Last Updated on Wednesday, 8 September 2010 12:33 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 8 September 2010 12:33
From wrjc.com:
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen raised more than twice as much campaign money as challenger Scott Hassett over the last two months.
Finance reports show Van Hollen, a Republican, raised about $87,000 in the period between July 1 and Aug. 30. He spent about $70,000 and had nearly $358,000 on hand.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:52 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 8 September 2010 12:31
From Cleveland.com:
Democrats will do well against the odds based on the strength of a significant fundraising advantage of roughly 3-to-1 and a strong ground game focused on door-to-door campaigning, he said.
“State rep races are local and even though you all know there is a strong headwind this year, we will keep and expand the Democratic majority in the House because we have a strong message of job creation,” Budish said. The Beachwood Democrat cited a film tax credit, a renewal of the Third Frontier program and a $100 million expansion of the Venture Capital Fund as job-creating efforts pushed by Democrats.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Bill Batchelder said internal Republican polls show enough seats comfortably ahead to ensure Republican control following the November elections.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:52 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 8 September 2010 12:05
From NewsWest9.com:
Two employees in the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office who were put on administrative leave last month reportedly have been fired.
Former office spokesman James Flores and ex-office manager Manuel Vildasol claim they were terminated in retaliation for meeting with the FBI over allegations of criminal wrongdoing in the Secretary of State’s Office.
But Deputy Secretary of State Francisco Trujillo tells KOB-TV that Flores and Vildasol were fired for allegedly secretly recording employees and creating a “hostile work environment.”
Current and former employees of Secretary of State Mary Herrera have leveled allegations ranging from possible kickbacks on contracts to office employees campaigning for Herrera on state time.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:52 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 8 September 2010 12:03
From DesMoinesRegister.com:
Today marks the unofficial beginning of the true campaign season, when hundreds of candidates for Iowa’s House and Senate shift their efforts into high gear.
With Democratic Gov. Chet Culver trailing in double digits behind Republican Terry Branstad, Iowa GOP hopes are high that a Republican sweep in the Iowa Statehouse is on the political horizon.
Republicans would need to gain seven seats in the House and eight seats in the Senate to regain a majority.
“What we’re finding is that there are more races in play rather than fewer,” said House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha. “The environment is very favorable for conservatives and Republicans.”
Legislative races, however, tend to be more localized and personal – and less affected by voters’ reaction to the candidates at the top of the ticket.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:53 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 8 September 2010 12:01
From the News Tribune:
State officials are mulling their next steps after a federal judge overturned a state law limiting campaign contributions in the final weeks of ballot measure campaigns.
If the ruling stands, money could flow even more freely to this year’s crop of voter initiatives. Six such measures are on the ballot – the second-most in state history – and state records show the campaigns have raised a combined $32.5 million, with about $10.1 million spent so far.
The law at issue bans contributions larger than $5,000 in the final three weeks of an initiative or referendum campaign. Family PAC, a political group involved in the 2009 referendum on expanded domestic partnerships for gay couples, sued the state last year challenging the contribution limit.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:53 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 8 September 2010 11:40
From HeraldStarOnline:
A group of Ohio doctors has filed a federal lawsuit against state restrictions on campaign contributions by physicians who treat Medicaid patients.
A provision in a 1978 state law bars the doctors from contributing to candidates for state attorney general or county prosecutor — officials who prosecute Medicaid fraud. The lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland says the provision is too restrictive and violates the doctors’ First Amendment rights.
The provision says no candidate for attorney general or county prosecutor or their campaign committees can knowingly accept contributions from “providers of services or goods under contract with the Department of Job and Family Services pursuant to the Medicare program.” A violation would be a first-degree misdemeanor.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:53 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 8 September 2010 11:38
From NY1.com:
With primary day quickly approaching, the five Democrats vying for state attorney general squared off Tuesday night in a debate hosted by NY1.
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, former prosecutor Sean Coffey, former state insurance superintendent Eric Dinallo, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice and Manhattan State Senator Eric Schneiderman shared the stage at the Times Center in Midtown where they touted their own accomplishments and traded shots at one another’s records.
One of the biggest issues was the ability to reform politics in Albany.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:53 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 7 September 2010 03:52
From the New York Times:
The math is easy: As much as 70 percent of Democratic primary voters in New York State live south and east of Bear Mountain. Accordingly, the candidates in this year’s primary for attorney general have spent much of their time seeking votes in New York City and its suburbs.
But with just a week to go before the vote, an unlikely contest is heating up for the allegiance of upstate Democrats, long the overlooked stepchildren of primary elections.
Sean Coffey, a wealthy lawyer who is a former federal prosecutor, has in recent weeks saturated markets outside the New York City region with television advertising, doubling the amount spent by the next closest candidate, Kathleen M. Rice, the Nassau County district attorney. Since May, Mr. Coffey has spent at least a day or two each week campaigning upstate. And in debates he has made a point of highlighting the issue of high property taxes, an issue with limited relevance to the attorney general’s office but major importance to suburban and rural voters.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:54 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 7 September 2010 03:05
From Stateline.org:
California’s next attorney general will have a full plate. He or she will have to deal with a federal court challenge on prison overcrowding, a continuing battle over gay marriage, how to proceed if a marijuana-legalization ballot measure passes, and whether to follow other states in cracking down on illegal immigration and implementing, or challenging, the newly passed health care bill. And all of this is in addition to the ordinary workload of judicial appeals, general litigation, and environmental and consumer protection cases.
Despite the breadth of this portfolio, California voters have historically focused on one issue above all others when voting for attorney general — namely, how tough the candidate is on crime, even though it’s local DAs, rather than the AG, who are actually responsible for criminal prosecutions.
And despite California’s reputation as a liberal state, its voters, all other things equal, like their AGs to be as hard-line on crime as possible, particularly in how they feel about the death penalty. In a July 2010 Field Poll, 70 percent of Californians said they support the legality of the death penalty. So any candidate seen as soft on the issue starts in a hole.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:55 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 7 September 2010 02:02
From the Times Record Online:
Looking to capitalize on years of groundwork and the prevailing political wind, Republicans enter the fall campaign confident of gaining a strong GOP foothold in the state Legislature in the November general election.
Democrats have dominated both chambers since Reconstruction. Currently, the party controls 71 seats in the 100-member House (with one seat vacant) and 27 of 35 Senate seats.
Seventeen Senate seats and all 100 House seats were up for election this year. As a result of primaries this spring, Democrats are assured of at least 19 Senate seats and Republicans eight when the 88th General Assembly convenes in January.
Democrat Joyce Elliott, who is running for Congress, could return to the Senate if she loses. Competitive races are on tap for the remaining seven seats.
In the House, 37 Democrats and 21 Republicans have secured seats, leaving 42 seats up for grabs in 32 head-to-head contests between Democrats and Republicans, nine races featuring Democrats with Green Party or independent opponents and one Republican with an independent challenger.
