All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

A Republican political hopeful interested in serving as governor of Massachusetts announced Monday he has chosen Richard R. Tisei, an openly gay state legislator, to be his running mate in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

"Want you to be the first to know: I've chosen State Senator Richard Tisei as my running mate," Republican Charles Baker wrote on his Twitter account. "Excited about this team."

In the photo at left, Baker stands to the left of Tisei outside the civic center in Wakefield, Mass.

Baker is the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and a former adviser to two Republican governors. He has known Tisei for years, the Boston Globe reports, and Tisei's years in the state legislature will make up for Baker's limited political experience.

Tisei, who the Globe called an "only-in-Massachusetts character," publicly disclosed his sexuality to the newspaper last week, though it was widely known.

Read full post…

A few notes on the spotlighted players in the Senate's health care vote, in the context of the 2010 elections and their electorates back home. As Majority Leader, Harry Reid (at left) is at center stage and is up in Nevada next year. The focus is also on some Democrats with doubts, notably Louisiana's Mary Landrieu and Nebraska's Ben Nelson, who aren't up but do represent very red states, and Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln, who is, and could face a tough test in 2010.

Nelson Will Vote to Begin Health Debate; What Will Landrieu, Lincoln Do?
Key Provisions of the Senate Health Care Bill
Washington Unplugged: Reid Seeks Momentum in Health Debate
CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care

Lincoln (at left) not only represents a red state, but one that got even more Republican in 2008 from 2004 (one of the few that did). She needs to be mindful of those Republican voters: one in five of her backers in 2004 had also backed then-President Bush's reelection. To win that race, Lincoln outraised and outspent her opponent by six million dollars, but her Republican challenger still got 44 percent So Lincoln doesn't appear to have a lot of electoral margin for error with Arkansas voters.

On one hand, the state has an uninsured rate higher than the national average. But Lincoln (at left) will also need to make older voters happy, which so far has looked like a daunting task with this bill, at least nationwide.

Read full post…

Updated 5:18 p.m. ET

After months of consideration, former New York City mayor and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has decided against running for governor of New York, according to a report in the New York Times.

And according to the New York Daily News, the reason is that he's running instead for Senate.

Both newspapers are citing anonymous sources, and Giuliani's team is saying it is premature to say he has made a final decision.

Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella flatly told CBS News that the Daily News report is "not true."

In a separate written statement, she said this: "When Mayor Giuliani makes a decision about serving in public office, he will inform New Yorkers on his own."

Read full post…

A Gallup poll released today gives the Republicans a 48 percent to 44 percent edge over Democrats in a generic congressional ballot if the 2010 elections were held today. The Republicans have been inching closer to the lead after trailing the Democrats by six points in a similar poll conducted last July.

Read full post…

Marco Rubio, the conservative Florida Republican who is challenging Gov. Charlie Crist to be the GOP's 2010 Senate nominee, has been endorsed by the anti-tax, pro-limited government Club For Growth.

"Marco Rubio is the real deal, one of the brightest young stars in American politics today, and a proven champion of economic liberty," said the group's president, Chris Chocola.

The endorsement is a boon for Rubio, who is seeking to close a major fundraising gap against Crist. The governor's support for President Obama's economic stimulus package outraged fiscal conservatives, and the decision by the Club For Growth to offer its backing is a signal from the powerful group that he should be treated as a viable candidate.

"The Club for Growth PAC has spent months studying this race, and we have concluded that either Charlie Crist or Marco Rubio would be heavily favored to win next November against likely Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek," said Chocola. "The only question now is what kind of Republican will Florida send to Washington next year: a pro-growth Republican with a record of fiscal conservatism or a big-government Republican with a record of tax increases?"

I interviewed Rubio this morning for a forthcoming article on the race. He was sharply critical of Crist both for backing the stimulus bill and for suggesting in a recent interview that he didn't actually "endorse" the legislation.

Read full post…

New York Gov. David Paterson is launching his re-election campaign with two new television ads, beating back chatter he should step aside amid low approval ratings.

The two ads tell Paterson's personal story and defend his record as governor, which began in March 2008 after then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in scandal.

