Free Republic

As her once improbable reelection bid looks increasingly likely, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Tuesday that she doesn’t hold a grudge against Republican leaders who poured money into the campaign and legal efforts of GOP rival Joe Miller. Miller upset Murkowski in the Republican primary, but the senator launched a long-shot write-in campaign that may hand her another six years in office. ... “The expectation is that the party nominee will get the funds from [the National Republican Senatorial Committee], their coordinating funds, and they did that,” Murkowski told reporters at the Capitol. “I knew that by running as a...

John Cornyn took a lot of criticism for his handling of the NRSC, especially in the Florida race, in the 2010 cycle. Cornyn later admitted that he’d made a mistake in backing Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio in an open primary, and avoided picking winners in primaries through the rest of the midterm primary season. The end result was a pickup of six seats — enough, apparently, for his colleagues to unanimously confirm Cornyn as NRSC chair for another term:

(CNN) - Sen. John Cornyn is expected Tuesday to formally make a bid for another two years as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. GOP sources confirm to CNN that the Texas Republican will put his name up for nomination for re-election as NRSC chairman, as the Senate Republican Conference meets behind closed doors. According to the sources, the two-term senator is not expected to face any opposition in his bid to remain as NRSC chairman, and has already secured the support of a number of new Republican Senators, including Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rob...

Whadda-deal for John Cornyn... what did the kid get us in return? That's right... the same John Cornyn that tried -and failed- to screw-over Rubio in Florida by putting-in the fix for Sunkist Crist is now running unopposed... and Marco Rubio reportedly supporting his bid to remain NRSC Chairman! Predictably, conservatives aren't taking the news too well... Other McCain: Sen. John Cornyn is expected Tuesday to formally make a bid for another two years as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.  GOP sources confirm to CNN that the Texas Republican will put his name up for nomination for re-election...

Sen. John Cornyn is likely to sign up for another election cycle as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, say GOP sources. Cornyn has won plaudits from colleagues for his fundraising and the gain of six Republican Senate seats on Election Day. NRSC spokesman said Cornyn won’t make a final decision for another few days, but Senate GOP aides widely expect him to take the helm in 2012. Aides say he wants to help Republicans win control of the Senate, a realistic prospect in an election cycle when 21 Democrats — and two independents allied with the Democrats —...

The National Republican Senatorial Committee spent $3 million in the week before the election on the ill-fated campaign of Carly Fiorina, despite polling that showed her trailing by 9 points to the tiny Marxist Barbara Boxer (Fiorina ended up losing by... 9.8%). In the mean time, Ken Buck lost by a tiny margin in Colorado; Nevada's Sharron Angle lost by a similar narrow vote total, Dino Rossi was edged by Patty Murray in Washington, 27,000 votes swung the election against Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and and Joe Miller is hanging by a thread in Alaska. In Alaska, the final results...

Christine O'Donnell and her victorious opponent in the Delaware senate race, Democrat Chris Coons, campaigned fiercely against each other during the midterms. But now they've buried the hatchet, quite literally. The Tea Party darling and the senator-elect buried a hatchet — actually, they put a small ax in a box of sand — in the southern Delaware hamlet of Georgetown on Thursday, the AP reported (via The Huffington Post) in line with a time-honored state tradition. As policies of Delaware state politics dictate, the senate race contenders took part in a ceremonial horse-drawn carriage and classic car parade, which preceded...

In the nation’s last undecided Senate race, national Republicans are coming to the aide of tea party favorite Joe Miller, and will ask supporters to help pay for his post-election legal fight against incumbent GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski appears to be leading Miller by a wide margin in her write-in bid, but National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn will e-mail supporters Friday and urge them to make donations to Miller’s campaign. “Joe Miller in Alaska is dedicated to the conservative principals we need in Washington DC. But he faces the potential of a lengthy recount. And in Alaska,...

Here’s a quick round up of the latest developments regarding Joe Miller’s take on the uncomfortable wait for a decisive winner in the race for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat. The website Politicsdaily.com is reporting that Miller, in a conference call with bloggers Thursday morning, is imputing the loyalties of the state’s top elections official. It quotes Miller: There are a number of fights that are going to have to be undertaken, in part, due to the fact that the division of elections (is) headed up by the lieutenant governor. The lieutenant governor is effectively the same [as] what you might...

*snip* Compare this with the House campaign body, the NRCC. After getting clobbered over the NY-23 race and Dede Scozzafava, the NRCC took a hands off approach and let local voters choose their candidates. Not the NRSC. It doubled up around the country igniting a civil war with the grassroots — a civil war that would have never happened but their getting into Florida and doubling down. The NRSC’s argument amounts to telling the world that voters exercising their right to pick their candidates are stupid and Jim DeMint is stupid for siding with the voters. One final thought —...

