Free Republic

Congressman Fred Upton and challenger Jack Hoogendyk will debate in Kalamazoo on June 10. The debate will take place at Western Michigan University's Schneider Hall from 7 to 8 p.m. It is co-sponsored by the MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette and WMUK (102.1 FM). During the debate, the candidates will discuss the state of the economy, energy, health care, government spending, and how the candidate would help the 6th District. Each candidate will make opening and closing statements. Hoogendyk's campaign manager Steven Mobley said Friday that the campaign still wants to have a total of six debates in the district before the Aug....

Politico has discovered the Sarah Palin of 2012, and it's: Sarah Palin. Though the years since 2008 have seen her wild popularity and seeming omnipresence fade, she's edging back into the 2012 election with a string of successful endorsements. She's made four so far, and two have won their respective primary races; the other two races have yet to be decided. For comparison: Rick Santorum has also been making endorsements, "to no great effect," Politico notes. If Palin's picks continue to do well, she can use her success as evidence of her continued influence. "There is a vacuum on the...

The tea party says it’s growing up — and so are the candidates it chooses. In 2010, the tea party vs. establishment showdowns that took place in GOP primaries were often a messy process marked by prominent tea party candidates drawing national attention for all the wrong reasons. In 2012, it has shown signs of fine-tuning — many of the tea party insurgents who are taking on the mainstream have a much better chance of winning. And that, says one prominent tea party group, is by design. The lessons of 2010 are still fresh. Though some of the tea party’s...

During an interview with CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) discussed everything from the Trayvon Martin shooting, to gay marriage, to his upcoming retirement. And while none of these are surprising for this congressman to talk about, the eye-opening moment occurred when he said (with a straight face) that president Obama has helped “turn around the mess of the economy.” Really? “When you look at the election, you look at the campaign season here,” Malveaux said, “What do you think President Obama has done right, that he’s gotten right? And what do you think he really needs to work...

Maggie and Emily write this morning on the new role Sarah Palin has carved out for herself in 2012 politics, picking the races she gets involved in more carefully and seeking out opportunities where she can have (or appear to have) disproportionate impact: "This year, Palin has become almost irrelevant in the context of the presidential race she once had a chance to dominate, and is seen more than ever as a sideshow by the Republican establishment. But after seeing her celebrity peak last year, Palin has settled into a role as something of a strong Triple-A political ballplayer, picking...

SAN FRANCISCO -- House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that she expects the U.S. Supreme Court next month will uphold President Obama's signature legislation: the Affordable Care Act. "We believe that this bill constitutionally is iron-clad," she told a crowd of about 550 at a Commonwealth Club event in the Fairmont Hotel. "I expect a 6-3 'aye' verdict from the Supreme Court." Pelosi, whose discussion with the club was meant to commemorate her 25th anniversary in Congress, said the bill is among her proudest legislative accomplishments. More than 80 million Americans -- young people allowed to remain on their...

Former Alabama Democratic Rep. Artur Davis has turned in his Democratic Party card as he prepares to register for the GOP in Virginia. The switch was rumored for some time following his departure from Democratic politics in 2010. Davis left political circles after his unsuccessful run for governor in Alabama. He lost in the 2010 primaries, and generating hostility from some fellow Democrats who disliked his effort to avoid identity politics. The winning Democrat was trounced by the Republican candidate in the general election. “If I were to run [for office], it would be as a Republican … [because] wearing...

North Dakota’s House race saw several debates between the half-dozen candidates pre-convention, but now that the field has been narrowed to two candidates for the primary election I thought it would be useful to have them sit down and engage one another again. Both Kevin Cramer and Brian Kalk were gracious enough to join me for what was supposed to be 30 minutes of questions and discussions but turned out to be more like an hour. Here’s the result: For all the rancor that some perceive as surrounding this race, both candidates were very cordial and agreed on most things...

