Daily Political Wire 5-9-2010

George Wenschhof

Happy Mother's Day

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to appear on CBS "60 Minutes" tonight. Below is a clip from the show where she talks about the increased cooperation between Pakistan and the U.S. on the war on terrorism.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

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DailyKos/Research 2000 Poll show Democrats behind in Illinois - not a good sign in a heavily Democratic registered state. The poll conducted May3-5 showed Alexi Giannoulias (D) is behind Mark Kirk (R) 41%-38% in the U.S. senate race and Pat Quinn (D) behind Bill Brady (R) 39%-36%. The failure of the Giannoulias family owned bank and the lack luster campaign by Quinn seem to have had an impact. DailyKos.com has more here.

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Republican Senator Bob Bennett loses Utah state convention - as a result, he is off the ballot this November after serving three terms. The state of Utah Republican Party determine their Senate candidates by state convention where a few thousand delegates determine the nominee. The delegates went for even more conservative attorney Mark Lee and businessman Tim Bridgewater. However, neither of them were able to secure the required 60% of the vote after two rounds. A third round of voting will be held and if neither wins 60% of the vote, a primary will be scheduled for June 22. TheHill.com has more here.

Update - Bridgewater fell short of the required 60%, receiving 57% in the third round of voting. There will be a primary on June 22 between Bridgewater and Lee.

Pundits will have fun with this outcome, pointing to tea party activists. However, this is a unique method for selection of candidates involving very few of the registered voters, so it is hard to extrapolate these results with the entire voters across the state.

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President Obama may make Supreme Court nomination this week - interviews have been held with at least four under consideration. they are Solicitor General Elena Kagan along with Federal Appeals Court Judges Diane Wood, Merrick Garland and Sidney Thomas. Kagan and Garland are the two receiving the most buzz inside the beltway. Stay Tuned... MSNBC.com has more here.

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