Rep. John Dingell's (D-Mich.) Republican opponent, Rob Steele, was a no-show at a candidate forum Thursday night, but the 84-year-old congressman apparently got an earful from a Republican running for the Michigan state House.
Republican Chase Ingersoll repeatedly shouted Dingell down at the forum, at one point making an obscene gesture while the congressman was speaking, according toa report on AnnArbor.com.
Ingersoll was asked by event organizers to tone down his behavior several times during the forum.
He challenged Dingell on his support for healthcare reform, loudly accusing the 28-term incumbent of misrepresenting the law.
"There's a whole array of rights that are there," Dingell said. "It will be very much like the law that was written in Massachusetts, which is working quite well and which was defended by Mitt Romney while, I'm told, he was a Republican presidential candidate."
Ingersoll fired back, speaking out of turn again.
"And what did Mr. Romney say?" Ingersoll asked in a raised voice. "What does Mr. Romney say now about the health care legislation in Massachusetts? He said that it's not working--costs have gone up and services down. If Mr. Steele was here, he'd clean your clock on that issue, Mr. Dingell. That's why you only are having one debate with him."
Dingell had to leave about an hour into the forum. Before walking out, he turned to the crowd and said he was leaving those still in attendance at the mercy of Ingersoll.
"Be nice to him," Dingell quipped.
Steele had planned to attend, but canceled at the last minute. Steele's campaign relayed news partway through the forum that he was unavoidably stuck at another event.
Some Republicans are convinced the man who is currently the longest-serving member of the House is vulnerable in 2010, in large part due to his leading role in healthcare reform.
A Detroit News poll from mid-September gave Dingell a 19-point lead over Steele. But the challenger touted internal numbers in late September that showed Dingell ahead by a fairly slim margin — 51 percent to 42.
Conservative
groups smell blood in Arizona's 7th district.
Americans
for Tax Reform (ATR), headed by Grover Norquist, has launched a TV ad hitting
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) for calling for a boycott of the state. The
30-second ad ends by urging viewers to "vote no" on Grijalva.
Grijalva
called for an economic boycott of Arizona after the state legislature passed
its controversial law against illegal immigration. He's since backed away from
those statements.
Still, two recent pollsshow Grijalva — who hasn't faced a tough challenge in his eight
years in the House — within the margin of error against Republican Ruth
McClung, a 28-year-old rocket scientist employed by a defense contractor.
McClung is
backed by several prominent Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (Ariz.),
former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
ATR,
meanwhile, is spending $230,000 on the TV ad, which started airing on
Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the group. To secure its support,
McClung recently signed ATR's tax pledge, which states signatories will
"oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits unless
matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."
Democrats have used support for the pledgeagainst
other Republican candidates this cycle. The Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee has reserved TV airtime in the district starting on Oct. 26,
according to a Republican strategist who tracks Democratic ad buys.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday became the highest-ranking lawmaker to sign a conservative pledge to repeal and replace the Democrats' healthcare reform law.
Revere America, a Washington-based conservative group named after the 18th-century Boston patriot, sent its repeal pledge to all members of Congress and the candidates challenging them this election season. Twenty-one Republicans have endorsed the motion, with Boehner leading the pack.
"We are pleased that Leader Boehner is joining this effort," former New York Gov. George Pataki (R), chairman of Revere America, said in a statement. "We will count on his leadership in the 111th Congress."
The group, Pataki added, "is receiving signed pledges every day."
They have a tough road ahead. Not only would repeal legislation face the impossible task of avoiding a presidential veto, but the most controversial provisions of the law — things like the individual insurance mandate — are inextricably linked to the most popular reforms, like the prohibition on denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.
Critics of the law want to scrap the former and keep the latter — but have never fully explained how they'd do it.
It hasn't stopped them from trying. Last month, Revere America launched a seven-figure ad campaign targeting roughly a dozen Democrats from conservative-leaning districts who voted in favor of the law.
More recently, Pataki has been touring the country, focusing on those same districts in hopes of ousting the Democrats who supported the law.
"It's a bad law," Pataki said last month. "The American people know it's a bad law, and we're going to remind them."
The former Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee predicted Thursday that Republicans will take back the House as a result of protest votes against President Obama and said that would result in "gridlock on steroids."
Former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), who heads the Republican Main Street Partnership, a centrist GOP group, said he expects a net gain of 50-plus seats for Republicans in the House. The party needs a net gain of 39 to regain the majority.
"I don't want to tell you some of the Democrats I've talked to in the last couple of weeks who are just shocked at their numbers," Davis told reporters Thursday at the Capitol Hill Club. "They've got competitive races and no one knows it."
