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DGA News Update - September 3, 2010

2010 Elections

AK - Walker Mulls Options for Governor's Race After GOP Loss [AP] "A spokesman says Alaska gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker will soon decide whether he continues his candidacy, maybe as early as next week. Walker finished second in last week's Republican primary to Gov. Sean Parnell. The vice chairman for the Alaskan Independence Party, J.R. Myers, told Soldotna radio station KSRM that the party was contacted by the Walker campaign. The party's current gubernatorial candidate, Don Wright, has withdrawn...Walker's campaign manager, Taylor Bickford, says supporters are encouraging Walker to stay in the race. He is considering all options -- including the AIP, running as a write-in candidate or dropping out."

AZ - Goddard Repeats Call For More Debates [Goddard for Governor] "With the single, scheduled debate now complete, Attorney General Terry Goddard is again calling for Jan Brewer to meet him for a series of six debates in locations statewide. In this latest letter, Goddard wrote: 'It is our responsibility to give Arizonans clear information that will allow them to exercise their fundamental right to make an informed decision about who should lead our state into the future. Arizonans deserve more than a single discussion of the issues we face.'"

CA - With Cash in Bank, Brown Puts Race In High Gear [San Francisco Chronicle] "The political moment that eager California Democrats and some curious Republicans have been waiting for has arrived: Jerry Brown has begun a visible campaign for governor...With a TV ad campaign expected to start soon and an accelerated schedule of in-person appearances commencing around the state...Brown strategists believed that lying low during the summer, even if risky, was their best option. Had Brown's campaign responded to each of Whitman's attack ads since June, the Brown strategists said, they would have been out of money by Labor Day, when voters traditionally start paying attention to campaigns. Brown's camp thinks the strategy worked because the race is even."

CO - Dan Maes: 'Not Going Anywhere' [Denver Daily News] "In the wake of questions over his character and credibility, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes says he's 'not going anywhere.' Maes spoke to the media for the first time yesterday after being summoned to Washington, D.C. to meet with the Republican Governors Association. He said RGA officials sent him 'mixed messages' about whether the organization would authorize as much as $9 million for his general election campaign."

FL - Jennifer Carroll: Scott Running for Personal Gain [Crowley Political Report] "Rick Scott formally announce[d] in Jacksonville that he has picked state Rep. Jennifer Carroll to be his running mate. Carroll supported Attorney General Bill McCollum in the race to win the GOP nomination for Florida governor. During a meeting of Clay County Republicans last month, Carroll told the crowd that she supported McCollum over Scott for governor because: 'We do not need that seat to be a seat where you're learning, to be a seat where it's for personal gain, to be a seat where the residents and the citizens of the state of Florida will be negatively impacted because of a lack of vision.'Apparently she has changed her mind."

FL - Rick Scott Seems to Forget Which Party Controls Tallahassee [Orlando Sentinel] "What Scott's campaign strategy - for those not paying attention until now, the plan is to trash national policies that have upset voters, but largely have no relevance to the job of governor - seems to overlook is that Republicans have held the Governor's Mansion for 12 years and the Florida Legislature for even longer. In fact, his new lieutenant governor nominee, state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, has voted along with Republicans to use $16 billion in stimulus money over the last three years. During the Republican reign of the last decade-and-a-half, they have cut taxes by tens of billions of dollars, outsourced and privatized scores of government contracts and programs, dramatically enhanced tax-incentive tools and slashed regulations for businesses."

GA - Deal Dumps Partial Tax Returns Ahead of Holiday Weekend [AJC] "Republican gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal fulfilled his pledge to release his tax records Thursday as his rival Roy Barnes had four months earlier. The former North Georgia congressman, who listed his net worth at $2.5 million on his financial disclosures, put 29 years worth of his income tax records online after 6 p.m. He released only 1040 forms, which offer a basic overview, however, not the detailed supplemental forms that show the specific revenue streams from specific businesses and properties. The more detailed forms might shed light on his financial interest in a salvage business in Gainesville - questions about those interests led to a congressional ethics investigation. Campaign spokesman Brian Robinson did not say whether Deal planned to give the same detailed accounting as Barnes."

MD - O'Malley Points To Ehrlich Veto On Early Voting [Washington Examiner] "Gov. Martin O'Malley's campaign is using a bipartisan push for early voting to criticize Republican Bob Ehrlich for once opposing an early voting bill. 'It's shameful that Bob Ehrlich opposed common-sense eforts to make it easier to vote,' Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown said, claiming Ehrlich called early voting an 'insult to Marylanders.' 'The real insult to Maryland voters would be to allow Maryland to slide backwards with another four years of Bob Ehrlich in the governor's mansion.'...In May 2005, Ehrlich vetoed an early voting bill passed by the state legislature. The legislature shot down Ehrlich's veto in 2006, but the bill got tied up in courts over a disagreement on its constitutionality before it could be implemented. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that the issue should go to voters - who overwhelmingly passed early voting in November 2008. Maryland Democrat and Republican parties joined forces outside the State House in Annapolis on Thursday to encourage early voting."

