2008 and counting: Leaked poll shows a bump for newest GOP contender

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) appears to be enjoying a bump in both national and state polls following his announcement tour, despite some comments that could cost him with conservative voters in the long run.

{mosads}Following a tour of the early-voting states, the Thompson campaign “leaked” what looked like an internal memo from campaign pollsters McLaughlin and Associates showing the former senator making gains on front-runner and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R).

The memo detailed a series of upticks for Thompson in several national polls that show him gaining on, or in one case leading, Giuliani.

“Fred Thompson has clearly become the conservative alternative to Rudy Giuliani, while John McCain remains mostly flat and Mitt Romney is flat or declining,” the McLaughlins wrote, adding: “While good polls come and go, we have clearly moved into a competitive position following a good campaign launch.”

The gains could be fleeting, though, as Thompson made a couple of questionable statements in the conservative bastion that is South Carolina, saying he wants “due process” for Osama bin Laden and acknowledging that he does not regularly attend church services.

And Thompson’s decision to take down days both Tuesday and Wednesday gave the Democratic National Committee (DNC) another chance to paint Thompson as a lazy candidate.

“At his current pace, Fred Thompson will still be trying to catch his breath while voters are casting their ballots,” DNC spokeswoman Amaya Smith said. “Americans deserve capable leadership that’s ready to meet the demands of the highest office in the land. So far Thompson is proving that he just doesn’t have what it takes.”

Thompson’s campaign took issue with both the DNC’s criticism and the perception that the candidate has made misstatements in his early days of official campaigning for the White House.

“The enthusiastic response Fred Thompson received from voters on his bus tour through early-primary states last week demonstrated that GOP voters are eager to support an authentic conservative like Thompson,” spokeswoman Karen Hanretty said. “The senator chose not to hold campaign events on September 11th, and he hits the campaign trail Thursday to talk to voters in Florida and his home state of Tennessee.”

SEIU ‘unlikely’ to endorse next week

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is “unlikely” to endorse a presidential candidate next week after its political action conference in Washington, according to a union official.

SEIU said 2,000 of its members will attend Monday’s conference to hear from six of the leading Democratic contenders, and the executive board will meet Wednesday to discuss a possible endorsement.

But SEIU spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller said that despite the flurry of union endorsements in the last two weeks, “it is still early in the process” for the union that didn’t endorse former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) until November 2003.

Clinton to roll out long-awaited healthcare plan

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday she will unveil her much-anticipated universal healthcare proposal Monday.

Clinton has irked some union members by delaying the rollout of her plan.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) presented the Clinton campaign with a “clean bill of health with payment still due” after the senator failed to meet the union’s Aug. 1 deadline for presenting a plan. Union officials said at the time she was the only Democratic candidate to miss the deadline.

Wednesday, Clinton received the backing of the AFL-CIO’s 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers.
Additionally, a new round of polls shows the senator gaining or maintaining leads over her closest Democratic rivals in three of the early-voting states.

A Los Angeles Times/ Bloomberg poll shows Clinton leading former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) 28 percent to 23 in Iowa. In New Hampshire, she leads Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) 35 percent to 16 percent each. And in South Carolina, Clinton appears to have an enormous lead over Obama, 45 percent to 27 percent.

A Republican courting union votes?

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) appears to be going where few Republicans have before.

Huckabee, who recently won the GOP side of the dual endorsement of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, is said to be trying to schedule a “walk a day in my shoes” event sponsored by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

SEIU spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller said the union is hoping to announce the date Huckabee will participate in the program at Monday’s political action conference. Huckabee’s staff could not confirm the former governor is interested, but if so he would be the only Republican even to hint at participating. A Huckabee official said the former governor has worked with the SEIU on two other occasions.

Courting union support is sure to draw further ire from the “anti-tax, pro-growth” group Club for Growth (CFG), which has targeted Huckabee at every turn.

As the former governor tries to capitalize on momentum from his second-place showing in the Iowa straw poll, he now finds himself the subject of a CFG website built specifically to attack him.

CFG said this week that the launch of TaxHikeMike.org is designed to “educate voters on Mike Huckabee’s tax-and-spend record as governor of Arkansas.”