GOP candidates run from Bush

As Mark Green prepares to welcome George Bush to a Milwaukee fundraiser for Green on July 11, there have been reports elsewhere in the country of candidates who have avoided appearing with the Pres, citing mysterious schedule conflicts that kept them away from their own events.

In Minnesota, a Republican Congressman is even removing Bush from his website. Political Wire reports:

In Minnesota, Kennedy Runs from Bush

MN Publius finds Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-MN) recently deleted most references to President Bush from his congressional website. Pictures of Bush were replaced with pictures of smiling children; bills that were once "signed into law by President Bush" now simply "become law."

Bush is not popular in Minnesota and Kennedy's record is hurting his chances. "A CQ vote study shows that Kennedy sided with Bush 87% of the time when the president took a stated position on House legislation last year -- a fairly modest figure among House Republicans. But that was down sharply from the 97% presidential support score Kennedy ran up in each of the previous three years." [Mark Green's CQ rating is 88% with Bush.]

Though CQ Politics rates Minnesota's Senate race a toss-up, several analysts I've spoken to in recent days see the landscape shifting to the Democrats. Kennedy's challenger will be decided in a September primary, with Amy Klobuchar (D) is currently leading the race.

In the recent statewide poll by Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Bush's positive-negative ratings were 37-59.