MA - Gov. Patrick Outraised Baker By More Than Double In August [AP] "Patrick's fundraising is picking up as the race for governor heads into its final months. Patrick reported raising more than twice as much as his Republican opponent Charles Baker during August. Patrick, boosted by a series of fundraisers including one on Martha's Vineyard during President Obama's vacation, reported raising nearly $524,000 in August. Baker reported raising more than $253,000. The Massachusetts Republican Party has picked up the cost of a recent Baker television advertisement, allowing him to hold on to more of his campaign money."

NV - Sandoval's Support of Racial Profiling Betrays Heritage [Rebel Yell] "Why did Sandoval lose the many Hispanics that were willing to vote for him? Because Sandoval's personal identity was drowned by the politics. His commercial states that if elected, he would be the first Hispanic governor. But what good does that do when his beliefs and views contradict the interest of Hispanics in Nevada? It is clear that Sandoval has no knowledge of the needs or issues that are prominent in the Hispanic community. Once again, just looking and saying you're Hispanic does not mean you know what it means to be Hispanic."

OH - Dems File Complaint With Fox News in Ohio [AP] "The Democratic Governors Association has filed an elections complaint in Ohio alleging Fox News Network illegally helped the Republican governor nominee solicit funds during a television appearance. In documents filed Thursday, the association says Fox allowed John Kasich to request contributions from viewers during an Aug. 18 broadcast and displayed the address of his campaign website. The complaint alleges the free publicity is an improper in-kind contribution to Kasich's campaign."

OH - Gov. Strickland Stumps In Springfield [WHIO] "After encouraging support for local and state-level Democratic candidates, Governor Ted Strickland enumerated his administration's accomplishments and drew a stark contrast between his values and those of his opponent, Republican John Kasich during his campaign stop at the UAW 402 picnic grounds Thursday in Springfield. Pointing to Kasich's previous relationship with Lehman Brothers, Strickland portrayed his opponent as a man who was not only out of touch with middle class America but as one who conducts himself in an elitist way. Strickland's speech gained momentum as he accused Kasich of hiding his tax records, which Strickland said shows Kasich earned approximately $1,000 an hour as a fellow at Ohio State University. He then criticized Kasich's proposed plan to privatize the Department of Development, which Strickland said would allow for runaway salaries that would be shielded from public scrutiny."

PA - Dan Onorato Presses Tom Corbett to Debate [Philadelphia Daily News] "State Attorney General Tom Corbett, the gaffe-prone Republican front-runner, has had little to say about debates in the run-up to the Nov. 2 general election. Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, the Democratic nominee, called in June for 14 debates in every corner of the state and then issued several news releases when Corbett didn't meet that demand...Corbett and Onorato have committed to one debate on Sept. 27, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, in Hershey. Corbett this week said that he would consider two more debates."

TX - White Wants 1,250 More Officers To Secure Border [AP] "Democratic candidate for governor Bill White laid out his plan to secure the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday, a job he said his opponent, Gov. Rick Perry, has failed to do in 10 years in office. White said he would use federal grants, state money and forfeiture dollars from drug seizures to hire 1,000 new local law enforcement officers and 250 state troopers...'Texas needs to do better a job than what it's done,' White said. 'We can do it only if we have more resources on the ground. Rick Perry's failed to get that... We will get this done. We're tired of the inaction.'"

WI - Dems Want Walker to Pull Ad [Milwaukee Small Business Times] "Donning a pair of boxing gloves, Republican Scott Walker says in his latest TV ad that 'Tom Barrett can't sell his record, so he's throwing punches at me.'But now it's Walker who's taking hits for the commercial. State Democrats have charged the spot is insensitive, given the Milwaukee mayor was violently attacked last year at State Fair Park after he intervened in a domestic dispute and suffered serious injuries."

WI - Many Question Authenticity Of 2010 Political Ads [FOX Milwaukee] "The state's primary election is less than two weeks away, and the airwaves are fill with political ads. Are the people and places portrayed in some of those ads really authentic Wisconsin? Brew city knows its beer, and one of Miller Lite's most famous commercials now has a political spin off. A political ad, paid for by the Republican Governors Association, shows a bar in which patrons argue over what makes Tom Barrett the all-time worst. The authenticity of the commercial is drawing criticism from its target. One of the tap beers in the commercial is Blue Point beer, which is unavailable in Wisconsin."

Governing

IA - I-JOBS Has Put 7,000 To Work [Fort Dodge Messenger] "The I-JOBS program has put about 7,000 people to work fixing roads and improving state facilities like prisons, according to officials in Gov. Chet Culver's administration...Flansburg and Richard Oshlo, the director of the state Department of Management, visited Fort Dodge Thursday to explain the $870 million program. It was proposed by Culver as a way to repair damages from the 2008 floods and create what Flansburg called ''short-term good-paying jobs to get us through the recession.' ...Work on all the various I-JOBS projects has created 7,000 jobs so far, according to Oshlo. He said that figure only includes people working at job sites. It doesn't include jobs that may have been created at companies that provide construction materials or other supplies needed to complete an I-JOBS project."

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