Free Republic

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) offers our warmest congratulations to the Jewish Republicans who won their races yesterday in the important election of 2014. We are especially delighted that Lee Zeldin won his congressional race in New York’s first district, making him the Jewish Republican in the 114th U.S. Congress. We are also pleased that the Jewish Republicans in state offices around the country won their reelections. Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel, South Dakota State Senator Dan Lederman, Texas State Representative and House Speaker Joe Straus and Texas State Representative Craig Goldman all won reelection....

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus predicted Tuesday that the GOP regaining control of the Senate would mean a signature from President Barack Obama on a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Getting approval for TransCanada’s pipeline, which has been waiting six years to break ground on the project, would be among the top priorities for a Republican-controlled Senate, Priebus told MSNBC’s Daily Rundown. “We will pass a budget in both chambers, number one, and we will pass the Keystone pipeline, number two,” Priebus said. “And I actually think the president will sign the bill on the Keystone pipeline...

South Dakota's suddenly tight Senate race is suddenly not so tight again, according to the polls. Still, none of the four candidates has majority support. Polls released in recent days show Republican Mike Rounds with bigger leads than in the previous round of polling. A KELO/Sioux Falls Argus Leader poll conducted Oct. 20-23 showed Rounds with 42 percent support; Democrat Rick Weiland at 33 percent; independent Larry Pressler at 13 percent; and independent Gordon Howie at 2 percent. Another 10 percent of respondents were undecided. An NBC News/Marist poll conducted Oct. 19-23 showed Rounds at 43 percent, Weiland at 29...

Vice President Joe Biden will campaign in San Diego for Rep. Scott Peters on Saturday, according to the Democratic incumbent's campaign. Peters is in what polls say is a tight race with Republican Carl DeMaio -- one of the most closely watched and expensive congressional campaigns in the nation. The race has generated more than $10 million in spending by the candidates' campaigns, political parties and independent committees.

Hot on the heels of the Department of Justice’s suddenly-renewed interest in George Zimmerman’s civil rights liability in the self-defense killing of Trayvon Martin (see: FBI Convenes Grand Jury For Zimmerman Civil Rights Case) just days before next week’s election comes another DOJ action timed perfectly for electoral manipulation. National Review Online is reporting that the FBI (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DOJ) has made the highly unusual decision to disclose their investigation into Mike Rounds (pictured above), a Republican Senate candidate in South Dakota, less than a week before next Tuesday’s vote. The alleged misconduct being investigated is somewhat...

Some polling earlier this month suggested that the South Dakota Senate race might be unexpectedly competitive, but a new poll shows Republican candidate Mike Rounds with a significant lead 10 days before the election. Rounds is taking 43 percent of the vote, according to the NBC/Marist poll released Sunday. Democratic candidate Rick Weiland is at 29 percent and former GOP Sen. Larry Pressler, now running as an independent, is polling at 16 percent.

I have noticed some wild variations in polling in places like South Dakota, Kentucky, and Georgia. Places that should not be in play seem to be in play.

The largest newspaper in South Dakota broke a story that could cost the GOP a red state Senate seat. The Fiscal Times reports:  The three-way race for South Dakota’s open Senate seat got more complicated Wednesday, when the Sioux Falls Argus Leader published a page one story alleging that former Governor Mike Rounds, the Republican candidate and current leader in the polls, had approved $600,000 in state assistance to a company that was about hire a member of his cabinet. According to reporter David Montgomery, then Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda requested the assistance for Northern Beef Packers about two...

The three-way race for South Dakota’s open Senate seat got more complicated Wednesday, when the Sioux Falls Argus Leader published a page one story alleging that former Governor Mike Rounds, the Republican candidate and current leader in the polls, had approved $600,000 in state assistance to a company that was about hire a member of his cabinet. According to reporter David Montgomery, then Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda requested the assistance for Northern Beef Packers about two weeks before he and Rounds were to leave office. Benda was about to go to work for a company with...

At an event in Bogalusa, Louisiana Saturday, Mary Landrieu took time out of her stump speech to get something “off my chest” about her $2.5 million D.C. mansion. ... Landrieu lives in a 7,316 square foot D.C. mansion with 5 bathrooms, 4 water heaters, 2 dishwashers, and 82 fire sprinkler heads. Meanwhile, Landrieu does not own any developed property in Louisiana and bunks with her parents on the occasions she visits the state.

