Battleground briefing: New ads, polls
Posted: Thursday, July 03, 2008 11:32 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
2008, Ads, Polls
From NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann
Roll Call reports that the RNC's upcoming ad launch -- which goes up Sunday in key battleground states Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin -- will be a $3 million campaign focused on energy policy. The ads will run through July 15.
VIDEO: The latest presidential polls show Barack Obama with a double-digit lead in some battleground states. Dan Abrams discusses the results with Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff, Republican strategist Brad Blakeman and MSNBC political analyst Craig Crawford.
A new
Gallup poll looks today at how residents of battleground states view the economy. Numbers from Ohio, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Oregon all show slightly more negativity about the state of the economy than the national average. But the numbers for Michigan and Pennsylvania are particularly pessimistic.
Politico’s Allen reports McCain will unveil a “Jobs First” economic plan on Monday as he kicks off a five-day economic tour through Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia and Wisconsin. One of Schmidt’s first moves, perhaps? No more Canada, Colombia or Mexico… (Cillizza reports Schmidt is beefing up the RNC and NOT scrapping those regional managers.)
COLORADO: Denver officials shot down yesterday's rumor that Democrats are considering cutting their summer convention short by one day. "I can guarantee you that's not happening," Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said.
Hickenlooper is also in the news for denouncing a jazz singer who unexpectedly replaced the Star Spangled Banner with the tune known as the Black National Anthem during his State of the City address this week. The mayor had originally painted the switcheroo as not such a big deal, but yesterday he slammed the singer for "deceiving" organizers of the event.
It's a wide range, but activists say that they're expecting 5,000 to 50,000 participants in a march to promote immigrant rights during the Denver Convention.
IOWA: The Obama campaign named two more operatives for the general election in the state that launched the Illinois senator's fight for the nomination. New Communications Director Brad Anderson, who served as an Edwards operative in 2004, comes to the Obama campaign after almost two years in Gov. Chet Culver's press shop. Trippe Welde, who started out in Davenport in the early days of the Iowa field effort and worked in Nevada, Ohio and North Carolina, will run the state's field ops.
Where are they now? Two former Dodd staffers loved Iowa so much (recall that the CT senator moved his family there in the lead up to the caucuses) -- that they've joined up with the Democratic challenger to Rep. Tom Latham of Ames.
NEW MEXICO: A Santa Fe blog reports that James Carville -- the outspoken Clinton supporter who memorably compared Bill Richardson to Judas Iscariot after the NM guv endorsed of Obama -- is finally giving some campaign cash to Obama. No word on how many pieces of silver.
Big shakeup in the state's GOP party leadership -- Executive Director Adam Feldman is leaving (it's unclear whether he quit or was fired). He's leaving after having been on the job for less than a year, which signaled to some state politicos that Republicans realized the need for a major realignment before what could be a tough election cycle for them in November.
NEVADA: Rory Reid, the son of Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, is considering a run for the Nevada's Governor's mansion in 2010. His dad, who has built up no small share of political critics during his tenure as Senate leader, will be up for reelection that year as well.
OHIO: Team Obama in Ohio is hosting voter registration events for the Fourth of July weekend. The "Declare Your Independence" drive will include registration and participation in holiday parades.
It's no secret that Gov. Ted Strickland is key to an Obama success. Ohio state director Aaron Pickrell was on the record yesterday saying that he expects big participation from Strickland and popular Sen. Sherrod Brown.
McCain returns to Ohio next week. Of note: he'll be in Strickland's home county -- the heart of the Appalachia region were Team Obama hopes to make inroads with the governor's help.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Mark your calendars: McCain will be back in the Live Free or Die State on July 22nd.
Democrats in the state have unveiled a Web site to report "dirty tricks" -- especially by supporters of embattled incumbent Sen. John Sununu.
Note this interesting line Sununu's using on the stump: "I'm the youngest member of the U.S. Senate, but I still have more experience than Barack Obama. What's powerful about a line like that is that it's absolutely true."
PENNSYLVANIA: McCain's trip to the Keystone State earlier this week pulled in $1.5 million.
VIRGINIA: Senate candidate Mark Warner has already spent more than $4 million on his campaign.
FLORIDA: Wow. Check out the voter registration flyer being sent out by the Florida GOP. The header? "If the Democrats win the White House this November...America will be unrecognizable." More: "The tax and spend Democrat machine in Washington will continue spending at alarming rates...Floridians will be forced into a system of socialized medicine...and (liberals will be) creating special rights for special interest groups.''
NBC News/National Journal’s Mike Memoli contributed to this report.
