BOB DOLE PITCHES VIAGRA, NOT COLT 45:

GOP's new diversity push (ALEXANDER BURNS, 9/5/09, Politico)

Some Republicans see the pipeline of diverse 2010 candidates as an unprecedented opportunity for the party to shake up its white-guy image, nothing less than a godsend after the historic election of a Democratic African American presidential candidate. [...]

The roster of viable contenders goes on and on. In Nevada, former federal judge Brian Sandoval, an Hispanic, is expected to enter the governor's race as the GOP frontrunner while state party chair Sue Lowden is testing the waters for a run against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Hawaii's likely GOP nominee for governor is Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona, who is of Chinese, Portuguese and ethnic Hawaiian descent. In Colorado, the Senate primary already includes Aurora Councilman Ryan Frazier, an African American, with former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton likely to join the race.

Republicans are also fielding promising female Senate candidates in New Hampshire and California, and women are leading candidates for governor in Oklahoma, where Rep. Mary Fallin is her party's top candidate, and California, where former eBay CEO Meg Whitman leads the field in the polls. In Texas, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is engaged in a contentious gubernatorial primary with incumbent Rick Perry.

"I think there's kind of an organic uprising of new blood and new faces in the party right now," said Alan Philp, the Republican National Committee's field director for an area including Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and five other states.