The American Staff

Maine. Pseudo–swing state Maine tried to avenge itself against those of us who’ve mocked its battleground status by turning in a tied Bush-Kerry result in a June 30 Strategic Marketing Services (SMS) poll. Upon further examination, though, there may be nothing to worry about. Undecided voters typically break in favor of the challenger, and the […]

Almost before John Kerry had sealed up the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, he was being advised to name his vice president — now. Every Democrat in Washington seemed to think that an accelerated selection process was essential to Kerry’s success; even Nancy Pelosi said that it was “important to have a nominee by May 1.” […]

Arizona. Senator John McCain’s inevitable return to the Republican fold may have seriously undercut John Kerry’s attempts to pick up his home state’s 10 electoral votes. While the none-too-secret vice-presidential courtship of McCain boosted Kerry’s numbers in April and May, the eventual reunion of George W. Bush with his most prominent Republican critic has dramatically […]

Colorado. The Colorado GOP establishment settled long ago on beer heir Pete Coors as their favored nominee for this fall’s tight Senate race, but the religious right is making some trouble for him in the primary. The concern is less about issues (Coors hews to the conservative orthodoxy on gay rights, abortion, guns, and other […]

How much damage will Bill Clinton’s book do to John Kerry’s campaign? Virtually zero, for two reasons: First, although it feels today as if we’re in all-Clinton, all-the-time mode, these things pass and are very quickly forgotten. If Kerry has trouble getting on the front pages this week, well, that’s nothing new; it can’t be […]

Iowa. In true swing-state fashion, the poll numbers aren’t budging a bit. The latest KCCI-TV poll once again shows Kerry in the lead, but by a slightly thinner margin (five points) than respondents had granted him three weeks before. But who cares about polls on Kerry and Bush? (Oh, not us, certainly.) Iowans still can’t […]

Arizona. There’s one word niggling at the minds of Arizona Democrats, and that word is “Nader.” At 3 P.M. on Wednesday, June 9, the Nader for President campaign filed 22,056 signatures with the Arizona Secretary of State in order to get the independent candidate and former consumer advocate on the Arizona ballot for November. The […]

Minnesota. John Kerry will head here on Friday to unveil a new nationwide network of military veterans who support his presidential bid. The stop in the Gopher State is part of an 11-day trip to beef up Kerry’s national-security platform, and it will include intensive voter outreach in the veteran-heavy battleground states of Michigan, Florida, […]

Iowa. The state that propelled John Kerry into front-runner status is sticking with its man, at least according to the first post-primary-season poll conducted by The Des Moines Register. The poll reports that 49 percent of likely Iowa voters prefer Kerry, while 42 percent say they’ll vote for George W. Bush. That’s good news for […]

ARIZONA. This desert state has been won by a Democratic president only once since 1948 (Bill Clinton in 1996), but the success of statewide Democratic candidates in 2002 and the strong leadership of popular Governor Janet Napolitano has made some optimistic that John Kerry may have a shot at flipping this red state to blue […]