Wisconsin Senate candidate Ron Johnson (R) appears with his family, not "professional actors," in his latest TV ad. The 30-second spot features his son and two daughters laboring through some boilerplate lines about how great their dad is. "OK, that's enough," Johnson interrupts to say. "Obviously, I'm not a professional politician."
But he's aspiring to be one — and these types of ads have been effective in the Midwest this cycle. During the primary in Michigan, Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Snyder ran ads featuring his daughter talking about much of a "nerd" he was, which fit with his "one tough nerd" campaign slogan. Snyder, like Johnson, was also making his first foray into politics after success in the business world.
Johnson's ad is airing statewide on cable and broadcast TV starting Tuesday, according to a campaign spokeswoman.
On the morning of his toughest political contest to date, Florida Senate hopeful Kendrick Meek (D) was in his home state of Florida. But his car was tooling around D.C.
Meek's personal vehicle, a sporty Dodge Caravan minivan, was spotted about 8:15 a.m. Tuesday moving forward along Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., toward Capitol Hill.
The car's owner hopes to move forward Tuesday, as well, straight into a spot in Florida's three-way Senate race, where he'll face Republican Marco Rubio and Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running as an Independent. According to one late poll, Meek held a 7-point lead against billionaire Jeff Greene going into Tuesday's Democratic primary.
No word on who was behind the wheel of the dark blue van, but as one Meek staffer joked, "Hopefully it wasn't his daughter — she doesn't get her permit until next year!"
It certainly wasn't the congressman, who has seven Election Day events in the Miami area, according to his campaign.
The Arizona Democratic Senate primary has been mostly an afterthought as the race between Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and J.D. Hayworth (R) drew national attention. But there are some interesting candidates vying to claim McCain's long-held seat.
Former Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman is only 32, but he's considered the frontrunner for the nod. He's raised more than $650,000, and kicked in $500,000 of his own money. On Aug. 4, he had about $578,000 cash on hand.
Former state lawmaker Cathy Eden is considered a contender by some observers but she raised less than $100,000 during the primary. Eden, 60, has worked as a top bureaucrat in the state health department and has touted her experience during the campaign.
Meanwhile, former investigative reporter John Dougherty is promising to start digging up dirt in Washington, if he gets elected. According to his website biography, "John's 1989 story in the Dayton Daily News triggered the Keating Five Senate Ethics Committee hearings that nearly ended Senator McCain’s career." But like Eden, Dougherty has been a weak fundraiser.
Attorney Randy Parraz rounds out the Democratic field.
As voters head to the polls, McCain has a light Election Day schedule. He and his wife, Cindy, plan to vote at their polling station in Madison Camelview Elementary School in Phoenix. He has no public events afterward until his election night party at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney (R) is set for a midterm campaign swing for fellow Republicans that will take him to at least 25 states before Election Day.
According to the Boston Globe, Romney is kicking off the heavy campaign scheduleTuesday night by headlining a fundraiser for the New Hampshire state Republican Party.
The increase in Romney's activity will also include a change in style, according to the Globe's Sasha Issenberg:
But the most dramatic re invention may be a stylistic one: Romney is seeking to come across as more easygoing and accessible than the formally dressed, perfectly coiffed, carefully rehearsed candidate of the last campaign.
“Mitt is doing a better job at low-keying it,’’ said Steve Duprey, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party who supported McCain in 2008 and was a vocal Romney critic at the time. “He would be wise to stay with it right through a presidential primary.’’
New Hampshire is the place Romney’s advisers and allies say they see Mitt at rest: a wearer of jeans and driver of a black 2003 Chevy Silverado pickup truck. Some of them are hoping that Romney’s laid-back summer lifestyle will survive Labor Day and endure onto the campaign trail, helping to erase the impression many voters have had of a wealthy candidate almost animatronically focused on winning.
“That’s the Mitt Romney that I know and really enjoy — not the guy they say is too perfect, too stiff,’’ said Ron Kaufman, a longtime Romney adviser who visited him this summer. “The public image of a lot of these folks in office are often 100 degrees out of whack with reality.’’
Among the 2012 presidential hopefuls on the Republican side, Romney has been among the most active thus far in 2010. His political action committee has donated to more than 100 GOP candidates, and he has focused fundraising efforts on down-ballot candidates in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
At a candidates' forum Monday night in Harlem, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) made clear what he thought about President Obama's suggestion he "end his career with dignity."