Still, Davis said once Congress begins its new term in January, he's not anticipating the GOP House leadership team and the White House agreeing on much of anything.
"You think this is gridlock? That's going to be gridlock on steroids," he predicted.
Davis also said the big Republican gains will come thanks to an unusually large "protest vote" against Obama and the Democratic leadership.
"This is not an affirmation of Republicans," said Davis. "We're an object [voters] can use as a protest."
Davis described the Tea Party as "an energy source for Republicans," and said Tea Party-backed wins against GOP party picks reflect the high level of anti-establishment fervor running through the electorate this year, as opposed to a more permanent shift to the right within the GOP itself.
The former congressman also said the environment could be ripe in 2012 for a viable third party or independent presidential candidate, and he mentioned New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as one possibility.
Davis said it would take a self-funder such as Bloomberg to take advantage of an opportunity to "blow up the two-party system."
New numbers from The Hill 2010 Midterm Election Poll show a majority of likely voters would welcome a viable third party in American politics. That number is particularly high among self-identified independents, with 67 percent favoring a viable third party.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) won reelection with 82 percent of the vote in 2008, but Republicans are boasting new internal numbers that have the Democrat leading by just 6 points over his GOP opponent, Art Robinson.
The poll, conducted by Wilson Research Strategies for the conservative group Concerned Taxpayers of America, has DeFazio at 48 percent to Robinson's 42 percent. It surveyed 300 likely voters with a margin of error of 5.6 percentage points.
Along with the obvious caveat that it's a GOP internal, that the race could be in competitive territory is surprising. It's a seat that hasn't been on anyone's radar screen ahead of November and one that has seen zero attention from the national parties.
The race doesn't even crack election handicapper Charlie Cook's list of competitive House districts.
If Robinson, a first-time candidate, is even within 10 points of DeFazio, it makes you wonder how many other sleeper races might be out there ahead of this fall.
Concerned Taxpayers of America has been the only real player in the district to this point, already spending $175,000 running TV ads against DeFazio.
There are signs that DeFazio is paying some real attention to the Republican challenge. A recent DeFazio ad attacked Concerned Taxpayers of America as "a shadowy special interest."
The Democrat has also distanced himself from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), suggesting he might not support her again as Speaker should Democrats retain their House majority.
Former Rep. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.) doesn't have a large margin of error in his bid for his old job back. He's effectively tied at the moment with Democrat Ann McLane Kuster. That may change, however, after news broke that he bought stock in New England Wood Pellet while in Congress and later helped set up a meeting between company executives and a Bush administration official -- a possible violation of House ethics rules.
Republican congressional candidate Charles Bass admitted Wednesday that he mistakenly self reported he had bought at least $500,000 worth of privately held stock in a Jaffrey-based wood pellet company the last year he served in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In March 2007, Bass revealed on his own financial disclosure statement that he had bought shares in New England Wood Pellet in January and November 2006.
During an interview Wednesday, Bass insisted his own disclosure forms were incorrect and he did not obtain any stock in the company until after he lost his 2006 re-election campaign to Democrat Paul Hodes.
Bass said he first inquired about buying stock after the election in November 2006 and the New England Wood Pellet’s Board of Managers approved selling shares to Bass in January 2007.
"I only acquired the stock after serving in Congress," Bass said during a telephone interview. "There is nothing wrong with getting into the business after I got out of office and that’s just what I did."
Bass said he has the stock certificates to prove the purchase of stock in January 2007 and not a year earlier.
In January 2007, Hodes replaced Bass in office. Bass joined NEWP's board of managers Jan. 18, 2007.
New England Wood Pellet officials publicly credited Bass with setting up a February 2006 meeting in New Hampshire between Secretary Samuel Bodman and Steven Walker, president of the wood pellet firm.
"Congressman Bass, who introduced and championed passage of the Renewable Energy Security Act (RESA) provisions of the 2005 energy bill, saw an opportunity to promote the provisions of the act through a meeting between Walker and Secretary Bodman," said the March 2006 newsletter of the Pellet Fuels Institute.
Walker is married to Bass' niece.
As for the meeting with President George W. Bush’s energy secretary, Bass said he had nothing to do with setting one up and said he has never spoken with Bodman about the biomass industry. … A leading ethics watchdog said if Bass bought stock while in Congress and later helped set up a meeting with a Bush administration official, this would clearly violate House ethics rules.
"This would have clearly been a conflict of interest and clearly an even more serious one had he not disclosed to the Energy Department he already had a financial interest in the company," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington. … A spokesman for Ann McLane Kuster, Bass’ 2nd Congressional District rival, said his explanation fails to settle the matter.
"This is deeply troubling and leaves a lot of questions unanswered," said Colin Van Ostern, Kuster’s campaign manager.
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