The favorite in the Republican race is Randy Weber, 58, a two-term state representative from Pearland and the former owner of an air-conditioning company he started in 1981. Weber, who has been endorsed by Gov. Rick Perry, touts a 2009 poll sponsored by the Texas Conservative Coalition that rated him the most conservative member of the Texas House. Paul, who represented the district for 24 years, though not consecutively, endorsed Weber's two campaigns for the Texas House, but so far has not endorsed a successor. A Beaumont base Weber has raised $282,000 for the race and had the second-highest amount...

Liberal activists organized by CREDO SuperPAC are planning to protest outside a fundraiser that House Speaker John Boehner is holding Wednesday on Portola Road in Woodside with Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River. The event with Boehner, R-Ohio, costs up to $35,000 a plate or $5,000 for a photo opportunity, and is occurring just six miles from the Atherton home in which President Obama is scheduled to hold a $35,800-a-plate fundraiser at about the same time.CREDO SuperPAC says it has launched a campaign against Lungren with four full-time organizers and a Carmichael field office to mobilize local voters to defeat a...

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown has made herself one of the central figures in the George Zimmerman case. The Democratic congresswoman got involved when the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, became national news. Soon after, the Department of Justice launched its probe into whether Sanford police mishandled the case, and Sanford police Chief Bill Lee stepped aside. Earlier this month, Brown — whose district spans from Jacksonville into Central Florida — got involved in another criminal case. She attended the sentencing of Marissa Alexander, a black defendant from Jacksonville who Brown said was unfairly sentenced to 20 years...

LINCOLN — Deb Fischer ran a stealth campaign. The state senator from Valentine who scored one of the biggest upsets in Nebraska political history Tuesday started to surge in the polls at the perfect time — early enough to win and too late for her opponents to respond. Fischer, who raised a paltry $440,000 to front-runner Jon Bruning’s $3.6 million, is now in position to become the second woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate from Nebraska, if she defeats Democrat Bob Kerrey in the fall. A third was appointed. She took her first poke at Kerrey shortly after taking...

Former Lt. Governor Andre Bauer and Horry County Council Chair Tom Rice hold a substantial lead in the race for the Republican nomination for the new 7th Congressional District seat according to a new poll commissioned by Francis Marion University and SCNOW.com. But the overall temerity of the campaign has left many voters still scratching their heads less than a month before the June 12 primary. Bauer leads the nine-person field of Republican candidates with 22 percent of the 641 likely GOP primary voters polled, followed closely by Rice with 21 percent. Chad Prosser is third with 8 percent. A...

Jack Hoogendyk has received another endorsement from a conservative Political Action Committee. The Madison Project endorsed Hoogendyk this morning. In a press release, Madison Project Political Director Drew Ryun said: Fred Upton’s 26-year career has been marred by fiscal and social liberal votes that are too numerous to count. Perhaps, the most egregious aspect of his career was his involvement in anti-free-market energy policy, most notably, his lead role in the 2007 energy bill that banned the incandescent light bulb. Amazingly, Upton has been granted the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the most important domestic policy panel....

The four candidates vying for outgoing Congressman Tim Johnson’s seat — Jerry Clarke, Rodney Davis, Erika Harold and Kathy Wassink — presented their platforms to Champaign voters at a public forum Saturday evening. The forum was led by Champaign County Republican Party chair Habeeb Habeeb, one of the 14 Republican Party chairmen who will decide May 19 which finalist will be the GOP’s candidate for the 13th district race that Johnson pulled out of soon after the March primaries. “I really care about winning the race,” said Habeeb, who estimated the attendance at 250 people. “(This district) leans slightly Democrat,...

FreedomWorks announced its support for three upstart Republican House candidates today, pitting the conservative grass-roots group against local elected officials in each state. The group endorsed Public Service Commissioner Kevin Cramer in North Dakota’s at-large seat; Lewis County Judge Executive Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s 4th district; and former state Sen. Sam Aanestad in California’s 1st district. All three candidates are running in open-seat races. FreedomWorks’ support is notable because it’s backing the underdogs in each race and, in one case, going against the state party’s endorsement. In North Dakota, the state GOP endorsed Public Service Commissioner Brian Kalk at its...

