The DSCC has released a new poll which shows Orange to Blue candidate Andrew Rice closing swiftly on incumbent Senator James Inhofe, in the wake of Rice's first statewide ad buys.

Since the DSCC's last poll two months ago, Rice has cut Inhofe's lead in half, and trails now by single digits, with Inhofe teetering on the magical 50% re-elect line. With June numbers in parentheses:

This is a partisan poll commissioned by the DSCC, but the June results from this same poll were almost directly in line with independent polling on the race conducted around the same time (in this case, Research 2000's poll commissioned by Daily Kos). So there's reason to believe that the pollster (Benenson) is accurate.

Andrew Rice has purchased his first statewide ads within the last month, so it stands to reason that his own numbers (and favorability) would have increased during this time (while Inhofe's numbers stayed more or less constant).

Rice's name ID is still only at 52%, while Inhofe's is near universal. In addition (and unsurprisingly), Oklahomans who do know Inhofe don't appear to especially care for him. As the Rice campaign noted in a Daily Kos post earlier in the day:

For the first time in the course of our race, Jim Inhofe’s job disapproval rating is lower than his approval (46% Approve; 47% Disapprove).  More and more Oklahomans are realizing that after 22 years in Washington, Jim Inhofe has lost his way.  He’s not putting Oklahomans first; he’s voting in line with his party and for the benefit of special interests that have filled his campaign war chest.

And we still have room to move.  In our last poll, Sen. Rice’s name ID was only 29%.  It’s now at 52%.  For those who know Sen. Rice enough to form an opinion of him, their opinion is 3:1 favorable over unfavorable.  Again, we’ve known it all along – when Oklahoma voters get to know Andrew Rice, they support him.

We went head-to-head with Sen. Inhofe on TV, and we more than halved his lead over Andrew Rice.

Andrew Rice is a special candidate, and he has a unique opportunity to take out a genuine troglodyte of a Senator. The apparent success of his statewide ad campaign has already demonstrated the profound effect that just a little bit of money can have on this race, and the potential that his candidacy has to bring us a progressive Senator from one of the nation's reddest states.

So go to the Orange to Blue ActBlue Page, and help Andrew Rice amass the resources he needs to stay in this fight, and win.

On the web:
Andrew Rice for U.S. Senate
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

The DSCC and the Rice campaign just released a poll that confirmed what we’ve known all along – that once Oklahomans get to know Andrew Rice and hear his message of putting people before politics, they support him.

Benenson Strategy Group Poll (8/12-8/14, +/- 4%)
Rice 41%
Inhofe 50%

More good news below the fold.

Senator Inhofe,

This may come as a surprise to you but over here in Europe we are worried sick about climate change. It doesn't seem to concern you as your position does not seem to have budged from your speech given on the Senate floor on July 28, 2003:

"much of the debate over global warming is predicated on fear, rather than science." I called the threat of catastrophic global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people"

to this from your latest rant, on July 22 last month:

More and more prominent scientists continue to speak out and dissent from man made global warming. In June, the Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever, declared himself a "skeptic" and said "global warming has become a new religion."

On the 73rd anniversary of the death of Will Rogers and Wiley Post, it's a good excuse to revisit one of the most remarkable commentators of the previous century.

In yesterday's Washington Post Chris Cillizza gave us a little update on the magnitude of the Democratic senatorial tsunami in November. Citing the most conservative prognosticators who are not-- as far as I know-- on the GOP payroll, Cillizza comes up with a net gain for Democrats that will give them 57 or 58 seats, more seats than anytime since 1978. Cillizza, of course, is playing an insiders game. He lives and works Inside the Beltway for the ultimate Inside the Beltway establishment newspaper, catering to a universe of Inside the Beltway power-mongers. His sources are the insidest of the Insiders. That's not meant as a criticism; just an assessment. His world is the world of the DSCC, RNSC, and a consulting class that gets more wrong than right but is inevitably showered with sobriquets like the "top Senate handicappers in the business."

In the first chapter of his National-Book-Award winning The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, Timothy Egan describes Bam White and his family's journey in 1926 through Cimarron County, Oklahoma on their way to Texas.

Through, No Man's Land, the family wheeled past fields that just been turned, the grass upside down.  People in sputtering cars roared by honking, hooting at the cowboy family in the horse-drawn wagon, churning up dust in their faces.  The children kept asking if they were getting any closer to Texas and if it would look different from this long strip of Oklahoma. They seldom saw a tree in Cimarron County. There wasn't even grass for the horse team; the sod that hadn't been turned was frozen and brown. Windmills broke the plain, next to dugouts and sod houses and still-forming villages.  Resting for a long spell at midday, the children played around a buffalo wallow, the ground mashed. Cimarron is a Mexican hybrid word, descended from the Apache who spent many nights in these same buffalo wallows.  It means "wanderer".[pp. 14-15]

Every politician has a story about why he or she was called into public service.  My story is one that is intertwined with the trajectory of our country over the past seven years, and unfortunately there are constant reminders for why I am compelled to run for U.S. Senate.

