Free Republic

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.

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo appears to be inching closer to getting into the Colorado gubernatorial race. While he has yet to formally declare his candidacy or fill out paperwork with the secretary of state's office, the Littleton Republican on Thursday told a Westword reporter he "fully intends to run."

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) said Thursday that House Democrats should brace for challenging races in 2010, but he dismissed the idea that next year’s mid-term elections would be an all-out sweep for Republicans. “People who think this is a redux of 1994 are totally misreading the current situation,” said Van Hollen, a speaker at Bloomberg’s Washington Summit. Democrats are in a situation for a historically “very tough cycle” given the party’s major victories in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, said Van Hollen, who is also assistant to the Speaker. “I set these expectations back...

Looking at the Cook Political Report’s latest competitive race chart is in itself informative - the short version is that of the top 108 competitive races, the following ratios apply: Dem GOP Likely D 45 0 Leans D 23 1 Toss-up D 12 0 Toss-up R 0 3 Leans R 1 8 Likely R 0 15 Total 81 27 …but there’s some interesting things that can be seen with a little sorting. Below is a chart of competitive seats, sorted by Cook Partisan Rating: TX-17 Chet Edwards R+20 ID-1 Walter Minnick R+18 AL-2 Bobby Bright R+16 MO-4 Ike Skelton R+14...

Could Sen.Chris Dodd, senior US Senator from CT REALLY BE IN TROUBLE? Things will come out in the wash. It’s just one poll, it’s still a year away, but the time is running shorter and the poll is running in the wrong direction for the senior Senator from Connecticut. Former Connecticut Congressman Rob Simmons has an early lead in the Republican primary race for the 2010 U.S. Senate contest and runs better than any other challenger against Sen. Christopher Dodd, topping the Democratic incumbent 49 – 38 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Cleveland automobile dealer Tom Ganley (R) is airing a statewide television ad to introduce himself to the primary voters who will decide whether he or former Rep. Rob Portman should be the party’s nominee in a key open-seat Senate race next year. The 60-second ad touts Ganley’s business background and takes an anti-Washington tone, with a narrator saying that Ganley’s 47-year career of creating jobs and balancing budgets amounts to “hard work the Washington politicians don’t understand.” Ganley speaks only at the end of the ad, in a required disclaimer approving the commercial. “To help create jobs for Ohio, Tom...

Has this been a trying decade for the average American, or what? It's bad enough that we've have had to cope with stagnant wages and tax increases at just about every level. But in the months ahead, we may have to deal with yet another nightmare: surging gasoline prices. Factors are lining up that could end up pushing gas prices back over $4 per gallon sometime next year. If you're already exasperated about prices at the pump, you're not the only one. Gasoline demand in 2009 has been comparatively low -- take 7.6 million Americans out of the workforce through...

Independent political observers and Democrats themselves have been saying for months that 2010 is shaping up as a bad year for Democratic candidates, and the latest Gallup generic congressional ballot test only reinforces the point. Not only do Republicans lead 48 percent to 44 percent, but independents now favor the GOP by 52 percent to 30 percent. Although generic Republican candidates hold just a 4-point lead, the GOP's perpetual turnout advantage means their lead would likely be higher if the midterm elections were today. Even a single-digit lead for Democrats in Gallup's testing often only means the two parties will...

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. — Former NFL player Jon Runyan says he's considering running for Congress. In a statement issued Wednesday by the Burlington County Republican Committee, Runyan says he believes the country is being taken in the wrong direction by career politicians. Runyan, an offensive lineman, played 13 seasons in the NFL, the last nine with the Philadelphia Eagles. The 36-year-old is out of football this season, though he's talked to the Eagles and other teams about coming back. If he runs for Congress, it would be in New Jersey's 3rd District, which stretches from the Philadelphia suburbs to central...

[T]he narrative Obama White House officials are writing about themselves is that they are uncompromising, ungracious, and ready to run roughshod over popular opinion. They have mastered the Chicago way of politics: reward friends, punish enemies, and jam the opposition. Voters have a tendency to quickly grow tired of pugnacious governance. That's only the beginning of Mr. Axelrod's problems. If the 2010 midterms are nationalized, they will be a referendum on Mr. Obama's increasingly unpopular policies. For example, in the newest Gallup survey released on Monday, only 29% say they'd advise their congressman to vote for the health-care bill. This...

