State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R) has three weeks to bring up his poll numbers or he risks becoming irrelevant in the three-way race for the California Republican Senate nomination, according to the Los Angeles Times.
DeVore has garnered the support of national conservative and Tea Party groups, as did Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) during his run, but that hasn't translated into a surge in campaign donations or support in the polls. He raised some $625,000 in the first quarter, but had only $411,000 banked at the end of March. In a recent Los Angeles Times/USC poll, he had the support of only 9 percent of likely GOP primary voters.
DeVore attributed his poor poll numbers to his title as state assemblyman.
"Ballot titles matter a lot in California," DeVore said at a Family Action PAC luncheon at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach. "They called me a California state assemblyman. That's like saying Chuck DeVore's a thief. My actual title is assemblyman/military reservist. In our internal polling, that change alone doubled my support, when people found out I was not merely a scum-sucking politician."
The Times notes with absentee ballots set to go out in the second week in May, time is running out for DeVore.
"Before people totally discount someone like Chuck DeVore, you have to give it another three weeks," said Larry Gerston, a professor at San Jose State University. "At that point, if it hasn't kicked in yet, I think you can start issuing a post-mortem."
The Connecticut Senate campaign of investment advisor Peter Schiff
(R) has refunded nearly $120,000 in contributions that
exceeded campaign finance limits.
The campaign raised $563,000 in the first quarter but was forced to return $119,250.
Campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Millikin said the campaign received
checks for $4,800 and incorrectly applied all of the money to the primary, rather than the maximums of $2,400 each for the primary and general elections.
"The donors didn't specify which election, but ultimately the
campaign accepts responsibility for not catching the errors sooner,"
Millikin told The Ballot Box. "As soon as we realized the problem, the
cash was returned."
The money can still be sent back to the campaign if it is designated for the general election.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) turned down an offer from NBC to debate Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D-Ark.) on "Meet the Press."
Halter, who is challenging Lincoln in the Democratic primary, had been willing to participate in the proposed May 9 debate.
Lincoln campaign spokeswoman Katie Laning Niebaum said Monday that the two-term Democrat planned to spend Mother's Day with her mother.
"It's not surprising that Bill Halter would welcome another trip to Washington since most of his support is based there," Niebaum told the Arkansas News Bureau. "However, Sen. Lincoln will not interrupt her plans to be in Arkansas with her family on Mother's Day in order to appear before a national television audience, most of whom do not vote in Arkansas."
Halter said he is willing to be flexible in order to facilitate a MTP debate.
"We have told Meet the Press that we are available to debate Senator Lincoln any time between now and May 18th -- whether that be on a Sunday morning, or pre-taped at the Senator's convenience," he said in a statement. "We have also invited Meet the Press to come here and film a debate in Arkansas and would be proud to have them showcase our beautiful state to the entire nation."
Halter called the show a "wonderful way" for Arkansas voters to get to know the candidates. "I thoroughly enjoyed our last debate and I am looking forward to our having more of them," he said.
Halter and Lincoln had their first televised debate on Saturday in Little Rock.
Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D) has spent more than $3 million on his Senate primary with Jennifer Brunner, even as he is considered a heavy favorite.
A pre-primary financial report shows Fisher spent nearly $1 million in the first two weeks of April alone -- including $900,000 on a cable TV ad buy -- and is now down to less than $1 million cash on hand for the stretch run of the May 4 primary. Should he make it to the general election, he would face former Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who has $7.6 million in the bank and a clear primary.
Secretary of State Brunner has been meagerly funded from the start of the race and has spent considerably less -- about $800,000. She has not been able to muster any serious media presence, but she has stayed within single digits of Fisher in the polls.
Fisher had $906,000 on hand on April 14, compared to $59,000 for Brunner.
Fisher's campaign has insisted that it is expecting a close race next Tuesday, but if he doesn't easily clear the bar against Brunner, questions will be raised about his general election viability.
His first quarter fundraising number -- $551,000 -- has already been criticized, especially in comparison to the $2.3 million raised by Portman.
Sue Lowden continues to hold a double-digit lead in the Nevada GOP Senate primary, according to a new poll.
The Nevada News Bureau poll, which was conducted by PMI Inc., is the first in the race not conducted by Mason-Dixon, but it shows a similar result to recent Mason-Dixon polling.
Lowden, the former state GOP chairwoman, leads businessman Danny Tarkanian 41-24. Former state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle is in third, at 17 percent. No other names were tested.
A Mason-Dixon poll from earlier this month had Lowden ahead of Tarkanian 45-27 with Angle at 5 percent.
Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D) may benefit from what's expected to be record turnout in the Arkansas congressional primaries May 18.
Secretary of State Charlie Daniels (D) said turnout for next month's primary vote could be Arkansas's highest for a non-presidential year election since 1994.
"I think 30 to 35 (percent of registered voters) is not unreasonable for this election, even though the trend or the stats for previous years haven't been that great," Daniels told the Arkansas News Bureau.
Thirty percent of Arkansas's 1.6 million registered voters would be 480,000 people.
"To me, it seems like an unusual year in that three of the four congressional district races are open, there's not an incumbency in those. Then you've got the U.S. Senate race, where you have a number of candidates on the Republican side, and then the Democratic primary," he said.
An influx of new voters could benefit Halter, who's challenging two-term incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln for the Democratic nomination.
The two met on Saturday for their first televised debate.
During the often-heated exchanges, Halter said his campaign has taken down a website referring to Lincoln as "Bailout Blanche" and called on her to stop calling him "Dollar Bill Halter." Lincoln refused, saying Halter's business background is a fair target for criticism, according to the Baxter Bulletin.
Nobody can say Alexi Giannoulias's Senate campaign wasn't ready for his family's bank to go under.
The Illinois Democrat's campaign on Monday launched its first general election ad, and the candidate asserts he is "very proud" to have worked for Broadway Bank.
"It's helped thousands of people achieve the American dream -- people who couldn't go to the big banks," Giannoulias says of the bank, adding that, "when I left over four years ago, it was in good shape."
Giannoulias closes by saying: "If a business like my father's that he started 30 years ago can fail, it's happening everywhere. People want someone who's going to fight for them."
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