Free Republic

I have noticed some wild variations in polling in places like South Dakota, Kentucky, and Georgia. Places that should not be in play seem to be in play.

The largest newspaper in South Dakota broke a story that could cost the GOP a red state Senate seat. The Fiscal Times reports:  The three-way race for South Dakota’s open Senate seat got more complicated Wednesday, when the Sioux Falls Argus Leader published a page one story alleging that former Governor Mike Rounds, the Republican candidate and current leader in the polls, had approved $600,000 in state assistance to a company that was about hire a member of his cabinet. According to reporter David Montgomery, then Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda requested the assistance for Northern Beef Packers about two...

The three-way race for South Dakota’s open Senate seat got more complicated Wednesday, when the Sioux Falls Argus Leader published a page one story alleging that former Governor Mike Rounds, the Republican candidate and current leader in the polls, had approved $600,000 in state assistance to a company that was about hire a member of his cabinet. According to reporter David Montgomery, then Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda requested the assistance for Northern Beef Packers about two weeks before he and Rounds were to leave office. Benda was about to go to work for a company with...

At an event in Bogalusa, Louisiana Saturday, Mary Landrieu took time out of her stump speech to get something “off my chest” about her $2.5 million D.C. mansion. ... Landrieu lives in a 7,316 square foot D.C. mansion with 5 bathrooms, 4 water heaters, 2 dishwashers, and 82 fire sprinkler heads. Meanwhile, Landrieu does not own any developed property in Louisiana and bunks with her parents on the occasions she visits the state.

With less than four weeks until Election Day, the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s independent expenditure arm is shifting resources to increase its investment in six states, including South Dakota and Georgia. The NRSC has moved $1 million to South Dakota, plus another $1.45 million to Georgia. In South Dakota, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee made a $1 million television ad buy this week, on the heels of tightening poll numbers that showed its candidate, Rick Weiland, gaining ground. In Georgia, a new poll suggests a runoff is likely. The NRSC also is upping its investment in four other states: Alaska,...

Larry Pressler's wife, Harriet, drives him to all of his campaign events. He has a single full-time paid staffer running his campaign. A bank loan accounts for half of the money he's spent on his race so far. So yes, it was surprising to Larry Pressler when he woke up Wednesday to find himself within striking distance of winning the race for South Dakota's junior seat in the US Senate. A SurveyUSA poll released that day showed Pressler, an Independent, would get 32% of the vote in a race that pits him against former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, a...

Despite being an extremely popular two-term governor, Republican Mike Rounds has lost steam in the race for a U.S. Senate seat, according to the latest SurveyUSA poll. With just four weeks until the Nov. 4 general election, Rounds appears to have 35 percent of the vote, down 4 percent from a month ago. Independent Larry Pressler, a former Republican, is within the margin of error with 32 percent, gaining 7 perent from the last SurveyUSA poll. He is followed by Democrat Rick Weiland with 28 percent and the self-proclaimed "conservative" candidate Gordon Howie with just 3 percent. Democrats and their...

The strange three-way Senate race in South Dakota heated up this week with a new poll showing the GOP nominee’s lead shrinking — and with the revelation that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will commit $1 million to the race, largely to fund ads attacking him. The Republican frontrunner, former Governor Mike Rounds, is competing with Democrat Rick Weiland and the state’s former Republican Senator, Larry Pressler, who now identifies as an Independent....

Independent Larry Pressler continues to steal support from Republican Mike Rounds in the race for U.S. Senate, while Democrat Rick Weiland falls behind, a new poll shows. Survey South Dakota — conducted by Survey USA on behalf of the American News, KSFY TV of Sioux Falls and KOTA TV of Rapid City — was of 616 likely voters and was conducted between Oct. 1 and Sunday. It shows 35 percent of those responding will vote for Rounds, 32 percent for Pressler and 28 percent for Democrat Rick Weiland. Three percent of voters back independent Gordon Howie and 2 percent are...

A political action committee says it will spend $1 million to support Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Rick Weiland. Mayday PAC says it'll begin running TV ads Tuesday in Sioux Falls and Rapid City media markets. The super PAC has the self-proclaimed goal of getting "big money" out of politics. It was founded by Harvard University professor and political activist Lawrence Lessig, who was born in Rapid City.

Shocker: The GOP candidate in SD Senate race is only polling at 35% in a four man race. It has been a "given" that SD, along with WV and MT, was "in the bag" for the GOP so, I have not followed the SD Senate Race. I had to do a Google Search to find out which dude in the poll was the Pubbie and which one was the Dem. Come to find out, there is a former GOP Senator, Larry Pressler, running as an Independent(24%) and another guy, Gordon Howie (another former GOP office holder) running as a Conservative...