Smiling after the latest WHAS11 Survey USA poll gave him a slight lead over Secretary of State Trey Grayson in the Republican U.S. Senate primary, Rand Paul tells WHAS11's Joe Arnold that he made an offer over the weekend to meet with Kentucky's senior senator, Mitch McConnell. "I will work with Senator Mcconnell, and I've already made the first step of calling him," Paul said. It comes three months after McConnell and twenty other Republican incumbent senators hosted a fundraiser for Grayson in Washington D.C., which has been interpreted as an endorsement for Grayson. But, when pressed whether he would...

State Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, took off from Conway’s Cantrell Field Thursday morning en route to media appearances in Little Rock, Jonesboro, Texarkana, Fort Smith and Fayetteville as part of his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by incumbent Democrat Sen. Blanche Lincoln. Baker was speaking during stops in these cities on health care reform and his opinion that government-administered health care will lead to “higher costs, reduced quality and limited patient choice.” On. Nov. 19 Baker is scheduled to hold a $1,000-per-person fundraiser at the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"Should the liberals succeed in passing the intergenerational theft act (aka healthcare 'reform'), elect a GOP majority in the House and Senate. "The first order of business of this Republican Congress -- no matter how difficult it is, no matter how many hours and days and weeks it might take -- will be to overturn and eliminate any trace of this unconstitutional socialist abomination, which has as its design one ultimate end: POWER for government and enslavement of American citizens. "The second order of business will be to institute REAL healthcare legislation : tort reform, portability, and getting government OUT...

Now that the gubernatorial election is over, Republicans in Burlington, Ocean and Camden Counties are starting to focus on recruiting someone to take on freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) next year. There is a deep bench of potential candidates, but some Republicans have one in mind who could clear the field: Philadelphia Eagles legend Jon Runyan, a Mount Laurel resident. Sources tell PolitickerNJ.com that Assemblywoman Dawn Addiego (R-Evesham) - who knows Runyan because their children attend school together - has talked to him about running. Runyan, who is not currently active in the NFL but has not retired,...

(WHAS11) - The surprise candidate in Kentucky's Republican U.S. Senate primary tells WHAS11 News he is reaching out to senior Senator, Mitch McConnell. Rand Paul is a Bowling Green eye surgeon. His campaign's poll numbers and fundraising success have stunned party leaders and it is early in the game.

Decorated Marine veteran Nick Popaditch on Tuesday announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 51st Congressional District seat held by Democrat Bob Filner. Nicknamed “Gunny Pop,” Popaditch served two separate stints in the Marines. He was a tank commander during the Persian Gulf war and honorably discharged in 1992 after six years. Tiring of civilian life, he rejoined the Marines in 1995. A widely circulated photograph after the fall of Baghdad in 2003 shows the tank commander and platoon sergeant smoking a cigar in front of the statue of Saddam Hussein just before his unit helped tear it...

One of the two Republicans challenging freshman Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) is ending his 2010 campaign in the 1st district. State Rep. Ken Roberts (R) said in a statement Tuesday that he was withdrawing “with great reluctance” because of an unspecified and “unexpected health issue that has affected my candidacy and hampered my ability to make this run.” “I feel that it is my responsibility to my family to step out of the race at this time and concentrate on my health,” Roberts said. Roberts’ withdrawal leaves Vaughn Ward, a former Senate aide and CIA employee who served in Iraq...

To hear them as they tear into Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Silver State will be the site of a conservative resurgence that not only will sweep true-believing Republicans into office in 2010 but will also improve the breed by weeding out those squishy middle-grounders called RINOs. (Republicans In Name Only.) They're signing anti-tax pledges and strapping on their libertarian political six-shooters, firing at big-government Democrats and treating chamber of commerce Republicans like members of the Neville Chamberlain Fan Club. The RINOs will be an endangered species if they have their way. Surely that belief in revolution gives Gov.....

