New York GOP gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino has to change his act if he expects to have a chance to win his election, Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said Thursday.
King offered his support to the controversial Tea Party-backed candidate, who defeated former Rep. Rick Lazio in the primary Tuesday, but said he would have to tone down his rhetoric.
"Yeah, I intend to support him as the nominee of the party," King said during an interview on WABC Radio in New York. "I have
to tell you, though, some of the stuff he says is — I think it could be
damaging. I think he has to realize he's in the big leagues now and
there's more than just, you know, you're going to bring a baseball bat
to Albany."
King referenced a remark Paladino made on the campaign trail in which he stated that he would “take a baseball bat to Albany” to rid the state capital of corruption.
The Buffalo real esate developer, however, has appeared to divide New York Republicans. He has found himself in hot water over e-mails he forwarded to friends containing pornographic material and racist jokes.
But King acknowledged that Paladino had unexpectedly harnessed the energy of the GOP voting base, which appears to be deeply discontented with the status quo.
"Right now, the fact is, there is a tremendous discontent out there
that the elites and many party officials did not see coming," King said. "And it's
all around the country, so we hope to work with Carl Paladino."
Paladino's win came on the same night Christine O'Donnell, another candidate backed by Tea Party groups, surprisingly won the GOP Senate primary in Delaware over nine-term centrist Rep. Mike Castle.
King said that Paladino has a week to 10 days to prove he is a serious challenger to Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo and expressed confidence he would adapt his campaign for the general election.
"But again, he has to realize — I think he will; he's a smart guy — that there's a difference between being an insurgent running in a primary and actually running for governor, being the governor of a state. You can still be a tough guy — look at Chris Christie in New Jersey. He's doing a tremendous job, but at the same time, he knows how to do it in a way that doesn't needlessly offend people."
Vice President Joe Biden will head to Delaware sometime next week to campaign for the Democrat hoping to fill his former Senate seat.
According to CNN, Biden will stump on behalf of New Castle County Executive Chris Coons, who faces Tea Party-backed Christine O'Donnell in November.
It comes as no surprise that Biden will campaign for Coons, and Republican strategists say they expect to see him in the state more than once ahead of November. But the fact that Biden is being deployed so quickly suggests Democrats are anxious to cut off any momentum that may be building for O'Donnell, who has gotten significant national attention since her primary victory Tuesday.
In an interview on MSNBC Wednesday, Biden called O'Donnell's win in the primary "hard to explain" and said it showed the message from the GOP is "No moderates need apply."
The first poll of the general election, conducted by Rasmussen Reports, still shows Coons up by double digits.
But O'Donnell has shown some fundraising prowess since she upset Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) in Tuesday's primary. O'Donnell has raised more than $1 million online since then.
The Log Cabin Republicans endorsed 11 House candidates Thursday as the association of gay Republicans looks to exert more influence over the midterm elections.
The challengers on the list include John Dennis, who's challenging Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.); Nan Hayworth, who's running against Rep. John Hall (D-N.Y.); Richard Hanna, who's running against Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.); and Mattie Fein, who faces Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.).
"We have a number of Republican candidates across the country that are supportive of our ideals — a free-market economy, a strong defense, smart tax policies, sound fiscal discipline and, without question — value equal treatment for all Americans," R. Clarke Cooper, the group's executive director, said in a statement. "We will be active and working with our local members and supporters in each of these districts and states to help get these candidates elected in November."
This round of endorsements means the group now supporters 14 Republican House members and challengers.
Delaware State Republican Party Chairman Tom Ross, once one of Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell's biggest critics, called on his party Thursday to unify around her campaign.
O'Donnell on Tuesday pulled off a stunning upset over centrist Rep. Mike Castle in the Senate GOP primary. Castle had the endorsement of the state party, which aggressively attacked the Tea Party-backed O'Donnell during the campaign. Ross had previously said that O'Donnell is not a "viable" candidate for office and "could not be elected dog-catcher."
"After a hard-fought primary, it is time to come together and unite over our shared principles and determination to rescue our economy from the destructive policies advanced by Democrats," Ross said in a statement. "The Delaware Republican Party plans on doing what it does every election year — working hard for our candidates."
Ross joined other Republican leaders in circling the wagons around O'Donnell's candidacy after negative reactions to her victory from some party officials.
Former Bush senior adviser Karl Rove, among others, had said that O'Donnell would not fare well in the general election against Democratic nominee Chris Coons because of her controversial past statements. Fox News also reported Tuesday that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) would not contribute funds to her campaign, but Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) later said it would.
Ross said the state party has "reached out to the NRSC, NRCC [National Republican Congressional Committee] and RNC [Republican National Committee] to ensure that our candidates have as much support as possible."
As the national environment continues to trend toward the GOP a little more than a month before the midterm elections, Republican strategists say it's putting more and more state legislative chambers in play with major implications for the upcoming round of redistricting.
The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), led by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, released a new report Thursday that predicted Republicans could take control of another 10 legislative chambers after this fall's elections.
One chamber the party thinks is now in play on the state legislative level — the Illinois House.
"That's a pretty good indication of the kind of year we're looking at," Gillespie said on a conference call with reporters.
The new REDMAP report from the committee, which was set up to focus exclusively on state-level races, pointed to vulnerable Democratic incumbents in at least 30 legislative seats across Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan that were won by President Obama in 2008.
