State News Shot

NY: AG Race is Tied

Last Updated on Tuesday, 2 November 2010 12:52 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 2 November 2010 12:52

From NYDailyNews.com:

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo continues to have a large lead over Republican Carl Paladino, 58-33%… The races for Comptroller and Attorney General are now both dead heats. Republican Harry Wilson has closed a 17-point gap, and he and Democrat Tom DiNapoli both have the support of 44% of voters. In the Attorney General’s race, Republican Dan Donovan and Democrat Eric Schneiderman, who previously led by seven points, are also tied at 44% each. Democratic Senators Charles Schumer (32 points over Jay Townsend) and Kirsten Gillibrand (20 points over Joe DioGuardi) both have wide leads.

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Some PA Lawmakers won’t take pay raise

Last Updated on Wednesday, 1 December 2010 02:29 Written by rslcpol Monday, 1 November 2010 01:39

Not a “freeze” but some lawmakers, and the former Republican Attorney General now Governor-elect, will be donating any raise of take home pay to charity or back to the state.

From Morning Call:

Some legislators say they will continue to give the money to charity or back to the treasury.

Corbett said the issue of automatic cost-of-living increases should be scrutinized, although he stopped short of advocating a repeal of the 1995 law that guarantees them for certain state employees.

“I certainly want to have discussions with the Legislature about the issue of COLAs,” he said.

The raises, authorized by a 1995 law, are based on changes in the U.S. Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index for the mid-Atlantic states for the year ending in each October.

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California Races Coming Down to the Wire

Last Updated on Monday, 1 November 2010 01:32 Written by rslcpol Monday, 1 November 2010 01:32

SACRAMENTO – Tuesday’s election for attorney general is a tossup, with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Steve Cooley virtually tied as Harris gains ground in vote-rich Los Angeles County and among women, according to the latest Field Poll.

In the lieutenant governor’s contest, Democrat Gavin Newsom has a narrow lead over Republican Abel Maldonado, today’s poll of likely voters found.

Since July, Harris, the San Francisco district attorney, has inched closer to Cooley, the district attorney in Los Angeles. Today’s poll shows Cooley with 39 percent and Harris with 38 percent among likely voters. Almost a quarter of likely voters remain undecided.

“It’s kind of following the same pattern that we’ve seen in the top-of-ticket races: Because there are more Democrats than Republicans, that benefits Harris,” poll director Mark DiCamillo said.

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“Unprecedented” GOP Lean in State Legislatures

Last Updated on Monday, 1 November 2010 01:10 Written by rslcpol Monday, 1 November 2010 01:10

From Governing.com:

The Democratic outlook in the state legislatures has continued to worsen as Election Day approaches. With this analysis — Governing’s third since July — we have moved eight more chambers in the Republican direction. The modest silver lining for the Democrats, however, is that no chambers are newly in play.

After taking account of these changes, the overall landscape remains 25 Democratic chambers in play, compared to just one GOP-held chamber and two tied chambers. (Chambers that are rated tossups and lean Democratic/lean Republican are considered to be “in play.”)

As we have noted all year, this is a terrible combination for the Democrats — both an unusually large number of chambers in play (32 percent of all chambers up this cycle — the highest percentage recorded in the five cycles this author has been handicapping the legislatures) plus a startlingly unprecedented lean toward one party, the GOP.

In none of the previous five cycles — which included two national wave elections (2006 and 2008) and a heavily anti-incumbent cycle for governors (2002) — was there ever this wide a difference in projected risk between the two parties. Instead, the typical ratio of vulnerable chambers between the parties has been close to even.