The Washington Post has put North Dakota atop its list of “The 10 House districts that might surprise you.” The report today aims to showcase 10 House races that are “surprisingly competitive” in an election year, where not only is partisan control at stake but where redistricting has changed the game for seats across the country. North Dakota is the only state on the list where redistricting wasn’t a factor in the competitive nature of its House race. (North Dakota is a single at-large district, so there is no redistricting here.) Republican Rep. Rick Berg won North Dakota’s House seat...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) today filmed a TV ad in support of Congressional candidate Thomas Massie and plans to endorse him soon. “I’ve made the decision today to go ahead and help him,” Paul said in an interview today in his Senate office. “I filmed an ad for him today.” Massie, the Lewis County judge-executive, is locked in a competitive race for Kentucky’s open 4th district seat, currently occupied by retiring Rep. Geoff Davis (R). The other two top contenders in the race are state Rep. Alecia Webb-Edgington and Boone County Judge-Executive Gary Moore. Paul said an official endorsement of...

Richard Hudson, who worked with former Eighth District Republican Representative Robin Hayes, is closer to securing the district for himself after gaining more votes than the other four Republicans in the GOP primary on Tuesday. Since Hudson could not reach 40 percent of the vote, he faces a primary runoff with second-place finisher Scott Keadle in June or July. As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, Hudson had 31.3 percent of the vote, followed by Scott Keadle at 22.2 percent, Vernon Robinson at 17.8 percent, Fred Steen at 15.1 percent and John Whitley at 13.5 percent. “This was a huge victory for...

Former state Rep. Luke Messer has won the Republican nomination for eastern Indiana's 6th District seat that GOP Rep. Mike Pence is giving up to run for governor. Messer will face Democrat Bradley Bookout of Yorktown in November's election in the Republican-leaning district. Messer is a former executive director of the state Republican Party who heads School Choice Indiana, which lobbied in support of the state's new private school voucher law. He finished second to Rep. Dan Burton two years ago in the 5th District's Republican primary, but his Shelbyville home was placed in the 6th District when lawmakers redrew...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will likely get more than face time with Virginia voters when he visits Portsmouth today. He's also expected to nab a key endorsement. Several Republican sources this week said Romney's campaign is developing plans to have U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota at the 1:15 p.m. event at Crofton Industries to announce her support for Romney. A darling of evangelicals and tea partyers, Bachmann briefly soared as a Republican presidential contender before withdrawing in January after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses. An endorsement from her could lend some social conservative credentials to Romney...

The powers of government were never given the jurisdiction to do the things they are doing today. Many laws, taxes, restrictions and government powers come from this post-constructional (89 years later) jurisdiction. Abortion, Roe V. Wade, prayer in school, gun control are all fruits of the tree of this unlawful and unconstitutional jurisdiction. I will demonstrate, with facts and freely available documents, how this unconstitutional jurisdiction came to be and how to fix it. - Bruce Ray Riggs

York County Commissioner Chris Reilly has a slight lead over state Rep. Scott Perry in the Republican race to replace Todd Platts representing the 4th U.S. Congressional District, according to a poll commissioned by The York Dispatch newspaper. However, the poll of 400 registered voters found that 57 percent of the voters are still undecided. There are seven Republicans in the race for the seat, which covers the West Shore of Cumberland County, part of Harrisburg and all of York and Adams counties. In the poll, Reilly was favored by 17.8 percent of voters while Perry was favored by 12.6...

Earlier this year, Heath Schuler decided that masquerading as a conservative Democrat in the era of Obama and Pelosi had become too cumbersome, and summarily announced his retirement. This western North Carolina district has become even more Republican after redistricting, providing us with an easy pickup opportunity. This is the sort of seat that we can easily fill with a conservative without having to battle an incumbent Republican. Our choice is Mark Meadows. A strong comprehensive conservative, Mark was described to us by someone who knows this race as “tea party inside the Republican Party years before the tea party...

Upton was on The Rocker Morning Show on WRKR-FM 107.7 today, and amid jesting with the hosts, talked about what's coming up in Washington D.C. for him and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which he chairs. At the end of the interview, co-host Mike McKelly told Upton, “I don’t consider you a career politician.” Upton responded, "I'm not." Upton, 58, served his first year in Congress in 1987 and has been in office for 25 years. Before that, he worked on the staff for U.S. Rep. David Stockman from 1976 to 1980 and was in the Office of...

