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Colo GOP Shouting Match – audio

Monday, July 26th, 2010

How bad is the Colorado GOP Civil War getting? Example A: Even before ex-Congressman Tom Tancredo’s official campaign announcement, Colorado GOP officials are losing their cool over his bid on the air.

Tom Tancredo Gets Into Screaming Match With Colorado GOP Chair (AUDIO)

Jillian Rayfield |

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) just announced his bid for governor on a third party ticket today, and he’s already facing pushback from the state Republican head, Dick Wadhams. And by pushback, we mean screaming match.

On Peter Boyles KHOW radio show, Tancredo and Wadhams got into a shouting match over Tancredo’s decision to run, with Wadhams arguing that Tancredo is “ensuring” that the Democratic candidate, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, will win.

Tancredo had threatened to enter the race if the GOP’s scandal-ridden candidates, Scott McInnis and Dan Maes, didn’t agree to drop out after the August 10 primary so that the party could appoint another nominee. When neither agreed to do so, Tancredo announced today that he’ll run as a third-party candidate.

Tancredo claimed this morning that Wadhams had said he “liked the idea” of a Tancredo bid, to which Wadhams shot back that he did not like the idea, and “was stunned that you would even bring it up.”

Wadhams was also quite upset that Tancredo “wouldn’t even return my phone calls.”

Here’s one choice minute of the audio. The full show can be downloaded here.

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Sink moves ahead in Florida

Monday, July 26th, 2010

As a brutalizing GOP Civil War battle plays itself out in Florida, CFO Alex Sink is outpacing the competition, opening up a lead in the latest polling from PPP.

Sink moves ahead

Benefiting from her Republican candidates gashing the heck out of each other, Alex Sink has opened up an unlikely lead in the Florida Governor’s race. She’s up 36-30 on Rick Scott, with Bud Chiles getting 13% and 37-23 on Bill McCollum with Chiles getting 14%.

Scott and McCollum both have very poor favorability numbers. Their primary battle has completely turned off Democrats and independents, and Republicans aren’t seeing them very positively either. 23% of voters have a favorable opinion of Scott while 41% view him unfavorably. While only 34% of Republicans view him positively, 40% of independents and 52% of Democrats see him unfavorably. McCollum’s numbers are even worse. Only 16% have a favorable opinion of him with 51% holding a negative one. Just 27% of GOP voters see him favorably, while 59% of Democrats and 57% of independents have an unfavorable opinion of him.

Sink is pretty much a blank slate to voters in the state, with 54% of voters having no opinion of her. Most striking in her numbers is that independents see her favorably by a better than 2:1 margin, 32/15. She is likely benefiting from being able to stay above the fray while the Republican candidates go after each other.

In the head to heads Sink benefits from a more unified party than either Republican candidate and also wins independent voters. She gets 62% of Democrats to Scott’s 52% of Republicans and leads him 36-28 with independents. She gets 61% of Democrats to McCollum’s 45% of Republicans and leads him 40-12 with independents.

Despite his double digit performance Bud Chiles isn’t having a particularly strong impact at this point because he’s not pulling disproportionately from either Democratic or Republican leaning voters. Against Scott he gets 14% of McCain voters and 11% of Obama voters, and against McCollum he gets 14% of McCain voters and 13% of Obama voters.

It’s been a pretty remarkable turnaround for Sink, who trailed McCollum 44-31 in a head to head contest when PPP last surveyed Florida in March. It’s important to note that in the more likely instance that she faces Scott 25% of Republican voters are undecided to only 16% of Democrats so this race should tighten once the GOP has a nominee. How well the GOP can heal and get on the same page after the primary could determine this race though- there’s little doubt that Scott and McCollum’s supporters hate each other and that could end up handing Sink a victory that four months ago appeared very unlikely.

Full results here

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White has $3M advantage over Perry

Friday, July 16th, 2010

White has $3 million advantage over Perry in Texas governor’s race

 By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News

  AUSTIN – Democrat  Bill White beat 10-year incumbent Rick Perry in the latest round of fundraising and goes into the fall campaign with a $3 million advantage.

 In his bid to unseat Perry, White raised $7.4 million since the March primary. The Republican governor collected $7.1 million.

 But spending demands on Perry in the fractious GOP primary against Kay Bailey Hutchison have left him trailing in cash on hand as the nominees look to the November general election.

The former Houston mayor has $9 million in his campaign treasury while Perry has $5.9 million in the bank.

“Momentum is building,” White campaign spokesman Katy Bacon said. “People want somebody in Austin who will work for Texas, not a career politician who’s in it for himself.”

