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| America's Mayor Stumps for Dole |
| 7/29/2002 5:15 PM |
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani became the latest political star to stump for Elizabeth Dole, following a strategy that some political observers say shows the GOP is worried about holding on to the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Jesse Helms. Giuliani's appearance with Dole on Monday follows hard on the heels of President Bush, whose visit Thursday marked the fourth he has made with Dole in the state since January. Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at a fund-raiser for Dole in Raleigh last month. "Rudy Giuliani is one of the stars of the Republican Party, and they're bringing everyone in," said Thad Beyle, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It tells you they are a little nervous about this race."
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| Republican Gains in Maryland Governor's Race |
| 7/29/2002 5:13 PM |
The governor's race has tightened dramatically, boosting Republican hopes that they can beat Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and claim the governor's office for the first time since 1966. Two recent polls -- both of which had Townsend leading GOP Rep. Robert Ehrlich by 15 points in January -- show the race is now almost even. Both hope to succeed Gov. Parris Glendening, a Democrat barred by state law from seeking a third term in November. Townsend, 51, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and niece of President Kennedy, is trying to become the first member of her politically prominent family to be elected governor. Like Ehrlich, she has no significant opposition in the September primary.
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| Pickup Politics Mold Southern Campaigns |
| 7/25/2002 10:21 PM |
Throughout America, political campaigns are not just emphasizing what candidates say, but what they drive.
On the campaign trail for Florida governor, Janet Reno toured the sunshine state in a red pickup truck. During his campaign film at the 2000 Republican National Convention, George W. Bush was shown driving around his Texas ranch in a rugged work vehicle. And in South Carolina, state and local candidates prominently feature pickup trucks in their television campaign advertisements.
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| Texas Senate Seat May Change Party Hands |
| 7/25/2002 10:19 PM |
For the first time in four decades, Democrats have a shot at winning the Texas Senate seat soon to be vacated by Republican Sen. Phil Gramm. "To see a Democrat making a run for it is just something we haven't seen for a long time," said political analyst Jonathan Smaby. In a very tight race, John Cornyn, the Republican Texas attorney general, faces former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, a Democrat.
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| Powell Ridicules Resignation Stories |
| 7/25/2002 10:16 PM |
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday denied the latest rumors that he was on the verge of resigning his post. After a press appearance with Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, Powell strolled over to reporters and asked "What's up with these resignation stories ... You insist on writing this story every two weeks," Powell said, denying that he was thinking of quitting.
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| Bush Appears at Dole Fund-Raiser |
| 7/25/2002 6:30 PM |
Two years after he swamped Elizabeth Dole in the White House money chase, President Bush has made her a top beneficiary of the administration's aggressive fund-raising campaign. Aside from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, no other GOP candidate in the nation has received as much personal attention. Bush made his second fund-raising appearance of the year for Dole on Thursday, an event that came on top of another fund-raiser last month by Vice President Dick Cheney. Thursday's event brought in $750,000 to be split between her campaign and the state and national GOP. In all, Bush and Cheney have raised some $2 million for Bush's rival for the 2000 GOP presidential nomination. Republican Party organizations and other GOP candidates have also benefited from those events.
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| Ohio Governor: No Election to Fill Traficant Seat |
| 7/25/2002 6:19 PM |
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft said Thursday he would not call a special election to fill the remaining months of Rep. James Traficant's term, citing what he said were excessive costs to the taxpayers. Traficant was expelled by the House Wednesday by a 420-1 vote for ethics violations stemming from his conviction on federal charges of bribery, kickbacks and tax evasion. Before he went on trial, Traficant's district in northeast Ohio was carved up as the state reshuffled boundary lines to account for the loss of one House seat due to U.S. population shifts.
