Campaign and Election News – Covering Key Races Around the Country
Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?
140 thoughts on “Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?”
RIP Senator Ted Kennedy!!!
What does everyone think about Curt Schilling running? I know Republican’s will most likely lose this, but who do ya’ll think is stronger, Schilling or Healey?
Most important “down ticket” race in the Republic.
Period.
I’m just curious how many Democratic held house and/or senate seats will be automatic or very, very likely flips once the current incumbent retires. A few come to mind immediately, like MS-04 or LA-03. What do you guys think?
Instead of a big, dark blur, I see a big light blur.
I’m interested in the wake of her comments if KS Dems can get it together enough to find a credible challenger, especially since she’s a freshman. The strongest contenders would probably be the State Senators from Topeka, the biggest population center of the district–Anthony Hensley or Laura Kelly. Neither of whom would have to give up their seats to make a challenge. Hensley may be going for Governor, though…if so, Kelly should challenge Jenkins.
I’m also interested to see if Kansans are as tolerant of orange Republicans as John Boehner’s constituents are…
With that recent poll that showed the Brown is doing better then Newsome in his own town, and that Brown is out raising him, I’m quite confident to call this race for Brown right now. Thoughts?
Already been at the Minnesota State Fair for double digit hours. Lots of excitement for Rybak running for governor, signing up lots of suporters.
If the Legislature enacts the law allowing for a temporary appointment, the GOP is thinking of challenging it as an ex post facto law. Their reasoning is that since the vacancy already exists, the law says that there cannot be a temporary appointment and they must wait until the special election in January. Changing the law would be retroactive.
Can any attorneys around here tell us whether they actually have a case?
Former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is poised to mount a Democratic primary campaign against Sen. Michael Bennet.
Urged to challenge Gov. Bill Ritter as he seeks re-election in 2010, Romanoff has instead turned his attention to the U.S. Senate race, sources told the Denver Post. One source reported that Romanoff offered a campaign position to a veteran Democratic strategist.
Does that make Corzine Chewbacca?
Former Gubernatorial candidate John Georges says he will formally enter the NOLA mayor race this fall.
A week ago, their was a press release saying that a GQR poll would be released showing Giannoulias leading Kirk outside the margin of error. Why has that poll not been released yet.
The discussion we had on an earlier thread about Mike Sodrel’s rumored fifth try at Baron Hill’s seat, and about Harold Stassen’s ten attempts at the Presidency, made me wonder: what politician tried the most times to acquire a seat before finally succeeding?
Here’s one potential candidate: Evan Mecham of Arizona, who won the Governorship on his fifth attempt. Three of the five times he didn’t even make it out of the primary. He finally won when the Democratic Party nominated two separate GE candidates because of an intraparty rift. Mecham was impeached and removed from office just over a year after he was elected.
Any other candidates you can think of?
This is the kind of group that Lampson was facing, no wonder why he lost re-election
Video is captured by my friend John Coburruvias who worked on the Sherrie Matula for State House (TX-129) campaign with me as our Outreach Coordinator. You can here him pointing out the insurance companies turned the woman down rather than the government,
Qualifying for three special elections (to be held on November 3rd) for three vacant Georgia State House seats begins today. The 58th is safe Democratic (and we have what appear to be some good candidates). The 129th is safe Republican.
The remainder, the 141st, was held by a Democrat. It’s basically Baldwin County plus a tiny sliver of Putnam County. Obama probably won it. I doubt that piece of Putnam was sufficient to flip the district toward McCain. Baldwin is like 43% black and has a state university. However, it’s swingy. Bush won it. And low turnout for Democratic blocs (especially blacks in general and students), could be disasterous. So far, only one candidate has qualified: Rusty Kidd, an independent. His dad was a Democratic state legislator while his sister was a Republican Congresswoman from Florida. The Republicans did have a candidate who filed with the State Ethics Commission, but has been very quiet. We currently don’t have a candidate as far as I know, unless the Dems plan to support Kidd.
Waxman would fuck this state up. In a good way!
