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Here’s an ad from a new 527 group called “The 2020 Project” criticizing Senator Inhofe and his votes in the Senate. In our humble opinion, the only thing effective about the ad is its humorous use of old film footage showing one guy kicking another guy in the behind over and over. The accusations roll by on the screen way to quickly, and they aren’t even substantiated in any way. “The 2020 Project” needs to go back to the drawing board on this one!
Hat tip: The2020Project
Capital Coverage (The Oklahoman): Coburn lends hand to Inhofe
“Even long shot Oklahoma state Sen. Andrew Rice (D) rivaled his incumbent opponent’s totals, raising slightly less than Sen. James Inhofe’s (R) $910,000. Inhofe still maintained a $2 million-to-$450,000 cash advantage.”Read more…
You mean there was another debate last night?
We guess you can make that bold pronouncement when you’re highly partisan and you attend a debate nobody paid attention to. Senator Inhofe was roundly criticized (mainly from the left) for agreeing to this debate. It seems Senator Inhofe got the last laugh since the debate was scheduled on the same night as the presidential debate!
From OkieFunk:
State Sen. Andrew Rice trounced U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe in Tuesday’s debate in Tulsa
In the debate, Rice depicted Inhofe as a Washington insider that has allowed special interests to dictate policy and legislation.
“The middle class has become invisible to Washington,” Rice said, arguing the Inhofe was using the debate to take “political potshots” instead of trying to find solutions to the country’s growing economic crisis. Read more…
Related:
OkiePolitics: Rice still on pace to lose a close race
According to our friends over at okiepolitics.com, pointing out the obvious that Andrew Rice has a lower than a snow balls chance in hell of upsetting Senator Inhofe this November is “attacking” and “reciting talking points!”
OkiePolitics.com: OKPNS attacks okiepolitics, misses point
“With a 4% margin of error, Inhofe’s lead seems to be stable and strong. The overall trend, however, continues to look better for the young dem through time. Not too long ago, Rice was down by about 40. Now he is down by about 20. While it may not be enough to be first-past-the-post this November, it is much closer than many expected.
In light of Inhofe’s low approval numbers, Rice may still stand a legitimate chance to steal this election. Rice polls best with young voters — who will probably turn out large for the Obama ticket. Also, if the economy still worsens, Rice’s largest bloc of issue-voters may pull through… or at least make it fun Tuesday night.”
Our friends at OKPNS, on the other hand, would prefer to recite talking points.” Read more….
So what we draw from this analysis is this: if Rice can somehow extend the election for another six months or year, he’ll pull within maybe 10 points of Inhofe???? Would you really want to bet your election on a large turnout of young voters? How motivated do you think they will be if they perceive it to be a lost cause for Obama in Oklahoma?
Related:
Political Pulse: (OETA) The Contest for U.S. Senate
One of the unique aspects of the internet that we love is its capacity to allow every knucklehead with a computer (present company included) the ability to share their OPINIONS with a large audience. Oftentimes bloggers are right and ahead of the curve, at other times, we don’t have a damn clue! Two recent posts over at our friends okiepolitics.com fall into the latter category.
Yesterday, they questioned Senator Inhofe’s decision to debate lightweight state senator Andrew Rice:
“This decision is baffling, if not boneheaded. Inhofe should stay at home and only appear at non televised appearances. He is ahead by nearly 10%. Outspend Rice and get your ticket punched back to Washington, Jim.” Read more…
And then, feeling giddy and cocky about their pronouncement, they wrote a post today patting themselves on the back.
“It is nice to see that some logical campaign advice telling Senator Jim Inhofe to avoid debates like the plague got so much attention in the Senate.” Read more…
Sorry to rain on the parade fellas. Maybe this is why he’s not afraid to debate Rice:
From RealClearPolitics.com
A new SurveyUSA poll (Sept. 5-7, 652 LV, MoE +/- 3.9%) in Oklahoma shows McCain up 33 points over Obama in the presidential race and Sen. James Inhofe (R), running for a third term, up 22 points over state Sen. Andrew Rice (D) in the race for Senate.