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| Bryant Marches Into 'Alexander Country' |
| 7/25/2002 1:29 PM |
Sprawled in a rocking chair on a sweltering Sunday afternoon, Lamar Alexander beamed as country legend HankWilliams Jr. serenaded an adoring crowd and urged them to support the former governor in his Senate bid. Clad in a black cowboy hat and cream-colored boots adorned with black vines, the country crooner began his one-man acoustic set with a song touting eastTennessee -where anywhere from a third to half of the GOP primary vote will be cast on Aug. 1 -as "Lamar Alexander country." In perhaps his most well- received line Sunday, Williams belted out to a throng that swelled to more than 1,000: "Other folks are from D.C./They deserted us all/For their Hollywood friends/They're gonna need them this fall."
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| Representative Traficant Expelled From House |
| 7/24/2002 11:44 PM |
The House on Wednesday expelled Ohio Rep. James Traficant for taking bribes and kickbacks, only the second time since the Civil War that it has removed a sitting member for unethical conduct. Representatives voted 420-1 to immediately banish the nine-term Democrat after a federal jury in Cleveland convicted him and a House ethic panel recommended his removal. Nine lawmakers voted present.
Traficant, 61, was defiant to the end. "I'm prepared to lose everything. I'm prepared to go to jail. You go ahead and expel me," he said, maintaining his innocence and claiming that government prosecutors coerced witnesses to lie to win the court convictions against him.
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| Maryland's Kennedy Slips in Governor's Race Poll |
| 7/24/2002 5:12 PM |
Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's lead over Rep. Robert Ehrlich in the race for governor has shrunk and they are now nearly even, according to a poll. Townsend, a Democrat, leads Republican Ehrlich by 47 percent to 44 percent among likely voters, with 10 percent undecided, according to the poll conducted for The Baltimore Sun and The Gazette newspapers by Potomac Survey Research of Bethesda. The telephone survey of 1,200 registered voters, conducted July 17-19, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. It is the second poll this month to show Townsend's lead slipping.
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| Florida GOP Hopes Remap Will Pen in Representative Thurman |
| 7/23/2002 9:09 PM |
If the Florida Republican Party could write a political epitaph for Democratic Rep. Karen L. Thurman, it might be "Won by the remap, lost by the remap." Following the 1990 census, Thurman was chairwoman of the Florida Senate's congressional redistricting committee. The redistricting plan produced by the legislature created a politically competitive 5th Congressional District in northwestern Florida -- including the city of Gainesville -- that Thurman won in the 1992 election. Though she secured her initial House election with just 49 percent of the vote, the politically centrist Thurman settled in well, easily topping 60 percent in each of her past three contests. But in those intervening 10 years, Republicans surged to control of the state government in Tallahassee -- and of the redistricting process -- following the 2000 census.
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| GOP Still Hoping to Close Gender Gap |
| 7/23/2002 6:27 PM |
The birthplace of the women's rights movement, Seneca Falls, N.Y., has become the scene of another women's movement -- the New York Republican Party's efforts to reach beyond the gender gap and recruit women to join GOP ranks. The New York Republican State Committee launched its "Empire Women" recruitment campaign this month in the town where the First Women's Rights Convention was held in 1848. The initiative includes leadership training seminars for women interested in politics and information on how to organize voter registration drives. Empire Women has received a "tremendous response" so far, said state GOP committee spokesman Todd Alhart, already signing up about 300 women. And with half of the GOP ticket in New York this year comprised of women - including at the top Lt. Gov. Mary Donahue and attorney general candidate Dora Irizarry - Empire Women recruiters say this could finally be the GOP's Year of the Woman.
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| DeLay and Allies Poised to Lead 108th House |
| 7/22/2002 4:45 PM |
Only days after Rep. Judy Biggert (Ill.) bowed out of the race for secretary of the House Republican Conference, Rep. John Doolittle (Calif.) appeared poised to join the ranks of the GOP leadership. "Let me say it's never over until it's over," Doolittle said Tuesday, after claiming 126 "firm commitments" for the post soon to be vacated by Rep. Barbara Cubin (Wyo.), who is running for conference vice chair. With no challenger in sight, Doolittle is yet another one of Rep. Tom DeLay's (Texas) deputy whips who is positioned to win a leadership post if Republicans maintain control of the House in the 108th Congress. DeLay is running unopposed for majority leader, and his chief deputy whip, Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.), is almost certain to succeed him.
