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Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) emailed supporters today to say he's considering a primary against John McCain and to ask for funds to pay off his 2006 campaign debt. "You have contacted me with words of encouragement following the release of a Rasmussen Reports Poll which finds me in a statistical dead heat with John McCain for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate in 2010," Hayworth wrote, referring to this poll. "Miss Mary, our children, and I will do a lot of praying and a lot of talking in the days ahead, as we determine the best course...

Republican candidates have extended their lead over Democrats to seven points, their biggest lead since early September, in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 37% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Support for the Republican party held steady from last week, while support for Democrats dropped slightly. Republicans have held the lead for over four months now. Democrats currently have majority control of both the House and Senate. Voters not affiliated with either party continue to heavily...

Raleigh, N.C. – Democrats are having to work harder than expected to defend a lot of their Senate seats in 2010, but it doesn’t look like Wisconsin will be one of them. Russ Feingold leads former Governor Tommy Thompson 50-41 in a possible match up. He takes 88% of the Democratic vote to Thompson’s 82% of the Republican vote and also holds a 47-41 lead with independents. Thompson no longer has the popularity that propelled him to four terms as Governor. 45% of voters in the state have an unfavorable opinion of him to just 38% who view him positively....

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) is unlikely to run in a GOP primary against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), let alone win, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Monday. Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said he expects the former congressman, who's been mulling a primary challenge to McCain's right next year, to carry on his activities as host of a radio show, and not as a candidate.

State Rep. Kevin Yoder (R) wasted little time acting on Rep. Dennis Moore's (D-Kan.) retirement announcement, opening an exploratory committee this morning. Yoder, an attorney, made the announcement in a press release. He is currently in his fourth term in the state House, where he serves as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. "As our nation faces unprecedented challenges, we must have new energy and a fresh response" Yoder said. "Wasteful overspending in Washington threatens to bankrupt our nation's future. Government must learn to live within its means and we must endeavor to reduce bureaucracy and barriers to success."

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Republican National Committee will announce Monday that veteran political strategist Alex Castellanos will assume a senior communications role at the committee, an RNC official tells CNN. (snip) "Now the RNC has a new focus and direction - the 2010 elections," Castellanos said when reached by telephone. "And I am happy to help."

A new Rasmussen poll shows the Arizona Senator in a dead heat with potential GOP primary challenger J.D. Hayworth. BY ALYSSIA FINLEY John McCain may have been the GOP's national standard-bearer just a year ago, but now he's in electoral trouble at home. And this time no one can claim it's because of Sarah Palin. A new Rasmussen poll shows the Arizona Senator in a dead heat with potential GOP primary challenger J.D. Hayworth. Mr. Hayworth served as a congressman from 1995 to 2006, when he lost in a squeaker to Democratic Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell, who prevailed by hounding...

A few weeks ago seven of the eight incumbent Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates who lost their seat to a Republican had one other thing in common - a lower National Rifle Association (NRA) rating that their opponent . . . [and] the disparity in support for gun rights between the parties seems to have sharpened.

Y'all, this primary for the Kentucky Senate race is just amazing...never a dull moment, that's for sure! Here's a little breakdown for those of you who aren't up to speed. I have written previously about Dr. Rand Paul, there's Kentucky Secretary of State, Trey Grayson, Bill Johnson (who is endorsed by Dr. Alan Keyes, no less!), and a host of others, all in contention for the Republican slot on the ballot. To say there's a lot of politicking going on is the understatement of the year.

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Part of a series, it connected then presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government. Since then the story of that strategy has found its way across the blogosphere, onto the airwaves of radio stations across the country, the Glenn Beck...

Last week had to be a bit awkward for Democrats. They labored to pass a health care bill that, among other things, establishes a government advisory panel to curb health care costs with industrywide medical recommendations. And at just the wrong moment, a similar government advisory panel provoked outrage by recommending that women stop getting so many breast cancer screenings. Unruffled, the Democrats pressed on with their 2,000-page health care bill, going so far as to hold a rare Saturday night vote on whether to proceed to debate. There's a good reason they are in such a rush to pass...

Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) is set to announce Monday that he will not seek reelection next year, sources confirmed to The Hill. Moore’s exit will pave the way for a tough open seat defense for Democrats, as the six-term incumbent has resolutely held on to a conservative-leaning district that has often frustrated Republicans. Moore, 64, won the seat from one-term Rep. Vince Snowbarger (R-Kan.) in 1998 and has been a target ever since. Despite his perseverance, Republicans believed they had an opening again with Democrats pushing proposals that could be unpopular in the deep red state.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, a Democrat who confounded the GOP by winning six consecutive elections in a heavily Republican district, will not seek re-election next year, key Democrats said Sunday.

A dangerous mythology has gripped the Democratic Party. It holds that the reason Democrats took a shellacking in the midterm elections of 1994 was that their members failed to pass Bill Clinton's health care overhaul. The logic goes that if Congress had gone along with Clinton's $331 billion plan (who would have guessed it would end up seeming like a bargain?), Democrats wouldn't have lost 54 seats in the House. The Republicans could have won as many as 41 seats that year and remained in the minority, where they had been mired for 40 years. Democrats have developed an alternate...

The Republican party wonders why conservatives are so disappointed with it?Another glowing example of the problems confronting the Republican party occurred yesterday.  The Senate Republicans had the opportunity to force a full reading of the Senate's proposed health care bill so that every bit of the 2,200 pages would be made public by the reading, and so the people could become much better informed about its contents before it is passed...if it is passed.  It had the opportunity to really hold the Democrats' feet to the fire over this abominable excuse for legislation that is being crammed down the throats...

PHOENIX -- A new statewide poll suggests John McCain could get a fight in his bid for another term in the U.S. Senate. And it would come from his own party. A telephone survey of 570 likely Republican primary voters conducted by Rasmussen Reports found McCain the favorite of 45 percent of those questioned. But former Congressman and current radio talk show host J.D. Hayworth was backed by 43 percent, well within the 4 percentage point margin of error for the poll. Hayworth told Capitol Media Services late Friday he has not made a decision, saying he is in the...

Gov. Charlie Crist’s office is “looking into” the possibility of removing embattled attorney Scott Rothstein from the state’s Judicial Nominating Committee. Rothstein has offered to surrender his license to practice law. But, he may remain a member of JNC unless, or until, he’s charged with a felony crime. Gov. Charlie Crist named Rothstein to the JNC in August 2008. “Typically, the governor would only step in when felony charges are filed against a public official,” said Sterling Ivey, Crist’s spokesman. “Whether we will act before that point in this case is not clear yet. Our legal office is looking into...

Democrats are starting to worry that President Obama's "charge-and-spend" debt, new "cap-and-trade" tax and "apologize to the world" agendas are going to hurt them when they run for re-election, leaving the WorldNetDaily Freedom Index ticking up to 53.2 on a 100-point scale, despite a month of relatively few major controversies. "What I think is going on here is that Democrats are growing slightly more concerned that the Democratic initiatives in Washington may come with a steep political price tag outside the beltway," said Fritz Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies. "This is especially true after the Democratic election losses in deep blue...

Senator Landrieu and Senator Lincoln have announced they would give their vote to Senator Reid and the White House to allow ObamaCare to the Senate floor. For the group of U.S. Senators up in 2010 — the ones facing the independent voters that turned 2:1 against the Democrats in the New Jersey and Virginia elections — they will each be tagged all election cycle with providing the one vote needed for ObamaCare to come before the Senate. They could have stopped it, but they did not. The vote on cloture on the motion to proceed needs 60 votes, and therefore...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20--President Carter would easily defeat either former Gov. Ronald Reagan of California or former President Gerald R. Ford if the election were held today, according to the Gallup Poll.

Fascinating NYT articles from the late 70s about the same things we see today. The GOP needs to be more moderate, reach out to independents, they're too conservative, Reagan is bad news, too extreme, etc... Things never change. Here's some highlights: From 10/3/77: Mr. Ford drew a warm but not particularly enthusiastic response when he told the Republicans that their party's future lay in avoiding idealistic extremes and in attracting non-aligned voters..."In my judgment the radical liberal or idealistically pure conservative policies will not in the long run attract the independent voter". It was a remark that some listeners interpreted...