The state is not considered in play for Obama, as it hasn’t voted Democratic in a presidential election since 1964. Inhofe’s re-election prospects were solidified when Gov. Brad Henry (D) decided against running. This is the third poll in the last three months to show him leading Rice by 22 points. Read more…
Related:
Election Advantage blog: (“Dedicated to a non-partisan analysis of Presidential, Senate, House, and Governor races.”) SUSA OK-SEN: Inhofe In Command
“With Rice’s strong fundraising and the fact that Inhofe can be gaffe-prone, I have considered this a possible sleeper pickup for the Democrats. I still think this one shouldn’t be counted out yet.” Read more..
By Kirk Shelley
I was reflecting back to 1994. The first two years of the Clinton régime were going about as badly for the Democratic Party as I hoped. The GOP won the special election that brought Frank Lucas into office, the state lottery went down in flames, and Gov. Walter’s had his late night plea deal. It was the perfect storm for a GOP political activist.
I helped recruit and hosted Inhofe’s college and youth coordinator in my office. He was always hard at work running all over the state organizing every campus he could. It may have been the best political environment I’ve ever worked in. I even worked with Brenda Reneau’s campaign, which could only afford one mailing, and she won the Labor Commissioner position anyway.
What made that environment so good? Clinton helped out a great deal. Pushing for Hillary Health Care was a disaster and it was a wakeup call to conservatives about the real agenda of the national Democratic Party. New activists from the Pat Robertson Presidential campaign were no longer treated as outsiders by the GOP regulars, so there was new enthusiasm and new blood in the ranks.
And then there were the issues. The GOP had a solid conservative message and stood as the last bulwark of freedom against those who would tax us and regulate us to death. Dang if it didn’t work with a vengeance.
Now I’m looking at a very different political environment that might be a watershed in the opposite direction.
In just about every special election, Democrats are winning. The enthusiastic organizers at the colleges are the Democrats.
And while Oklahoma voters are never going to vote for Obama, an unknown State Senator is pulling within 9 points of Sen. Inhofe. Two years after an election where Democrats swept every statewide office. Why? What has happened to GOP in the last 14 years?
Issues, intensity, the base, the stuff that fires up supporters.
I keep wondering if the guys running these campaigns have ever been really mad at anything besides petty office politics. Have they ever experienced moral outrage? Have they ever been ready to take up arms because someone had their property confiscated? Have they ever been at the point of ready to riot in the streets because their government policy was wrong?
I still believe that there are still a huge number of people who are just as mad about government meddling in their lives, taking more of their money, giving hard earned tax dollars to bridges to nowhere. But in 1994 we had someplace to channel that energy. I absolutely knew that Jim Inhofe was going to be part of the solution and not the problem. I still believe that he wants limited federal government.
I just don’t believe in the rest of the Republicans in Washington D.C. They were the ones who created the prescription drug benefit. They’re the ones who ran on getting rid of the Federal Department of Education and return schools to local control, but then gave us No Child Left Behind and more federal government control of the local schools.
What is becoming obvious to me is the people running most of the campaigns are just losing touch with people who really have to think about giving a $50 or $100 contribution to a campaign.
I miss the 1994 Jim Inhofe who was fighting to win. The 2008 campaign is just fighting not to lose and that’s why Rice is within 9%.
Mr. Shelley is President of Shelley Strategic Services. His consulting for pro-business organizations has included successfully completed projects in Iowa, Oklahoma, Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada, New Mexico, Mississippi, Arizona, Louisiana and Alabama. As a general consultant, Mr. Shelley has worked on 142 state and national campaigns. Mr. Shelley lives in Oklahoma City with his wife and four children.
From the Politics and Technology blog:
In Oklahoma, it appears that the Jim Inhofe campaign did an email append against a voterfile — and worse, they’ve made it impossible to unsubscribe.
As I’ve written many, many, many, many, many times before, this is a very bad idea.
One more time: Don’t email-append voterfile lists. You’re just sending email to people who don’t want it. (Appending a donor/volunteer list is a little iffy, but at least you already have a “business” relationship with those people.)
And for the love of god, make it easy for people to unsubscribe. And respect the unsubscribe request.
OK, from Oklahoma:
Ryan Cassin (Sen Inhofe’s political director) has been told that I do not wish to receive spam from the Inhofe campaign, yet the spam continues. I’ve asked politely several times for all of my addresses to be removed from the Inhofe/Republican database(s) but my requests have been ignored.
Inhofe’s campaign is spamming one email address that was only used to order pizza from Papa John’s Pizza. Read more…
Related:
From a DSCC press release:
Oklahoma Democratic Senate candidate Andrew Rice has narrowed Republican Senator Jim Inhofe’s lead from twenty points two months ago to nine points today, according to a new poll conducted for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Rice campaign. Inhofe now leads Rice only 50% to 41%, down from a 53% to 33% lead in June. Only 46% of Oklahomans say Inhofe is doing an excellent or good job, with 47% saying he is doing only a fair or poor job.
“Andrew Rice is showing real momentum, and with the general election beginning in earnest, he has put this race into play,” DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller said. “After 22 years in Washington , Oklahomans are tired of Jim Inhofe putting politics ahead of getting things done, and they are ready for a leader who will change Washington .”
The poll of 600 likely voters was taken August 12 to 14 by the Benenson Strategy Group and has a 4% margin of error.
Excerpted Poll Questions:
In the November election for U.S. Senate if the candidates were …[READ LIST]… for whom would you vote?
Democrat Andrew Rice………………………….41
Republican James Inhofe…………………..50
Don’t know…………………………..…….9
Do you generally think that things in the country are headed in the right direction or are they on the wrong track?
Right direction……………………………23
Wrong track……………………………. 62
Don’t Know…………………………. 11
How would you rate the job James Inhofe has been doing as Senator?
Excellent……………….11
Good…………….……35
Fair………………..…..31
Poor……………..…….16
Related:
RealClearPolitics: “Inhofe’s job performance numbers aren’t stellar, with 46% saying he’s doing an excellent or good job and 47% saying he’s doing fairly or poorly. But an incumbent who reaches 50% remains in strong position. Given Inhofe’s electoral history, it’s not surprising that the race looks close; while Inhofe has bested his previous two opponents by a wide margin, he’s never attracted the support of more than 57% of Sooner voters.” Read more…
A group calling itself OklahomaVets.org released this video of Oklahoma veterans criticizing Senator Inhofe on his past military votes. Here is one example they cite:
December 18, 2007
H.R. 2764 vote 441
An omnibus appropriations bill that included $3.7 billion in emergency funding for veterans programs.
INHOFE: NO (The bill passed 76-17)
With Senator Inhofe’s strong record of support for the military in the Senate, in addition to his frequent trips to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit our troops, making this case to Oklahomans may be a difficult sell.
Taking a page out of the campaign book of past challengers who are hopelessly far behind in the polls, Andrew Rice is asking his supporters to contact Senator Inhofe to try and force him to agree to six town hall style debates:
I believe that Inhofe must be held accountable for his extreme, 22-year voting record in Congress but I need your help. I am challenging Inhofe to a series of debates across Oklahoma so voters can make an informed choice this November.
Our internal polling shows that when voters are given the chance to compare us head-to-head, we win.
Today, I sent Inhofe a personal letter asking him to engage me in at least six debates this fall. You can help convince him by signing on to my challenge today.
Internal polling that they won’t release! Thank you for our laugh today Senator!
Related:
And if you need further evidence of Senator Rice and his minion’s increasing desperation, a self described “gay troublemaker from Tulsa, OK,” produced the following video with clips from a floor speech Senator Inhofe gave on gay marriage. In the opening scene, standing behind a picture of his family and numerous grandchildren, the “gay troublemaker” edits the scene after the senator says, “maybe I’m the wrong one to be doing this since I come with such a strong prejudice…”