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| Bottom-Tier Race? |
| 7/22/2002 4:39 PM |
Typically, a former governor challenging a relatively junior Senator pricks the ears of the Washington fundraising community and the national press corps.
Not so this year in Oklahoma. The likely race between former Gov. David Walters (D) and Sen. James Inhofe (R) is rarely mentioned as a top-tier contest by either national party and has drawn scant media attention to this point. Walters acknowledged that "there are very few candidates in the country, especially challengers that believe they are getting enough attention." But he thinks all the factors are in place for an upset victory - a recent Tulsa World poll had the Democrat trailing Inhofe by just 7 points - that could remake his political name.
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| Late Governor's Name Holds Sway In Missouri Election |
| 7/22/2002 4:26 PM |
In one of the nation's most competitive and closely watched Senate races, the deciding factor in Missouri might not be the visits by President Bush or the estimated $20 million that will be spent on 30-second ads. The race very well could turn once again on a man whose name no longer appears on the ballot: the late Democratic governor Mel Carnahan. In 2000, Carnahan became the first dead person elected to the U.S. Senate -- ousting Republican incumbent John D. Ashcroft -- 22 days after the two-term governor and his son Randy were killed in a small-plane crash. Carnahan's wife, Jean, was appointed to the seat by the Democratic governor soon after, infuriating many Republicans. Today, Sen. Jean Carnahan, 68, is fighting to finish out the term, fending off a challenge by Jim Talent, 45, a high-profile former GOP congressman. Talent narrowly lost a bid for governor in 2000, a race that Republicans are convinced was also influenced by Mel Carnahan's death.
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| Carnahan's Lack of Expertise Rapped |
| 7/17/2002 10:23 PM |
Senator Jean Carnahan of Missouri, one of this election year's most vulnerable Democrats, has drawn the ire of Democrats and Republicans -- and a few lobbyists -- who accuse her of not understanding issues or even "the legislative process." "As one Missouri Democrat who came to Washington to lobby Carnahan on a legislative issue said, 'I didn't expect for her to understand our issues, but she didn't understand the [legislative] process.' As harsh as this may sound, it's fair to question someone who has never served in elective office and is appointed to a job as big as U.S. senator." In interviews with The Washington Times, several lobbyists here agree with her critics — that she was not intimately familiar with many issues and suffered from having a weak staff. Many of the bills she claimed as her own were sometimes bills that she co-sponsored with other senators or were presented to her by the leadership to introduce, they say. "I have heard a lot of people say that this is a woman who is totally lost up here," says a top business lobbyist who is widely known on Capitol Hill but did not want to be identified. "Others have told me that she doesn't understand the issues in any depth."
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| Bush Shatters Fund-Raising Record |
| 7/15/2002 1:08 PM |
President Bush was on track to demolish his own record for a single fund-raising appearance Monday, drawing $4 million for Alabama's financially lagging Republican gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Bob Riley. Bush also traveled here to talk about corporate responsibility; Corporations can donate to political candidates in Alabama, a practice that is against federal law. The cash infusion could catapult Riley past Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman, who according to the last campaign finance reports had $4.2 million compared to $561,661 for Riley. Bush raised $4 million over two days in April for California Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon, but had never brought in that much in a single day before Monday. White House officials put the total at $4 million, a figure the Riley campaign said it could not immediately confirm.
