Big Friday Rundown

Louisiana: We haven't heard much of anything from recent-Republican state Treasurer John N. Kennedy since he announced his 2008 Senate challenge to Senator Mary Landrieu (other than Treasurer Kennedy's circa 1997-style Geocities website). Well, his out-of-date website isn't his only technical flub. Apparently, he must have ripped off Senator Landrieu's mass e-mail template. This appears to be the case because, at the bottom of a recent fundraising e-mail (see graphic below), when you click on the text that reads "Visit JohnKennedy.com," it takes you to Senator Mary Landrieu's website! He changed the text but not the link! So all of Treasurer Kennedy's supporters who click on the link get to read about Senator Landrieu's many accomplishments on her website! Treasurer Kennedy is hilariously inept. If this is how he manages his campaign's infrastructure, do you really want him having a hand in managing the nation's infrastructure? (No wonder Treasurer Kennedy was so comfortable giving Halliburton no-bid contracts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.)

New Mexico: Democratic Congressman Tom Udall raised more for his 2008 Senate bid in Q4-2007 than Republican Congresscritters Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson combined! Udall brought in just over $1 million, while Pearce took in about $425,000 and Wilson took in about $515,000. Udall also leads significantly in cash-on-hand: Udall $1.7 million, Pearce $820,000, Wilson $1.1 million. (Udall's lead is all the more pronounced when you consider that Pearce and Wilson have to spend their money against each other in the GOP primary before facing Udall.)

Minnesota: A new poll by Minnesota Public Radio has some interesting findings. (Full results in PDF.) For the first time, we see Democrat Al Franken leading Republican Norm Coleman, by a 43.2 to 40 margin; also, we see Coleman leading Democrat Mike Ciresi by only 5 points. It's safe to say that Smilin' Norm's big lead has evaporated. The poll also sees Franken with a big lead over Ciresi in the DFL primary, 42-18, with 35% undecided. Also, environmental activist Jim Cohen has dropped his 2008 Senate bid in the Democratic primary.

Idaho: Given that this is Idaho, here's a statistic that should not be overlooked. Democratic Senate candidate Larry LaRocco ended 2007 with more cash-on-hand than all Republican Senate candidates, including Lt. Gov. Jim Risch.

Colorado: Republican Bob Schaffer only managed to raise about three-fifths of what Democrat Mark Udall raised in Q4-2007, as Udall brought in about $1.1 million while Schaffer pulled in under $673,000. Udall has more than double Schaffer's cash-on-hand, $3.6 million to $1.5 million.

Arkansas: Senator Mark Pryor took in $616,000 in Q4-2007, bringing his cash-on-hand to $3.6 million. Couple that with the AR-GOP's inability to find an opponent for Pryor, and you can count his seat as very safe.

Kansas: Democratic businessman Greg Orman reports that he has raised more than $450,000 in December alone for his 2008 Senate challenge to Republican Pat Roberts, a very impressive sum for one month in Kansas. Also, Orman will have a Democratic primary challenger, former Senate candidate Lee Jones, who lost to Sam Brownback in 2004 by a 69-28 margin.

Texas: The San Antonio Express-News has a terrific profile of State Representative and Lieutenant Colonel Rick Noriega up. Worth reading to get psyched up about booting Bush-rubber-stamp John Cornyn.

Georgia: Shameless Saxby Chambliss is chipping in to help out with the legal fees for Republican Congresscritter John Doolittle, who is under a Justice Department investigation because of his ties to connection to corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Sometimes, it really is the company you keep.

Oregon: Many of you may be aware that, about a week ago, the car that Speaker Jeff Merkley was riding in between campaign stops hit a patch of ice and flipped over. Fortunately, Speaker Merkley and his campaign aide were both fine (thank goodness for seat belts) and, impressively, even managed to continue on to the next campaign stops, finishing the night's schedule. Well, Speaker Merkley lampoons that incident in his new web ad: