Polls: Dems Running Strong In Multiple Senate Races

[babylonsister]

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/polls_dems_running_strong_in_m.php

Polls: Dems Running Strong In Multiple Senate Races
By Eric Kleefeld - June 26, 2008, 5:19PM

A bunch of new polls of Senate races around the country paint a very bright picture of the Democrats' prospects, with Dem candidates running strong all over the map. But it's not entirely good news:

• In Colorado, Quinnipiac has Democrat Mark Udall ahead of Republican Bob Schaffer by a 48%-38% margin, for an open Republican-held seat.

• In New Jersey, Fairleigh Dickinson puts incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg way ahead of Republican Dick Zimmer, by a 45%-28% margin.

• In Mississippi, Rasmussen gives Democrat Ronnie Musgrove a statistically insignificant one-point edge over appointed GOP Sen. Roger Wicker -- completely unchanged since their last poll from a month ago, despite an extensive ad campaign by Wicker in this deep-red state. Keep an eye on this one.

• In Texas, a new poll from Texas Lyceum gives incumbent Republican John Cornyn an insignificant 38%-36% lead over Democrat Rick Noriega -- a very high number of undecideds in a race featuring an incumbent who has been elected statewide on multiple occasions.

• The one sore spot is Minnesota, where Al Franken continues to trail incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. Quinnipiac puts it at Coleman 51%, Franken 41% -- a bad sign for Dems, if the Republican is above 50% in this blue state.

[skooooo]

1. I don't understand why Franken is having such a hard time...

Anyone have insight into that?

[Mojambo]

2. Yeah. It's weird. He showed pretty strong against Coleman all throughout the Dem primary

But since he locked it in he's been struggling.

I can't imagine the tax thing is having that big of an effect.

Is Coleman running ads?

[rox63]

4. Is he any good at running for office?

I know he's intelligent, a good writer and comic, but running for office requires a somewhat different skill set. Does he have it, and if not, do you think he can learn it in a hurry?

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Okay, DUers, this is a call to arms!

Please post all the crap you've got on

Roger Wicker and John Cornyn.

I promise, only porn will be removed from those pages, so find all the dirt you can on these two losers and post it.

I hope all Mississippi and Texas DUers participate.

Thank you.

[skooooo]

5. John Cornyn

Dallas Morning News, The (TX); 12/17/2003

Senator defends Cheney's pheasant hunt


WASHINGTON-When Dick Cheney and a hunting party that included several Texas Republicans, among them Sen. John Cornyn, bagged hundreds of ring-necked pheasants at a private hunting club in Pennsylvania last week, animal-rights activists denounced it as a slaughter.

They were especially outraged that the vice president shot more than 70 himself. But Cornyn said Wednesday that the birds had a sporting chance, even if they were farm-raised and released from nets for the hunters.

"It was a good shoot," said Cornyn, who figures he shot dozens of pheasants himself. He conceded that bagging the birds was so easy, at times it seemed "kind of like how Tyson's and Pilgrim's Pride and other people do it. … I must tell you that people don't necessarily hunt the same way in Texas that they hunt in Ligonier, Penn., but it was enjoyable," he said.

[skooooo]

6. Senator coming under increasing scrutiny for role in casino closure

(there's more to this article, but i didn't want to get carried away)


Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX); 04/18/2005

WASHINGTON _ The closing of the Speaking Rock Casino near El Paso, Texas, in February 2002 was one of John Cornyn's proudest moments as Texas attorney general.

His determination to shut down the Tigua Indian tribe's casino because it was opened in violation of state law earned the Texas Republican kudos and pledges of support from Christian political organizers _ backing that proved helpful as Cornyn made his successful run for the U.S. Senate that year.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, for weeks has been in an all-out political war, defending himself from allegations of ethical lapses, many of them connected directly or indirectly to the battle over tribal casinos. But Cornyn's role in the casino controversy is only beginning to draw attention.

The shuttering of the Speaking Rock Casino is being explored by investigators for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, as well as a federal multi-agency task force and grand jury that are examining the actions of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations associate Mike Scanlon.

