Political Roundup: 6/3/10

Interesting tid-bits and links from the campaign trail...

Key booster of newly minted Florida Independent Charlie Crist arrested for fraud (Fox News)

The former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida -- an ally of now independent Gov. Charlie Crist -- was arrested Wednesday for allegedly running a scam bilking money from the party.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement took Jim Greer into custody Wednesday at his Orlando-area home. The 47-year-old has been charged with six counts of organized scheme to defraud, four counts of felony grand theft and one count of money laundering. ...

Insofar as it complicates Crist's race for the Senate, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Democrats fall to a historic low in the Gallup Poll (Michael Barone)

Wow! The Gallup organization reports that on the generic ballot question—which party’s candidate would you vote for in Congress—Republicans currently lead Democrats 49%-43%. That’s the biggest Republican lead since Gallup began asking the question in 1950—and in fact Republicans have seldom been ahead in those 60 years. More bad news for the Democrats: 39% of Republicans say they’re enthusiastic about voting, compared to 25% of Independents and 24% of Democrats.

Again, this is Gallup.  Rasmussen has had the Dems in big negative territory on the generic ballot for almost a year now. And when it comes to Gallup, the GOP usually does really, really well when they are within 5 points of Dems in this poll...much less holding a lead.  Methinks some butts are starting to pucker on Capitol Hill.

Connecticut Senate: Blumenthal 56%, McMahon 33% (Rasmussen)

Democrat Richard Blumenthal apparently has weathered charges that he exaggerated his military service in Vietnam for years and is running as strongly as ever against both his Republican challengers in Connecticut’s race for the U.S. Senate.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Connecticut finds Blumenthal with 56% support versus 33% for Linda McMahon, the officially endorsed GOP candidate. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided. McMahon has come under criticism recently as people have focused on her role in World Wresting Entertainment, a corporation that one conservative pundit compares to the Gulf oil spill as “a relentless gusher of pollution." ...

It doesn't seem that lying about serving in Vietnam hurts your chances in getting elected to the Senate in Connecticutt.  I suppose it's like Limbaugh usually says, this sort of thing is a resume enhancement for these guys.

Latest Kentucky poll has Rand Paul up 51% to 45% (Washington Examiner)

Republican ophthamologist Rand Paul holds a slight lead in the race for the Kentucky Senate seat of retiring Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky, according to a new poll conducted by Survey USA for WHAS television and the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Remember, this comes in the wake of the media going just about wall-to-wall with hyperventilating over Paul's statement that he basically didn't like how the Civil Rights Act was structured, from a philosophical standpoint.  Odds are we'll see his number go up a bit from here, as that wears off some and becomes old news.

Yet another Democrat Senate candidate says he was offered a job to "not" run (Politico)

Colorado U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff confirmed Wednesday that Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff, suggested three administration jobs that would be available to him last September if he dropped his plans to run against U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who had the support of the White House.

Romanoff said he informed the White House that he would stay in the race. The revelation comes days after the White House confirmed that Rep. Joe Sestak was approached about an unpaid position in the administration if he dropped his campaign against Sen. Arlen Specter. But in this case, Romanoff was offered paid positions in the administration, a clear difference from the Sestak case. ...

And keep in mind we still don't have the full scoop on the first case like this.  Is this like reverse payola?  Pay "not" to play?

It's a bad year to switch parties (Hot Air)

One difference should be noted between two party switchers in Congress this term, Arlen Specter in the Senate and Parker Griffith in the House.  Specter bailed out of the GOP in order to join the majority as well as to avoid what looked like a brutal primary challenge from a former Republican Congressman.  Griffith switched out of frustration with Democratic leadership to join the minority, and at the time didn’t appear to be worried about a primary challenge.  Those differences are real, but in the end, purely academic — since both ended up getting the boot in the primaries from challenges within their new parties ...

Maybe it's also not a good year to "not" be the conservative in the race.  As in, Specter switches because he's going to get creamed in a GOP primary by a conservative...then loses among the Dems...and Griffith switches to run as a Republican and gets beat by a conservative.

Michael Barone has a good analysis of the Alabama race here.