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

  1. anyone want to give your opinion on this ad broadcasted by the Australian Liberal Party (Australia’s equivalent to the GOP) during the Federal elections there last year? I think its kind of err…weird especially with the voice over disclosure at the end. Notice they don’t have to cite their facts in small font like we have to do here.

    FYI: The election last year in Australia resulted in the Labor and the Liberal parties holding the same amount of seats in parliament. So incumbent PM Julia Gillard (Labor) had to form a coalition government to remain in power.

  2. Are there any good websites for tracking British politics? Not even an SSP equivalent (though that would be AWESOME) but even like a Politico or something. Also, same question for any other country than the United States…

  3. since I have changed my main email I though I would also change my swingstate username

    I was once GayTeen4Obama but I will now go as ImaFreeBetchBabyyy (Lady Gaga reference for those who dont know)

  4. races is crappy for us the map for the 2014 gubernatorial races looks pretty good. All of the democratic seats are in blue states (besides Arkansas) while republicans are defending many purple and blue leaning states.

    2014 Governors Races:

    Republicans: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennslyvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

    Democrats: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont,  

  5. http://www.presstelegram.com/n

    When I move back to my parents house after school ends in May, it looks like a primary battle for my State Senate seat, which will be vacated by Alan Lowenthal. His ex-wife Bonnie Lowenthal has a big advantage just because Long Beach dominates the district and she represents much of it in the Assembly. I am from Artesia, Assemblyman Mendoza’s home, and I was wondering if he has a real shot here.  

  6. Voted at my early voting station in the 44th Ward on the North Side…Rahm for Mayor, Tom Tunney for Alderman.

    The mayoral race was pretty much the only contested race for me; Tom Tunney – Chicago’s only openly gay alderman – has repped the 44th Ward alderman for a long time…he gets my vote if only for his neighborhood restaurant chain that serves great hangover-busting food.

  7. http://www.chicagotribune.com/

    The Chico strategy: hope Moseley Braun regains her standing among the black vote, forcing Emanuel to again slip beneath the 50% mark. However, Chico doesn’t want Moseley Braun to garner ENOUGH of the black vote for her to overtake him for the runner-up slot. FWIW, Moseley Braun is holding rallies in the coming week with the likes of Jesse Jackson, Cornel West and Bobby Rush.  

  8. Texas Rep. Ron Paul: 30 percent

    Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: 23 percent

    Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson: 6 percent

    New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 6 percent

    Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: 5 percent

    Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty: 4 percent

    Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann: 4 percent

    Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels: 4 percent

    Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin: 3 percent

    Former talk show host Herman Cain: 2 percent

    Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: 2 percent

    Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum: 2 percent

    South Dakota Sen. John Thune: 2 percent

    U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman: 1 percent

    Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour: 1 percent

    Others: 5 percent

    Undecided: 1 percent

    http://politicalticker.blogs.c

    Not bad for Romney, but so weak for Gingrich, Bachmann, Cain, Santorum. Honestly, it’s a result like this which should make Cain the first drop-out of the GOP primary season haha.

  9. Obviously I’m very interesting in the open Arizona Senate seat and would love to see a run from Gabby if she’s up to it. One interesting side effect that of this shooting is that it took away the strongest argument a primary opponent could make against her: that she’s not well known outside of Baja Arizona. She now probably has near universal name-rec in the state and likely has a very positive public persona from a mix of the sympathy factor and the positive biographical information about her that has been built into reporting on the incident. I don’t doubt for a second that she would have much preferred to introduce herself to voters in the state the old fashion way, a style of retail campaigning that she loves. However, if she has the health and the drive for a Senate campaign, a new opportunity for her has certainly emerged from the tragedy.

    As far as Nevada, I’ve heard very little about this race in the past few weeks but I really hope we keep the heat on Ensign. I also don’t think it’s game over if we end up running against Heller; if Obama ends up leading the ticket with a double-digit win, that’s a lot of voters to convince to cross over.  

  10. “It’s worth noting that Fox News is pairing two pollsters, Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), for their polls. They’re also now calling people with cell phones.” http://politicalwire.com/archi

    Finally, the cell phone polling flaw is being taken into account.

    Also, Fox is going with bi-partisan pollsters, one D and one R? What, is Scotty out the door?

  11. Looks fun, doesn’t it? I’m done with drawing, but I have to look at how it actually turned out, I didn’t look much for politics while drawing, the only thing I did was carving out a couple of interesting VRA districts, such as African-American districts in Syracuse and Rochester and two Asian-majority districts in Chinatown.

    NY 500 districts

  12. does anyone have the results from the connecticut nominating convention from 2006?  lamont lost to lieberman, but by better than expected correct?  

  13. this is just for fun, but any chance r’s will try to run Orly Taitz?  after the last few weeks of hard news and middle eastern upheaval, i think we all need a softer news cycle.

  14. 1. When did the Democratic Party last controlled the Utah State House of Representatives?

    2. Which reliably Republican state in the plains had a  Democratic majority in it’s State House for two years in the 1980s?

    3. Name the two Republican California Assemblymembers who were elected de-facto Speakers by Democrats to keep Willie Brown in charge of running the chamber in 1995.

  15. Braun sinks further into irrelevancy. She compares Rahm Emanuel’s commercials to Adolf Hitler. Bad move. How was this woman ever a US Senator?

    Mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun compared opponent Rahm Emanuel’s TV commercials to a character in “The Producers” who believes Adolf Hitler was a kind man.

    “The joke in it was, he was a kind man, a gentle man,” said Braun about comments in Mel Brooks’ satirical movie. “We are getting the kind man, the gentle man on television.”

    http://www.suntimes.com/380711

  16. Right now, in the New Jersey Legislature, the President Pro Tempore of the State Senate (Nia Gill) and the Speaker of the General Assembly (Sheila Y. Oliver) represent the same district, District 34 (though not the same town).  NJ does the same-districts-for-both-houses thing, but still: has anything comparable happened in any other state legislature, uh, ever?  

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