As the outside groups on the Democratic side are defunded, right-wing groups sloshing with cash from business are popping up everywhere. I don't have time to go into a full post on this, but Americans for Job Security, which has the legal designation of a 'trade association' (a c6, for those legal eagles out there) simply so that it doesn't have to disclose its large dollar corporate donors, dropped a little more than $200k against Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire (which might be one reason her polling has dropped a bit).
I wrote about this in 2006, when Americans for Job Security, despite denying it was advocating for the election or defeat of a candidate, shared video footage with the Santorum campaign in its attack ads on Bob Casey. Now, we don't know where AJS's money is coming from, but we do know that the group got its start with a $1 million grant from the American Insurance Industry, and I heard rumors that pharma was pumping money into races through these kinds of groups.
Democratic Members of Congress, especially those elected in 2006, are well aware of these front group activities. Ironically, it's no longer illegal for companies to start spending on political ads directly, but they won't do it because they don't want to associate their brand with supporting Republicans. And so they use shell games instead.
More and more of what is essentially political money laundering is going to happen, and until the good government groups or leaders in Congress start to investigate, it's going to keep happening. It's a golden opportunity awaiting some enterprising Democrat with subpoena power.
"I support net neutrality and its promise of equal access to the information that is so vital to our lives on the internet.
The internet's role in our daily lives has grown exponentially in the last dozen years. It has created opportunities that we could not even imagine before: children, in their homes and classrooms, can study the universe as if they were visiting in a NASA telescope, families can read about medical advances as if they are sitting in the best medical libraries, and small businesses can find suppliers and buyers across the country and compete with larger corporations.
On the internet we choose what we read, unmediated by the preferences of governments or businesses. I support our equal access to this information and will continue to do so when I am in the US Senate representing the people of New Hampshire."
"In such a short time, the internet has developed into a key tool for our free society. It has driven economic development, enabled innovation, stimulated political discussion and provided new forums for the exercise of our First Amendment right of free speech. Net Neutrality is vital to keeping the internet free and open, and protecting access to its information for all Mississippians and Americans."
I wonder if Steve Marchand and Katrina Swett still think it was a good idea to drop out in New Hampshire. A new ARG poll shows a dramatic turnaround in what had long been considered one of the top four pickup opportunities for Democrats:
A new poll to be released today shows Republican Sen. John Sununu has taken over the lead in next year's possible U.S. Senate race against Democratic former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
The American Research Group polled 558 likely voters Dec. 16-19 and found Sununu with 52 percent, Shaheen with 41 percent and 7 percent undecided. Earlier ARG polls showed Shaheen leading Sununu, most recently by 46 to 41 percent in September.
Sununu's upsurge could be happening for any number of reasons - or this poll could just be an outlier - but there is one particular possibility: That the recent attacks from Jeanne's husband Billy, against Barack Obama's teenage drug use, might have taken a toll on her Senate campaign.
I wonder if that is what we are seeing in New Hampshire now, too. Billy's Shaheen's attacks against Obama could be doing serious damage to his wife's standing among New Hampshire Independents, among whom Obama leads. Even apart from hurting Shaheen in a key voting block, this is the sort of incident that could make her look like another crass politician by engaging in vicious, racially-tinted character attacks through a surrogate. That won't help her among anyone.
Unfortunately for Democrats, two of her three opponents in the Democratic primary, including her two best funded and most experienced opponents, have dropped out. Jay Buckey is the only candidate Shaheen still faces. Now. Buckey's chances aren't probably any better than Shaheen's, but unless this poll is an outlier, they probably aren't any worse than Shaheen's either.
Update: I should emphasize that the possibility of this poll being an outlier is pretty high. The Governor numbers look screwy, too, for example. We'll have to see what's up when the next polls come out...
The Manchester Union Leader reports that former governor Jeanne Shaheen will be entering the US Senate Race, and will be making an announcement today.
Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen will be a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2008, the New Hampshire Union Leader has learned. The Democratic former three-term chief executive is expected to issue a statement today addressing her political plans. While it's unclear exactly how the statement will be phrased, sources say Shaheen has decided to seek the seat held by Republican John E. Sununu, who defeated her in a bitter 2002 contest.
One of the three current candidates, Steve Marchand, has previously stated that he would drop out if Shaheen entered the race, while another, Katrina Swett, has not said anything on record. The third, former Astronaut and physician Jay Buckey, has stated on several occasions that he would stay in the race. The following press release was sent out by Buckey's campaign early today, before the Union Leader's story broke:
Today's a very heavy New Hampshire Senate day. I criticized NH Senate candidate Katrina Swett a few months ago, and then today Jeanne Shaheen felt the mighty wrath of OpenLeft. And since this discussion started, I've learned from the comments that Senate candidate Steve Marchand and Shaheen are or have been associated with the DLC (and Swett is a LieberDem, of course). It's not a good scene in establishment-land in New Hampshire, though that shouldn't be surprising as there was a rather abrupt transition from conservative anti-tax New Hampshire to Bush-bashing hippie mecca from 2000-2006. Politicians in the Granite state must have whiplash, and apparently 'granite state' has been dropped in favor of 'sandal-wearing tie-dye state that bums weed off of Vermont'.
Anyway, despite former New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Kathy Sullivan's admirable defense of Shaheen in the comments, these politicians are obvious tools. Apparently, we're supposed to believe that DLC-aligned tax cutting hawk turned antiwar progressive with no explanation shows character, or something. As far as my criticism goes, somehow Jeanne Shaheen's stated support of Bush's tax cuts or the Iraq war is actually Republican plot because it's on Youtube and posted on a right-wing blog, and also someone put it on a wiki and that person is mean.
As it happens, Joe Trippi posted his endorsement today of former astronaut Jay Buckey for NH Senate, so I surfed around Buckey's site to see what the fuss was about. It turns out that Buckey is running a quirky campaign and has neat ideas and an intellectual 'big picture' frame. Check out some of his youtube clips. Net neutrality is core to the new economy, so I like that he's got a thirty second video on that topic. He also covers global warming with a strong focus on energy (and Apollo Alliance framing). My favorite video is his discussion of globalization, where he links it to education, health care, R&D, and retirement security. Buckey's a scientist (doctor), and has an optimist progressive framework that I found really compelling. Some of that is that he's a progressive techie guy and I'm a progressive blogger guy, so there's an obvious tribal affinity.
Anyway, Buckey looks like a really cool choice for Senate. He's more Shea-Porter than Hodes, and a kind of nice fit for a newly hippie Hampshire.
When I came into politics in 2002, I thought that the only problem was that the media was a bit broken, and that Bush was in charge of our country. As I've looked deeper into Democratic Party politics, it's become clear that political discourse in this country is very sick. Today's episode is Michael O'Hanlon and Ken Pollack, both 'liberal' foreign policy experts talking about how the surge is working. I have a friend who used to work for Pollack in 2001, and she's embarrassed to have ever been associated with him. As Glenn Greenwald brilliantly shows just how dishonest these people are, and yet they still get on CNN and have cushy think tank jobs. Even Joe Klein whacks them hard today to his credit.
There's another side to this problem, though. O'Hanlon and Pollack are called to testify before Congress as experts, and many foreign policy staffers rely on them for guidance. This is the unseen influence they have, even when they are not on CNN. This is because our candidates bear little accountability for their support of right-wing politics, and we support them. That needs to stop, and it needs to stop with people like Jeanne Shaheen.
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