With less than four weeks until Election Day, the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s independent expenditure arm is shifting resources to increase its investment in six states, including South Dakota and Georgia. The NRSC has moved $1 million to South Dakota, plus another $1.45 million to Georgia. In South Dakota, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee made a $1 million television ad buy this week, on the heels of tightening poll numbers that showed its candidate, Rick Weiland, gaining ground. In Georgia, a new poll suggests a runoff is likely. The NRSC also is upping its investment in four other states: Alaska,...

Larry Pressler's wife, Harriet, drives him to all of his campaign events. He has a single full-time paid staffer running his campaign. A bank loan accounts for half of the money he's spent on his race so far. So yes, it was surprising to Larry Pressler when he woke up Wednesday to find himself within striking distance of winning the race for South Dakota's junior seat in the US Senate. A SurveyUSA poll released that day showed Pressler, an Independent, would get 32% of the vote in a race that pits him against former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, a...

Despite being an extremely popular two-term governor, Republican Mike Rounds has lost steam in the race for a U.S. Senate seat, according to the latest SurveyUSA poll. With just four weeks until the Nov. 4 general election, Rounds appears to have 35 percent of the vote, down 4 percent from a month ago. Independent Larry Pressler, a former Republican, is within the margin of error with 32 percent, gaining 7 perent from the last SurveyUSA poll. He is followed by Democrat Rick Weiland with 28 percent and the self-proclaimed "conservative" candidate Gordon Howie with just 3 percent. Democrats and their...

The strange three-way Senate race in South Dakota heated up this week with a new poll showing the GOP nominee’s lead shrinking — and with the revelation that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will commit $1 million to the race, largely to fund ads attacking him. The Republican frontrunner, former Governor Mike Rounds, is competing with Democrat Rick Weiland and the state’s former Republican Senator, Larry Pressler, who now identifies as an Independent....

Independent Larry Pressler continues to steal support from Republican Mike Rounds in the race for U.S. Senate, while Democrat Rick Weiland falls behind, a new poll shows. Survey South Dakota — conducted by Survey USA on behalf of the American News, KSFY TV of Sioux Falls and KOTA TV of Rapid City — was of 616 likely voters and was conducted between Oct. 1 and Sunday. It shows 35 percent of those responding will vote for Rounds, 32 percent for Pressler and 28 percent for Democrat Rick Weiland. Three percent of voters back independent Gordon Howie and 2 percent are...

A political action committee says it will spend $1 million to support Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Rick Weiland. Mayday PAC says it'll begin running TV ads Tuesday in Sioux Falls and Rapid City media markets. The super PAC has the self-proclaimed goal of getting "big money" out of politics. It was founded by Harvard University professor and political activist Lawrence Lessig, who was born in Rapid City.

Shocker: The GOP candidate in SD Senate race is only polling at 35% in a four man race. It has been a "given" that SD, along with WV and MT, was "in the bag" for the GOP so, I have not followed the SD Senate Race. I had to do a Google Search to find out which dude in the poll was the Pubbie and which one was the Dem. Come to find out, there is a former GOP Senator, Larry Pressler, running as an Independent(24%) and another guy, Gordon Howie (another former GOP office holder) running as a Conservative...

With one month until Election Day, Republicans' chances for retaking the Senate and picking up seats in the House are improving. The GOP has been buoyed by positive public polling, while red-state Democrats are still struggling to find distance from President Obama. There are bright spots and even some unexpected new targets on the map for both parties, but the overall national environment seems to have ticked a bit toward Republicans. The GOP needs to win a net of six seats to retake control of the Senate, and Republicans seem better-positioned to do so now than they did through much...

Public Policy Polling’s newest South Dakota Senate poll finds that Mike Rounds’ support has dropped all the way down to 35% in the wake of voter anger over the EB-5 scandal, and that Rick Weiland continues to be better liked and within single digits of Rounds. Key findings from the poll include: -Rounds is at just 35% to 28% for Weiland, 24% for Larry Pressler, and 8% for Gordon Howie. A majority of South Dakotans have a negative opinion of Rounds, with just 41% rating him favorably to 51% with an unfavorable opinion. Weiland’s favorability, at a positive 42/38 spread,...

Former Gov. Mike Rounds has acknowledged he made an inaccurate statement in written testimony he sent to lawmakers last week, and now he wants to change that testimony. Rounds sent a letter Thursday to state Sen. Larry Tidemann, R-Brookings, the chairman of the Legislature’s Operations and Audit Committee. In the letter, Rounds seeks permission to amend one of his earlier written responses to the committee’s questions about state involvement in the federal EB-5 immigrant-investor program. In the answers Rounds sent to legislators last week, he wrote that “the governor’s office was not served” with papers regarding an EB-5 related lawsuit...