George Miller would be nice.
I begged for Loretta Sanchez for a while, but apparently she’s not as amazing as I hoped.
I don’t really know the SoCal delegation very well.
How would folks here vote in a Brown vs Newsom vs Westly race? Westly is occasionally rumored to be interested this cycle.
Republicans and conservative interest groups are all-in for their candidate, hoping to pick up a swing Iowa House seat that opened up when John Whitaker took a position with the USDA.
I posted a roundup of news on the campaign on Friday and a follow-up today. Highlights: the National Organization for Marriage is spending nearly $90,000 on this race, which is an enormous amount for a rural Iowa House district. The head of Iowa’s campaign ethics board warned the NOM on Friday that they are going to have to form a PAC and disclose their donors if they want to do election advocacy in Iowa in the future.
As of late last week, Democrats had an edge in terms of absentee ballots returned. A strong early voting effort will be absolutely critical if Curt Hanson is going to pull this off. I’m nervous about the race because it’s not a liberal district, conservative interest groups are outspending us, and the Republican base has a lot of angry enthusiasm now over gay marriage and state spending. If we win this election, it will be crushing for the state GOP, but if we lose, it will be a big shot in the arm for them and their fundraising.
Branstad says he will decide by October whether he’s running. If he does, the GOP primary probably becomes a two-man race between Branstad and current front-runner Bob Vander Plaats, who is an idiot. Consultants for other candidates stand to lose a lot of money if their guy is forced out of the primary early.
His Excellency hopes that you will die honorably, but if any of you wish to beg for mercy, the great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your plea.
In the body of the article, we find out that the actual news is much less significant:
Ball, who is taking on second-term Democratic Rep. John Hall in New York’s 19th District, was added to the first tier of the party program for GOP candidate recruits, known as “On the Radar,” part of a three-step process toward earning the label “Young Gun.”
Nevertheless, I post this for your consideration.
My feeling is that Hall is very unlikely to lose in 2010, but also that it’s reasonable for the NRCC to spend a bit of money, just in case.
RIP Senator Ted Kennedy!!!
What does everyone think about Curt Schilling running? I know Republican’s will most likely lose this, but who do ya’ll think is stronger, Schilling or Healey?
Most important “down ticket” race in the Republic.
Period.
I’m just curious how many Democratic held house and/or senate seats will be automatic or very, very likely flips once the current incumbent retires. A few come to mind immediately, like MS-04 or LA-03. What do you guys think?
Instead of a big, dark blur, I see a big light blur.
I’m interested in the wake of her comments if KS Dems can get it together enough to find a credible challenger, especially since she’s a freshman. The strongest contenders would probably be the State Senators from Topeka, the biggest population center of the district–Anthony Hensley or Laura Kelly. Neither of whom would have to give up their seats to make a challenge. Hensley may be going for Governor, though…if so, Kelly should challenge Jenkins.
I’m also interested to see if Kansans are as tolerant of orange Republicans as John Boehner’s constituents are…
With that recent poll that showed the Brown is doing better then Newsome in his own town, and that Brown is out raising him, I’m quite confident to call this race for Brown right now. Thoughts?
Already been at the Minnesota State Fair for double digit hours. Lots of excitement for Rybak running for governor, signing up lots of suporters.
Garmendi, Harmer lead.
Garmendi- 25%
Harmer-20%
http://www.surveyusa.com/clien…
Anthony Woods is performing pretty well
If the Legislature enacts the law allowing for a temporary appointment, the GOP is thinking of challenging it as an ex post facto law. Their reasoning is that since the vacancy already exists, the law says that there cannot be a temporary appointment and they must wait until the special election in January. Changing the law would be retroactive.
Can any attorneys around here tell us whether they actually have a case?
Saw it on ColoradoPols.com
From the Denver Post:
Does that make Corzine Chewbacca?
Former Gubernatorial candidate John Georges says he will formally enter the NOLA mayor race this fall.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/…
Last paragraph
A week ago, their was a press release saying that a GQR poll would be released showing Giannoulias leading Kirk outside the margin of error. Why has that poll not been released yet.