The Virginia State Board of Elections announced Monday evening it would allow a Democratic primary challenger to U.S. Rep. Jim Moran on the ballot after initially disqualifying him.

Local Republican officials in the 13th district will now select a new nominee to replace Johnson, who was first elected to the House in 2000. A senior Illinois GOP operative immediately pushed Rodney Davis, the former Illinois Republican Party executive director, as a potential successor to Johnson. The source also suggested Davis would have the support of his former boss, Rep. John Shimkus (R). Shimkus currently represents much of the redrawn 13th district but is seeking re-election in a nearby safe Republican district. State Reps. Chapin Rose and Adam Brown as well as state Sen. Sam McCann are also considered...

Republicans rallied behind Public Service Commissioner Brian Kalk at their annual convention over the weekend, giving him their endorsement in the race for the open, at-large House seat. After three rounds of ballots, Kalk obtained more than a majority of delegates — 929 votes — to win his party’s official support over a crowded field. Republican hopefuls traditionally abide by the GOP convention’s endorsement. This weekend, almost every other GOP House contender dropped out of the race prior to Kalk’s acceptance speech, including state Rep. Bette Grande, state Rep. Kim Koppelman, former Commerce Commissioner Shane Goettle and businessman DuWayne Hendrickson....

In the Republican Primary for Georgia’s 12th Congressional District Lee Anderson has demonstrated he is very different from his three Republican opponents Rick W. Allen, Wright McLeod, and Maria Sheffield. And not in a good way. Lee Anderson has, in effect, made the primary a three person race for conservatives based on four instances where he demonstrated a negative approach to the campaign which disqualifies him from serious consideration. 1: Walking Away from Ethics Lee Anderson attended the press conference held by the Ethics Alliance, made up of various organizations concerned about the state of ethics under the Gold Dome,...

Four years after being elected to Congress in the same year that Barack Obama won North Carolina, Democratic U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell faces a tough re-election contest in a district that has been redrawn to favor Republicans. Kissell must first fend off a May 8 primary challenge from a fellow Democrat, Lumberton lawyer Marcus Williams. If Kissell prevails, he will compete against the winner of a five-candidate GOP primary in the sprawling 8th District, which extends across parts of 12 counties. Running on the GOP side are state Rep. Fred Steen II, a two-term legislator and small business owner from...

Remember Herman Cain? Well, Jack Hoogendyk certainly does. The Kalamazoo Republican, who is running for Fred Upton’s 6th District Congressional post, has been endorsed by the former presidential candidate. Cain sent out a press release Thursday, welcoming Hoogendyk into the “Army of Davids.” In the release, Cain said Hoogendyk has committed to his so-called “9-9-9 plan,” calling for a 9 percent tax rate on personal income, 9 percent on corporate income and 9 percent on national sales tax. “The current tax code is confusing and counter-productive. It stifles prosperity,” Hoogendyk said in the release. Cain praised Hoogendyk’s limited government conservatism....

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., has defeated fellow Republican Rep. Don Manzullo in the state's 16th District GOP congressional primary. The AP called the race for Kinzinger just after 11 p.m. Eastern time. With 85 percent of precincts reporting, Kinzinger led Manzullo 56 percent to 44 percent. The race between Kinzinger and Manzullo, forced because Illinois lost a congressional seat and state Democrats controlled the redistricting process, followed a common tea party-against-establishment trend in recent GOP primaries. But the script flipped here, with 10-term veteran Manzullo garnering the bulk of the tea party and movement conservative support while Kinzinger, a freshman,...

Albuquerque city councilor Dan Lewis has dropped his bid for Congress. Lewis, a Republican, announced his decision in a news conference Tuesday. In a statement, he said he was quitting the race in part to avoid a contentious primary that could damage the eventual GOP nominee. His departure from the race for the 1st Congressional District race leaves Republican Janice Arnold Jones to face one of three Democratic challengers in November. The Democratic field includes former ABQ Mayor Martin Chavez, former state legislator and city councilor Eric Griego and current Bernalillo County Commissioner Michelle Lujan Grisham. The congressional seat is...

