A Teleconference with Ken Mehlman

by John Hawkins | November 7, 2006 1:03 pm

I called in just a touch late to a teleconference with RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman today and for whatever reason, it took the attendant like 5 minutes to actually put me on with Ken. So, I missed his early remarks. Still, here’s what Ken had to say (These are notes, not quotes, and many of these responses were prompted by questions.)

— We’ve already seen some dirty tricks aimed at Republican candidates. Gil Gutknecht’s HQ was egged, Poll workers have been charged with faking votes from dead people in TN. Tom Kean had keys broken off in the doors of his HQ today.

— Don’t pay attention to the exit polls when they come out. There’s a long history of exit polls favoring the Democrats over the Republicans

— The Steele / Cardin race is very close and Steele has the momentum.

– Montana and Michigan close late and both are very favorable environments towards Republicans right now. In the Burns race, one piece of good news is that the Undecided voters in Montana were 2 to 1 for Republicans. So, Burns is likely to pick-up a very high percentage of undecided voters.

— The GOP has been pushing reform since Reagan and we’ve gotten away from that a little bit of late. We’ve done a lot of reform, but we need to do a lot more.

— Kerry’s comments about the military were a big deal and they did help the GOP quite a bit. Also, Iran testing long range missiles, Saddam being found guilty of war crimes, the New York Times revealing that Saddam was further along towards Nukes than we thought also probably has helped bring some more voters into the GOP column.

— If I had to pick a shock the world race, where a GOP win could stun everyone, it would probably be Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District where we have a shot at an upset. A Michael Steele victory would be a big deal. Max Burns in Georgia is also an even money race.