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Track Election Results LIVE at RSLC.com

Last Updated on Monday, 1 November 2010 12:38 Written by rslcpol Monday, 1 November 2010 12:38

Be sure to check out RSLC.com on tomorrow night to track the results of Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and State Legislative races from across the country.

http://www.rslc.com/2010-election-results

RSLC Chairman Ed Gillespie on PBS talking Redistricting

Last Updated on Monday, 1 November 2010 12:37 Written by rslcpol Monday, 1 November 2010 12:37

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

L.A. County a Major Hurdle for Democrat AG Candidate

Last Updated on Friday, 29 October 2010 01:57 Written by rslcpol Friday, 29 October 2010 01:57

From the LA Times:

Voter-rich Los Angeles County represents a sure-fire victory for most Democrats on Tuesday’s ballot, but it’s anything but assured for Harris. Her GOP rival, Steve Cooley, has won three consecutive elections as the county’s district attorney despite Democrats outnumbering Republicans 2 to 1 in the county — and, a recent poll shows, he has the edge this time too.

“If Kamala Harris loses L.A. County, she won’t win,” said Allan Hoffenblum, whose California Target Book handicaps California political races. “L.A. County is to the Democratic candidates what the Central Valley and Inland Empire are to Republican candidates. You have to be strong where your party is strong.”

Harris has been a frequent flier to Los Angeles for more than a year, and in the primary beat former Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo by 10 percentage points in his own county. She’s stuck to a well-worn path of Democratic success: focusing on African Americans, Latinos and women, as well as reaching out to young voters who were lured to the polls by Obama’s presidential run.

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Governing Magazine: 2010 State Attorneys General: GOP Moves a Notch Closer

Last Updated on Friday, 29 October 2010 01:47 Written by rslcpol Friday, 29 October 2010 01:47

From Louis Jacobson at Governing Magazine:

The battle to control state attorney general offices is continuing to shift in the Republican direction, but the movement since Governing’s last rating in October has been modest.

This represents our third effort this year to handicap the 30 states that have attorney general elections this fall. With this analysis, most of the races stay as is, but two contests shift one notch toward the Republican candidate.

Currently, the Democrats hold a 32-to-18 edge in AG offices. Of these 50 positions, 43 are popularly elected, with the remaining seven appointed by a governor, the Legislature or the state Supreme Court.

Of the 43 elected seats, the Democrats currently control 27 to the Republicans’ 16. And of those 43, a total of 30 are being contested this fall, of which the Democrats currently hold 19.

The broad picture doesn’t change much from our last analysis. Based on interviews with dozens of partisan and nonpartisan sources, the Democrats are poised to lose between six and 13 attorney general posts on Election Day. If they suffer a net loss of just six seats, the Democrats would hold on to their now-solid majority, though by just a single seat. But if the Democrats were to lose a net 13 seats, they’d see the GOP take the lead by roughly the same 3-to-2 margin they currently enjoy.

The two states moving toward the GOP in this analysis are Kansas, which shifts from tossup to lean Republican, and New York, which shifts from lean Democratic to tossup.

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Republican AG Candidate Dominates Fundraising

Last Updated on Friday, 29 October 2010 01:40 Written by rslcpol Friday, 29 October 2010 01:40

From wtvm.com:

Republican attorney general candidate Luther Strange has raised more than $1 million more than Democratic opponent James Anderson during the campaign for Tuesday’s general election.

Campaign finance reports show that Birmingham attorney Strange has raised about $1.47 million since the primary runoff election in July. A Montgomery attorney, Anderson has raised almost $374,000 during that same period.

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Republican Luther Strange for Attorney General

Last Updated on Friday, 29 October 2010 01:37 Written by rslcpol Friday, 29 October 2010 01:37

From AL.com:

Republican Luther Strange has next to no experience in the courtroom. He has spent most of his career as an attorney in Washington, D.C., for Sonat, a natural gas pipeline company in Birmingham, and as a congressional lobbyist for clients of the Bradley, Arant, Rose and White law firm.

He has emphasized that he could use his experience in the business world to help bring industry to the state.

Strange talks more like he is running to become the state’s top industrial recruiter rather than the attorney who represents the interests of the state and its citizens as Alabama’s top prosecutor and civil attorney.

Democrat James Anderson, who once served as a member of the Alabama Ethics Commission, has handled more than 2,000 court cases over 30 years; State Farm Insurance has been one of his major clients.

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