Rep. Dan Lungren is stepping up his re-election efforts this week, raising cash, recruiting volunteers and holding town hall meetings in his Sacramento County district. The Gold River Republican faces a rematch with his 2010 challenger, Elk Grove Democrat Ami Bera, in the newly drawn 7th Congressional District. A close voter registration split and high turnout in the presidential election are expected to make the race one of the most competitive congressional elections of the year. Lungren, who has trailed his opponent in campaign cash both this election and in 2010, got some help from Republican leadership for a Monday...

Utah’s primary isn’t for another three months, but Sen. Orrin Hatch’s electoral fate could be sealed next week. The six-term GOP senator is trying to avoid following in the footsteps of his colleague, Bob Bennett, who not only lost reelection in 2010, but failed to make it out of his party’s convention and onto the primary ballot. When freshman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R) declined to run, there was a sense that Hatch was out of the woods. But now-former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist is in the race and is regarded as a very formidable threat to the senator. Tuesday’s precinct...

The two were thrown together after the Democrat-controlled restricting process was finished. Their primary has turned into a funhouse-mirror image of many races between older establishment Republicans and younger Tea Party challengers. Kinzinger won his seat in 2010 with strong Tea Party support but has developed a more centrist voting record since he entered the House, making establishment Republicans happy but angering his Tea Party base. His decision to quit the conservative Republican Study Committee and join the centrist Tuesday Group after a fight between the RSC and House GOP leaders pleased Boehner but infuriated groups like Freedomworks, which cite...

A clerk of courts running for Congress in Florida told a group of Clay County Republicans earlier today that Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) offered him incentives to drop out of the race. Clay County Clerk of Courts James Jett’s statements to the gathering, including that the FBI is already looking into the matter, were first reported by the political blog of Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union. According to those present at the South Clay Republicans meeting, which occurs the first Wednesday of each month at the Magnolia Point Golf & Country Club, Jett accused Stearns of using a middle man to offer...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Republicans are now stuck being associated with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh calling a Georgetown law student a “slut.” Democrats have been hammering Limbaugh and Republicans since the radio host criticized Sandra Fluke, the student, for stressing the importance of birth control during a congressional hearing on President Obama’s contraceptive mandate. Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” because he said she was effectively asking taxpayers for money for contraception. On Thursday, Democrats urged House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to publicly denounce Limbaugh’s statement. “They won’t disassociate themselves from it. They’re tattooed...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://tucsoncitizen.com/arizona-lincoln-republican/2012/02/22/the-case-for-newt-gingrich/

Walter Jones’ campaign is having to dig deep to try and showcase their candidate’s former conservative credentials. Recent Facebook posts labeled ‘From the Archives‘ show two photos of a young Walter Jones with conservative stalwart Senator Jesse Helms nearly 20 years ago. That was then. This is now. Let’s get a little more current, shall we? Cut and Run “Cut and Run” Jones with progressive left-winger Dennis Kucinich.Jones voted for Kucinich’s articles of impeachment against Bush in 2008. Jones also voted numerous times with Kucinich and Pelosi to pull out of Iraq long before the job was done.Support for Dodd-Frank...

Synopsis of Investigative Reports: Newt Gingrich & the Republican Revolution This documentary, part of the Investigative Reports cable television series on the A&E network, examines the condition of the Congress beginning in 1994 when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Newt Gingrich, the Speaker of the House after the Republican majority, became a controversial American politician. This episode, narrated by Investigative Reports host and producer Bill Kurtis, takes a behind-the-scenes look at these years of Republican control and suggests that some of the junior congressmen and congresswomen were not yet ready for their congressional appointments....

Republican Rep. Dan Lungren of Gold River is getting some early help for his re-election bid from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. A new television ad airing in the Sacramento area praises Lungren for "fighting to protect California jobs" and singles out his support for repealing the federal health care overhaul. A slight voter-registration edge for Democrats in the new 7th Congressional District and high turnout for the presidential election are expected to make Lungren a top target this year. He faces a rematch with Elk Grove Democrat Ami Bera, the doctor and medical educator who lost to Lungren by...