AUSTIN – Here's what I did not hear at the annual confab of Republican governors held here this week: The words socialist, extremist, or government takeover. With the focus on jobs, jobs and jobs, the only red meat was the Texas barbecue. And by design, there was no Obama-bashing. [snip] Barbour cautioned Republican candidates to refrain from attacking the president, period: "People want the president to succeed; good Lord, they want the country to succeed, and particularly the first African-American president has a lot of goodwill. . . . We need to be careful, we need to treat the president...

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Vote in Our Poll: What's Your Top 2010 Issue?

John McCain may have been the Republican Party's national standard bearer last year, but now it looks like he may have a hard time just hanging on to his Senate seat. A new Rasmussen Reports poll of likely 2010 GOP primary voters in Arizona finds the longtime incumbent in a virtual tie with potential challenger, J.D. Hayworth. McCain earns 45% of the vote, while Hayworth picks up 43%. Another candidate, anti-illegal immigration activist Chris Simcox, is picking up 4%. Hayworth, 51, a conservative former U.S. congressman who now is a popular radio talk show host in Phoenix, is reportedly interested...

With less than a year until Election Day, the stakes for this country could not be higher. Nancy Pelosi and her puppets have put our country on a path for bankruptcy and rationed healthcare.   With that in mind, I wanted to take a moment to tell you about an exciting project - Reverse the Vote. This site is a tool that allows concerned Americans to directly support the challengers of 24 vulnerable Democrats who voted to take your healthcare away and put it in the hands of federal bureaucrats.This project will hold these 24 Democrats’ feet to the fire for voting...

John McCain's problems inside his own party were hardly overcome by his place as its nominee, Rasmussen reports. The new poll shows McCain up just two points, 45% to 43%, in a hypothetical contest with former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, now a popular local radio talker, who's mulling a bid.

Hope and change hits 29 states, the sad thing is, Obama is just getting started...Chart from CNN..

Former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said Thursday he has read Sarah Palin's book and has no regrets about picking her as a running mate. (snip) He also said if Mrs. Palin decides to run for president in 2012 and becomes the Republican Party nominee he would vote for her. "I hope she has every success," Mr. McCain said. "She's still pretty popular."

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have been working overtime to craft a climate bill that can attract significant GOP support. But they aren’t exactly scoring points with their mutual best friend in the Senate, John McCain. “Their start has been horrendous,” McCain said Thursday. “Obviously, they’re going nowhere.” McCain has emerged as a vocal opponent of the climate bill — a major reversal for the self-proclaimed maverick who once made defying his party on global warming a signature issue of his career. (snip) Former aides are mystified by what they see as a retreat on the issue, given McCain’s...

Sometimes a poll result slaps you in the face. That was the case for me when I saw Public Policy Polling’s results in the 2nd congressional district of Arkansas. PPP has the incumbent, Democrat Vic Snyder, leading three unknown Republicans (two-thirds to three-quarters of respondents could not describe their feelings toward them) by margins of 44%-43%, 44%-42% and 45%-42%. No, it doesn’t matter which Republican got the best score. The news here is that a seven-term Democratic incumbent, an intelligent man (he has earned an M.D.) with no disqualifying personal characteristics or accusations of scandal (so far as I know)...

Former State Representative Allen Quist announced Wednesday night that he will run against U.S. Representative Tim Walz for the First District Congressional Seat. In a press release, Quist said: "If people like what Congress is doing, they should vote for the incumbent. But if they believe, as I do, that Congress is headed in the wrong direction, then I will be the alternative." Quist had previously established a web site and Facebook page, so the formal announcement of his candidacy was not unexpected. A Republican, Quist served three terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1983 to 1988, runs...

