Political News Round-up

Despite the fact that a judge has denied Sen. Larry Craig's motion to withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct charges for his behavior in a Minneapolis airport bathroom, Craig has said he will not resign from the Senate as promised upon such failure. Instead, he will serve the remainder of his term, though he will not run for re-election (he would likely have a primary fight anyway). This is simply more great news for Democrats as Craig will be an albatross around the Republicans' necks and the Republican governor of Idaho will not be able to appoint a replacement who would be harder for Democrats to defeat. Former Congressman Larry LaRocco is running on the Democratic side.

Republican Rep. Heather Wilson has announced for the U.S. Senate seat out in New Mexico vacated by Pete Domenici. Gov. Bill Richardson reiterated he has no desire to run.

Turning to the Minnesota race, Al Franken outraised Sen. Norm Coleman - $1.89 million versus $1.7 million. This is simply stunning given that Coleman is an incumbent and had President Bush come out to raise campaign cash for him. He's in trouble!

According to a new Rasmussen Reports poll, 27% of Republican voters say they’d vote for a socially conservative third party rather than Rudy Giuliani because he's pro-choice. The survey found that a three-way race with Hillary Clinton would end up with her getting 46% of the vote, Giuliani with 30% and the third-party option picking up 14%. Over this past weekend, several Christian conservative leaders met in Salt Lake City and indicated they might back a pro-life, third-party candidate if Giuliani wins the nomination. This is interesting since what Giuliani thinks makes him more electable in the general election might ultimately kill him, but I think many of these voters would vote for him in the end because they don't want a Democrat to win. However, if even some of them don't, it could be a death knell.

Former San Antonio City Councilman Art Hall will run for Texas Railroad Commissioner in 2008, in an effort to bring balance to the Republican-dominated three-member commission (the current commissioners initially were appointed rather than elected, in fact).