Blogometer Update

LANDSCAPE: Volunteer Army

  sidinny at Daily Kos is excited about a very ambitious project at the site to cover as many races (of interest to Dems, natch) as possible across the country.  "This is an attempt to compile a fairly comprehensive listing of election-related diaries that have recently been posted.  Most of them are House or Senate races but there are also some local ones, as well as the occasional 'general info' diary."

  And how goes it?  sidinny says, "We're doing pretty well with volunteers for now.  You can still drop us a line and I'm sure we'll find something for you to do."

  At the time of this writing, there were 71 diaries writing on 33 House races, 21 Senate, and 17 gubernatorial and other.

CA 11: Pomb Voyage

  Carl Pope writes at Huffington Post that incumbent GOP Rep.--and (somehow) chairman of the House Resources Committee--Richard Pombo is "on the ropes" in his attempt to retain his House seat.  Dem challenger Jerry McNerney has been all over Pombo like a developer on virgin land.  Pope writes:

  Pombo has been the subject of a truly unprecedented array of attacks by the state's editorial boards.  A recent local story showed how Pombo's bill to weaken protections for wildlife was actually drafted to help his family's real estate speculations.

  The Republicans have just dumped another $600,000 into the race, making a total of $1.3 million that they have spent... Overall Pombo's campaign is likely to cost $5 million, and since there are probably about 10,000 votes at stake here, that's $500 a vote.  This, plus Pombo's unwillingness to release his own polls, is pretty strong proof that he knows he is in trouble.

  That's great news for environmentalists, who consider Pombo to be the worst man in the worst place at the worst time.  Pope explains:

  [T]he White House is standing by its man.  While Pombo continues to deny that his agenda includes drilling for oil and gas off California's coast, even though he's authorized a bill that would do exactly that, he's being positioned by the Bush Administration to control drilling decisions for the next two years.  Todd Willens, Pombo's policy director at the House Resources Committee, has been named Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks at the Interior Department.  It was Willens whose trip to the Marianas Islands was paid for by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and who remains the key link in the Abramoff/Pombo chain.  Now Willens -- and Pombo -- will get to peddle influence to a much bigger lobby than the Marianas sweatshop moguls -- big oil itself.

  Pope discusses his pleasure at seeing "more than 240 volunteers from the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, the Humane Society, and the League of Conservation Voters" at a park recently, encouraging environmental voters to vote.  He also talks about how similar efforts are happening across the country.  "[I]t's critical this is happening," writes Pope.  "The New York Times reported that the election is coming down to the efforts by the two parties to get out the vote, since about one third of those who voted in 2004 are at risk of staying home this year."

CO 04: From Beyond Musgrave

  The fine activist folks at ProgressNowAction have a doozy of a video (viewable here) that Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo calls "priceless."

  In the vid, PNA talker Ben Gelt attempts to ask [incumbent GOP Rep. Marilyn Musgrave], as she's exiting a GOP office in Sterling, a "question from an undecided voter," namely, "If you had a choice between saving a soldier's life or preventing a gay marriage, which one you would stop?"  Musgrave tries her best to dodge Gelt as her assistants give Gelt and his cameraman the hand.  As Gelt continues trying to get Musgrave to say something, she finally reaches a car and gets in.  That's when a man grabs Gelt and gets in his face.  "This is a public street," asserts Gelt.  "I don't give a damn what it is," says the man, who continues to glower at Gelt on the sidewalk before walking off with other Musgrave diggers.

  Markos Moulitsas at Daily Kos says, "Pretty amazing, how these thugs think they literally own the streets."

  (One minor quibble, though; the vid lists Musgrave as being from "Colorado District 5," when she's actually in District 4.)

NE 03: Kleebing The Faith

  Markos Moulitsas at Daily Kos has the latest on "excellent" Dem candidate Scott Kleeb's battle with GOP adversary Adrian Smith for the open 3rd District seat.

  No wonder the national Republican Party and Club for Growth are dumping $350K to tell the people of this district how scary and liberal Democrat Scott Kleeb is.  Their own internals must look as bad for their side, as Kleeb's own numbers look good for our side in the open race...

  "This is the first time that Kleeb has led in its internals," writes Kos.  "There's a reason the GOP and Club for Growth are running scared."

  Kleeb's latest vid can be seen here.

NM 01: Madread

  "Republican insiders are swooning," writes Rich Lowry at National Review's The Corner, over a new ad from GOP incumbent Rep. Heather Wilson, with footage from a televised debate in which Dem challenger Patricia Madrid appears to be stumped by a question regarding the raising of taxes.  (The vid's viewable here.)

  Lowry posts a reader email:

  Because of that fiasco, Madrid is refusing any more debates.  It is the ONLY time I have ever seen a political race where the challenger is the one ducking debates.  Maybe you know of others.

  I’ve been following politics for 20 years.&nsbp; Patricia Madrid is the worst candidate I’ve seen since Michael Huffington.

  "Asking her for policy analysis," the email ends strangely, "would be like asking a beagle for a good golfing anecdote."

  More good news for Wilson, per Liz Mair at GOPProgress.com:

  "Not only is The Wall Street Journal reporting that Republicans in New Mexico's first district have already requested 22,000 absentee ballots (only 2,000 less than by election day in 2004)-- almost certainly guaranteeing Wilson 22,000 Republican votes already-- but the party says it's on target to exceed the 24,000 high water mark set two years ago (during a contentious Presidential election marked by very, very high voter turnout).

  In light of that and other information, Mair suggests that "for Halloween, Wilson invest in a Superwoman costume, and that Madrid and her team dress up as, well, ghosts...

  She adds an update about a couple of polls that have Wilson ahead of Madrid, with that lead growing as more people see the aforementioned ad.  "If this trend carries on, by this time next week, Wilson should have a clean 6 point lead," writes Mair.  "Thanks for playing, Patricia Madrid!"

PA 07: Stick A Fork In Him, He's Weldon

  Jonathan Singer at MyDD is flabbergasted:

  As if this Republican Congress were not corrupt enough, yet more allegations of GOP Representatives misusing their office for their own gain or the benefit of friends and relatives has emerged.  Perhaps unsuprisingly, the latest charges sound familiar, come from a familiar district and surround a familiar Congressman.

  That, of course, would be embattled GOP incumbent Rep. Curt Weldon, who is, as Singer writes, the "subject of a rather unflattering investigative piece" in The New York Times.  In short, writer Leslie Wayne portrays Weldon as being guilty of taxpayer abuse, collusion with Italian defense contractors, influence peddling, jaywalking and all sorts of other crimes and misdemeanors.

  Singer's had it.  "Weldon is a real disgrace to both his district and his country," he writes, before venting about GOP corruption's national implications.  "[T]he list of Republican scandals involving members of Congress or high-ranking administration officials misusing the power vested in them by the American people rivals any other period in American history.  In fact, it nearly rivals all other periods in American history."

  Which, as you might naturally expect, leads Singer to plug Weldon's formidable foe, Dem challenger Joe Sestak, who appeared to be leading Weldon in the polls even before the damning Times article came out.  "[Weldon] appears to be on track for a defeat in ignominy," wraps Singer.