Wednesday Quick Hits

North Carolina: A new Survey USA poll on the 2008 Democratic Senate primary sees State Senator Kay Hagan and businessman Jim Neal neck and neck, with over one-third of respondents still undecided.

Oregon: Speaker Jeff Merkley has a terrific post up on both The Huffington Post and VetVoice discussing steps our government must take to fulfill its commitment to our veterans.

Idaho: Hey, interesting news: Republican Jim Risch is a paranoid liar. Why do I say that? In another recent frantic fundraising appeal, Risch writes:

Last year in neighboring Montana, conservative Republican U.S. Senator Conrad Burns was defeated in large part due to and [sic] a huge influx of cash from wealthy Democrat [sic] donors in left-wing bastions like New York City, Hollywood, Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco!

OK, ummm, there are so many things wrong with this. Here are three off the top of my head:
1) I think Burns' biggest concern wasn't fundraising but his ethically-questionable relationship with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
2) Money alone wasn't Burns' problem as he outspent Democrat Jon Tester $9.2 million to $5.6 million, and Burns still lost.
3) Burns also raised more money than Tester from some of those "left-wing bastions". Burns took in $247,076 from New York City and $149,029 from Los Angeles. Tester took in only $150,649 from New York City, and Los Angeles doesn't even appear on Tester's top five "Top Metro Areas," which sees San Francisco coming in fifth at only $12,153. In other words, Tester only took in about 61% that "conservative" Burns did in "left-wing" NYC, and Burns raised at least twelve times as much as Tester did in "left-wing" Los Angeles.

It's very clear that Republican Jim Risch's entire 2008 Senate campaign is built entirely on fear-mongering against imaginary liberals. I wonder, will Risch swear not to take any campaign contributions from the "left-wing bastions" of "New York City, Hollywood, Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco"? It will be interesting to see how hypocritical Risch is in this area. Heck, through the end of 2007, over 40% of his campaign money came from PACs.