"Frankly, he has not been around long enough to determine what my dignity is," Rangel said of the president. "For the next two years, I will be more likely to protect his dignity."
State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV (D), who's considered Rangel's top primary challenger, harangued the congressman for his "years and years of corruption."
He then tried metaphor.
"In order to have good fruit, you must have a healthy tree,” Powell said, paraphrasing the Book of Matthew. "We not longer have a healthy tree, and we won’t have healthy fruit if this continues."
But from the crowd's reaction, it seems Rangel still has popular support in his district.
Glancing around the Baptist church, Rangel asked, "Adam, is he here?" He continued: "He truly believes that I should resign, so that somebody else should take my place."
The crowd, according to The New York Times, yelled: "No!"
"He is the only one to say this," Rangel added. "I think it’s creative. ... But if it's OK with my doctor, I am going to serve the next two years."
In a departure from previous primary days this cycle, it's former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) who has the most on the line in Tuesday's Republican primaries in Florida.
Huckabee has endorsed in three competitive GOP primaries — he's backing Attorney General Bill McCollum in the primary for governor, Daniel Webster in the race for Rep. Alan Grayson's (D) seat and Karen Diebel in the primary to face Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D).
In the governor's race, three potential 2012 hopefuls are behind McCollum — Huckabee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The primary between McCollum and Rick Scott was in a dead heat heading into Tuesday.
But Huckabee is the only one who came to the state to rally for McCollum the weekend before the primary. He is also the only one who has waded into the most competitive congressional primaries in the state. Huckabee headlined a rally for congressional candidate Daniel Webster over the weekend.
For the former governor, the endorsements in competitive congressional primaries mark a change in his political activity from earlier in the season.
Along with a handful of endorsements in Florida, Huckabee offered last-minute backing to former Rep. Nathan Deal (R) in Georgia's gubernatorial runoff — Deal won — and released a new slate of endorsements in Iowa, the first state to hold a 2012 caucus.
Elsewhere in Florida, the Republican primary for attorney general pits two potential GOP presidential contenders in 2012 against one another.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is backing former state Rep. Holly Benson, while former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is behind Pam Bondi. Both Gingrich and Palin recorded robocalls for their endorsed candidates.
The congressional campaign of businessman Francisco Canseco (R) is touting new internal numbers it says have him leading Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas).
According to a poll for the campaign done by the firm On Message, Inc., Canseco leads 43 percent to 37 percent. The poll has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.
Canseco is on the National Republican Congressional Committee's list of "Young Guns," but Democrats have hammered him in recent weeks over hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax liens on several of his properties.
Despite Republicans viewing the seat as a potential pick-up opportunity in the fall, Rodriguez is in a strong financial position ahead of November. The incumbent had more than $700,000 cash on had at the end of the second quarter.
The company once headed by Connecticut Senate candidate Linda McMahon (R) is pushing back against a former wrestler who claims the WWE encourages steroid use.
Former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) employee Chris Nowinski recently charged that the company should be held responsible for the death of wrestler Lance Cade, who died of apparent heart failure on Aug. 13.
Nowinski claims that Cade, whose real name is Lance McNaught, was a steroid user during his time in the WWE. He also alleges that the company encourages its wrestlers to use steroids.
The WWE's treatment of its performers has become a recurring campaign issue for McMahon, who won the GOP Senate nomination on Aug. 10 and will face Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) in November.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis (D) doesn't think much of a potential 2012 presidential bid from his fellow former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney (R).
Dukakis, the Democratic nominee for president in 1988, called Romney "the biggest disappointment I think I’ve ever seen" in an interview Monday with the State House News Service in Massachusetts.
Asked about the prospect of a Romney presidency, Dukakis said it would be "disastrous."
Dukakis, unvarnished, spoke warmly of Romney’s father George, who governed Michigan in the 1960s, noting that George Romney’s use of a fuel-efficient car inspired him to court his wife, Kitty, in a “little yellow Rambler convertible.”
“I thought we were going to get a junior version of George Romney with Mitt,” he said, adding, “There’s no core to this guy ... I think he’d be a disastrous president.”
Mitt Romney’s spokesman fired back in an email to the News Service. “Mike Dukakis sounds like a very angry and bitter old man,” he said. “I think it’s sad.”
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