It’s still early to be thinking about 2010 elections, but the Republican Liberty Caucus National Board has approved several endorsements for 2010 already. Liberty fans across the country will be pleased to note that the RLC endorsed Rand Paul in his bid to become U.S. Senator in Kentucky, and Peter Schiff in his bid to represent Connecticut in the Senate. The RLC has also endorsed Jason Shepherd for State Representative in Georgia, Shane Schoeller (Incumbent) for State Representative in Missouri, and Bill Hunt for Orange County Sheriff in California. Our endorsements process has just begun, so please stay tuned for...

In looking ahead to next year’s midterm elections, President Barack Obama and the Democrats would certainly like to see a reprise of 1998, when the party of the previous Democratic president gained seats in the House and held its own in the Senate. Republicans, no doubt, would love to see another midterm like 1994, when they swept into power on both sides of Capitol Hill. Yet when looking at some of the major factors that shape the electoral backdrop — presidential popularity, the state of the economy and ongoing wars overseas — the current landscape points to a different set...

Republicans Jump to Six-Point Lead on Generic Ballot Republican candidates have stretched their lead over Democrats to six points in the Generic Congressional Ballot. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 43% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 37% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Republicans have held the lead for over four months now. Voters not affiliated with either party continue to heavily favor Republicans, 43% to 20%.

Congressional candidate Rob Wasinger, R-Cottonwood Falls, gained the endorsement of U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the GOP's presidential nominee in 2008. "Rob Wasinger has the right experience, vision, and values to lead Kansas into an era of economic growth and prosperity. He is an exemplary public servant we can trust," McCain was quoted saying in a news release from the Wasinger campaign. "I am humbled to be supported by Sen. John McCain, an American hero who has served our country with honor and integrity both in uniform and in Congress," Wasinger said in the same release. Wasinger is the former...

State Sen. Josh Penry intends to drop out of the race for governor. Penry, 33, of Grand Junction, is facing former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis and Evergreen businessman Dan Maes for the Republican nomination. But Penry has been meeting with people today to let them know he would leave the race. One source said an announcement was imminent and that Penry met with McInnis Monday morning to inform him of the decision. Penry explained he was leaving the race for "personal reasons," the source said. Penry collected about $400,000 in his first quarter of fundraising, coming in second to McInnis'...

President Obama said today that Congress needs to change abortion-related language in the health care bill passed by the House of Representatives this weekend that includes tougher restrictions on abortion funding but said there is more work to be done before a final piece of legislation gets to his desk. "I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill," Obama said. "And we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize...

Obama said the main message he took from last week’s election results – with Republicans winning gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia – was that Americans are “nervous, and they’re worried and they’re anxious.” “I don't think there's any denying the fact that people are worried out there,” he said in an interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper today. Obama said Democrat Bill Owens victory in the special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district, the one bright spot for the president’s party last Tuesday, “sent an important signal.”

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will hold two town-hall style meetings next week, one of which will be in Yuma. The first meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 12, at the Kofa High School Auditorium, located at 3100 South Avenue A. A second meeting will be held the following day, Friday, Nov. 13, at noon at the Mohave County Administration Building's Board of Supervisors Auditorium, located at 700 West Beale Street in Kingman. The purpose of the meetings is to discuss issues affecting Arizonans, including the economy, health care reform, and the war in Afghanistan, according...

Last night, Freedom Radio spoke with Combat Vet for Congress and conservative Republican candidate for Idaho's 1st District Vaughn Ward. Ward's 18 years of experience of public service includes: service with the Marines on missions in Liberia, Cuba, Japan, Korea and as a company commander in Iraq; as an Operations Officer with the CIA in the Middle East, Africa, and Washington, DC; and as a Legislative Aide on Senator Kempthorne’s staff where he worked on commerce, defense, energy, transportation, and veteran’s issues for the people of Idaho. He is running against first-term incumbent and self-proclaimed blue dog Democrat Walt Minnick....

