New York and Florida made big moves yesterday to shift their primaries to earlier dates. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is expected to sign a bill passed by the state legislature yesterday to move the state's primary to Feb. 5. The Florida House voted to hold the state's primary on Jan. 29, amid the threat of sanctions from the national Democratic and Republican parties. The Florida bill will go on to the state senate where members of both parties have voiced support for an earlier primary.
The AP's Julia Silverman reports that early voting could upend primaries by allowing voters in multiple states to begin balloting as early as Jan. 5. This could harm some candidates by diluting the effect of a strong Iowa or New Hampshire win, or benefit them by encouraging fervent supporters to vote early and allow candidates to concentrate on uncommitted voters.
On the campaign trail, the creator of the "1984"-inspired ad portraying Sen. Hillary Clinton as "Big Brother" was exposed as an employee of a media firm working for Sen. Barack Obama. The Obama campaign said Philip de Vellis did not work on the campaign's behalf and De Vellis has already resigned. The Clinton campaign has not responded yet.
The Boston Globe's James Pindell and Rick Klein report that Obama is defending his votes in favor of all of President Bush's war funding requests after "asserting that he has always made clear that he supports funding for US troops despite his consistent opposition to the war." As a Senate candidate he repeatedly said he would have voted against the early $87 billion supplemental for Iraq, but explained yesterday that his opposition to that money was based on fears that the bill's construction projects would be awarded without competing bids. Obama is also "poised to vote in favor of the latest request" for funding this spring.
In Iowa, Obama said his "position on the war has been consistent. It has been unequivocal, and that's the only presentation that I've made during the course of this campaign."
In Florida, Sen. John McCain was greeted as a "brother in arms" with Cuban-American veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion, reports Beth Reinhard of the Miami Herald. At the same time, a Florida fundraiser for Mitt Romney resigned from his finance team and joined Rudy Giuliani's campaign. Richard Blankenship joined Giuliani after becoming convinced he had broader appeal than Romney.
The Colorado Senate race got more interesting yesterday after former Rep. Scott McInnis (R) said he would not be a candidate to replace Sen. Wayne Allard (R). State Republicans are speculating that former Rep. Bob Schaffer (R) could become a "consensus candidate" to avoid a divisive primary before he faces likely Democratic nominee Rep. Mark Udall.
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