Those states are key for both parties this fall since the current census projections show all three likely to lose at least one congressional seat in the upcoming round of redistricting.
Republican strategists said Thursday that economic anxiety and concerns over taxes and spending at the national level are trickling down to races, particularly in those three states, and making widespread gains for Republicans increasingly likely this fall.
"The national environment is definitely reinforcing that messaging," said Gillespie.
The RSLC's Democratic counterpart — the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) — points out that despite the national electoral environment, Democrats have made gains on the state legislative level in a handful of special elections this year. But the committee admits that Democrats hold tenuous majorities in at least 10 states.
The DLCC is also pressing the argument that Democratic stakeholders need to invest heavily in this year's state-level elections to prevent Republicans from making significant inroads right on the cusp of a redistricting.
Republicans are boasting that if their projections prove true, it could mean a gain of as many as 25 congressional seats in the long run.
"Anyone who cares about the long-term well-being of the Democratic Party knows that this fall, the smart money is in state legislative races," read a DLCC e-mail from earlier this week. The DLCC has pledged to spend some $20 million this fall, while the RSLC claims it will spend even more.
Thursday's Republican report does come with one caveat. It notes that the positive outlook "assumes that REDMAP is fully funded," which the report called "increasingly likely."
As Republicans released a TV ad hitting Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) for supporting the stimulus bill, he defended his vote during a roundtable with reporters Thursday.
"I think passing the recovery package was an essential thing to do in order to save us from, you know, the Great Depression," he said. "And I think economists on both sides of the aisle say it was roughly responsible for three points of GDP."
The National Republican Senatorial Committee released its second ad of the campaign Thursday, which targets Bennet's vote on the stimulus package.
"He voted for the stimulus bill, promising us jobs," a female announcer says in the ad. "But unemployment’s up."
"It's amazing if you look at the advertising that's being run against me," Bennet said at an event hosted by the Third Way, a Democratic-leaning Washington think tank.
"I think the recovery package saved us from falling into not just the worst recession since the Great Depression, but another Great Depression," he said. "But that's not saying a lot from the vantage point of our kids. That seems to me to be not a sufficient standard for success or progress, and that's the point I was trying to make."
Bennet's facing Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck (R) in November. Buck clinched the Senate nomination with the support of the Tea Party and other grassroots conservative groups. Democrats have sought to label Buck and other so-called Tea Party candidates as too "extreme."
Bennet made the same argument.
"I think [Buck is] very extreme on a number of issues from Colorado's point of view,” he said. "He's argued for the privatization of Social Security. He's argued for an end to the Department of Education, an end to federal student loans. He's pro-life, and with no exceptions for rape or incest. He supports Paul Ryan’s [budget] blueprint. Those are positions that are extreme and out of step with the people of my state."
Despite holding views that Bennet argues are "extreme" for Colorado, the senator said he doesn't expect to have an easy race against Buck. "The polls are going to stay close to the end for all kinds of reasons," he told The Ballot Box.
Asked if he would call on President Obama for help in the general election, Bennet was noncommittal.
"I'm grateful for his support," said Bennet, who got fundraising help from the president during his primary. "We're looking at this day by day by day. I mean, all these questions."
Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell will be in Washington Friday to speak at a major gathering of conservative activists.
O’Donnell was added to the afternoon program at the Values Voter Summit after her surprise victory over Rep. Mike Castle in the Delaware GOP Senate primary on Tuesday.
Her appearance comes as a new poll shows her trailing Democrat Chris Coons by 11 points. Coons took 53 percent of the vote to 42 percent for O'Donnell in a Rasmussen Reports poll out Thursday. Only 4 percent of respondents said they were undecided.
The Sept. 15 survey of 500 likely Delaware voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent.
The legal issues surrounding West Virginia's special Senate election might not be over, according to the Charleston Daily Mail.
The paper reports that the office of state Attorney General Darrell McGraw has received a complaint that the special-election ballot is illegal since it lists the Senate special on the same ballot as November's other races.
After the death earlier this year of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), weeks of confusion ensued over the interpretation of state election law and exactly when a special election to fill the remainder of his term could be held.
The West Virginia State Legislature finally settled the question by changing the law to allow a special election for this November, which pits Gov. Joe Manchin (D) against Republican businessman John Raese.
The legal challenge comes from Janet Thompson, a candidate running for state delegate. She argues that the secretary of state misinterpreted state election law. From the Daily Mail:
Thompson, a paralegal, argues that the ballots should be separate because the Senate election is considered a special election.
[Secretary of State Natalie] Tennant said earlier this week she went with the layout as a "a cost-saving measure and to avoid voter confusion."
The Senate race is where it would normally be — high on the ballot. The layout also is designed to prevent straight-ticket voters from forgetting to vote in the special Senate election.
Officials were concerned that two ballots — with the Senate race separate from the regular ticket — would result in straight-ticket voters leaving the voting booth without casting a vote in the Senate race.
The paper reported that it's unclear just how seriously the state AG's office is taking the complaint, but it's worth noting that McGraw and Tennant locked horns earlier this year over her initial interpretation of state election law.
Having to redo the special-election ballots would likely cost the state tens of thousands of dollars.
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