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Sunday, January 15, 2006

Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?

Posted by DavidNYC

Any new candidacy announcements in your neck of the woods?

Posted at 12:56 AM in Open Threads | Technorati

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I did a poll of my Say No to Pombo readers to see what they thought about the various candidates taking on Congressman Richard Pombo in CA-11. So far I've gotten 16 responses, and I think the responses largely challenge the conventional wisdom about what type of people support which candidates.

If you read the comment section of the post, you can read those responses plus see some of the typical attacks on Jerry McNerney coming from the supporters of Steve Filson.

I've seen a lot of coordinated stuff in the blogosphere recently from Filson supporters who wildly distort McNerney and refuse to provide substantive, fact-based reasons for supporting Filson. I'm sure such arguments exist, including arguments stemming from the fact that Filson seems likely to raise quite a bit more money than McNerney.

Filson for his part put up a diary at Kos that had some suspicious comments by some suspicious users. At first I thought it was likely that he essentially Freeped Daily Kos. But then I found some proof that one of the pro-Filson people on the blogs (not one mentioned in the linked post) is at the very least a former paid campaign operative of someone very close to Filson. I cannot believe given what I know that this operative is not coordinating his activity with Filson's campaign. And so now it seems even more plausible to me that Filson is content to run an astroturf campaign on the blogs. I doubt he'd be the first person to do it, but it still really bothers me.

On a positive note, as I mentioned last week, there was an excellent anti-Pombo meeting last Sunday put on by Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. It looks like a number of major environmental groups are on the cusp of targeting Pombo officially. The meeting surpassed everyone's expectations. You can read about it here.

Posted by: Matt Lockshin at January 15, 2006 02:07 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Thor Jacobs and Jeff Sinnard are two newer candidates in OH-2.

Politics1 paints a picture for a very interesting primary in Ohio's 13th district, as the announced candidates include Capri Cafaro, Gary Kucinich, and Tom Sawyer. Capri ran for Congress in 2004 in another district and spent almost $2M to finish with 37%. Gary Kucinich is the brother of Dennis Kucinich. Tom Sawyer is the former Congressman (who lost to Tim Ryan in 2002). Betty Sutton is probably also a candidate I should mention. So, yeah, she's running too.

Other than that. I have nothing really to mention.

I hope that things warm up soon when it comes to getting more campaign action.

Posted by: RBH at January 15, 2006 02:21 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

TX-28 Ciro Rodriguez

Congressman Ciro Rodriguez, who was ousted in a bitter 2004 primary battle, with DINO Henry Cuellar, is moving his campaign into high gear.

With no viable Republican in the race, this contest will be decided by the primary March 7th.

Congressman Rodriguez spent four terms representing the people of the 28th. He is a champion of labor. He is an advocate for veterans, having served on the Armed Services committee during his tenure in Congress and he has a 100% NARAL rating vs. Cuellar's pro-life stance.

In short, Rodriguez is a good progressive in a uniquely interesting race.

Posted by: TracyJoan at January 15, 2006 03:30 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

TX-28

What do you think are the chances that Cuellar will lose?

Cuellar also voted to cut food stamps in the agricultural committee. He was the only democrat to do so and I believe that bill would have died in committee if he had voted agin' it (although I think it failed in the full house vote). What a guy!

Posted by: nada at January 15, 2006 08:26 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

cuellar is only a dem because if hes an R he has no chance to win. He served in perry's admin, cmon

Posted by: yomoma2424 at January 15, 2006 11:11 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Really? I thought the district marginally voted for Bush?

I agree, though, that Cuellar needs to be dumped.

Posted by: HellofaSandwich at January 15, 2006 02:48 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

KS-3 Update

Democratic Incumbent Dennis Moore so far has no credible republican challenger. As a KS republican blog put it:

"...Ahner and Schwab head to head, is anyone else excited by the prospects of these two guys? When I think of strong leaders with real plans for the future, well right now Ahner and Schwab aren't exactly at the top of the list, but I remain optimistic, we'll get an update on that one soon enough."

