Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?

As a woman who comes from means, I’m in some tough neighborhoods sometimes.

49 thoughts on “Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?”

  1. I hope some other characters like Ken Blackwell end up jumping in the race against Portman.  This may be a bit off topic, but why has Sherrod Brown missed some votes so early in the session?  I hope he’s not sick and that everyone in his family is well.

    I was also curious about Mikulski, is it guaranteed she will run again?  I assume she is going to retire, but is it going to Van Hollen taking that seat or could we see a Sarbanes/Van Hollen primary contest?  I’d rather see a new name emerge, but Sarbanes and Van Hollen would both be capable.

    I’d also like to see someone someone seriously challenge Grassley here in Iowa.  It is a sad state of affairs when Grassley is now considered to be a moderate in comparison to the DeMints and Coburns of the world which appear to be the norm now within the GOP caucus.  

  2. NY Senate.  When will it be official.

    Minnesota Senate.  When will Democrats make the stall an issue.  Norm Coleman and Tim Pawlenty certainly are on record as saying they don’t care that Minnesotans lose their vote for months to come.  Make em pay.

    NJ-5. Once more Garrett is the only NJer to vote against a popular bill.  This time SCHIP.  To quote “Beckett”, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome knight.”  

    The need for an ongoing list of Republican retirees updated and posted as a Swing State Project “Resource.”  It is gonna be huge by the fall of 2010.  Add the Queen clip, please.  I actually look for diaries about retirements to play the song at times.

    WA-8 and PA-6.  Plus the Mark Kirk story.  These are certainly seats up for grabs.  Kirk may get out before he’s voted out.  Reichert and Gerlach are grimly holding on.

    When will the Chris Christie pinata be punctured.  I have been waiting for this sanctimonious sack of S*** to get his comeuppance for the best part of his sorry partisan hack racist tenure.  Yeah, I don’t like the guy.

    Will Don Young be back for another whack.  The man is, at the least, entertaining and not the worst vote in the House.  Don’t cross him.

    Florida Republicans.  With Bill Young always a possible retirement and the Cubans finally having to go mano-a-mano for their seats well … Plus Connie Mack for Senate?  Will that open up his wife’s seat in California?  I think she’ll retire fairly soon leaving a good opportunity.  Will Rooney continue the sex scandal tradition in his district?  

    North Carolina Republicans.  Four oldies and a twerp.  Will their be a changeover?  Coble or Myrick perchance?

    Virginia Governor

  3. Mark Dayton is in.

    Former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton filed papers with the state today to launch his campaign for governor in 2010.

    In a statement, Dayton, a DFLer, said he won’t make a formal announcement of his candidacy until this spring. However, establishing a campaign committee is typically the first step in entering a race.

    http://www.startribune.com/pol

    Mark Dayton is a good man and would be a solid progresive Govenor, unfortunantly he is a horrible politition.

    In other news Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak announced that he is running for re-election this year which would seem to make a run for Govenor less likely.

  4. and he himself said he deserved an F for his performance.  it was a gracious thing for him to step aside in ’06 and it’s foolish for him to run this time.

    rybak and mayor coleman are both running for reelection this year (09), and either or both could run for governor right after (10).  norm coleman ran for mayor in ’97 and even ran tv ads for his reelection (a ridiculous expenditure for a St paul Mayor’s race).  he turned around and immediately ran for governor in 1998.

  5. if stephanie herseth sandlin runs for gov, we need someone to run for her seat.  some names have popped up, but one i haven’t heard was max sandlin, her husband.  now, this would be a dynasty pick, but in all honesty it’s not as though we have anyone better.  plus he was a congressman (tx-01) before he met her, so A. it’s not as though he owes her for his congressional career and B. he brings more senority than she had, since he represented tx-01 for 4 terms.  he’ll probably be called a carpet bagger, but it’s not as though he moved to south dakota to run for office, he moved to be with his wife.  as for their family, if they can make it work with him staying home and her going to DC, i don’t see why it can’t work with him going to DC and her staying in SD to run the state.

  6. Way more interested in the races this year, not in 2010 at this point. 2010 is a very, very long ways away in politics and we have the upcoming hellish year under Obama to go though before we see how races are really shaping up/what the political mood of America is coming to.

    So 2009 races!

    Love the new Rasmussen Poll showing Christie in an MOE tie with Corzine:

    Christie (R) 42%

    Corzine (D) 40%

    http://www.rasmussenreports.co

    Also love the news that in the VA Governors race Bob McDonnell (R) has raised more than double the amount of money ($2M) than the closest Democrat in the race (Moran).

  7. I loved it. I wrote about it and some other things on my review site, http://criticnation.blogspot.c… I’m doing this because its way too early for me to be interested in any races, I mean Obama hasn’t even been innaugerated yet. But seriously, Gran Torino was a powerful and brilliant eulogy, a natural and moving story about life, sacrifice, and humanity.

  8. Realistically, we are not going to pick up either of those seats in 2010.

    Should Iowa Democrats give up on recruiting serious candidates for those races and focus our resources on the gubernatorial and statehouse campaigns?

    The problem with doing that is that lacking a credible Democrat on the line against Latham and King (and Grassley, for that matter), will reduce the straight ticket D voting at the top of the ballot. That in turn will hurt the down-ticket Dems.

    Still, it’s hard to get excited about recruiting or fundraising for those races.

    On a related note, Steve King is like school in the summertime: no class.

    http://www.bleedingheartland.c

  9. March 3rd is the primary day, which will essentially be what decides who is the next congressman.  When does that mean the first fundraising reports are due?  And who all has announced candidacies?

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