GOP Rep. Nancy Johnson is touting an appearance with the President to shore up her sagging political fortunes -- President Bill Clinton, that is. Her official Web site is displaying a pic of her with the former President from October, when he came to Danbury to applaud students for donating charity to tsunami victims. Incidentally, Johnson -- who's trailing Dem challenger Chris Murphy by small margins in polls -- voted to impeach Clinton in 1998, charging: "No one is above the law, not even the President." View the pic touted by Johnson below:

To our knowledge Johnson is now the second GOPer to tout ties to Clinton and his 70 percent approval rating: Embattled Florida GOP Rep. E. Clay Shaw, who also voted to impeach, did the same in late October.

Connecticut's three Democratic House challengers received good news from state officials today when they reported that 82 thousand new voters have registered in the state since May, including more than twice as many Democrats as Republicans. About 31 thousand new Democrats, 12 thousand new GOPpers and 39 thousand new independents brought the total number of registered voters in Connecticut to a record 1.9 million. The AP quotes a UCONN professor of public policy who says the implications are “huge”: “I think the new registrants, given the Democratic advantage, can serve to put the Democrats over the top in any one of the races given how close they are."

Recent polling has each of the three Connecticut House races extremely close, with the Democrats having a slight edge in at least two of the three races going into the final week.

So it looks as if GOP Rep. Nancy Johnson's increasingly bizarre ads -- one was christened the most evil ad "ever" by a local paper, while another shows Dem Chris Murphy hanging out with a drug dealer -- are not only failing, but may to a small extent be working against Johnson. A new poll just out from the Hartford Courant finds that Murphy has is holding a four-point lead over Johnson, 46%-42%. And check out this tidbit: "This atmosphere of negativity, however, seems to have hurt Johnson more than Murphy," the Courant says. "When the sample was asked whose ads have been more negative, 34 percent said Johnson's, and 29 percent said Murphy's ads were more negative." This isn't the biggest difference, of course, but it suggests her ads are at least not helping. View the drug-dealer ad below.

Yesterday we brought you news of Nancy Johnson’s new campaign ad that shows a Chris Murphy impersonator hanging out with a drug dealer that invites him into his house after declaring, “You wanna weaken penalties for drug dealers, man! That's so cool!"  The Murphy campaign has responded to this ad with a press release that clarifies some information on the reference to drug dealers in Johnson’s ad.   The bill to which the ad refers, was actually designed to equalize penalties for crack and cocaine.  The two are essentially the same drug, but getting arrested for possession of the crack form could land you a far harsher sentence than possessing same amount of cocaine in powder form.  For more information on the reform of Connecticut’s drug laws see here.

GOP Rep. Nancy Johnson -- who recently aired an ad christened by a local paper as the most evil ad "ever" -- has done it again. Her latest ad shows an actor depicting Dem Chris Murphy campaigning door-to-door, where he gets the brush-off from one voter after another and even slapped by one woman who accuses him of wanting "sex offenders" in public housing. The only voter to invite Murphy in is a stoner, who says: "Murphy! You wanna weaken penalties for drug dealers, man! That's so cool!" View it here.

Religious activists in Connecticut took their anti-torture message to the editorial pages of the Hartford Courant this morning. Rev. Kathleen McTigue and Rabbi Donna Berman, writing on behalf of the interfaith activist network “Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice,” argue in an OpEd that by voting for the Military Commissions Act, Senator Joe Lieberman and GOP Reps. Chris Shays, Nancy Johnson and Rob Simmons contributed to “undermining the moral values and legal traditions on which America was founded.”

Outlining the provisions and loopholes that allow for torture to continue, McTigue and Berman emphasize the need not to forget our collective moral standing because, while none of us may have individually tortured, kidnapped, or held others in secret, “our government has done all of these things in our names.” The group calls for voters to hold Lieberman, Shays, Johnson and Simmons “accountable for their lack of moral leadership on this issue” and concludes soberly: "Nothing less than the soul of our nation is at stake."

Election Central first reported on Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice when the group purchased a giant billboard to convey its message to drivers on the Connecticut interstate.

Dem Chris Murphy, who's battling to unseat GOP Rep. Nancy Johnson, claims he's rejecting calls from the DCCC to run more negative ads. The Greater Danbury News-Times reports that Murphy addressed the DCCC's purported demand as follows (emphasis added): "Have we run ads critical of Nancy Johnson? Absolutely. But I am proud of the tone our campaign has taken...I want to sleep at night." The DCCC, of course, may be pressing Murphy out of unease about Johnson's ads, which are somewhat less than restrained. Recent polls show the race is too close to call.

