US Senate

CQ Politics has a story this morning on the top 5 most vulnerable house seats in the country.  All five of the seats listed are held by Republicans and included on that list is Arizona’s 1st Congressional District to replace Rick Renzi. 

With all the talk about our senior senator running for president, its easy to forget our junior senator is the current Republican whip in the Senate.  The Poltico has an interesting look at Jon Kyl and his leadership style.

According to a new Rasmussen Reports poll, Arizona Senator John McCain leads Barack Obama by nine in his home state.  McCain led 49% to 40%, but again there is bad news for McCain in the poll.  The same poll conducted in April showed McCain leading Obama by 20 points, 57% to 37%. 

Though most pundits - and polls - agree that the decision by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to opt out of public financing for his presidential bid won't hurt him much with voters, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Phoenix), his presumptive opponent in November, is hitting him over it anyway.

The new web ad catalogs Obama's statements on public financing, through which he indicated a desire to take public money, or at least sit down with McCain to discuss it, up until his decision to stick with private donors last week. It also features reactions to the decision in newspaper editorials, blasting Obama for being "disingenuous" and "opportunistic."

Gallup has a new poll out today showing John McCain and Barack Obama tied in a national poll.  The LA Times had a poll yesterday that showed Obama beating our senior Senator by 12 points nationally.  The McCain campaign has done little to address the national polls with the media and the public for the most part is convinced Obama is well ahead. 

Obama may be ahead in national poll, he may even be ahead by 12 points, but it doesn’t matter.  Tell us who is leading with the most Electoral Votes based on current polls.  This is not as easy because you would need to do an accurate poll in each state which would be a much larger sample and much more expensive than the current national poll method.  If this was done we may learn that Obama still leads, but at least we would then have something accurate based on the current system we elect presidents.

The latest Cronkite-Eight poll shows John McCain leading Barack Obama in Arizona 38% to 28% with a whopping 34% undecided.  Most national polls have an undecided sample of about 10-15%.  With 34% undecided in McCain’s home state, Arizona may actually be in play. 

The poll also asked if Arizona state government shuts down because the governor and the state legislature cannot agree on the budget, who do you think is most responsible for the impasse – the governor or the state legislature?  52% said the legislature while only 19% said Governor Janet Napolitano. 

According to TIME, Arizona Senator John McCain is not happy about the search for vice-president because he cannot pick any of his top three choices.  Heading that list is former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.  According to Klein, McCain would love to pick Ridge, but cannot because he is pro-choice.  The other two choices are Jeb Bush and McCain cannot put another Bush on the ticket and the third is Florida Senator Mel Martinez, who was born in Cuba.

By a vote of 293-129 the U.S. Congress today passed the hotly debated FISA bill.  Two of Arizona’s congressional delegation voted against the bill while the other six voted in favor of the measure.  Ed Pastor (AZ-4) and Raul Grijalva (AZ-7) were the two voting against the measure.

John McCain’s secret service name has been released, the Arizona Senator is “Phoneix” and his wife Cindy is “Parasol.”

Over the last few months, campaign guru Karl Rove has been heaping praise on John McCain and his bid for president. That changed today in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

Rove said, “Sen. McCain doesn't support the windfall profits tax, but he can be as hostile to profits as Mr. Obama.”