Senate 2010: MO, FL

Missouri:
Sen. Kit Bond, the senior Republican from Missouri who sits on powerful Senate committees, announced Thursday that he will not run for reelection in 2010, giving Democrats a shot to pick up a seat in a state that has emerged as a major battleground.

The announcement is a blow to Senate Republicans who now will have at least four of their incumbents seeking retirement at the end of the session, a sign that 2010 could be another tough cycle for the weakened GOP minority.

Florida:
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) announced Tuesday that he will not seek the seat of retiring Sen. Mel Martinez (R).Bush, the brother of the current president and the son of the 41st commander in chief, was thought to be perhaps the one GOP candidate who could clear the primary field for the open seat.

Gubernatorial Races

Democrats pick up one. Jay Nixon won handily in the Missouri governor's race. Democrats also held on to the governor's mansion in North Carolina and Washington state with wins by Perdue and Gregoire. Indiana incumbent Mitch Daniels held on to his seat.

Election Day Glitches

Huffington Post on voting issues in Virginia:

At the Math and Science Center in Richmond, Virginia, an early breakdown of electronic voting machines led to a three-and-a-half hour wait to vote on Tuesday morning, according to one poll watcher.

"Some people have been here since 6 a.m., and the first voters are just finishing now," said Judith Browne-Dianis, adding that the Richmond location she was watching did not even have backup paper ballots in case of machine malfunction.

Philly.com reports problems in Pennsylvania.

Readers and Inquirer reporters attempting to cast ballots this morning found long lines across the region created by broken machines.

One of two machines was down at a busy Delaware County polling site. About 50 people already had voted by 9:15 a.m. at the Temple Israel on Spruce and Bywood Avenue in Upper Darby, which is heavily populated by immigrant and first time voters. Many of those freshly-minted voters had difficulties using the one machine that still functioned. "Hell of a day for one of the machines to be down," said one poll worker.

First Read reports problems in Florida, Michigan, and Missouri.

FLORIDA: Voters in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area have experienced numerous problems trying to cast ballots this morning. We have preliminary reports of voters being turned away from the polls for incomplete registrations and instances of the statewide problem of broken optical scan machines in some two dozen polling locations all across the state.

MICHIGAN: Voters are reporting massive voting machine malfunctions across the state resulting in long lines and discouraged voters leaving lines without casting a ballot. In many cases, poll workers are asking voters to cast their ballot on paper and they will tally them later. Some voters are being asked to vote on paper using magic markers.

MISSOURI: There were multiple reports of swapped poll books (voter lists for a given precinct at the wrong location) in Kansas City, MO. This issue has been resolved.

Obama on the Offense

Karen Tumulty:

This conservative southwest corner of the state (Missouri) went nearly two-to-one for George Bush in the last election. Not since 1964 has a Democrat carried this county. So people in Springfield were surprised when Obama showed up in July, and didn't take him all that seriously when he promised to come back. But here we are, late on a Saturday night, just three days before the election, and Obama is speaking here on a high school football field to a crowd that numbers in the tens of thousands.

That Obama is spending the final days of the campaign playing offense in such ruby-red areas as this one tells you more than any poll number can about how his campaign reads its opportunties between now and Tuesday.

Meltdown

Missouri Democratic party tracker is assaulted at a Republican rally for Rep. Kenny Hulshof, who is the GOP gubernatorial candidate.


(H/T: Politico)

Equating Obama and Terrorism

The latest in GOP hate-mongering:

Republicans have unleashed a blistering mailing against Barack Obama that invokes the 9/11 attacks with a disturbing image of a jumbo jet and a warning that the Democrat nominee isn't "who you think he is."

The attack flier reportedly has been landing in homes in Missouri and Virginia - two states that the Democrats have been working hard to convert to blue in November - in the last few days, according to Politico.com and Time magazine's "The Page" Web site.

100,000

McClatchy News: Democrat Barack Obama drew his largest U.S. crowd to date on Saturday - an estimated 100,000 people who came to hear him speak at the Gateway Arch — as he campaigned in battleground Missouri just 17 days ahead of the election.

Image Source

Key Counties

Politico:

Sen. Barack Obama holds leads in four key counties that will go a long way toward determining the eventual winner in four important swing states — Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia — according to a new Politico/Insider Advantage survey.

Obama is poised to expand on recent Democratic gains in three populous suburban counties — Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, Missouri’s St. Louis County and Virginia’s Prince William County. In a fourth, Ohio’s Franklin County, home to Columbus and its suburbs, the survey also found Obama with the lead.

Local Hits

Sen. McCain’s volley of negative ads has some Democrats worried that Obama is about to be swift-boated. The Obama camp has certainly responded with ads of its own, but the general impression remains that the Obama ads are mostly positive. Perhaps, there is a method to the Obama madness. By running positive ads nationally, Obama can maintain his image as a politician that is above politics as usual and allow the national media to craft a narrative that supports and feeds this impression.

In the meantime, Obama hits McCain hard on the campaign trail, where his attacks will most likely get coverage in the local media. It’s a strategy that worked for Obama in the primaries. Supplementing the verbal attacks on the campaign trail is a recently emerging pattern of localized media attacks on McCain. Obama’s ad in Nevada hits McCain on the Yucca Mountain issue. His radio ad in Ohio goes after McCain’s DHL connection and his latest ad in Wisconsin attacks McCain’s opposition to “buy American” rules.

In the general election where a handful of swing states will determine the outcome of the race, this localized strategy may just prove to be the most effective one.

* Harley-Davidson is based in Wisconsin but also has plants in York, PA and Kansas City, MO. McCain happens to have a campaign stop scheduled in York, PA.