From today's edition of National Journal's Hotline:
SOUTH DAKOTA: Johnson Not Committed To Daschle?
Sioux Falls Argus Leader's Kranz writes, "Some prominent" SDans "are ready to cast their lot for who should run" for the pres. primaries. Sen. Tim Johnson (D) "is leaning toward" Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), who he believes would "truly be a uniter, not a divider." Johnson: "While I'm not ready to formally endorse him yet, at this point I do believe that Obama would by my party's strongest nominee for President. ...I am intrigued by his possible candidacy." Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D) makes no firm commitments "but she says she will likely back" ex-Sen. Tom Daschle (D), if he decides to run. If not, she said she would consider ex-Sen. John Edwards.
Sen. John Thune (R) was expected to back outgoing Sen. George Allen (R-VA), who worked hard to get Thune into the Senate race in '04. But since Allen "imploded his presidential prospects," the "betting is that Thune will go with" Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who "has been tossing Thune's name around in campaign stops as one of the party's bright young leaders."
Ex-Gov. Harvey Wollman (D) "says he is not looking for a rock star politician" and believes that Sen. Hillary Clinton is "unelectable" while Sen. Barack Obama has some growing to do. Wollman: "The person we need has to be very intelligent and have a world view and be experienced. Al Gore was really elected in the first race against Bush and deserves another chance." Daschle is in the "too early to commit" stage, especially since he "remains in the thought process stage of his own presidential candidacy." But as Obama "absorbs many" of Daschle's valued ex-staffers, "the possibility of a Daschle candidacy seems to diminish" and "the guess here is that he would go with Clinton or Obama" (11/20).
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