Archive for December, 2009
CT-Sen: New Strategy for Dodd is Bring Home the Bacon
Posted by jaren in 2010 Elections on December 23rd, 2009
With a backdrop of health care legislation supporters, Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut along with other colleagues did a brief speech on their legislative achievement in the Mansfield Room of the US Capitol. Upon hearing the crowd’s applause, he jokingly stated that he hoped all of those in the audience were from Connecticut.
All joking aside, Dodd is in the fight of his political life and as Politico reported in a piece today, he is pulling all of the punches he can to bring home in the bacon in an attempt to win back good favor with the voters of Connecticut. Among some of the goodies Dodd has brought back to Connecticut, according to Politico, are: “…senior citizen centers, low-income heating assistance, education programs, new buses and highway funds in Connecticut.” Also, Dodd is pushing transportation dollars to build high speed rail systems in Connecticut as well as trying to get the Pentagon to buy more Connecticut made aircraft engines. Furthermore, Dodd managed to get an $100 million grant for a university hospital in Connecticut, and speculation is that this hospital will go to the University of Connecticut.
If Dodd’s own internal polling numbers are a valid indication of his progress, his strategy of unapologetically bringing home the bacon may be working. Real Clear Politics reported on Tuesday that Dodd released internal polling numbers showing him tied at 46-46 with WWE CEO Linda McMahon and just 6 points behind Republican frontrunner Rep. Rob Simmons at 51-46. That is a significant improvement from the Rasmussen poll released earlier this month that showed Dodd behind Simmons at 48-35 and behind McMahaon at 44-38.
If Dodd can continue to bring home the bacon for Connecticut, perhaps he can transcend his lagging poll numbers and remind Connecticut voters why it is wise to vote for the experienced incumbent with enough prestige to bring home the goods. It will be interesting to see how his strategy is working once external polling numbers are released in the future.
PA-Sen: As Specter Moves Left, Toomey Makes Gains in General
Posted by jaren in 2010 Elections on December 21st, 2009
Just over a year ago, Arlen Specter was campaigning for the Presidential ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin as a Republican Senator of Pennsylvania. Of course, when Arlen Specter voted for the Democratic backed stimulus package this past spring, the vote emboldened conservative challenger Pat Toomey to the point where it drove Specter out of his former Republican Party and into the Democratic Party citing poor GOP primary poll numbers.
Initially, Specter came into the Democratic Party as the only viable challenger for the nomination. At that point, he was a conservative Democrat vowing to go against the Employee Free Choice Act and a public option in health care . As his primary challenger Joe Sestak pointed out in a recent Huffington Post op-ed, where he tries to paint Specter as “Pennsylvania’s Joe Lieberman,” Specter has switched his position on both of these issues among others. Furthermore, Specter has also positioned himself to the left of Joe Sestak on the Afghanistan escalation painting himself as a dove while Sestak has taken a hawkish position.
A recent Quinniapiac poll has Specter tied with Toomey in a general election match up, while in May he had a 53-33 lead over Toomey. Specter still has a comfortable lead over Joe Sestak in the primary with a 53-30 lead, in fact, he has made gains since October when the numbers were 44-25 for Specter.
So for now, at least in his primary race, Specter’s leftward leans have worked to his favor. However, if Rep. Sestak can get his voice heard and push his message that Specter has only made his leftward leans to advance his long time career of opportunism, it could be damaging to Specter in a primary race. So far, obviously, it has not resonated. One thing is for certain, Pennsylvania politics could be changing. One year ago, no one would imagine Toomey, a Santorum-style conservative, tying or beating a Democrat in statewide polls.