The Washington Independent takes a look at the candidacy of Tim Griffin, a former operative of Karl Rove and U.S. Attorney. Mr. Griffin is running in a contested Republican primary for the 2nd congressional district in Arkansas, a seat currently held by incumbent Vic Snyder.
If local Democrats have their way, Griffin’s comeback won’t take him all the way to Congress. “If he’s the nominee against Vic Snyder,” said Mariah Hattah [sic], executive director of Arkansas Democratic Party, “it would pit a proven public servant against a campaign operative who worked for Karl Rove, the master of the dark arts of campaigning.” Hattah getting into a striking degree of specificity for a campaign that is still taking shape, suggested that state Democrats would make voters aware of the “caging” scandal that dogged Griffin before he left the U.S. attorney’s office. “No one likes likes voter suppression,” she said.
David Wasserman, the House race editor of the Cook Political Report, said that Democrats’ chances at making Griffin toxic depend wholly on the political environment. “In any other year that line on the resume would be a huge vulnerability,” said Wasserman. ‘But when the environment is good, it’s like Democrats are wearing velcro, and the Republicans are wearing teflon.”
Earlier, this poll from Public Policy Polling suggested a tight race.
David Sanders and I discuss this on his monthly program, Unconventional Wisdom. It airs Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. and re-airs Sunday afternoon on AETN.