In a piece earlier this morning An Insomniac's Recap of the Elections, I wrote a brief analysis of the Nov. 2010 elections. During the ensuing discussion, freeper LS came up with a *very* important point which has been lost in the Palin-Rove pissing match by proxy. The relevant quote is:Some good points. I think in DE, CA, AK, and possibly CA, the races were NOT sufficiently nationalized. The feeling was to take it local, so O'Donnell kept talking about DE. Well, the House races for the most part were nationalized. And it showed. So the first rule of successful waves...

Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell complained Monday night that the National Republican Senatorial Committee did not give her the resources she needed to win. O’Donnell credited Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele for being supportive of her candidacy, but told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren that the NRSC hasn’t provided enough help. “Michael Steele has come to Delaware and campaigned for us,” O’Donnell said. “The RNC has been very supportive. “I would have liked it if the NRSC had done something,” she added. “My opponent is horrible on so many issues. He stands to personally make millions from cap...

After trailing Democratic rival U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer for months in fund-raising and spending, California Republican Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina is closing the money gap, both parties said on Tuesday. A Washington-based Republican Party affiliate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said it was sponsoring a $3 million TV ad campaign in support of Fiorina in the campaign's final week.The money would pay for an attack ad characterizing Boxer as "self serving" and "ineffective" ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections, the group said.

Did you know that the SEIU represents the voting machine technicians in Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada? Is it any surprise, as we noted earlier today, that there was a voting glitch in Clark County, Nevada? The glitch caused Harry Reid’s name to be automatically checked on the ballot before voters had indicated who were they were supporting. According to Joyce Ferrara who was an eyewitness to this strange ballot ordeal, the problem was widespread, “One person that’s a fluke. Two, that’s strange. But several within a five minute period of time — that’s wrong.” It is particularly troubling that...

Believing a huge upset win in California is now within reach, the Republican Party is pouring $3 million into GOP Senate challenger Carly Fiorina's battle against incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer, forcing Democrats scrambling to respond just one week before Election Day. The $3 million from the National Republican Senatorial Committee comes on top of the $4.8 million it has already spent in the race. Pundits see that massive influx of dollars as a clear indication that incumbent Democratic Boxer is in serious jeopardy, because the GOP usually does not spend heavily in Golden State races. This year, however, all bets...

It has just been announced that the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which has already spent the maximum allowed ($4.8 million) in coordinated expenditures on Carly's campaign, will be spending $3 million in independent expenditures on Carly's behalf during the last week of the campaign. It has also just been announced that Carly is loaning her campaign $1 million more of her personal funds.These significant commitments indicate to me that the California Senate seat is very much in play.If at this late stage you have any cash which remains available for candidates in the mid-term elections, please consider Carly's campaign.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is dropping a massive $3 million TV ad buy in California this week, a sure sign that Republicans believe they have a good shot at knocking off Sen. Barbara Boxer (D). The new spending brings the NRSC’s Golden State commitment to nearly $8 million, all in support of former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina's (R) campaign. The ad buy comes a day after a public poll shows Boxer inching ahead. A Los Angeles Times/USC poll showed Boxer opening up an 8-point lead -- 50 percent to 42 percent. That number tracks with private Democratic surveys that...

Sarah Palin has unquestionably made her voice heard in this election cycle - but if the GOP falls short of taking back the Senate as most prognosticators expect, the Pride of Wasilla will take a hit from party leaders who think she turns off independents. "If we don't win the Senate I have one thing to say: ‘Thank you, Sarah Palin,'" a household name and bigtime player in Republican circles tells The Mouth. This source and several other party elders believe Palin's endorsement of Christine O'Donnell has made a difficult Senate seat pickup in ideologically centrist Delaware hopeless. They also...

In primaries this year, Republican voters in Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Nevada, and Utah, have rejected—en masse—the candidates preferred by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which Rove is said to informally advise. The Conservative Party candidate Tom Tancredo—a known enemy of Rove—is trouncing the GOP-backed candidate in the race for governor of Colorado.

Here is what pollster the Tarrance Group is telling the Carly Fiorina campaign: The race for the US Senate in California is an actual dead heat, with both Fiorina and Boxer standing right at forty-four percent (44%) of the vote. Six percent (6%) of voters are voting for one of the other candidates, and 5% are undecided . . . It is also important to note that Boxer’s negatives are fully institutionalized to the point where she has never once broken the 45% level in terms of her ballot strength, and there are a “hard” fifty-three percent (53%) of voters...