Friday Afternoon Round-Up

Oregon: Disappointing news. After much careful consideration, Congressman Peter DeFazio has ruled out a Senate bid. (HT: SSP) Blue Oregon has DeFazio's complete statement. All eyes are now on Congressman Earl Blumenauer.

New Hampshire: Blue Hampshire sees Professor/veteran/former astronaut Jay Buckey making a ton of sense on the issue of global climate change, correctly connecting the issue to national security and insightfully noting that the radical position is "not taking action."

Idaho: More thoughts on Larry Craig's fundraising, a meager $125,000 for Q1. I don't care how cheap the Idaho media market is; $125,000 for a sitting Senator is paltry. I take it as an indication toward retirement. Political Insider seems to agree. Beyond that, though, the article notes that "Craig's fundraising — $125,000 so far this year — nearly matches the amount he raised by this stage of the 2002 election..." An astute reader pointed out that what the article leaves out is that his Q1-2001 fundraising was under the old limit of $1,000 maximum. The max is now $2,300. So, while he may have roughly the same dollar amount, assuming he has roughly the same number of maxed out donors (which is reasonable given the overwhelming percentage of PAC contributors), he must have significantly fewer donors. I guess Craig has found out that not serving in the majority inhibits his K Street and Big Oil appeal a little.

Texas: Burnt Orange Report has the DSCC demonstrating that they're taking every race seriously and appropriately gearing up.

North Carolina: Will Liddy Dole donate to charity the contributions to her campaign of a newly-convicted insider trader?