Senate 2008 Guru: Following the Races

Keeping a close eye on developments in the 2008 U.S. Senate races

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Big Thursday Rundown

  • First and foremost, our thoughts are with Elizabeth Edwards and the Edwards family.

  • Colorado: Colorado Pols has much on the aftershocks of Scott McInnis' exit from the Senate race. First, McInnis suggests other potential candidates not named Bob Schaffer, and then rumors that McInnis was pushed out of the race are looked at. There may still be some big fireworks with the CO-GOP yet.

  • North Carolina: Blue NC has Liddy Dole as the sixth least powerful Senator.

  • To see the entire Senate power ranking, courtesy of Congress.org, click here. Highlights include the bottom 16 being all Republicans except for two freshman Democrats and the top 17 being all Democrats except for two senior Republicans. The most impotent Senators up in 2008 include: Dole at 95, Smilin' Norm Coleman and Sprintin' John Sununu tied at 93, Lamar Alexander at 78, John "Box Turtle" Cornyn at 77, Two-Faced Susan Collins at 75, and Jim "In Denial" Inhofe at 71.

  • Oklahoma: Notorious global warming denier and possible Holocaust denier Jim "In Denial" Inhofe gets spanked at the Senate Environment Committee hearing the other day, courtesy of Think Progress.

  • Louisiana: A Southern Media & Opinion Research poll has former Senator John Breaux down significantly against Republican Bobby Jindal. Does anybody know more about SM&OR's background? This passage makes me a bit skeptical:

    The pollster says "not a lot of people could name anything he (Breaux) has done for Louisiana recently."
    Well, no kidding. Breaux has been out of office for a couple of years, so he hasn't been in the public eye "recently." It makes me skeptical that the poll was as non-partisan and objective as I like my polls. Definitely a red flag, but we'll have to wait for subsequent polling by other outfits to determine how much of an outlier this one is. If other polls have Breaux down 20, then we're in bad shape for LA-Gov, which probably doesn't help Mary Landrieu in 2008, though several outcomes are possible. If other polls have the LA-Gov race much tighter, then I'll keep a raised eyebrow toward SM&OR polls.

    UPDATE (8:13pm): Oklahoma: Firedoglake has a nice listing of where Jim Inhofe's bread is buttered. Special interests financed 34 trips for Inhofe worth over $45,000. If there's one thing Inhofe isn't in denial about, it's his ATM card from the United Bank of Big Oil.

  • 6 Comments:

    Blogger VA Blogger said...

    Are you shocked that the bottom of the power rankings are freshmen members of the minority party?

    1:35 PM, March 22, 2007  
    Blogger Senate2008Guru said...

    No - I'm not shocked. It doesn't change the fact that they are powerless and that their constituencies might be better served by someone less impotent in the halls of the Senate.

    1:38 PM, March 22, 2007  
    Blogger VA Blogger said...

    ...unless the Republicans are voted back into the majority in 2008.

    I'm just saying, would you have used the same argument against Democratic incumbents in 2004 or 2006?

    1:48 PM, March 22, 2007  
    Blogger Will Cubbison said...

    uhhhh
    Dole ranked 10 spots below Burr. Burr was put into office after her. She is a former presidential candidate and a former cabinet secretary. Oh, and lets not even talk about her husband's stature.

    A freshman she is not.

    12:09 PM, March 23, 2007  
    Blogger Will Cubbison said...

    doing some looking and that LA polling firm doesnt look too bad. The guy who runs it worked for the Democrat who held the seat before Landrieu, and worked in the Carter WH.

    Im not sure how accurate their polling is, I havent seen enough to say they have been accurate or inaccurate. but they look like they are on the up and up.

    1:52 PM, March 23, 2007  
    Blogger VA Blogger said...

    She won her first term in 2002. She is a freshman. Its not a matter of opinion.

    2:16 PM, March 23, 2007  

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