Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?

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

    1. Jim Jeffords has been very liberal since he switched.  Ralph Hall (R-TX) has been very conservative since he left the Ds; of course, he was very conservative even when he was with us. 

      Barbara Hafer in PA, Ben Westlund in OR, and John Kennedy in LA are the most prominent recent party switchers I can think of.  I know very little about any of them, although people seem to think highly of Westlund.

      Anyway, it seems to be a very very case-specific phenomenon.  I don’t know anything about Rodney Tom, but it seems impossible to me to generalize anything about him from the mere fact that he’s a party switcher.

  1. been thinking about Lahood’s district. It seems like the district tends to elect laid back low key Republicans who are at least somewhat moderate, (Bob Michels and Ray LaHood, neither could be called abrasive Republican exremists). But, with what we’ve seen of the Republican party these days they’ll probably put forth a Bill sali or tim Wahlberg. If it came to defeating a candidate like that, and State sen. John Sullivan was the only candidate, pollwise who beat, I’d vote for him, even if he is conservative for a Demcorat. I however doubt he will run, doubt the seat willl be competitive, and doubt it will be seriously challenged, unless their candidate is as abrasive, clueless, loudmouthed, and nutty as Sali or Wahlberg.

  2. Former (popular!) Oakland County State Senator Gary Peters is stepping down from his role as State Lottery Commissioner on August 10th. He’s been making the rounds in the media for the lottery, only increasing the speculation he might run.

    Gary consistently outperforms Democratic base in the district, which has only gotten more blue since he last ran. An experienced legislator, former chair of the Mich Senate Dems Caucus…a Peters candidacy has a lot of us excited.

  3. North Carolina is close to changing from winner take all to a proportional method that would award the Electorial votes to the candidate who receives the most votes in each of the state’s congressional districts (Like Maine and Nebraska).

    http://www.newsobser

    4 Districts went to Kerry in 04 (01, 04, 12 and 13), 3 by wide margins.

      1. You can go Dick Cheney your self
        And if you think about banning from this sight you douche bag.
        I will sign up with a different user name. I will post repetive messages whether you like it or not.

    1. Definitely, this district is ready to go Dem.  Peters will be an excellent candidate.  The local media is going crazy about this race, because Gary represents the first challenger with the full profile and background to make it happen.

      The other race I’m really interested in is the MN senate race, that seat has no business being in Republican hands.

    1. parties though. He’s just avery conservative Democrat, which means he’s basically a member of the Republican section of the AL Democratic party. Both the Democrats and the Republicans have liberal, moderate, and conservative factions, and liberal Republcians are sometimes much more liberal than moderate Democrats here, examples of this are James David Cain. The truth s because the LA-DP is the most conservative of all state Democratic parties, thatmany members are highly conservative, and most of what the party does is to keep them happy and satisfied at the xpense of everyone else in the party.

  4. Is she running against Sununu or not? Rothenberg Political Report believes she’s “definitely” in but won’t confirm until September.

    1. Republicans just won a special House election to a seat long held by a Democrat by a 55%-45% margin.  This is a district that both John Kerry and even Michael Dukakis carried.  Very bad.

  5. Democratic US Senators who have always been in the safe category.
    1)DE- Biden
    2)IL- Durbin
    3)MA- Kerry
    4)MI- Levin
    5)MT- Baucus
    6)RI- Reed
    7)WV- Rockefeller

    Democratic Senators who faced tough races in the past but are expected to be in the safe category in 2008
    1)IA- Harkin
    2)NJ- Lautenberg
    3)SD- Johnson

    Democratic Senator expected to face a tough re-election
    1)LA- Landrieu.

    Freshman Democratic Senator strongly favored to win re-election
    1)AR- Pryor.

    1. but the fact you threatened mischief against this site means you deserve banning, regardless what id you use.

  6. Republican Senators normally safe
    1)Alaska- Stevens-R. A non controversial Republican can hold onto the AK US Senate Seat.
    2)Idaho- Craig-R. Possible Open Seat. Republican hold.
    3)Kansas- Roberts-R
    4)Mississippi- Cochran-R Possible Open Seat- Competive- Republican hold-R
    5)Nebraska- Hagel-R Possible Open Seat- Republican Hold-R
    6)New Mexico- Domenici-R- Scandal plagued incumbent and possible open seat.- Competive but incumbent favored in Domenici runs again or Democratic pick up if open seat.
    7)Virginia- Warner-R Possible Open Seat. Competive = Democratic Pick up
    8)Wyoming- A- Enzi-R

    Republican Senator who always faced competive Races.
    1)Alabama- Sessions-R (Republican Favored)
    2)Colorado- OPEN- Allard-R (Democratic Favored) +1D
    3)Kentucky- McConnell-R (Battleground Seat)
    4)Maine- Collins-R (Battleground Seat)
    5)Oklahoma- Inhofe-R (Republican Favored)
    6)Oregon- Smith-R (Battleground Seat)

    Freshman Republican US Senators- facing re-election
    1)Georgia- Chambliss (Republican Favored)
    2)Minnesota- Coleman (Battleground Seat)
    3)New Hampshire- Sununu (Battleground Seat)
    4)North Carolina- Dole (Battleground Seat)
    5)South Carolina- Graham (Republican Favored)
    6)Tennessee- Alexander (Republican Favored)
    7)Texas- Cornyn (Republican Favored)
    8)Wyoming- B Barraso (Republican Favored)

  7. Don Young has drawn a 2nd Democratic challenger and from what I am reading he will receive the bulk of the party’s establishment support.

    Jake Metcalfe who currently is the Democratic State Chair in Alaska has filed papers to stand for election against Young.

    This is the year to take him down finally.  He is under investigation for unethical behavior and when you combine the impact of criminal charges against Young with the investigation of Senator Stevens and several lower level Republican it has created about as favorable an atmosphere to elect a Democrat from this state as I have seen is quite some time.

  8. If Hastert resigns or retires, one of those considering seeking the GOP nomination is Jim Oberweis.  Among his failed campaigns was a campaign for the Senate in 2004.

    This news story relates to the $21,000 fine the FEC just hit Oberweis with for improperly profiting from the 2004 campaign. 

    Here is the article:
    http://www.kcchronic

  9. Robert Abboud, a businessman and Nuclear Engineer announced that he will stand for the Democratic nomination in IL-16 against Donald Manzullo.  Hopefully Abboud he can give Manzullo a run for his money, Manzullo usually wins in a walk in this district.

    As a side note, Steve SAUERBERG also announced he will seek the GOP nomination to run against Richard Durbin (good luck HeHe) for his US Senate seat.

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