With one month until Election Day, Republicans' chances for retaking the Senate and picking up seats in the House are improving. The GOP has been buoyed by positive public polling, while red-state Democrats are still struggling to find distance from President Obama. There are bright spots and even some unexpected new targets on the map for both parties, but the overall national environment seems to have ticked a bit toward Republicans. The GOP needs to win a net of six seats to retake control of the Senate, and Republicans seem better-positioned to do so now than they did through much...

Public Policy Polling’s newest South Dakota Senate poll finds that Mike Rounds’ support has dropped all the way down to 35% in the wake of voter anger over the EB-5 scandal, and that Rick Weiland continues to be better liked and within single digits of Rounds. Key findings from the poll include: -Rounds is at just 35% to 28% for Weiland, 24% for Larry Pressler, and 8% for Gordon Howie. A majority of South Dakotans have a negative opinion of Rounds, with just 41% rating him favorably to 51% with an unfavorable opinion. Weiland’s favorability, at a positive 42/38 spread,...

Former Gov. Mike Rounds has acknowledged he made an inaccurate statement in written testimony he sent to lawmakers last week, and now he wants to change that testimony. Rounds sent a letter Thursday to state Sen. Larry Tidemann, R-Brookings, the chairman of the Legislature’s Operations and Audit Committee. In the letter, Rounds seeks permission to amend one of his earlier written responses to the committee’s questions about state involvement in the federal EB-5 immigrant-investor program. In the answers Rounds sent to legislators last week, he wrote that “the governor’s office was not served” with papers regarding an EB-5 related lawsuit...

Simmering tensions between Harry Reid and Tom Daschle are erupting into an all-out feud. Daschle is expressing frustration with the Senate majority leader (D-Nev.) for refusing to endorse Rick Weiland, a former Daschle aide who is running for the South Dakota seat held by retiring Sen. Tim Johnson (D). Reid last year declared Weiland was “not my choice” in the race, and this summer added, “We are going to lose in South Dakota, more than likely.” Asked if those comments hurt Weiland’s chances, Daschle told The Hill, “Well, it certainly hasn’t helped.”

It seems counter-intuitive and more than a little greedy to spend tens of thousands of dollars building green energy facilities so you can live off the grid and then fight the power company because they aren’t paying you for the extra power you give back to the grid. Let’s have our cake and eat it, too. Most people invest in solar panels and wind energy to relieve themselves of the burden and insecurity of depending on the giant energy grid most of us depend upon. And it is a dependable grid. Not having power in America is not common and...

The proposed 1,200-mile Keystone XL pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to Steele City, Nebraska may be the second most famous crude oil pipeline in American history after the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline. One has yet to be built while the other has been operating since 1977, but the two pipelines share a common history marked by environmental controversy in its approval process. The TAPS line, as the Trans-Alaska Pipeline became known as, was proposed in 1969 to move the recently discovered Alaskan North Slope oil to the Lower 48 market via tanker from the Port of Valdez. The Prudhoe Bay oil...

Kansas – A federal judge has decided a lawsuit challenging increased federal regulation of economic activity and land use in the area that is habitat for the Lesser Prairie Chicken will be litigated in Oklahoma and not transferred to Washington, D.C., Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today. The decision yesterday by U.S. District Judge James H. Payne is the second time in the last two months that the federal judiciary has rejected an attempt by the federal government to move the litigation from Oklahoma to Washington, D.C. “This is good news for Kansas,” Schmidt said. “It means our case...

The Powder River Basin, well known for its abundant coal supply, is experiencing a turnaround in oil production. Production has rebounded from a low of 38,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2009 to 78,000 bbl/d during first-quarter 2014. Although U.S. oil production growth is occurring primarily in the Bakken, Eagle Ford, and Permian Basins, the Powder River Basin is among other regions of the country that have also benefitted from the application of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The increase in Powder River Basin oil production is largely attributable to production growth in the Turner, Parkman, and Niobrara-Codell formations, which...

Jim Geragthy, acclaimed author and National Review’s chief campaign analyst, has been grousing about the lack of quality polling in key Senate races this year. His frustration is well-founded. So yesterday must have felt like Christmas in September for Jim and political junkies everywhere, as two pollsters released a deluge of surveys covering the most contested races in the country. In light of the results, I’d expect that national Republicans are kicking off the week with an extra spring in their step, as well. We were leaked an advance copy of last week’s much-anticipated Politico/GWU Battleground poll, which was packed...