struggled with the economy
going sour and the auto industry’s troubles.
Lt. Gov. John Cherry (D) found he couldn’t overcome those
things and yielded to some lesser known Democratic candidates earlier this
year.
The poll shows state House Speaker Andy Dillon leading
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero 21-9 in an undeveloped Democratic primary.
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