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided not to run for governor next year - but will run for U.S. Senate instead, sources told the Daily News. A source familiar with Giuliani's thinking said the failed presidential candidate has been telling people he plans to run against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010 to fill out the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton's term. If elected, the source said, he could use that as a stepping stone to run for President in 2012 - rather than run for re-election to the Senate. A Giuliani spokeswoman downplayed the reports. "Rudy has a...

The Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has identified 24 Democrat House members who voted for passage of the Pelosi Death Care bill and is targeting those 24 Democrats for defeat in November 2010. The RCCC has set-up a website called Reverse the Vote! to raise money for a war chest specifically aimed at defeating these 24 individuals who voted for the Pelosi bill in opposition to the will of their constituencies. The list of 24 includes… Rep. Berry (D AR-01) Rep. Snyder (D AR-02). Rep. Giffords (D AZ-08). Rep. Salazar (D CO-03). Rep. Bean (D IL-08) Rep. Foster (D IL-14) Rep....

Officials tell ABC News so far, they found 700 mistaken Congressional districts out of more than 130,000 stimulus grants. On Monday night, ABC reported on errors found on the website set up by the White House to track the number of jobs created or saved by the economic stimulus program. The website was riddled with reports of jobs in places that didn't even exist. That report prompted anger on Capitol Hill, and defensiveness at the White House. On Tuesday night's broadcast, ABC's Chief Congressional Correspondent Jon Karl took another look at the stimulus confusion (link) LINK White House Vows to...

Seven different indicators suggest that 2010 will be a very tough year for the Obama Administration's plans to turn America into a Socialist People's Republic. If some of these indicators pointed one way and others pointed the other way, projections might be murkier. But all the winds seem to be blowing in the same direction and the result may be for Republicans the Perfect Storm. What are these seven different indicators? 1) Public opinion polls, led by the very accurate Rasmussen Poll, have shown in the summer a clear line in the "strong approve" and "strongly disapprove" of Obama. Although...

I’ve read some misguided partisan ranting before, but the piece, “Gone Rogue” (how original) by Newsweek’s Evan Thomas is in a class by itself. That it passes for a news story is telling of how detached the elitists in media really are. Nothing exceptionally newsworthy is going on (a book tour!), yet we are witnessing a foaming hysteria from all fronts of the liberal establishment. And, we must ask: Why? Sarah Palin is merely promoting her book. The degree to which the left fears Palin is astonishing. The former governor isn’t even talking about running for office and yet Newsweek...

<p>Although most conventional wisdom rates Gerald E. Connolly of Fairfax County as the safest of three freshmen Democrats elected to Congress in Virginia last year, that wisdom rests on a rematch with Republican Keith S. Fimian in next year's midterm elections.</p>

(snip) There’s a list of issues being hammered out, but at the top is finding money for South Florida’s cash-strapped Tri-Rail. Republicans are targeting a $2 fee on rental cars as the source and discussing whether to let county commissions approve the charge or require a referendum.“That’s sort of one of the issues we’re dealing with,” Crist said. Florida’s Republican leaders believe they need to settle funding issues for Tri-Rail and a host of insurance and money issues for a proposed Central Florida line known as SunRail before the state has any chance at securing $2.5 billion in federal stimulus...

It was a moment of unintentional comedy earlier this year when newly appointed U.S. Sen. George LeMieux called himself a " Charlie Crist Republican." No doubt LeMieux spoke in earnest about the man who appointed him to the Senate, and who is now running to succeed him in it. But the joke was that nobody knew what he meant. What is a "Charlie Crist Republican" anyway? Honestly, do you know how Charlie Crist would vote on a federal takeover of health care, on a cap-and-trade energy tax, on massive new spending bills, or on another stimulus boondoggle?

Rand Paul, the son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), has surprised a lot of people by surging in polls and fundraising to quasi-frontrunner status in next year’s U.S. Senate race in Kentucky. But Chris Cillizza reports that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is weighing in against Paul and hosting a fundraiser for Trey Grayson, the young secretary of state, whose “establishment” candidate credentials have been a little banged up by Paul’s campaign.

