Wednesday's Starting Lineup
Good Wednesday morning, and welcome to Snowpocalypse Part III. Didn't we just dig out from this?
Here's today's Starting Lineup, spotlighting the people who will make news from beneath the snow:
NRCC CHAIR PETE SESSIONS: Congress has cancelled votes for the rest of the week, but for the man tasked with electing more GOPers to the House, the show must go on. Sessions and the rest of House GOP leadership will host a conference call this morning to talk about the national political landscape, and to spotlight the first candidates who will make the top tier of the NRCC's Young Guns program of stellar recruits.
Even as the national landscape looked strong for GOPers, the waning months of '09 demonstrated that the party simply didn't have the talent, on a district-by-district level, to take back the House. But with new recruits and steadily improving campaigns, the NRCC counts 30 candidates among the 2nd tier of its Young Guns program and 33 more in its 3rd tier. The candidates, it appears, are finally living up to the party's hopes.
But whether the GOP can sustain that momentum remains a question. They have far less money in the bank than Dems, and even on a district-by-district level the GOP is being outraised in seats they need to win. Sessions has done the first part of his job -- convincing candidates to run -- very well. Now, he needs to bolster the fundraising part of what he was hired to do.
REP. VERN EHLERS: The 8-term MI GOPer, who represents Grand Rapids and its environs, will hold a press conference today to announce his future plans, and GOP sources tell Hotline OnCall he will call his Congressional career quits.
Ehlers is one of a handful of Ph.Ds in the House, a physicist who taught at his local college before getting into politics. He never had trouble winning re-election, taking more than 65% in each of his bids except his '08 campaign, when he won 61% of the vote. His district gave Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) a narrow 2K-vote win, while Pres. Bush won the seat by a wider margin.
So Ehlers' retirement shouldn't prove a major headache for GOPers, but he becomes the 17th member of the conference to say he will not run again next year. Most GOPers aren't leaving behind vulnerable seats, but those who are -- Reps. Mike Castle (R-DE), Mark Kirk (R-IL) and even John Shadegg (R-AZ) among them -- aren't doing the party any favors. The NRCC and GOP groups already face serious cash deficits against their Dem rivals, and every penny they spend defending a GOP-held seat is one they can't spend clawing back to the majority.
NY GOV. DAVID PATERSON: It's been more than a week since we first heard rumors of a blockbuster story that was certain to force Paterson from office in disgrace in only a matter of hours. As the days have passed and the story, reportedly nothing more than a PG-13 look back at his first year in office, refuses to drop, the rumor about the rumor is giving Paterson more of a headache than anything else.
Now, Paterson is heading out on a media tour, talking to the AP and the Times, appearing on Don Imus's program this morning and showing up on Larry King's show tonight. Paterson even told other news outlets that the Times reporters working on the story had not asked him about the most tawdry of details.
Most political observers continue to believe that Paterson's political future is not a long one. AG Andrew Cuomo (D) is preparing to announce his campaign, and polls show he runs far ahead of Paterson in a Dem primary. But even without his political trouble, Paterson faces more shoes set to drop.