A group of wealthy Wall Street-types is raising last minutes funds for threatened moderate Republicans like Chris Shays, Rob Simmons, Nancy Johnson, and Deborah Pryce. "Republicans Who Care," lead by executives from places like Goldman Sachs and Chase Manhattan, had raised $385,000 as of September 30th and plans to spend everything it can to help fiscally conservative, socially liberal Republicans hold their seats. The group was initially founded to counteract the effect of the anti-moderate Club for Growth and, as Ari Berman at the Nation points out, its name begs the question: "Does that mean that the rest of the Republicans are members of 'Republicans Who Don't Care'?"

The "drive-by" media will get a kick out of this one. A group of religious activists has purchased a giant billboard on the interstate for a massive ad accusing four Connecticut incumbents of voting for torture. The Associated Press reports that the group, a self-described statewide group of religious leaders called Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, bought the space to target Senator Joe Lieberman and GOP Reps. Chris Shays, Nancy Johnson and Rob Simmons. While each candidate disputed the ad, the AP notes that all four voted for the controversial Military Commissions Act of 2006, which allows the President to "authorize aggressive interrogation methods that might otherwise be seen as illegal by international courts." In other words, torture.

GOP Rep. Christopher Shays' admonished the National Republican Congressional Committee yesterday for distributing a mailer attacking his Dem opponent with the slogan "Diane Farrell: Coffee Talk with the TALIBAN." In a statement, Shays called on the NRCC to "put an end to sending this type of garbage to Fourth District mailboxes," adding that the attack was "an insult to the intelligence" of the district's residents. Numerous Conn. Democrats, including Sen. Christopher Dodd, also condemned the NRCC's mailing. "This is absolutely the worst kind of politics in America," Dodd said during a press conference addressing the fliers.

Add Nancy Johnson to the long and growing list of Republican politicians who have reacted to the Foley scandal by implying it proves that the Democrats have something to hide. In a statement released on her campaign website, Johnson’s take on the Foley scandal is:

“If any leader from either party tried to cover up this information at the expense of the safety of our children, then they should resign their position immediately. It would be reprehensible if any Republican leader intentionally covered up the full facts of the case, and it would be equally reprehensible if Democrat leaders sat on this information for a year in order to release it 30 days before an election. I want an investigation to go forward to find out answers to these questions.”

Here comes a massive wave of TV ads from Democrats. The DCCC has just pumped a staggering $3.8 million into nearly two dozen House races across the country, new filings with the Federal Election show. The cash — all of which was plunked down this week — will fund first-time media buys against incumbent Connecticut Republican Nancy Johnson and on behalf of Peter Welch, the Dem running to defend the Vermont seat of Dem-favoring Independent Bernie Sanders, as well as funding ads in hard-fought races in roughly a dozen other states.

Here's a new statement from Dem Chris Murphy slamming GOP Rep Nancy Johnson and demanding she take a stand against Hastert:

Days have passed since Nancy Johnson learned that the other members of the leadership of her own party knew about inappropriate email exchanges between Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) and a teenage page at the U.S. Capitol late last year and took no action. We do not know when Johnson first learned of Foley’s actions. What we do know is that Johnson is the lone Republican in the Connecticut delegation to refuse to make a personal statement calling on her party"s leaders to resign in light of their knowledge of this scandal.

If Nancy Johnson had the courage to stand up to her morally bankrupt colleagues in Washington , she would have done so already in a direct, public manner. The Republican leadership she proudly proclaims herself to be a part of knew what was going on and turned a blind eye. Now the people of Connecticut know without a doubt that Nancy Johnson is more interested in staying in Washington than doing what is right.

GOPers are fighting back against Foleygate! It looks as if NRCC chief Tom Reynolds has hit on a way of pushing back against Foleygate: He's accusing an upstate New York House candidate of phone sex, reports Ben Smith of The Daily Politics. Relatedly, two Connecticut Republicans -- Reps Nancy Johnson and Rob Simmons -- are actually trying to capitalize on the sex scandal that is causing their party to implode. How? The Associated Press reports that both Johnson and Simmons are slamming their Dem opponents, Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney, of being weak on anti-sexual predator laws. Read the AP story here.

Here at Election Central, we're keeping track of which pols are keeping cash donated to them from Mark Foley's PAC and which ones are dumping it. The latest: Embattled GOP Rep Nancy Johnson is giving the cash back to Foley, the Associated Press reports. However, by simply returning the money to Foley, Johnson appears to be making it possible for Foley to potentially rechannel it for other purposes. By contrast, Virginia Senator George Allen and New Mexico Rep Heather Wilson have announced that they'll be donating the tainted cash to charity. View a full list of the candidates who've enjoyed Foley's generosity — and who have yet to say whether they'll give back the money — here.

