The NRCC began airing an attack ad on Louisiana TV last night taking aim at Don Cazayoux, the Democratic candidate to succeed Rep. Richard Baker (R-La.). Cazayoux will face off against Republican newspaper publisher Woody Jenkins in the state's sixth district special election May 3.
NRCC spokesman Ken Spain told The Hill the ad would run for one week. To attack Cazayoux in the conservative-leaning district (it voted 59% for Bush in 2004), the NRCC tapped a traditional conservative issue -- taxes -- suggesting Cazayoux should change his name to "Don Tax You."
Cazayoux's campaign did not return calls for comment.
DCCC spokeswoman Kyra Jennings, however, told The Hill that other prominent Louisiana Republicans -- Rep. Rodney Alexander and first congressional district candidate Steve Scalise -- also supported the tax-raising bills cited by the NRCC's ad.
A new survey shows that a Republican ticket of John McCain and Condoleezza Rice would defeat the Democratic "Dream Team" of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
McCain-Rice leads Obama-Clinton among Empire State registered voters 49 percent to 44 percent, according to the Marist College poll. Clinton-Obama fares only slightly better; McCain-Rice is ahead of that ticket 49 percent to 46 percent.
The media buzz for Rice as McCain's running mate has been building in recent weeks.
When asked on Tuesday by a Reuters reporter whether she would make a "Shermanesque" statement ruling out a McCain-Rice ticket in November, Rice demurred.
"Senator McCain is an extraordinary American, a really outstanding leader and obviously a great patriot," Rice said at a press conference with Mexican and Canadian officials. "That said, I am going back to Stanford. I am going back to California."
More conservatives are now weighing in on the prospect of Rice as a candidate, though most don't believe it will happen.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that Rice would be "great" but probably isn't interested in running. "You know, like Colin Powell, I think they aspire to serve in different ways and perhaps not have to go through the rigors of elected politics," Cornyn told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Thursday. "I can understand."
Anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist last month told the Briefing Room that she would make "a great vice presidential candidate and a good president." Norquist, however, added that she wasn't campaigning for it, despite her visit several weeks ago to his weekly breakfast of conservative activists.
And the Club for Growth's new blog, VP Watch, finds Norquist's support for Rice odd since she doesn't have much of a record on domestic policy.
Mark Warner, already the favorite to replace Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), raised $2.5 million in the first quarter for his race.
Mark Warner had raised $3.85 million before January for the Senate campaign. His likely general election challenger, former Gov. Jim Gilmore (R), raised just $751,322 before this quarter.
Warner, who took advice from MyDD's Jerome Armstrong when he was considering a 2008 presidential run, released a video to thank his supporters for donating to his campaign. Watch it below:
A new ad from Kentucky Democrat Bruce Lunsford attacks Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for being a Washington insider. Lunsford is vying to challenge McConnell for his Senate seat.
"Mitch McConnell has been in the Senate 24 year. Washington's changed him, and things are getting worse," Lunsford says in the ad.
Except for the hit at McConnell, the ad is mostly biographical, introducing Lunsford's experience as a businessman and in the military.
McConnell campaign spokesman Justin Brasell declined to comment.
Democrat and Iraq war veteran Ashwin Madia got a boost today in his bid for a Minneapolis-area House seat, receiving the endorsement of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.).
Madia had started the primary race as an underdog to state Sen. Terri Bonoff. But he now leads Bonoff in Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) delegates, who usually determine the party's congressional nominees. The party believes it has a shot at taking the seat, now held by retiring Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.).
Ellison called Madia, 30, "one of the most dynamic young voices in our DFL Party."
"He has electrified the delegates in the Third District and rightly so," Ellison said in a release. "His compassionate, common-sense progressivism, coupled with his impressive credentials, and his energetic ability to inspire so many new people into political action have convinced me that Madia is the best choice as our DFL-endorsed candidate."
The Club for Growth took at look at South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's (R) record on taxes and likes what it sees.
Sanford, mentioned as a possible running mate for John McCain, had all "A" ratings during his six years in the House, according to the Club's brand new blog, VP Watch. Sanford scored higher than two other prospects who also served in Congress, Securities and Exchange Commissioner Chris Cox (R-Calif.) and former U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman (R-Ohio).
"Sanford, clearly, has a stellar record, and Rob Portman's score took a deep dive in his later years," writes the Club's blogger and spokeswoman extraordinaire, Nachama Soloveichik.
She also weighs in on other possible veep candidates, including Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri ("leaves something to be desire"), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ("lack of experience") and Condoleezza Rice ("probably just a pipe dream").
Another advocacy group has taken sides in 7th-term Rep. Walter Jones' (R-N.C.) reelection bid today, as the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) threw their support behind Jones.
"He's been a supporter of all of our main legislative issues," said John Norton, public relations manager for NCPA, citing Jones' membership in the Congressional Pharmacy Coalition.
Jones will face what Norton called a tough primary contest May 6 against Onslow County Commissioner Joe McLaughlin. McLaughlin recently earned the support of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) President Grover Norquist, who traveled to North Carolina's 3rd congressional district in February to tell reporters that Jones had broken ATR's pledge against raising taxes. (Walter Alarkon has a story in today's Hill about Norquist's House endorsements.)
According to Jones' latest FEC filing, a 2007 year-end report filed in March, NCPA had already given $8500 to Jones' campaign in the cycle thusfar.
Former Rep. Dick Zimmer said he's ready to enter the Republican primary for the Senate seat now held by Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), reports PolitickerNJ.
Zimmer told the Garden State news blog that his candidacy isn't a done deal yet, but he added that he would run if asked. He said that several GOP leaders had called him on Wednesday to talk about a bid.
Those who suspect that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is secretly backing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for the Democratic presidential nomination might be surprised to learn this: Pelosi hired a Little Rock company with ties to Sen. Hillary Clinton
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell had some kind words to say about Barack Obama's speech on race .
"I think that Sen. Obama handled the issue well . . . he didn't look the other way," said Powell, in an ABC News interview. "He didn't wait for the, for the, you know, for the storm to go over. He went on television, and I thought, gave a very, very thoughtful, direct speech. And he didn't abandon the minister who brought him closer to his faith."
He also took a similar tack as Obama's when judging Rev. Jeremiah Wright's conversial comments.
"Rev. Wright is also somebody who has made enormous contributions in his community and has turned a lot of lives around," he said, "And so, I have to put that in context with these very offensive comments that he made, which I reject out of hand."
Powell, who has served in both Bush administrations, said he has yet to decide who to back in the White House race.
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