The discussion we had on an earlier thread about Mike Sodrel’s rumored fifth try at Baron Hill’s seat, and about Harold Stassen’s ten attempts at the Presidency, made me wonder: what politician tried the most times to acquire a seat before finally succeeding?
Here’s one potential candidate: Evan Mecham of Arizona, who won the Governorship on his fifth attempt. Three of the five times he didn’t even make it out of the primary. He finally won when the Democratic Party nominated two separate GE candidates because of an intraparty rift. Mecham was impeached and removed from office just over a year after he was elected.
Any other candidates you can think of?
This is the kind of group that Lampson was facing, no wonder why he lost re-election
Video is captured by my friend John Coburruvias who worked on the Sherrie Matula for State House (TX-129) campaign with me as our Outreach Coordinator. You can here him pointing out the insurance companies turned the woman down rather than the government,
Qualifying for three special elections (to be held on November 3rd) for three vacant Georgia State House seats begins today. The 58th is safe Democratic (and we have what appear to be some good candidates). The 129th is safe Republican.
The remainder, the 141st, was held by a Democrat. It’s basically Baldwin County plus a tiny sliver of Putnam County. Obama probably won it. I doubt that piece of Putnam was sufficient to flip the district toward McCain. Baldwin is like 43% black and has a state university. However, it’s swingy. Bush won it. And low turnout for Democratic blocs (especially blacks in general and students), could be disasterous. So far, only one candidate has qualified: Rusty Kidd, an independent. His dad was a Democratic state legislator while his sister was a Republican Congresswoman from Florida. The Republicans did have a candidate who filed with the State Ethics Commission, but has been very quiet. We currently don’t have a candidate as far as I know, unless the Dems plan to support Kidd.
Waxman would fuck this state up. In a good way!
George Miller would be nice.
I begged for Loretta Sanchez for a while, but apparently she’s not as amazing as I hoped.
I don’t really know the SoCal delegation very well.
How would folks here vote in a Brown vs Newsom vs Westly race? Westly is occasionally rumored to be interested this cycle.
http://politicalwire.com/archi…
Republicans and conservative interest groups are all-in for their candidate, hoping to pick up a swing Iowa House seat that opened up when John Whitaker took a position with the USDA.
I posted a roundup of news on the campaign on Friday and a follow-up today. Highlights: the National Organization for Marriage is spending nearly $90,000 on this race, which is an enormous amount for a rural Iowa House district. The head of Iowa’s campaign ethics board warned the NOM on Friday that they are going to have to form a PAC and disclose their donors if they want to do election advocacy in Iowa in the future.
As of late last week, Democrats had an edge in terms of absentee ballots returned. A strong early voting effort will be absolutely critical if Curt Hanson is going to pull this off. I’m nervous about the race because it’s not a liberal district, conservative interest groups are outspending us, and the Republican base has a lot of angry enthusiasm now over gay marriage and state spending. If we win this election, it will be crushing for the state GOP, but if we lose, it will be a big shot in the arm for them and their fundraising.
A few days after an unregistered group distributed a flyer attacking former Governor Terry Branstad from the right, a YouTube appeared, portraying Branstad as just like incumbent Chet Culver on fiscal issues. It’s not clear who created the hit piece, but some signs point to a consulting firm being employed by rival GOP candidate Christian Fong.
Branstad says he will decide by October whether he’s running. If he does, the GOP primary probably becomes a two-man race between Branstad and current front-runner Bob Vander Plaats, who is an idiot. Consultants for other candidates stand to lose a lot of money if their guy is forced out of the primary early.
His Excellency hopes that you will die honorably, but if any of you wish to beg for mercy, the great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your plea.
In the body of the article, we find out that the actual news is much less significant:
Nevertheless, I post this for your consideration.
My feeling is that Hall is very unlikely to lose in 2010, but also that it’s reasonable for the NRCC to spend a bit of money, just in case.