Abramoff and Scanlon had many Indian gaming clients, including the Tigua Ysleta de Sur Pueblo, as the Tigua are known. The lobbyists are at the center of a fraud and fundraising scandal that has embroiled DeLay. Cornyn, elected senator in 2002, was supported in his anti-Speaking Rock effort by a grassroots campaign led by conservative Christian lobbyist Ralph Reed, who organized pastors around the state to oppose gaming and back the attorney general.

Senate investigators discovered Abramoff hired Reed to block gaming expansion in Texas and Louisiana _ and the $4 million that Reed was paid actually came from Abramoff's Indian gaming clients.

[skooooo]

7. Texas senator comfortable with state of Guantanamo Bay prisoners

Dallas Morning News, The (TX); 08/05/2003

WASHINGTON-Fresh from a tour of Guantanamo Bay, where he watched the interrogation of terror suspects, Texas Sen. John Cornyn said Tuesday he was impressed by conditions and comfortable with the secret detentions at the prison camp.

Amnesty International has condemned the detentions as a "human rights scandal" because the detainees have not been charged and are held incommunicado.

"It was very sobering to realize that we have some of the most evil and determined terrorists-whether it's in recruiting, or financing or organizing or executing terrorist acts-collected in that one place," Cornyn said. "But I was very reassured that we are headed down the correct path in order to get the information we need to make our country safer."

Cornyn, who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee, spent roughly five hours Monday at the U.S. base in Cuba. He said he requested the visit so he could see detainees' treatment firsthand. He found no reason for concern, he said.

[skooooo]

8. U.S. Senate Candidate from Texas Fits In with Bush's Pro-Business Philosophy

Houston Chronicle (TX); 09/23/2002

.....And in almost four years as attorney general, he has drawn mostly praise from business leaders and brickbats from consumer advocates....

But Dan Lambe, executive director of Texas Watch Foundation, a consumer advocacy group, said Cornyn has let everyday Texans down, particularly at a time of soaring homeowners' insurance rates and other economic pressures.

"We need more than ever aggressive consumer advocacy (in the attorney general's office). We're seeing the opposite," Lambe said.

Even when Cornyn has filed lawsuits on behalf of consumers, Lambe added, he often hasn't gotten large enough penalties to punish corporate offenders.

Cornyn last month filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit accusing Farmers Insurance Co., the state's second-largest insurance carrier, of illegally raising homeowners' premiums and lowering coverage. But Lambe said the suit, which seeks millions of dollars in customer refunds, was too little and too late because homeowners' coverage in Texas has been a major problem for months.

Other detractors suggested that Cornyn and Gov. Rick Perry, who endorsed the election-year suit, were mostly seeking political cover from the generous campaign contributions they have received over the years from the insurance industry.

Consumer groups have long been critical of Cornyn.

In 1997, in a report blasting the Supreme Court for being too business-oriented, Texas Citizen Action said Cornyn wrote the majority opinion in three of the court's 10 most anticonsumer decisions of the year.

They were opinions protecting a property manager who had failed to correct security problems at a mall where a customer had been murdered; allowing cigarette companies to partially escape liability for smoking-related health problems; and making it harder for consumers to pay lawyers with contingency fees.

..............

Cornyn stepped into a mega-controversy last fall by having his office pursue state claims and help protect the interests of former employees in the Enron Corp. bankruptcy case. But Cornyn, who accepted as much as $193,000 in political donations from Enron over the years, withdrew from direct personal involvement in the effort. And to further defuse controversy over his Enron contributions, he donated $200,000 to a fund aiding former Enron workers.

Cornyn also created a stir last year with a legal opinion holding that federal law barred hospital districts from providing most forms of free, non-emergency health care to undocumented immigrants. Now, as a Senate candidate, he says he supports changing federal law to allow such care.

In another change of direction, Cornyn recently opened a state investigation of a 1999 drug bust in Tulia, a small town in the Panhandle. Civil rights groups say the sting operation was racially motivated.

Authorities arrested 43 people in the sting, including 37 blacks. Eleven of those arrested were found guilty, and another 17 accepted plea bargains. Cornyn said he initially didn't want to interfere with a federal investigation of the incident but was now concerned that "things had gotten bogged down."

Will Harrell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which asked Cornyn for an investigation more than a year ago, said he hoped some good comes of Cornyn's belated response. But he questioned the attorney general's motives on the eve of an election.

"Maybe he'll throw a bone to voters of color and make it seem he cares about their issues," Harrell said.