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| RNC has Dual Role for Ex-Prosecutor |
| 7/15/2002 10:37 AM |
The Republican National Committee, in an unusual move, has named former federal prosecutor Tim Griffin as both director of opposition research and deputy communications director. The RNC, which serves as the political and campaign arm of the Bush White House, hopes that by combining its intelligence-gathering and message operations, it can raise the art of Democrat-whacking to a new and more effective level. "Tim's dual roles will bring needed coordination between articulating our campaign message and the research that supports that message," said Jack Oliver, deputy RNC chairman. Some Republicans privately greeted the move as a sign that their party was ready to aggressively counter the Democrats' spin operation.
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| Watts Offers Parting Advice to GOP Leaders |
| 7/15/2002 10:21 AM |
House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts (Okla.), the only black Republican in Congress, is offering some blunt warnings to his party on his way out the door. Watts, who recently announced that he's retiring from Congress, is imploring the GOP not to revert to the conservative rhetoric it used to win control of the House in the 1994 elections and urged Republicans to elevate women and minorities to positions of power. If the preacher just preaches to the choir, his church won't grow," said Watts, himself a preacher. Throughout his rocky tenure in leadership, Watts clashed with conservative leaders such as House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) over the party's message and political strategy.
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| GOP Opens Ad Campaign for House |
| 7/12/2002 4:17 PM |
With an image of President Bush for openers, House Republicans began airing television commercials Friday in the heart of Texas, the leading edge of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to protect the GOP's majority. Airing on stations in Waco, Texas, the commercial is designed to help Republican challenger Ramsey Farley in his second uphill attempt to unseat veteran Rep. Chet Edwards. Beyond details of the ad, though, GOP officials said the 30-second commercial marked a new phase in their battle to hold control of the House. "Republicans are opening up the 2002 campaign on offense," said Steven Schmidt, spokesman for the House GOP campaign committee, stressing that party strategists had chosen to advertise first in support of a challenger.
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| New York Firefighter Takes Stab at Congressional Seat |
| 7/12/2002 2:19 PM |
Election Day is only four months away, but Republican congressional candidate Joe Finley is just getting started on his run for Congress -- and he hopes that his job as a New York City firefighter will help make up for lost time. "If I didn't think I could do something good for our country, and do something to prevent another terror attack or prepare for the next one," Finley said this week, "I wouldn't be doing this." Finley wants to represent the Congressional district that includes his hometown of Huntington, N.Y., 20 miles east of New York City.
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| Cancer Diagnosis Does Not Worry Guinn |
| 7/12/2002 2:15 PM |
Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) announced Thursday he has prostate cancer but that his reelection campaign against Democratic challenger Joe Neal would not be interrupted. Doctors say Guinn's chances of beating the cancer are "better than 90 percent" based on the early detection, which also gives the governor plenty of time to choose a treatment option. Guinn's wife Dema predicted her husband would not "miss a beat," while he reassured voters he was not worried about the diagnosis and had "never felt better."
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| Lieutenant Governors 0-for-4 This Year in Bids for Governor |
| 7/12/2002 9:41 AM |
At first glance, it would appear that the most logical path to becoming governor in most states is ascending from the No. 2 position, lieutenant governor. But it has been a rough election year thus far for lieutenant governors seeking to move up to governor. Former Rep. Mark Sanford's defeat of Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler -- by a 20 percentage-point margin -- in South Carolina's June 25 Republican primary runoff marked the fourth time in four tries this year that a lieutenant governor failed to advance to the general election for governor.
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| Senator Landrieu's Field of Challengers Grows |
| 7/11/2002 11:45 AM |
Louisiana Elections Commissioner Suzanne Haik Terrell, a Republican, has entered the race to challenge Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, giving a significant boost to national and state Republican officials who are targeting the first-term Democrat. Terrell, who announced her bid July 9, was heavily recruited by Republican strategists who believe she has a better chance to eat into Landrieu's voting base than the two Republicans who preceded her into the race, Rep. John Cooksey and state Rep. Tony Perkins. As commissioner, Terrell has received widespread praise for improving the image of the office she was elected to in 1999. Terrell, like Landrieu, is from New Orleans, making her a threat to cut into the Democrats' typically wide vote margins in the state's largest city. Her image as a GOP moderate may give her more appeal to usually Democratic voters than the strongly conservative Cooksey and Perkins, and she has been elected statewide before.