Dem Chris Murphy has just released a scorching new ad which points to the just-released National Intelligence Estimate -- its first appearance in an ad, to our knowledge -- to claim that GOP Rep Nancy Johnson's support for President Bush has made us "less secure" at home. Johnson, you may recall, recently hit Murphy for opposing the wiretapping of terrorists (which he doesn't) in an ad that a local paper dubbed the "most evil" ad "ever." Murphy's response slams her ad as "desperate" and a "fraud," concluding: "After 24 years, Nancy Johnson will do anything to stay in Congress." View the ad here.

Recently we reported that embattled GOP Rep. Nancy Johnson's recent ad attacking Dem Chris Murphy as weak on terror had been proclaimed the worst ad "ever" by a Connecticut paper. But the paper's criticism hasn't chastened Johnson: She's just released another ad which goes much further in painting Murphy as a coddler of terrorists. The Empire Zone reports that the new ad juxtaposes Murphy's face with an image of a terrorist training camp, insinuates that Murphy opposes wiretapping terrorists, and concludes: "Maybe Murphy is confused over who the enemy is. But Nancy Johnson isn’t -- not for one second." Johnson is, however, confused about Murphy's positions: Murphy supports the current law, which allows 72 hours of wiretapping before a warrant is obtained.

Democratic candidate Diane Farrell has released a new ad attacking Shays for his strong support for the War in Iraq. The ad pulls four quotes from his fourteen trips to Iraq, each of them enthusiastically supporting the effort saying things like "We've seen amazing progress!" As Shays tries to wiggle out of his position on the war and the President, Farrell is going right at him. Watch the ad here.

The Journal Inquirer of Connecticut reported Wednesday that GOP Rep. Nancy Johnson is scheduled to hold a stealth fundraiser next month in Massachusetts:

That event, a $500-per-person cocktail party at a hotel near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is being sponsored by several associates of former Gov. John G. Rowland and state Treasurer Paul J. Silvester, both of whom were convicted and jailed on federal corruption charges.

Rowland served a year after pleading guilty to felony conspiracy charges and Silvester served four for racketeering and conspiracy to launder money. And it gets worse.

Read more »

http://connecticutblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/nancy-johnson-proves-again-that-shell.html
http://thepoliticker.observer.com/2006/09/i-dont-want-to-take-back-the-congress.html
http://www.joe2006.com/blog_details.asp?ID=68
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-ctsenate0920.artsep20,0,5693835.story?coll=hc-headlines-politics-state
http://www.ctfamily.org/Crosshairs.html
http://connecticutblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/diane-farrell-unveils-latest-tv-ad.html
http://connecticutblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/gov-rell-blinks.html
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/09/21/healeys_leadership_gets_endorsement_from_democratic_lawmakers/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Massachusetts+news
http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=785
http://ohio2006elections.blogspot.com/2006/09/cong-oh-13-sutton-d-announces-plan-on.html
http://www.buckeyestateblog.com/zack_space_crushing_the_american_dream_girl
http://thepoliticker.observer.com/2006/09/warmup-debates.html

Is GOP Rep. Nancy Johnson's new ad the most despicable political ad in human history? That's the question that the New Haven Independent is asking about Johnson's ad assaulting Dem challenger Chris Murphy for opposing warantless wiretapping of domestic to international calls. In a post entitled "Most Evil Campaign Ad ... Ever?" The Independent's Paul Bass opines that the ad "may be the lowest campaign ad in history." And it is awfully vile. For one thing, the central claim -- that you need to get warrants before doing the wiretapping -- is flat out false. What's more, the ominous-looking paperwork that flashes across the screen is actually a set of student aid spreadsheets. View the ad here.

A new strategy memo out from Democracy Corps shows that GOP incumbent Nancy Johnson is leading Dem challenger Chris Murphy only 49%-44%, and draws the following conclusion:

Democrats benefit from an engaged Iraq debate...When the Democratic candidate challenges the current Republican-Bush framework for continuing the Iraq war with a Democratic alternative that is careful about avoiding instability in Iraq, the race moves dramatically against the incumbent.

Read the rest of the Democracy Corps memo here.

House GOP strategists are dumping huge sums of cash into the Northeast, in an effort to stave off electoral disaster in the region.

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