Dr. Rand Paul, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, explained his position on taxes, government spending, the drug abuse epidemic, welfare and other government benefits during an exclusive interview with the Times-Tribune, just hours before his appearance at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg. Initially, Dr. Paul addressed drug abuse in rural Kentucky. As a doctor, he immediately zeroed in on more vigilant policing of doctors who recklessly write prescriptions. He asked, “Are they being disciplined? I’m a doctor and occasionally I’ll get notification from the medical licensure board of people who are having their licenses suspended.” Referencing a recent...

Peter Schiff's campaign website has been repeatedly targeted by cyber attackers, his brother and spokesman said this afternoon. The campaign has notified the FBI. Schiff, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, had planned a "moneybomb'' -- a one-day online fundraising blitz -- for today, but just minutes before midnight, when the moneybomb was set to start, the website went down, his brother, Andrew Schiff, said. "These are coordinated attacks,'' Andrew Schiff said in a brief phone interview. It wasn't the first time the website has been hit, Andrew Schiff said. The campaign had been targeted several times in the past...

During two heated Democratic challenges, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Park was targeted by millions of dollars in TV ads painting him as a far right Republican in his north suburban district. Much of the time, it was the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee paying for and writing those ads. Kirk spent millions of dollars himself on ads to cultivate a moderate, independent brand in the 10th District. Now it seems the DCCC agrees with him. DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen said during a C-SPAN interview Sunday that Kirk is a "moderate," contradicting his own organizations efforts to paint him...

Certainly Democrats can try to comfort themselves with the Wall Street mantra that "past performance is no guarantee of future results." But as they recover from a troubling 2009 election season, the party in power in Washington faces a lot of reasons for concern about the 2010 horizon...

NPR is wringing its hands . . . with good reason. Let's look at their list of Senate races and see how much good news is there for the Dems. Democratic leader Harry Reid is woefully unpopular in Nevada. Six Republicans are competing for the chance to topple him the way GOP Sen. John Thune of South Dakota did to then-Democratic leader Tom Daschle in 2004. RCP has both Republicans Lowden and Tarkanian beating Reid. Let's keep track. So far we are R-1, D-0.

Ok, I hear around Free Republic those who argue "the GOP is hopeless, Conservatives got to form a third party". Now without debating the merits of if a third party is, or is not, the route to go for Conservatives, tell me what you put in the political platform of such a replacement party? Think of it this way. You are actually writing the plank to put in the platform, what do you personally want put in there?

Scott Brown knows he faces an uphill battle as a Republican seeking to fill Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat. Until last week, when Jack E. Robinson filed nomination papers, Brown was the only member of the GOP seeking the seat, which is also the goal of four Democrats. Although the seat has been in Democratic hands since the 1950s, and more than a decade has passed since Massachusetts voters sent a Republican to Congress, Brown, one of just five Republicans in the state Senate, said there is no inevitability to a Democrat victory. “This isn’t a Democratic seat; it’s a...

A personal crisis put Mark Shurtleff's political aspirations on hold, as the attorney general abandoned his bid for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate on Wednesday to help care for a troubled daughter. "The Senate race has to give. My family has to come first. My daughter has to come first," Shurtleff said. The departure of the strongest challenger to U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett unexpectedly jolted the GOP Senate field and created an opening in the still-fluid race that may be seized by any of several potential candidates. "I do think there will be some others who will take a...

Of all the numbers swirling around this week Capitol Hill this week – health care whip counts, CBO estimates, winning and losing margins in Virginia, New York and New Jersey– one stands out from the rest: 10.2 percent. That’s the national unemployment rate. And lawmakers from both parties know that, if it doesn’t go down dramatically before next November, they could be adding to it themselves. “I think anytime unemployment is high and people are concerned about their jobs, the economy, incumbents on both sides of the aisle need to be concerned,” Republican Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker said Friday. “What...

(Washington, D.C.) -- Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) predicted on Thursday that there will be a constitutional challenge to the provision in the health care bill under consideration in Congress that would require all Americans to buy health insurance. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government has never before mandated that Americans purchase any good or service. When asked by CNSNews.com on Thursday where in the Constitution is Congress given the authority to mandate that people buy health insurance, McCain said, “That is an excellent question and I’m sure that if they pass health care legislation, I think there...