"Some say I shouldn't be running for governor," Paterson says in an ad called "Some Say." "It might have been easier if all I thought about was running for governor. But I think it's more important to do what's right for the people of New York."

The ad "When," shown above, emphasizes that Paterson came into office during the recession and highlights his personal biography.

The Democratic governor is also hiring Harold Ickes, former President Bill Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff, to help with his campaign, CBS 2 in New York reports.

Just as of last month, Paterson had said he was unsure about pursuing a full term.

A Quinnipiac poll put the governor's approval rating at a dismal 30 percent. In a hypothetical primary matchup, popular state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo pummeled Paterson, 61 percent to 19 percent. The poll indicated Cuomo could beat potential Republican opponent Rudy Giuliani in a general election matchup, but that Paterson could not.

The Obama administration has pressured the governor to drop out of the running.

New York Governor David Paterson, who stepped into his job following the resignation of Eliot Spitzer, will "reassess" his plan to run for governor next year if his poll numbers don't improve by January, sources tell the New York Daily News.

"He's in it, he's planning to put the team together, but he's said if his numbers don't improve by the beginning of the year, he would have to reassess his campaign," one Democratic source told the newspaper.

Paterson is also reportedly worried about how his fundraising numbers will stack up against those of popular New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who many political observers expect to run.

Among those who would be happy with a reassessment by Paterson, who has said he is fully planning a run, is the Obama administration, which has pressured the governor to pull out of the race.

Read full post…

Beau Biden, the son of Vice President Joe Biden, has indicated that he is leaning toward running for the Senate seat held by his father for 36 years.

In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," the Delaware Attorney General said he was "absolutely" considering running for the seat in next year's elections.

But Biden isn't ready to definitely commit to a run yet. Before he makes the final decision, Biden said in the interview that he wanted to spend more time with his family and resume work in his current job. Biden has spent the last year on a tour of duty with the Army National Guard in Iraq.

"There's time to make that decision," Biden said. "First things first -- make sure I focus on my family, focus on my job."

Read full post…

Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter has lost his edge over Pat Toomey, his expected Republican challenger in the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate race, according to a new poll released today by Quinnipiac University. Toomey, a former congressman, now has 43 percent to Specter's 42 percent, a reversal from last July when Specter held a one point lead over Toomey, 45-44.

However, the poll results also suggest that Specter is well positioned ahead of the Democratic primary next year. His leading opponent, Rep. Joe Sestak, is trailing him by 19 percentage points, holding only 25 to Specter's 44.

When pitted against each other in a hypothetical matchup, Sestak and Toomey are also close with Toomey barely ahead 38 to 35 percent. But this matchup has also received the highest percentage of undecided voters at 25 percent.

The poll of 1,100 Pennsylvania voters has a margin of error of three percentage points.

Despite his lead, however, Toomey is still largely unknown to Pennsylvanians, with 53 percent of voters saying that they "do not know enough about him to form an opinion." In a run against the high-profile Specter, whose approval rating has fallen to an all time low in the poll at 44 percent, Toomey's lack of fame and notoriety could turn into a positive. A final outcome, it seems, could rest on who reaches voters first to inform them about Toomey.

Read full post…

This post was written by Anthony Salvanto, CBS News Elections Director, and Mark Gersh, Washington Director of the National Committee for an Effective Congress and a CBS News Consultant. It's the first in a series taking a look at the upcoming campaign for Congress next year.

President Obama recently told CBS News' "60 Minutes" that there were, as he saw it, some who view the current environment as a replay of 1993-94, when Republicans used Democrats' failure on health care that year as a springboard to retaking control of the House. (Watch the "60 Minutes" interview here.)

Legislative battles aside, could that electoral history really repeat itself? As we head toward 2010, the first thing to look at is how the Democrats' majority is set up around the country – and by comparison to 1994, there are important parallels, but also very important differences.

By now we certainly know from the House Democrats' internal debates that their majority is not monolithic –all summer we watched "blue dog" Democrats, liberals, and moderate Democrats from around the country look to find common ground. That same diversity is also important to consider as we assess 2010 – it is the result of a somewhat different coalition than existed in 1994.

Read full post…