Alabama

State Rep. Jay Love leads state Sen. Harri Anne Smith by 28 points in their GOP runoff match-up in the 2nd congressional district, according to a poll released Sunday by the Love campaign.

The survey of 300 likely runoff voters by McLaughlin and Associates showed Love up 60-32. He appeared to pick up those supporting candidates now out of the race after a crowded primary field was whittled down to two last week.

Love led Smith 35-22 in the six-candidate primary.

Love’s favorable rating was 68 percent, with 5 percent unfavorable. Smith’s favorability was 51-19.
Smith campaign coordinator Bill Harris accused Love of running a push poll.

“Insiders know that you can make a poll say whatever you want it to,” Harris said. “To tell me there’s only 8 percent undecided? C’mon. This is just a tactic Mr. Love is using to make people assume he has the nomination.”

The runoff is still five weeks away and will be held July 15.



Alaska

Another poll is showing not only competitive races in Alaska, but early edges for the Democratic candidates for Sen. Ted Stevens’s (R) and Rep. Don Young’s (R) seats.

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich leads Stevens 51-44 and former lieutenant governor candidate Ethan Berkowitz leads Young 58-38 in an independent poll conducted for lobbyist Sam Kito and reported by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Kito is a big-money donor to both major parties.

The poll showed the GOP would be better off nominating Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell over Young. Parnell leads Berkowitz 43-38. In the primary, Parnell leads Young 37-34, a result within the poll’s margin of error.

The poll was performed by Hellenthal and Associates and also showed Stevens leading primary opponent David Cuddy by 15 points.

The margin of error was 6 percent.

— A.B.


Connecticut

State Sen. David Cappiello (R) announced Monday that he has raised more than $1 million for his race against freshman Rep. Chris Murphy (D).

Cappiello has stepped up his fundraising after showing just $10,000 raised between April 1 and April 20. In the month and a half since April 20, he has raised about $340,000.

“Crossing this major milestone well ahead of our June 30 filing deadline is a true testament to the momentum we’ve been able to build heading into the summer,” Cappiello said in a statement.

Murphy had raised $1.8 million as of late April and had a $1.5 million-to-$400,000 advantage in cash on hand.

— A.B.


Minnesota

Comedian Al Franken won the backing of Minnesota’s Democratic Party on Saturday to challenge Republican Norm Coleman for his Senate seat in the fall.

Franken’s unanimous endorsement comes after weeks of bad press stemming from some of his sexually explicit satirical writings and sketches on “Saturday Night Live,” as well as questions about his tax returns.

During Saturday’s convention of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the formal name of the state’s Democratic Party, Franken apologized for his jokes.

“It kills me that things I said and wrote sent a message … that they can’t count on me to be a champion for women, for all Minnesotans,” Franken said, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I’m sorry for that. Because that’s not who I am.

“I wrote a lot of jokes. Some of them weren’t funny. Some of them weren’t appropriate. Some of them were downright offensive. I understand that,” he said, the paper reported.

Franken has been the choice of national Democrats and was expected to get the party’s endorsement.

The controversy over his jokes, however, left open the possibility that the convention might be divided and give challenger Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer a chance at securing the endorsement. But the party handed Franken its unanimous endorsement on the first ballot.

Republicans are eager to take on Franken, hoping they can paint the comedian as an insensitive liberal. In particular, they point to a racy 2000 satirical article he wrote for Playboy magazine, titled “Porn-O-Rama,” and a sketch he proposed in the mid-1990s for “Saturday Night Live” joking about rape.

“For over 30 years, Al Franken has joked about rape and pornography, made fun of people’s appearances and viciously insulted those with whom he disagreed,” said Ron Carey, the chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota. “Al Franken is about as sorry for what he has said and done as he is qualified to be in the United States Senate.”

But Democrats say Franken’s jokes will not affect him in the fall.

“Look, we knew that from the get-go he had a previous career,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, expressing no regrets last week about his backing of Franken. “Here’s what all the polling data shows: You look at all the things that Al Franken said as a comedian … and then you say simply that Norm Coleman supports the war and supports President Bush 90-plus percent of the time. Franken wins by 10 points.”

— Manu Raju


New Mexico

Former Albuquerque City Councilman Martin Heinrich was named to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) Red to Blue program on Monday, less than a week after he won the primary in Rep. Heather Wilson’s (R) House district.

Heinrich will face Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White in the general election after Wilson unsuccessfully ran for Senate. Wilson’s Albuquerque-based district is one of the top swing districts in the country, and the battle should be expensive.

Wilson fell to Rep. Steve Pearce in last Tuesday’s GOP primary.

— A.B.


New York

Republican congressional nominee Francis Powers could have a most unusual but familiar opponent in his race this year — his own son.

Libertarian Fran Powers told the Staten Island Advance last week that he would seek his party’s endorsement to run for retiring Rep. Vito Fossella’s (R) seat. That seat just happens to be the one for which his father was handed the GOP’s blessing last month.

“This is not about my dad,” the younger Powers told the Advance. “I’m running against the Republican candidate.”

Fran Powers is a carpenter and musician who runs an independent music label. His father is a retired Wall Street executive and GOP fundraiser.

Further complicating matters is the fact that Fran Powers plans to file as Francis M. Powers, which could cause voters to confuse him with his father, Francis H. Powers.

“I’ve tried very hard for many years to help my son,” the elder Powers said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, he’s rejected everyone’s help to live a healthy lifestyle. Regardless of whether he wants to run for Congress, I still stand ready to help him move his life in a positive direction.”

The elder Powers, whose nomination by Staten Island Republicans came after better-known candidates opted against running, already faces a primary challenge from the borough’s Republican Party finance chairman, Jamshad Wyne.

— A.B.