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| NRSC Claims Edge |
| 7/11/2002 11:42 AM |
The National Republican Senatorial Committee had a $9 million cash-on-hand advantage over its Democratic counterpart at the end of June, according to figures obtained Wednesday. The NRSC boasted $38 million in reserve through June 30, compared with $29 million for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Both parties raised an equal sum - $24 million - from April 1 to June 30.
Republicans lead in total fundraising to date this cycle with $92 million; the DSCC has raked in $72 million.
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| Senate Outlook Depends on the Poll |
| 7/11/2002 11:41 AM |
Two polls released this week provided vastly different pictures of the race between Sen. Jean Carnahan (D) and former Rep. Jim Talent (R). Carnahan held a 48 percent to 40 percent edge over Talent in a Research 2000 survey conducted July 1-3 of 599 likely voters. The poll had a 4 percent margin of error. In an American Viewpoint poll for the Talent campaign, he led 46 percent to 43 percent. That poll spanned June 24-26, testing 600 registered voters with a 4 percent margin of error.
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| Watch Out for Fake RNC |
| 7/11/2002 11:38 AM |
What's in a Name? Here's a bit of advice for GOP donors: If you're giving money to the RNC, make sure it's the right one. Last week, an e-mail came to Roll Call with the subject line, "Support the President Bush vujj." "Help the RNC Support the Republican Party and Win Elections Nationwide," read the message. "Help us give President Bush a stronger working majority in Congress!" The e-mail invited donors to make their checks payable to the "RNC" and mail them to a residential address in Athens, Ga. Republican National Committee spokesman Kevin Sheridan confirmed that the real RNC has not secretly moved to the Peach State and said the committee was aware of the phony message. "We forwarded it on to the authorities," said Sheridan. "It's obviously a fraud. It's not something we approve of, and we hope whoever's using our name to fraudulently solicit money is prosecuted."
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| Coronation On Hold |
| 7/11/2002 11:36 AM |
The coronation of former Oklahoma Secretary of State Tom Cole (R) for the 4th district seat of retiring Rep. J.C. Watts (R) hit a snag Wednesday when attorney Marc Nuttle (R) entered the fray. The race pits two former executive directors of the National Republican Congressional Committee who are now high-powered lobbyists with significant Washington connections. Cole said he was "surprised" by Nuttle's candidacy and that he spoke with Nuttle by phone "during the J.C. process" when Nuttle pledged not to run.
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| Political Spouses Play Subtle Campaign Roles |
| 7/8/2002 9:37 PM |
Cyndi Bryant describes her role in campaigning for her husband, Rep. Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.), like this: "I'm not the candidate, but I am the character witness." Bryant, whose husband is running for the Senate after serving four terms in the House, is one of many spouses stumping for husbands or wives this year. It's a role that varies greatly depending on the couple and one that often thrusts spouses into a limelight they might not otherwise seek.
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| Hughes: I'll be Back |
| 7/8/2002 9:32 PM |
Karen Hughes turned in her title of "counselor to the president" Monday to return home to Texas with her family. But she said she would remain in close touch by telephone with the Oval Office. Hughes has been at George W. Bush's side since his first campaign for Texas governor. She is the first member of the president's inner circle to leave the White House team. Before she left her office, Hughes sat down for a chat with CNN's Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley.
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| Maryland's Morella Faces 'Fight of Her Life' |
| 7/8/2002 9:30 PM |
She is, according to one political expert, "the most endangered Republican in the country." Rep. Connie Morella, who has represented Maryland's affluent Montgomery County outside of Washington for 15 years, faces the fight of her political life this year, thanks to new district lines and formidable competition from the Democratic field. "I think I am," Morella, 71, said of her endangered political status. "And I am because of the partisan bullies in the back rooms of Annapolis tried to do what they have not been able to do in the ballot boxes of Montgomery County."
