Glassman running for Senate
Rodney Glassman, a Democrat, is a Tucson city councilman. He is not well known statewide but may become the de facto challenger to either John McCain or J.D. Hayworth in November if better-known Dems like Bruce Babbit or Gabrielle Giffords don’t chance the race.
Glassman slammed McCain for not being responsive to requests for federal help for local projects and accused him of neglecting the state. McCain has a national reputation for fighting earmarks and pork spending.
“Where has he been the past 28 years?” Glassman said. “We have a U.S. senator who’s more interested in visiting Kabul than visiting Casa Grande.”
The Tucson Sentinel:
Glassman’s bid surprised virtually no one. He told TucsonSentinel.com: "I’ll be the first elected official in 20 years to take on John McCain for U.S. Senate. I’ll also be the first candidate endorsed by dozens and dozens of Democratic leaders throughout the state.”
While he’s had an official “exploratory committee” for months, Glassman put off a formal announcement until Tuesday. In February, he explained his delayed decision by saying he wanted to concentrate on helping the city navigate its budget difficulties.
A Daily Kos poll from last Friday showed clearly that J.D. Hayworth was a slightly more vulnerable figure in the general than McCain.
The poll had Bruce Babbitt tied with Hayworth and six points behind McCain. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was thirteen points behind Hayworth and twenty behind McCain.
In both cases, interestingly, Glassman’s showing was almost identical with Giffords’.
The headline on the Daily Kos poll was that Hayworth is currently running fifteen points behind McCain:
Despite the conventional wisdom that McCain could be vulnerable to an intra-party challenge, we find that McCain has a fairly solid level of favorability among Republicans. His current favorability among GOP voters stands at 76%, with only 19% expressing disapproval.
Hayworth, meanwhile, may well have some upside in the GOP primary, as he is still unknown to about a quarter of the electorate. And it is worth noting that among Republicans, he is well liked (a 61/16 favorability spread).
However, his upside might be limited to a GOP primary. In a general election, he is clearly a greater liability for the GOP. Hayworth is much less popular among both Democratic and Independent voters, and sports an net negative favorability (34/42) among all voters, joining only President Obama (41/55) and incumbent GOP Governor Jan Brewer (39/54) in minus territory.
Full report on the poll here.