House Republicans are embracing former House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s famous line, “All politics is local,” but history suggests they may be taking it to their electoral grave. Midterm elections in 1966, 1974, 1982, and 1994 certainly weren’t local – they were national. Back-to-back briefings by National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (NY) and Democratic […]
The brief stay by Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) as my frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination is over. It was much, much shorter than I expected. But Allen, a first-term Senator who served as governor of the commonwealth of Virginia, didn’t lose that status because of his third-place showing in the Southern […]
Fourteen-term Democratic Cong. Martin Sabo is announcing his retirement. His 5th District Minneapolis-based seat went for John Kerry 71%-28% in the 2004 presidential election. The race will only be contested in the Democratic primary. Early potential candidates mentioned include Sabo’s chief of staff Michael Erlandson, Sabo’s daughter Julie, a former state legislator and 2002 DFL […]
Like Rasputin, who refused to die even after he was poisoned, shot three times and beaten with a 2-pound dumbbell, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R) is proving to be more resilient than many political observers once assumed. Riley was pronounced politically dead by many — including me — more than two years ago when a […]
Georgia’s 12th Congressional District was never supposed to elect a Republican. Max Burns didn’t win the seat in 2002, Democrats lost it, and after only one term, Burns was voted out of office. Now the former congressman is attempting a comeback in a slightly redrawn district, but Republicans should temper their optimism and understand the […]
Once again, the New York Senate race is receiving more attention than it deserves. The decision by Kathleen Troia McFarland (R) to jump into the Republican Senate race has some GOP insiders smiling, and cable television news hosts jumping for joy. Republicans hope that McFarland can make Clinton spend money running for reelection. And they’d […]
If you turned on C-SPAN last Sunday evening, you may have noticed that the network’s “Road to the White House 2008” was broadcasting a Feb. 20 speech by Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) to the Spartanburg County (S.C.) Republican Party. Huckabee is mentioned as a possible contender for the GOP nomination, so it’s fitting that […]
The new March 10, 2006 print edition of the Rothenberg Political Report is on its way to subscribers. (Click here for subscription information.) 2006 Gubernatorial OutlookThe mood nationally is shifting toward change, and Republicans are playing defense in governorships this cycle, along with their majorities in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. The GOP comes […]
Apparently, there is something about being named Brown. In Ohio, the decision by Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) to enter the U.S. Senate race after first turning down pleas to run has divided Democrats. Party insiders rallied behind Brown, forcing Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett out of the contest, even though those same insiders had initially […]
If voters are looking for a change this November, the fallout for Republicans could spread beyond the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House. Republicans are defending a number of governorships this cycle in states they have controlled for a number of years. Voters at the state level have generally shown more of a willingness to […]