Mecklenburg County Commissioner Jim Pendergraph formally announced his campaign for the 9th District Congressional seat Wednesday. Pendergraph will seek to replace fellow Republican Sue Myrick, who announced Tuesday she will not seek a 10th term in office. Pendergraph said he'll continue in the tradition of Myrick and acknowledged there will be many other candidates to announce in the coming weeks. “I expect a number of people will jump into this race, because the seat hasn't been open in 18 years,” Pendergraph said in his announcement. Other Republicans who have expressed interest include County Commissioner Bill James, Charlotte City Council member...

The list of possibilities to replace U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick will surely change by the hour. Within minutes of Myrick's announcement that she won't be seeking another term, Roll Call was up with some obvious names: N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis of Huntersville, state Rep. Ruth Samuelson of Charlotte and state Sen. Bob Rucho of Matthews. We'll add former state Sen. Robert Pittenger and former Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot. And don't discount some local prospects, including Mecklenburg county commissioner Jim Pendergraph (who will announce his intention to run, the Observer's Jim Morrill reports) and former City Councilman Edwin Peacock. Here's...

The announcements by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) that they would not run for reelection reflects what may be the last gasps of the Great Plains Democrats, much as California’s 2010 Democratic landslide assured that Republicans are soon to become endangered species in places like Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. The conventional explanation for these trends centers on culture or ideology, but the real cause may lie with an evolving conflict between two dueling political economies. On one side lies the information or “creative” economy, centered in coastal big cities and university towns. On the other lies...

Despite libertarians' and liberals' pathetic attempt to cast their weak-defense-plus-isolationism policies as "conservatism" by calling themselves "paleoconservatives" (take for example Murray Rothbard), the fact is that they didn't found the conservative movemenet and were never conservatives; they are and always have been libertarians, period. They were shunned by the fathers of the conservative movement, and, consequently, some of them, like Felix Morley, quit Human Events.

In advance of today’s primary, the Republican establishment has gone into overdrive to convince Florida voters that Newt Gingrich is a faux-conservative, ethically challenged has-been. The collective Republican panic has been fun to watch, not least because some of the GOP all-stars condemning Newt are best known for their own ethical lapses and heated rhetoric. Here’s a rundown of some of the Republican leaders calling the kettle unpresidential. Jack Abramoff: When asked on Meet the Press about Freddie Mac’s million-dollar payout to Gingrich for “strategic counseling” services, Abramoff warned against “People who come to Washington who have public service and...

Newt Gingrich is the only Presidential Candidate now running who: 1.) Has a comprehensive platform that will rapidly release America's businesses from the crushing grip of a no-interest Fed, Nanny-State Regulations, and terminate endless obstacles to work projects in America. 2.) Will approve the Keystone Pipeline from Canada on his first day in office. 3.) Will ask Congress to stay in Session for 17 days before his Inauguration to pass legislation for him to sign on his first day in office. 4.) Fully understands how to work with a hostile Congress to achieve Conservative goals. 5.) Has a comprehensive plan...

Indiana Rep. Dan Burton said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the only GOP presidential candidate who can go toe-to-toe with President Barack Obama and turn the country away from the president’s socialist path. Burton, who made the comments while endorsing Gingrich at the speaker’s Latin American foreign policy speech at Florida International University in Miami-Dade County, told the audience that “we cannot stand four more years of president Obama.” “He is a socialist,” Burton said. “He is taking this country down the socialist path and we have to change it or America will be changed forever, in the wrong...

Jesse Kelly, who narrowly lost to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) in 2010, is running again in the upcoming 8th district special election, according to two sources. “I would say an announcement is imminent,” said an insider close to the Iraq War veteran. Giffords beat Kelly by only 2 points in 2010, in what was an overall terrible political climate for Democrats. Another source close to Kelly described Giffords as the strongest possible Democratic candidate and indicated Democrats would have difficulty finding a nominee with her charm, name identification and fundraising prowess.