Elections to the United States Senate will be held on November 2, 2010, with at least 37 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate being contested. Senate Contests in 2010 State Name Party AK Lisa Murkowski Republican AL Richard Shelby Republican AR Blanche Lincoln Democratic AZ John McCain Republican CA Barbara Boxer Democratic CO Michael Bennet Democratic CT Chris Dodd Democratic DE A Ted Kaufman Democratic FL George LeMieux Republican GA Johnny Isakson Republican HI Daniel Inouye Democratic IA Chuck Grassley Republican ID Mike Crapo Republican IL Roland Burris Democratic IN Evan Bayh Democratic KS Sam Brownback Republican KY Jim...

North Dakota Republican state legislators and officials have had no better luck than anyone else in prodding Gov. John Hoeven for hints about whether he'll run against Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan next year. Four GOP lawmakers who raised the subject in a meeting with Hoeven in his Capitol office last week said the governor gave them no hints about his plans, although one participant said he believes Hoeven will make the race. "I think he feels a responsibility to do it," said Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier. "Maybe I'm a little optimistic in my thinking, but I do believe he's giving...

DO IT! Now is the time. Any opinions!?

After pumping more than $1 million into an upstate New York House race to elect the Conservative Party’s Doug Hoffman, the Club for Growth is on the hunt again. Chris Chocola, president of the conservative political action committee, made it clear the PAC is looking for more GOP targets who don’t embrace the Club’s limited-government approach. Priority No. 1 is likely to be the Senate contest in Florida, where Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who embraced President Barack Obama’s stimulus package, is being challenged by former State House Speaker Marco Rubio. . . . . . Beyond Florida, other establishment Republicans...

Lessons from Virginia for the GOP By Ed Gillespie Thursday, November 5, 2009 After losing Virginia's governorship for the first time in eight years, some Democrats are trying to console themselves that Virginia is at its core a "red" state. This ignores not only that they won back-to-back governorships but also that Democrats defeated a sitting senator in 2006, took control of the state Senate in 2007 and won an open Republican Senate seat and three House seats in 2008 while carrying Virginia's electoral college votes for the first time since 1964. Some in the White House are trying to...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Gov. Charlie Crist is saying he did not endorse the $787 billion federal stimulus bill, a statement that might confuse some voters. Crist appeared with President Barak Obama in February to support the bill, asked Florida members of Congress to vote for it and previously told The Associated Press that he would have voted for it if he had been in the Senate. But when the Republican governor talked about the bill Wednesday on CNN, he said he didn't endorse it. Crist told CNN he understood that the bill was going to pass and wanted to...

PRINCETON, NJ -- The 2010 election cycle begins in a political climate that is shaping up to be not as favorable to the Democratic Party as the 2006 and 2008 elections were. Having capitalized on broad public discontent with the course of the nation in general and the Republican Party in particular to win control of the White House and both houses of Congress, the party faces the 2010 midterm elections trying to preserve its recent gains.Gallup's generic congressional ballot provides a summary measure of current voting intentions for Congress. This currently suggests the 2010 midterm elections could be highly...

We are proud to endorse Chuck DeVore for U.S. Senate in California. Chuck DeVore is a proven, tested conservative who is gaining momentum. He’s the kind of leader we can count on to stand up for common sense conservative principles in the United States Senate. The Senate Conservatives Fund recently conducted an online poll of our members to see which candidate in California they supported. With 2,688 total votes cast, Chuck DeVore was the clear winner with 90% of the vote. We’ve examined DeVore’s record and interviewed him in person. We are confident that Chuck DeVore is ready to come...

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Kentucky could be the next state to host a race where the GOP's grassroots rebels against the party establishment. Rand Paul, the son of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, has pulled into the lead in the Kentucky Senate race in a new SurveyUSA poll, ahead of the establishment favorite, Secretary of State Trey Grayson. Paul now leads Grayson by three points, 35 to 32 percent, the first time he’s led any poll in the Kentucky race so far. It’s not the first sign that Paul stands a credible chance at an upset: Paul raised over $1 million in the last...