State by State

National

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has been named vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) after raising $4 million for the committee this cycle and heading up the successful President’s Dinner.

NRSC Chairman John Ensign (R-Nev.) announced Hatch’s new role Wednesday. He has previously lavished praise on Hatch for motivating his reluctant colleagues to get involved in the party’s Senate races.

{mosads}“It is a difficult time — that’s why I’m willing to do it,” Hatch said. “I really think it would be a disaster to this country if we were to lose any of our Republican senators.”

— Aaron Blake and J. Taylor Rushing

Louisiana

Democratic state Sen. Don Cravins Jr. announced Wednesday that he will challenge incumbent Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R) in Louisiana’s 7th District, fueling Democrats’ hopes to pick up another seat in Louisiana after Rep. Don Cazayoux (D) won a special election to replace former Rep. Richard Baker (R).

“I share the values of faith and family that we have in Louisiana,” Cravins said in a release Wednesday. “I’m pro-life and pro-gun, and I have a proven record of working in a commonsense, bipartisan manner to get things accomplished.”

Boustany was first elected in 2004 after having to endure a runoff, but he racked up a whopping 71 percent of the vote in 2006.

“Congressman Boustany has a long record, and that’s what we’re going to run on,” said Rick Curtsinger, a spokesman for Boustany. Curtsinger said that the campaign would emphasize Boustany’s focus on constituent services, particularly his work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Hurricane Katrina relief.

He said Boustany is not concerned about political winds favoring Democrats, and noted that GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal cruised to election last year.

Curtsinger said the campaign expected to report over $600,000 in cash on hand at the end of the second quarter.

— Michael O’Brien

Oregon

Sen. Gordon Smith (R) is taking fire from state Democrats for using Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in a new campaign ad to burnish his bipartisan credentials.

The ad touts Smith’s co-sponsorship of a 2006 bill, written by Obama, that sought to raise fuel-efficiency standards. It was released Tuesday, and begins by announcing, “Who says Gordon Smith led the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment? Barack Obama.”

Democrats, including Smith’s opponent, state House Speaker Jeff Merkley (D), say the spot is misleading.
Merkley spokesman Matt Canter told The Portland Oregonian on Wednesday that, “What Barack Obama did say was that Gordon Smith has rarely broken from George Bush and the Republican agenda that has done this country great damage.”

Smith’s bill had 30 Democratic co-sponsors.

— Joey Michalakes

Minnesota

The race between Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and comedian Al Franken (D) for Coleman’s seat has taken to a back-and-forth battle over YouTube videos.

A group of liberal bloggers had initially accused Coleman’s wife, Laurie, an actress who spends much of her time in California, of having been edited into a commercial for her husband’s campaign, which shows her speaking in the foreground while the senator does chores in the background.

The Coleman campaign vehemently denied the charge and released outtakes that appear to show them in the same room.

But the Coleman campaign then went a step further, releasing a video of a man wearing an obviously fake Franken mask masquerading around Minnesota backdrops with intentionally crude video editing. The video seeks to undercut the Minnesota ties of Franken, who returned from New York shortly before announcing his candidacy, and fades out with the faux-Franken toting a thermos not of regular coffee, but a large Starbucks-esque latte order.

— M.O.

Mississippi

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is seeking to tie former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D-Miss.) to corruption.

The NRSC called on Musgrove, who is seeking to knock off Sen. Roger Wicker (R) this fall, to donate $110,000 in campaign funds from convicted trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs to Hurricane Katrina relief charities. Scruggs was convicted in March for trying to bribe a judge, and is set to be sentenced Friday.

“Musgrove has four days and counting to tell voters what he plans to do with Scruggs’s dirty cash,” NRSC spokeswoman Rebecca Fisher said in a statement Tuesday.

“This is [a] typical NRSC/D.C.-gotcha kind of game,” said Adam Bozzi, a spokesman for the Musgrove campaign. “Is the NRSC calling on any Republicans to give back money?”

Bozzi said Scruggs contributed to past Musgrove campaigns, but not to his Senate campaign, and that Republicans are using the Scruggs tie-in to obfuscate issues.

“The innuendo they throw around won’t change gas prices a penny,” Bozzi said.

— M.O.

Nebraska

The latest Rasmussen poll has former Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns (R) well ahead of opponent Scott Kleeb (D) in the race to claim the Senate seat vacated by Sen. Chuck Hagel (R), who is not running for reelection.

The poll shows Johanns holding a 60-33 lead and a favorability rating of 73 percent. Both figures are improvements over the last Rasmussen poll, conducted shortly after Kleeb’s victory in the Democratic primary on May 13.

In that poll, Kleeb — who ran an unexpectedly competitive race in Nebraska’s conservative 3rd district in 2006 before falling by 10 points — managed to cut Johanns’s lead to 55-40.

— J.M.