Please FReep this Poll: Will legislation such as the Health Care Bill or Cap & Trade affect the way you vote in 2010? Yes, I will support the incumbant Democrats. Yes, I will support the incumbant Republicans. No. I will vote for a new Democrat in the primaries. No, I will vote for a new Republican in the primaries. No, I will vote for a third party candidate. I will vote whatever way is necessary to change my Congressional representation. I don't vote.

“After 2010 you can have a polite conversation about who should be president in 2012,” Norquist continued. “But until then the only thing you’re doing is sucking oxygen out of the room. And you’re not being helpful. If you’re the governor of Indiana and you want to be presidential, don’t send me a press release about how you didn’t raise taxes. Beat [Sen.] Evan Bayh [D-Ind.]. Then I’d say, ‘Hey, there’s a guy to talk to.’” But Norquist also had an equally strong message for conservative activists — warning that they should not look to enforce ideological purity tests on...

Blogger Jordan Carmon catches Marco Rubio’s upstart Senate campaign putting together an ad against Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.)–his opponent in the 2010 GOP primary–that looks and sounds exactly like a hard-hitting ad then-presidential candidate Barack Obama ran against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008. Check out the ads. First, Rubio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hghjqOw3CBs Now, Obama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6reQLzgywzk Notice that the equivalent of the picture with Bush is a picture of Crist with Obama.

Today is November 16, 2009. Our country is in deep trouble. We have a President who is demonstrably anti-American. His background and history remain a mystery. His goals and programs are the antithesis of traditional American values of freedom, capitalism, and representative democracy. He is anti-military, tying their hands with inappropriate and dangerous rules of engagement on the battlefield, and prolonging the inability to make a timely decision to send requested manpower to the front lines of the War on Terror in Afghanistan. This President cannot even utter the phrase “War on Terror”, and he is uncomfortable with the term...

While we’re all focusing on picking Charlie Crist off in the Florida Senate Primary, I think if conservatives really want to send the GOP establishment a message, target number one a high priority should actually be Bob Bennett of Utah. Just to clarify for those of you freaking out that I said target number one should be Bennett: the Bennett race happens before the Florida race. That said, we should be targeting more than just Florida. Bennett is worth picking off because he is an incumbent troublemaker. Granted, it was a poor choice of words on my part, but I...

Despite his recent request for help from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and renouncing his past support of prominent environmental legislation, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk on Wednesday denied he is moving to the right to try to coalesce support in the Feb. 2 primary election. "I think I am who I am," Kirk, a member of the Naval Reserve, told reporters after a Veterans Day ceremony at the Jesse Brown Veterans Administration Medical Center in Chicago. "I am a social moderate, fiscal conservative. But this is a big race, and we are building a broad coalition, and it...

Matthew Berry, a former Clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, has launched an exploratory committee into a possible run against Democratic Congressman Jim Moran in Virginia's 8th congressional district. Matthew Berry, a strong Conservative Republican on most issues, would be challenging a radical leftist who has compared Republicans to the "Taliban", and just yesterday called those who oppose bringing terrorists into the country for civilian trials "un-american". While Mr.Berry is not officially a declared candidate for the Republican nomination, he has agreed to answer some questions for a brief email interview, however, I felt it would be proper to include you...

This week, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, told reporters the GOP offers a "back-of-the-hand treatment to women." Later she said two conservative female representatives only serve to further "repulse women." You see, Schultz said on MSNBC, Republicans "don't really get very many women when it comes to elections." The week before, in Virginia, the Republican gubernatorial candidate won women. And in blue New Jersey, the Republican lost women but won white women by 18 percentage points. Last year, John McCain won a majority of the white female vote. They sum to more than 25 million women. Democrats, so...

Despite already having seven candidates who have filed to run against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the Republican Party continues to hunt for a prominent challenger for the controversial Orlando Democrat. And state Rep. Kurt Kelly is ready to assume the mantle - if no other big-name Republican is willing to do so. The Ocala Republican said in an interview Wednesday that he's waiting to see how the GOP search for a candidate in Grayson's 8th District shakes out before deciding to enter the race. But he would "seriously consider" challenging Grayson under the right circumstances.