Over the last few days, we have seen a Russian incursion into a sovereign Georgia, an action that many foreign policy experts saw coming – but the Bush administration failed to do anything to intervene before the inevitable came.

Though much of the world is coming to China in peace for the Olympic games, that country’s rescinded visa for a former Olympian who has been openly critical of many nations’ inaction on the crisis in Darfur has only reminded us of the need to resolve that ongoing conflict.

And now today, another story hit closer to home.

Yesterday, Jim Inhofe called on his supporters to send their gas receipts into his campaign office so that he can send them to Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader.  Apparently, Inhofe is trying to show his frustrations that Congress adjourned without bringing any relief on energy prices.

Oklahomans, though, should be more frustrated with Jim Inhofe’s decades of doing nothing to avert an energy crisis.

State Sen. Andrew Rice is fed up with opponent’s lack of leadership on this issue.  He’s not going to send Jim Inhofe his gas receipts.  Instead, he’s going to send Jim Inhofe an invoice for $1,076,573 – the amount of money he’s received in campaign contributions from big oil.

(more below the fold)

Right this very moment, the 2008 Democratic nominee for Senate from Oklahoma, State Senator Andrew Rice, is liveblogging at Senate Guru.

Come join the discussion!

Rice is working hard to oust Senate anachronism Jim Inhofe, of the notorious 'global warming is a hoax' infamy.  So come by and ask him about how the campaign is going.

ACHTUNG, BABY: Droogie needs the help of any and all Kossacks who are experienced in writing letters to CongressCritters. If this describes you, please stick around a spell and read what all the rhubarb is about!

So... to recap, I was pissed off about a story I read in the newspaper. I wrote about this story here at DKos, and I wrote a few public officials and groups here in T-Town.

One person I wrote was my member of Congress, John Sullivan. You can read it for yourself, but if you're just now tuning in, allow me to explain what got me started writing this guy in the first place.

(Read "Inhofe sleaze at root of Roberts' woes?")

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, world famous for his controversial remarks about global warming, faces more problems in his reelection campaign than just low Republican voter turnout.

The 73-year-old Senator may face serious questions about his role in events leading to an ongoing lawsuit against Oral Roberts University in Tulsa and the resignation of the university’s former president, Richard Roberts.

Inhofe, along with U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, were recently listed as possible witnesses in the lawsuit brought by Tim and Paulita Brooker. The Brookers claim in the lawsuit that Roberts forced Tim Brooker’s ORU government class to help get Randi Miller elected as Tulsa mayor in 2006.  This action, if true, could call into question the college’s nonprofit status.

Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is number 28 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures--the whole Beautiful Morning! Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

Today, we go mining for hidden treasures in the challenging soil of Oklahoma. Follow me below the fold.

Karina Henderson, live from the Andrew Rice watch party...

7:49 [Central] - Found a wireless connection and we're live from Cafe do Brasil in Oklahoma City!  We have a great crowd building, waiting for Andrew to arrive and officially accept the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.  Results are coming in slowly but surely, and we're confident that the election will go in our favor.

In the meantime, we're enjoying the great food and keeping an eye on the TV and on the tubes.... Follow the returns here, and keep an eye right here for updates as they come in.  We're going to launch a few new elements to the campaign tonight - so keep reading....

UPDATES BELOW THE FOLD

Today, the differences between Andrew Rice and his opponent, Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe, became even clearer.

The Oklahoma Democratic Party just issued a release, demanding that Sen. Jim Inhofe return the thousands of dollars in campaign contributions he’s received from indicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).

More from their release below the fold.

State Senator Andrew Rice's first TV ad is a hit here in Oklahoma. This is his first introduction to most Oklahomans, and people are impressed-- even out here in Western Oklahoma where it is considerably more Republican than Eastern Oklahoma.

July in Oklahoma heats up, especially in election years.

With the primary election four days away, Andrew Rice's campaign is getting more intense.  We took it to the next level on Monday by launching our first TV ad, called "Leader."  This 30-second ad has received great feedback from all corners of Oklahoma.

Here's the ad; more on the heat below the fold.

This is a follow-up to a diary I wrote about a hate crime that hit close to home. To read my original diary, click here.

Oklahoma is just one of 17 states in the union that does not provide specific protection in its existing hate crimes laws for GLBT residents who are victimized by even the most obvious of hate crimes.

A man named Robert Stotler who lives with his partner in East Tulsa has seen his home vandalized with swastika-like symbols and threatening, homophobic messages. The first time it happened, the graffiti said "I'll be back." And the person or persons responsible did indeed come back to threaten and destroy.

If this had been the home of a black woman, or a Native American man, or a Jewish family, the police would treat the incident as a hate crime. But because the protection of the laws do not extend to GLBTs, they have no choice but to treat this as though it were just some random act of vandalism.

If you read my previous diary, you can see this was anything but random.

Donating is tough, I know. First of all, money is in short supply. And you're never really that certain that what you are giving is making a difference. I mean, $25 to a candidate? What does that buy? A dozen bumper stickers? A second of TV time for an ad?

But there's a race that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves, and it just might be the place where your donation dollar goes a lot farther than it could elsewhere.