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the governor’s fundraising underscores wide public support for Perry’s re-election.

The latest period covers money raised since the March primary.

Continue reading…

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Colo. GOP says McInnis is cooked

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

The Fix: McInnis’s Colorado governor campaign derailed by plagiarism charges

By Aaron Blake

Former Rep. Scott McInnis‘s (R-Colo.) gubernatorial campaign is in a fight for its life as charges of plagiarism have led to questions of whether he can stay in the race.

Republicans in Colorado say he’s a dead man walking, and they are exploring the ins and outs of what they can do to get another nominee.

The Denver Post this week uncovered two separate examples of alleged plagiarism by McInnis — one in papers McInnis wrote for a fellowship a few years ago and another in a newspaper column and speech he delivered in 1994.

Sources in Colorado Republican circles say it’s likely a matter of when, not if, McInnis will exit the race.

“Almost without exception, they think he is done,” said one senior Colorado Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly.

“He may be the last one to know it, but he’s dead in the water,” said another. “It’s likely he will resist heavily, but at some point he’s got to realize this is a fact of life.”

McInnis’s campaign did not return an e-mail seeking comment.

Indications are indeed strong that McInnis will be the next candidate to fall victim to plagiarism. Already this cycle, Idaho congressional hopeful Vaughn Ward (R) and former Boston Red Sox co-owner Les Otten’s (R) campaign for governor of Maine have seen their campaign torpedoed due to plagiarism allegations.

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More heat for Corbett’s unemployment snipe

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Tom Corbett’s snipe that the unemployed are too lazy to get work continues to draw fire from Pennsylvania press, as the Harrisburg Patriot-News fact-checks his claim.

 Says the spokesman for Pennsylvania Labor and Industry: “If there are any employers out there who have job openings, we would like to hear from them.”

PENNLIVE/Harrisburg Patriot-News

Corbett’s gaffe illustrates disconnect with unemployed constituents

Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett is on the witness stand and, boy, is his testimony pretty damning.

To paraphrase, Corbett said the state’s 9.1 percent unemployment rate is the fault of unemployed people.

Corbett apparently believes people are too lazy to look for jobs or unwilling to take jobs because they’re getting fat and happy on public assistance.

Guess that depends on how you define “fat and happy.”

In Pennsylvania, the maximum weekly unemployment check is for $564 — well below the poverty level for a family of four.

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The $18 billion question

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Will Rick Perry continue to dodge debates with Bill White?

The Amarillo Globe-News joins the growing chorus urging Perry to face up to the tough questions about his record, which will no doubt include why Perry’s living large on the taxpayer’s dime while the state faces an $18 billion budget hole.

Editorial: Texans need to see debate

Gov. Rick Perry acquitted himself quite nicely during a series of debates leading up to the March 2 Republican primary contest with U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Tea Party activist Debra Medina.

Why, then, does the governor think it’s becoming for him to keep shirking face-to-face exchanges with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill White?

Gov. Perry stiffed White and Libertarian candidate Kathie Glass the other day at an event in Kerrville, which played host to a League of Women Voters candidate forum.

White and Glass took part; Perry stayed away. 

Continue reading…

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Copycat? McInnis Caught Plagiarizing

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

We thought Scott McInnis’ copying was confined to the GOP playbook of policies that brought us the worst recession in generations. Turns out McInnis is plagiarizing a Colorado Supreme Court justice and passing the work off as his own.

 McInnis, the Colorado GOP gubernatorial nominee, was paid $300,000 for a fellowship at a water foundation after he left Congress. At the foundation, The Denver Post reports, “at times, he uses identical, complex phrases also employed by [Supreme Court Justice Gregory J.] Hobbs, such as ‘constant vigilance’ and ‘key to a complex interlock.’ And entire sentences — even paragraphs — are identical but for a synonym or two and tense change.”

McInnis’ articles for foundation lift ideas, words directly from 20-year-old essay

By Karen E. Crummy, The Denver Post

 Scott McInnis said an assistant was responsible. Although GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis presented his “Musings on Water” for publication as original works, portions are identical and nearly identical to an essay on water written 20 years earlier by now-Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory J. Hobbs.

 A Clemson University expert who reviewed McInnis’ work next to Hobbs’ essay called it a clear case of plagiarism of both words and ideas.

 McInnis’ water articles were a required part of his two-year fellowship at the Hasan Family Foundation in 2005 and 2006. The former congressman, who left office in 2004, was paid $300,000 to do speaking engagements and “research and write a monthly article on water issues that can be distributed to media and organizations as well as be available on the Internet.”