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| Report: GOP May Ask Governor Ryan to Retire |
| 7/8/2002 9:23 PM |
There is discussion among top leaders of the Illinois Republican Party about possibly urging Gov. George Ryan to resign, according to a published report. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the party leaders are fearful that the ongoing bribes-for-licenses scandal is threatening the party's entire election slate in November. As a result, the newspaper says, the GOP leaders are quietly discussing whether they should publicly ask for Ryan's resignation.
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| Life After Watts: A Handful of Black Republicans Face Long Odds in Quest for House |
| 7/8/2002 1:40 PM |
Arguing that there's a big symbolic difference between one and zero, black GOP House candidates hope that the retirement of Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) will prompt Republicans to work harder to elect an African-American this November. Unless one of those candidates wins on Election Day - none are currently favored - Watts' retirement will mean that there will be no black Republicans in Congress for the first time since 1991. At a time when the GOP is making a concerted effort to increase its support among minorities, that lack of representation could be seen as a step backward. "The party should redouble and triple their efforts to help [black GOP] candidacies," said Alvin Williams, the president and CEO of Black America's Political Action Committee, adding that Watts' retirement "leaves a huge void with respect to Republican African-American representation in the U.S. Congress."
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| Smith Stalls D'Amato Tribute |
| 7/1/2002 10:53 PM |
It's not often that a U.S. Senator decides to block legislation that he's actually co-sponsored, but funny things can happen in an election year. Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.), who is seeking a third term this November, recently stopped action on a bill that he co-sponsored with Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) to rename a federal courthouse in Central Islip, N.Y., for former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.). Smith's sudden change of heart about honoring a former colleague came after the House voted unanimously to approve the move in early May after only 40 minutes of debate. It resulted, some allege, from D'Amato committing what appears to be the gravest sin one Senator can perpetrate against another - backing a challenger to an incumbent member of the world's most exclusive club. D'Amato, who lost his own bid for a fourth term to then-Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in 1998, attended a June 17 fundraiser at the 21 Club in New York City for Smith's opponent in the Sept. 10 GOP primary, Rep. John Sununu (N.H.).
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| Ehrlich Names Steele as Running Mate |
| 7/1/2002 10:42 PM |
Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. this morning named Michael Steele, Maryland's GOP chairman and the only African American state Republican chairman in the nation, as his running mate. Steele, 43, grew up in a Democratic household in Washington, D.C., but became a Republican early in his adult life. He has said the party's philosophy of working for one's rewards has always appealed to him. "Two things will underline this campaign that will be symbolic of what we're doing here, and that is opportunity and leadership -- opportunity that brings hope and leadership that brings results," Steele said this morning during an announcement on the City Dock in Annapolis.
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| Watts' Departure Leaves Race Wide Open |
| 7/1/2002 10:40 PM |
Candidates in both parties are quickly lining up for the race to replace House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts Jr. of Oklahoma, who announced his retirement Monday morning. Although Watts would have been strongly favored - he won the seat in 1994 with 52 percent and has won by increasing margins since - the district has a strong Democratic heritage and votes Democratic in local elections. Like most of Oklahoma, however, the southwestern 4th District has a distinctly conservative lean that has benefited Watts and Republican presidential candidates: George W. Bush took 61 percent of the vote there in 2000.
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| Representative J.C. Watts to Retire |
| 7/1/2002 10:33 PM |
Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla., will retire at the end of this term, citing family concerns. He made the announcement official in a Monday press conference in which he said, "My work in the House of Representatives, at this time in my life, is completed. It is time to return home." "Serving in Congress has been more than an honor; it has been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life ... It has been a wonderful ride. It has been a wonderful journey," he added. Watts broke a term limits pledge in 2000 when he ran for re-election at the urging of the Republican leadership. He is the Republican Party's only black congressional member, and as House GOP Conference Chairman is fourth in the GOP leadership.
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