The Monday morning after the Super Bowl is pretty depressing for me because football season is over, but now we have campaign season heating up – and oh how it is heating up!

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Today I take a look at a poll about conservative and liberal states, Rehberg and lobbyist cash, tracking donations, JFK and an affair, Lieutenant Governors, and the shirt.

Conservative or Liberal

Do you live in a conservative or liberal state?  A new Gallup poll tells us “Mississippi remains the most conservative state in the union, and, along with Utah, Wyoming, and Alabama, is one of four states with 50% or more of its population identifying as conservative.  At the other end of the ideological spectrum, 40% District of Columbia residents and 30% of Massachusetts residents identify as liberal; all other states have a liberal population of 26% or less.”

For those in Montana reading this, Montana ranks #11 on the conservative scale (45.1% conservative, 32.6% moderate, and 18.7% liberal).

AP Enterprise: Rehberg underreports lobbyist cash

In case you missed the story, you should read it HERE before reading my analysis.

While I am not enamored much by Jon Tester or Denny Rehberg, I found the Associated Press story by Matt Gouras more of a hit piece on Rehberg than anything.  Here are five things I took from the “enterprise” story which was almost as big as the aircraft carrier with that name (the story contains about 1030 words):

1. The story kind of reminds me of an AP reporter from the 2006 election named Jalonick, who seemed to work hand in hand with democrats.  She seemed to be a fan of Tester and it showed in her reporting.  You can read my thoughts about her work by searching for her name on this website.  Apparently she now covers “food policy for The Associated Press” and I am not joking…

2. I would find it hard to imagine a busy AP reporter having the time to examine thousands of campaign donation documents without first being told there might be a story there by someone else – which is fine if the tip/source is disclosed.

3.  Campaigns are supposed to try and obtain the occupation of their donors.  If they do not, it’s not that big a deal.  Check through any donor lists and you’ll find missing information about occupation or you may even find entries like “passed the hat” with the event the hat was passed around listed and no names.

4.  As I mentioned about Tester’s campaign in a column posted last Wednesday, “It’s the details that will get you…” This is not the first rodeo for Rehberg and his campaign team.  By not having quality control procedures in place to gather as much information as possible (with records of when the information was requested) from donors, this has probably harmed the momentum that the campaign appeared to have recently.

5.  It appears that even after all the help from Gouras, Jon Tester is still the leading recipient of campaign cash from lobbyists – and that is amazing coming from a fellow who railed against those nasty lobbyists in 2006.

Tracking state candidate money

Lee Newspaper reporter Mike Dennison reports on tracking campaign donations in Montana and finds that it is still a work in progress.

Montana is probably a decade behind some states…

Once Upon a Secret

CNN is reporting “The author of a new tell-all book claims she lost her virginity to President John F. Kennedy when she was a 19-year-old White House intern, and that the affair lasted 18 months.”  The book is titled, “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath.” The book is due to be released Wednesday.

White House interns…

Lieutenant Governors

Lee Newspapers published a story asking the question, “Lt. governors: The spare tire of politics?” and saying, “It’s an odd job” but then gives us this earth-shattering piece of information: “The most important function of a lieutenant governor is to succeed a governor who dies or resigns.”

I’ll take the job…

The Shirt

Matt Lauer of NBC interviewed President Obama prior to the Super Bowl on Sunday.  Lauer showed a video of the President from an interview three years ago.  It appeared that Obama had on the same shirt (or same style of shirt) that he had on for the current interview.  Watch the video HERE (the comparison is at the 4:18 mark).

Does it really matter?  Nope.

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Follow Jack on Twitter @TheWesternWord.