links for 2010-01-21

What a surprise! Tom Campbell recently switched from the Governor’s race to the U.S. Senate race, and now a new poll shows him in the lead, with 30% of the vote, amongst the three Republican candidates.

Campbell is a professor at Chapman University, here in Orange, and he is fairly moderate. So is Carly Fiorina, who earned a fortune working at HP. She is coming in second with 25% of the vote.

And then there is Assemblyman Chuck DeVore. The poor guy has worked his tail off and he is coming in a distant third with 6% of the vote. No matter what he does, he simply cannot get around the fact that he has very low statewide name I.D., and he really hasn’t accomplished anything of note in Sacramento. And, as a staunch social conservative, he is out of step with most California voters.

My sources in Sacramento tell me that DeVore was stunned by this new poll and that he is seriously considering dropping out of the race altogether.
++++++
Chuckles who?

Rasmussen
1/18/10; 1,000 likely voters, 3% margin of error
Mode: Automated phone
(Rasmussen release)

Pennsylvania

2010 Senate
Toomey 49%, Specter 40% (chart)
Toomey 43%, Sestak 35% (chart)

Job Approval / Disapproval
Pres. Obama: 46 / 53 (chart)
Gov. Rendell: 43 / 56 (chart)

Favorable / Unfavorable
Arlen Specter: 43 / 54 (chart)
Pat Toomey: 57 / 27
Joe Sestak: 37 / 37

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling today overturning restrictions on independent spending by corporations and labor unions could have an immediate impact this year in California's U.S. Senate race.

California state campaign finance rules already allow corporations and unions to give directly to independent expenditure campaigns without limits, so the court decision will have little impact on state contests.

But the decision overturns federal rules requiring that corporations and unions establish political action committees, or PACs, to spend on elections. Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies and an architect of California campaign finance rules, said the ruling should have a greater impact for corporations, who have access to more money and have been less adept than unions at navigating PAC rules in the past.
+++++++
Should help Carly Fiorina the most.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she lacks the votes to quickly move the Senate's sweeping health overhaul bill through the House, a potentially devastating blow to President Barack Obama's signature issue.

Pelosi, D-Calif., made the comment to reporters after House Democrats held a closed-door meeting at which participants vented frustration with the Senate's massive version of the legislation.

Her concession meant there was little hope for a White House-backed plan to quickly push the Senate-approved health bill through the House, followed by a separate measure making changes sought by House members, such as easing the Senate's tax on higher-cost health plans. Such an approach would be "problematic," she said.

"In its present form without any changes I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House," Pelosi said, adding, "I don't see the votes for it at this time."

Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has finally come forward to admit that he fathered a child with a videographer he hired before his second White House bid. "It was wrong for me to ever deny she was my daughter," he said Thursday.

Edwards confirmed this in a statement released to The Associated Press, after initially denying that he'd fathered a child during an affair with campaign aide Rielle Hunter.

"I am Quinn's father," the former senator declared in his statement, as the second birthday of Frances Quinn Hunter approaches.

A former Edwards aide, Andrew Young, initially claimed paternity of the child shortly before the 2008 presidential primary contests began. Young is scheduled to release a book on Feb. 2 that details the scandal.
++++++
What a cad and a-hole who is a disgrace to the male gender.

A new Rasmussen Reports survey in Missouri shows Roy Blunt (R) now holds a six-point lead over Robin Carnahan (D) for the U.S. Senate, 49% to 43%.

Last month, Carnahan had a narrow 46% to 44% edge over Blunt.