Bagels & Ballots: 2012 Presidential Race Edition (Already!)
Vetting for 2012: With less than a week to go until midterms, it’s safe to say the 2012 presidential race is warming up. The Democratic National Committee has already approached the Pentagon to learn about potential Republican opponents—part of its early stage opposition research. According to ABC News, The DNC has filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the Defense Department for any communications between military agencies and nine potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates: former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin; former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney; Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi; Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty; former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; South Dakota Senator John Thune; Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana; and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. (ABC News)
Calling Illinois Jews: Illinois’ Republican senatorial candidate Mark Kirk and gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady drummed up support at a rally for Jewish voters organized by the Republican Jewish Coalition. (Associated Press)
Democrats, Winning? Or at least that’s what the party says in a new memo, which claims that the Republican surge has not materialized in early voting: “In key states, such as NV, IA, CA, WI, WA, IL and WV, Democrats are outpacing Republicans in early vote. In other states, such as CO, Democrats tend to cast votes later than Republicans (as they did in 2008), and we are confident that margin will close.” (Politico (PDF))
Refuah Shlemah: We’re glad to see that California’s Republican senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina is feeling better and back on the trail. On Monday, the former H-P exec was hospitalized from an infection that developed from a breast cancer treatment, but her campaign says she’s better now. Of course, this comes with speculation of a sympathy vote… (San Jose Mercury News)
42 Again: The senatorial race in Pennsylvania is heating up, creating an opportunity for Bill Clinton to step in for his party. Today, the 42nd president is joining Democratic candidate Joe Sestak at two rallies, along with a radio ad in Sestak’s favor. And if that’s not enough to tip the needle, POTUS is joining in on Saturday. (Pennlive.com)
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