 Totaling 150 pages over 23 installments, the articles discussing state water policy are devoid of footnotes, endnotes or other forms of attribution.

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What exactly *is* gay outreach?

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Nathan Deal ‘disappointed’ by Sarah Palin pick — and accuses Karen Handel of supporting gay ‘outreach’

by Jim Galloway

This morning’s endorsement of Karen Handel by former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin has already ratcheted up the tension level in the Republican race for governor.

A formal response by the campaign of Nathan Deal, the formal congressman, expresses disappointment – and immediately accuses Handel of voting to fund gay “outreach” to “kids.”

No doubt, the Deal campaign is hoping that, if it can’t make Palin rethink her endorsement, then perhaps it can discourage the former GOP vice presidential candidate from making a personal visit.

The full Deal statement:

It’s disappointing that Sarah Palin has chosen to back the most liberal Republican in this race.

In past races, Karen Handel endorsed taxpayer-funded domestic partner benefits and gay adoption — and she’s been caught lying about it. Just last night, Handel finally admitted she’d written a check to a gay rights group — when previously she said the check was a forgery and she never lived at that address.

“As Fulton Commission chair, Handel voted to give taxpayer dollars to “Youth Pride” which did outreach to gay and “questioning” kids as young as 13 and funded seminars such as “Unsung Heroes of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community” – this was during a budget crisis.

“We do hope that the former governor will look at the record and reconsider, or explain to conservative Georgia Republican primary voters why she’s endorsing Handel in light of these well-documented facts and Handel’s clumsy effort to cover them up.”

No details yet about the dates of the vote, or the amount of money allegedly involved.

“These guys are really just embarrassing themselves,” said Handel spokesman Dan McLagan.

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CT: Foley’s Iraq experience: What’s fact, what’s fiction?

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Did GOP gov candidate Tom Foley exaggerate his experience in Iraq? The Connecticut Post probes his record.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley’s public-service career began in the summer of 2003, when the millionaire Greenwich investor suddenly evolved from big-time Republican fundraiser to high-ranking member of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

Asked to serve in the CPA by his former Harvard Business School classmate President George W. Bush, Foley was there from August 2003 until March of 2004, living in the heavily fortified Green Zone.

His focus was on privatizing state-owned businesses in an attempt to democratize the war-torn country.

“Donning bulletproof vests, dodging rockets and mortars, and avoiding IEDs became regular parts of the routine,” says Foley’s campaign website.

But in public comments made upon his return from the job, Foley downplayed the danger, said he often traveled around Baghdad without an escort and “never once ran into a situation that I considered hostile.” Foley’s website, the public face of his campaign for governor, also claims that his team of 10 helped restart many businesses, rewrote commercial law and “helped restructure the banking system.”

But a former provisional official, quoted in a report by the Associated Press in May 2004, said Foley “did not oversee the oil industry and related businesses or financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies.” And a 2006 book on Iraq called “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” by Rajiv Chandrasekaran and published by Alfred A. Knopf, claimed that Foley’s team may have actually stalled the inevitable rebuilding of the Iraq stock exchange.

Foley, the book said, used an expletive to dismiss a consultant’s concerns that international law prohibited the sale of state assets by an occupying government.

In an interview last week and earlier remarks to the editorial board of the Connecticut Post, Foley defended his work in Iraq, denied the depictions presented in Chandrasekaran’s book and recalled Baghdad as place where he gambled daily with the potential for random violence, mostly from indiscriminate mortar rounds lobbed into the heavily fortified Green Zone.

Foley’s opponents in the Aug. 10 Republican gubernatorial primary — Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, of Stamford, and R. Nelson Griebel, of Simsbury, said last week that Foley’s campaign claims are overstated and indicate a weakness of character.

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Corbett: “the jobs are there,” but some purposely staying unemployed

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett says a portion of Pennsylvania’s 591,000 workers without jobs are choosing to stay unemployed.

During a door-to-door tour of Elizabethtown, Lancaster County businesses today, Corbett said “the jobs are there,” but that many people are purposely remaining unemployed, in order to collect benefits. He says he’s heard this from business owners across Pennsylvania. “One of the issues, and I hear it repeatedly – one of the individuals said, ‘I can’t get workers. People don’t want to come back to work while they still have unemployment.’’ He said.  “They’re literally telling him, ‘I’ll come back to work when unemployment runs out.’ That’s becoming a problem.”

Corbett added, “The jobs are there. But if we keep extending unemployment, people are going to sit there and – I’ve literally had construction companies tell me, I can’t get people to come back to work until…they say, I’ll come back to work when unemployment runs out.”

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