Lautenberg stays on ballot, leads N.J. race
Former Sen. Frank Lautenberg not only will remain the Democratic candidate for Senate in New Jersey after Sen. Robert Torricelli dropped out last week -- he has a slight lead in two polls.
The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused without comment to intervene in the affair -- which could potentially determine control of the closely divided senate.
State Republicans, acting on behalf of GOP nominee Douglas Forrester, had asked the justices to knock Lautenberg off the New Jersey ballot.
Torricelli was trailing by about 13 points when he withdrew his candidacy a week ago, in the shadow of ethics allegations. The state Supreme Court ruled Lautenberg, who retired in 2000, could take Torricelli's place on the ballot despite a state law prohibiting ballot changes less than 51 days before the election.
The state Democratic Party was ordered to pay the $800,000 needed to reprint the ballots.
Also Monday, the U.S. District Court in New Jersey dismissed a suit filed by state Republicans against the ruling of the state Supreme Court. The suit, filed on behalf of two absentee voters, argued that the ruling invalidated some absentee ballots.
The only way the ruling can now be changed is if U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft does what the state's GOP congressional delegation urged him to do in a letter last Thursday -- and files suit under the Uniform and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act to keep Torricelli on the ballot.
In a Quinnipiac University poll, the 78-year-old Lautenberg led 49 percent to Forrester's 45 percent, with 4 percent undecided.
The university in Hamden, Conn., found that 54 percent thought it "unfair" that Lautenberg got on the ballot after Torricelli dropped out because of slipping poll numbers following a Senate ethics investigation.
However, only 30 percent said the ballot swap would keep them from voting for Lautenberg.
A poll by Research 2000 in Rockville, Md., published in the Sunday Record of Bergen County, N.J. had Lautenberg ahead 46 percent to 40 percent.
Both polls had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington is trying to block Torricelli, who has about $5 million left in his senate campaign fund, from giving the money to the Democratic Party to use for Lautenberg.
-
-
Iraq-rattling
President George W. Bush's 20-minute speech Monday, a year after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and an hour before the kickoff of Monday Night Football's Bears-Packers game, is designed to build support among the American people for a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.
It's no wonder Bush chose Cincinnati as the site for the address -- most national politicians in the area are on record as supporting a congressional resolution authorizing U.S. intervention.
"It's time for him (Saddam) to go," Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, a member of the House International Relations Committee, which approved the Bush resolution last week, told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Rep. Ken Lucas, D-Ky., are two of the president's biggest backers, and Ohio Sen. George Voinovich called Saddam a "neighborhood bully" and Iraq a "rogue" nation on the Senate floor last week.
Kentucky Republican Sen. Jim Bunning said the lesson of Sept. 11 is that "we cannot afford to simply sit on our hands."
In the Senate, only outspoken Minnesota Democrat Paul Wellstone, who is in a tight race with Republican Norm Coleman, has vowed to vote against any resolution -- though Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Sunday said he will not support the White House's language.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, Cleveland's former "boy mayor" leads opposition in the House.
Demonstrations against war on Iraq have been held in more than a dozen cities. Peace groups marched from Chicago's Federal Plaza to the Israeli and British consulates Monday.
Rev. Jesse Jackson joined anti-war activists at a downtown rally last Wednesday.
"We do not want the politics of conflict resolution through assassination," Jackson said Saturday. "We do not want the politics of preemptive strikes."
Jackson promises more protests like one planned in Washington Oct. 26.
DePaul University and Loyola University were among several colleges holding teach-ins and panel discussions of issues surrounding a possible U.S. attack on Iraq.
A CBS-New York Times Poll released on Sunday found while 66 percent approved of military action to oust the Iraqi president, 70 percent wanted Bush to get congressional approval before acting.
Sixty-five percent said the U.S. must line up international support before intervening and 50 percent said U.N. weapons inspectors should have time to search for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
Florida's gov race statistical tie
A new poll shows Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a virtual dead heat with Democratic Tampa lawyer Bill McBride in his campaign for re-election. The SurveyUSA poll showed 49 percent favored Bush, the president's younger brother, to 48 percent for McBride. The poll was conducted Sept. 23-26 for the Pensacola News Journal, Florida Today, the FortMyers News-Press and WLTV-TV in Jacksonville, and has a 4.1 point margin of error.
Joseph Shipman, director of polling for SurveyUSA, said that McBride "has already established he's a contender and can't be dismissed now. On the other hand, Bush hasn't rolled out the big guns yet."
Two earlier polls following McBride's primary election victory over former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno showed McBride had closed to within 6 percent of Bush.
Meanwhile, the row continues over Gov. Bush's comments to panhandle legislators last Wednesday. Bush came under fire last week for revealing what he described as "juicy details' about the case of missing 6-year-old Rilya Wilson to the delegation, which included a reporter from the Pensacola News Journal. Now, according to the Palm Beach Post, Bush has been slated for saying he had "devious plans" to get around a popular referendum initiative on class sizes, if it passes Nov. 5.
Undecideds hold sway for Mass. gov.
It appears the undecided voters are in position to determine who will be the next governor of Massachusetts. Republican Mitt Romney, the past head of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and Democrat Shannon O'Brien, the departing state treasurer, were in a dead heat in a poll conducted for the New England Cable News and Harvard University's Institute of Politics.
The Oct. 2-3 telephone survey of 400 likely voters found the rivals tied at 40 percent each. The poll also found that 17 percent of those surveyed were undecided. Three third-party candidates picked up just a total of 3 percent.
Overall, 61 percent had a favorable view of O'Brien while 28 percent had an unfavorable view. Romney's favorable/unfavorable ratio was 57 to 33 percent.
Big Easy run-off slated
An experienced former U.S. attorney and a veteran of the New Orleans court system face each other in a Nov. 5 runoff to succeed Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, who is stepping down after 28 years in the post. Connick, the father of entertainer Harry Connick Jr., announced in March he would not seek a sixth term.
Eddie Jordan, who successfully prosecuted former Gov. Edwin Edwards on federal corruption charges, and Dale Atkins, clerk of the Civil District Court, came out on top in an eight-candidate primary race in New Orleans Saturday night.
Only 8,565 votes separated the two and an endorsement from popular new Mayor Ray Nagin could be a factor in the runoff. Nagin endorsed James Gray II in the primary, boosting his finish, but he has not indicated if he will endorse anyone in the runoff.
Candidate debates chicken
Snubbed by Illinois Republican candidate Jim Ryan and Democrat Rod Blagojevich, Libertarian Party nominee for governor Cal Skinner Monday trotted out his own debate foe "JimRod, the two-headed chicken." Skinner appeared outside the James R. Thompson Center with the campaign-inspired critter and held a mock debate in the plaza next to Tribune Tower, outside the Chicago Tribune.
"We have selected a two-headed chicken to symbolize our opponents Jim Ryan and Rod Blagojevich for two reasons," Skinner said. "First because Jim and Rod have so many positions that are so similar. Secondly, because they refused to include us in the gubernatorial debates.'
Blagojevich and Ryan faced off Monday night in Rockford, Ill., and debate without Skinner on Chicago Public Television next week.
(Dave Haskell in Boston, Phil Magers in Dallas and Alex Cukan in New York contributed to this report.)
