We found a couple of First District-related items that are in today's Roll Call (subscription required). Via the Hat City Blog in Connecticut, we learn of a Roll Call article, not yet loaded into Nexis:
The National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting 23 Democratic incumbents, including several freshmen, and one open seat, according a memo obtained by Roll Call that was prepared by the NRCC for a March 5 briefing to political action committee officials.
[...]
The memo includes a write-up of the Republican candidates running in each of the targeted seats - all GOP candidates are included if there is a contested primary - as well as a short description of the Democratic incumbent.
"There are multiple pickup opportunities for our Republican challengers in the fall," NRCC spokesman Ken Spain said, when asked to comment on the memo. "With [a Congressional] approval rating hovering around a record low, Democrats sitting in Republican-leaning districts will have a hard time defending their abysmal record of tax hikes and runaway spending in a presidential election year."
Walz is on the list. Via Lexis-Nexis, we found the DCCC's response in theNational Journal's House Race Hotline:
The DCCC "dismissed the memo in its entirety." DCCC spokesperson Doug Thornell: "There is more truth contained in the National Enquirer than in this hastily thrown together factually inaccurate work of fiction." The memo "includes a write-up" of the GOP candidates running as well as a short description of the Dem incumbent (Drucker, Roll Call, 3/6)
Given the hijinks of the Republican contenders against each other during the past weeks, the National Enquirer is about it.
The second tells us of the Americans United for Change radio ad, via Nexis-Nexis:
Americans United for Change, the liberal 527 group that works both the domestic and foreign policy sides of the political street, has begun airing radio ads in the districts of eight potentially vulnerable House Democratic freshmen, praising them for voting for the economic stimulus package last month.
"President Bush has told us the economy is strong," the ad begins. "CEOs on Wall Street are doing just fine. But if he'd asked the people on Main Street they'd tell him something very different."
The ads are being aired in the districts of Reps. Michael Arcuri (N.Y.), Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.), Steve Kagen (Wis.), Carol Shea-Porter (N.H.), Nancy Boyda (Kan.), Paul Hodes (N.H.), Tim Mahoney (Fla.) and Tim Walz (Minn.). They are scheduled to run for about 10 days.
Americans United also is placing robocalls with similar scripts into the districts of seven other potentially vulnerable freshman Democrats: Reps. Joe Courtney (Conn.), Christopher Murphy (Conn.), Jason Altmire (Pa.), Ron Klein (Fla.), Harry Mitchell (Ariz.), Jerry McNerney (Calif.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.). Brad Woodhouse, the group's president, said the calls and ads will cost "in the low six figures."
"These ads are a recognition that it took these Members and a new majority in Congress to begin to end the era of tax breaks for the wealthy and to hell with everyone else and to finally get tax relief where it will do the most good to stimulate the economy - into the hands of families, seniors and veterans," Woodhouse said.
And the NRCC is going to "target" these Dems with... All the cash its treasurer stole? All the donations that will surely come flooding in given the ineptitude of the NRCC? The hoards of volunteers that can't wait to sign up with a group whose leadership is lawyering up and facing indictment?
It's like the captain of a sinking ship proclaiming his intent to recapture dominance of the high seas.
Posted by: MNObserver | March 08, 2008 at 10:00 AM