No one wants to challenge Moore, or Governor Sebelius. She turned in a finance report showing $2+ million in the bank. KS looks to hold on to its Democrats in 2008.

Posted by: KansasNate at January 15, 2006 04:30 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Virgil Goode (R, VA-05), MZM's Rubber Stamp

Al Weed and Bern Ewert (both veterans and downright good human beings) face off in a primary for the Democratic nomination in Virginia's 5th CD. Al ran in 2004, and has near 100% name recognition, but Bern brings a new face and maybe some new ideas to the race.

We need this seat! Goode was MZM's biggest beneficiary between 1994 and 2004. He's a rubber stamp. He's a negative smear-campaigning swift-boater, and he makes baby Jesus cry.

Charlottesville, at the northern corner, is a Democratic stronghold with potential donors and volunteers galore. But the district is huge, stretching to the southern border and its tobacco-farm country -- which might be switch-grass-farm country if some renewable energy initiatives get through congress. Goode won 64% of the vote on 2004 and Bush took 54%, but in 2005 Tim Kaine won for the Democrats, taking the 5th district with 52%.

Virginia's turning blue, and this district is going as fast as any other.

Posted by: mikesnoo at January 15, 2006 08:36 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

VA-05 is a good chance for a pickup. Bush and the GOP are on the ropes, the VA Democratic party is showing signs of life, and a candidate with a strong, clear message CAN beat Goode. Im optimistic, but unless we get real support in the form of money and volunteers, this race will go nowhere.

VA-01 and VA-02 are our other two chances for pickup, particularly the 2nd. Iraq vet David Ashe is challenging Thelma Drake, a less-than-useless one term incumbent. The district has a large portion of active and retired military and its not "Idaho Red," just kind of dark purple...

Posted by: AlecBGreen at January 15, 2006 09:31 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

While where talking about Virgina we should come up with a good Challenger for Tom Davis. He is from a 50-49 Bush district that is trending blue very fast. VA-11th is the distrct. he won in a landslife last year due to a very weak opponent without any funding if we put upa strong one here we can win it. The district went from 52-45 for Bush to 50-49 Bush in the Republican year of 2004 it is winnable.

Posted by: D in FL. at January 15, 2006 10:09 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

did anyone catch late edition on sunday. trent lott was on and (i believe) said he was making an announcement on i think tuesday about his future plans. he said that he would travel the state so im assuming hes doing that cause hes running and wants to get lots of free media across MS. also, he wasnt bad mouthing karl rove, bill frist or any of the others like in the past.

does anyone know whats going on with trent lott's future. i believe that if he left either atty gen mike moore or gene taylor could win that seat against chip pickering

Posted by: jcb at January 16, 2006 12:15 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Oregon's Gubernatorial race. Former Governor Kitzhaber just announced he isn't running, and there is the potential that an independent will run making the race wide open.

Posted by: Lucon at January 16, 2006 02:14 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

CA-24. We actually have three candidates vying to challenge Gallegly--first time we've had a contested primary in that district.

Posted by: hekebolos at January 16, 2006 01:32 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I attended the inaugaral for new Virginia Govenor Tim Kaine over the weekend and at a couple of the events I ran accross democratic Va Senatorial candidate Harris Miller. He came accross as very pushy and cold, very self-centered. I spoke to some of the other attendees and they were also put off. I then did some checking and discovered that before beginning this senatorial run he was a lobbyist closely associated with increasing H-1B imigration visas, and with diebold voting machines. We need a different candidate. Not only do I believe that Miller cannot beat the incumbent, George Allen, but that by associating the democratic party with the H-1B visa process we open ourselves up to attacks about costing american workers jobs. I'm hoping James Webb joins the race.

Posted by: Commo at January 16, 2006 03:13 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment