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

  1. Same-sex marriage gets out of House Judiciary Committee 12-10. 12 Democrats voted Yes, 3 Democrats joined all 7 Republicans voted in voting No. Chair Joe Vallario is not a supporter, but voted Yes to send it to the full House. Had he not done so the bill would have died in committee.

    The process had started in the Senate because it had long been assumed that, due to the fact that that Senate allows  filibustering (though Republicans don’t have enough votes to force a party-line filibuster on their own) isn’t quite as overwhelmingly Democrat-controlled, and has generally been the more conservative body and  as the House, the Senate was the tougher hurdle.

    Supporters got almost everyone in the Senate who was in the “persuadable” category.

    But the House is looking like it’s going to be tougher.

     

  2. One of TV’s most popular shows, makes the boss always look like a saint, people cry every episode…. would be a very savvy move for him to take on Chabot after appearing on the show.

    At the least, after that disasterous opening day pitch, he’ll have some correspondingly good feel good clips from the show.

  3. Democrats not running again

    *Greg Ward (House District 3) (new district went over 70 for McCain)

    *Deryk Parker (House District 107) (new district went over 70 for McCain)

    Other stuff (not retirements)

    *Ferr Smith (27) and Mary Ann Stevens (48) are in a new district together. (both Democrats) Stevens will be axed under this plan.

    *Bennett Malone (45), a Democrat, has seen his challenger be moved to another district. He is considered vulnerable.

    *Dirk Dedeaux (93), a Democrat, sitting in an extremely Republican seat, very likely to lose

    *Brandon Jones (111), a Democrat, who sits in the more Republican of any occupied by a Democrat right now

    *Diane Peranich (121), a Democrat, sitting in an extremely conservative district, likely to lose.

    Republicans not running

    *Tad Campbell (84) (Almost surely going to be picked up by a Democrat)

    *Dannie Reed (35) (Will be filled by a Republican)

    *Jim Ellington (73) (Ellington is now in a majority black district; hasn’t officially retired yet, but he is as good as gone)

  4. That’s the suggestion here

    http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/G

    If Senator Akaka stepped down early Governor Neil Abercrombie would be able to appoint who fills the seat.  That could give democrats an advantage against republicans next year.  But Abercrombie denies talking with fellow democrats to try and convince Senator Akaka to step down early.

    In addition, Akaka’s announcement was apparently known for weeks….. and this bit is especially –ah– interesting

    Schatz, Hirono and Hanabusa said they were not ready to make any official announcement. We were unable to reach Lingle or Hannemann for comment.

  5. Bruce Braley dropped by Bleeding Heartland this week.

    I find it interesting that the DCCC already has Leonard Boswell (IA-03) on the Frontline but no one else in Iowa.

    On a different note, something unprecedented (as far as I know) happened this week. Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Steve King voted the same way on a piece of legislation while everyone else in Iowa’s Congressional delegation voted the other way. Naturally, Harkin and King had very different reasons for voting against the 2-week continuing spending resolution.

  6. The newly-elected Republican SoS has been indicted for several felonies, including voter fraud. And what do you know–Indiana’s voter ID law didn’t stop his fraudulent voting.  

  7. One thing I found interesting this past week is an ad I saw in the paper taken out by the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, the government board that former House Majority Leader Tony Sertich is now commissioner of.  He was heavily viewed as our candidate against Rep. Cravaack but he accepted this position in the Dayton administration.

    This ad was full page with 2/3rds about the actual board, and then bottom 1/3rd was basically a campaign ad about Sertich and why he’s great and how he can relate to the Iron range.  Few questions for people more knowledgable.  Did he ever completely rule out the race?  How heavily is the Star Tribune read in St. Louis County, or is there is a major Duluth paper?

    The only thing that makes it tough is that he’d need to compete in the DFL endorsement so early on while on serving as commissioner for a year.  He’d be able to waltz in on the last day of registering for the primary if he wanted to otherwise.

  8. An update on my campaign!

    Filed the paperwork during the week. My favorite part was the financial disclosure one. Yeah, i’m taking big outside money >>

    Also, Thomas V. Mahoney (on the board since 89 and popular) has decided not to run. The GOP’s local treasurer is the most likely opponent.  

  9. wait to declare? As of right now, there are no serious official candidates for the GOP presidential nomination. The first real debate is in May and the first primary/caucuses are in 9 months. How much longer can they wait to declare and not hurt their fundraising ability and their candidacy?

  10. From Larry Brown

    He’s really pushing the “budget hawk” meme, which makes me think his polling shows he can take advantage of the recent “government waste” controversies (over county firefighter pay, the mob museum, new city hall, etc.). I wonder if “Mrs. Mayor” is planning a response?

  11. I was playing around on DRA this afternoon trying to do a map of Illinois. Illinois currently has four majority minority districts, 3 Black and 1 Hispanic. I can come up with 4 majority minority districts but not 3 Black majority districts. What exactly does the VRA require? Would 2 majority Black and 2 majority Hispanic districts work? how about 2 Black, 1 Hispanic and 1 plurality Black?  

  12. “Mapping the Nation’s Well Being”

    http://www.nytimes.com/interac

    It measures various forms of “happiness” by congressional district.

    Haven’t yet found a consistent theme to correlate – but I’m convinced there’s some relationship between some of these measures and our blue/red thing.

  13. With him being convicted of voter fraud and IN being, IIRC, the first state to implement photo ID, maybe we here in MN can use that to beat back the constitutional amendment to enforce photo ID.

    What makes me so sick about the whole thing is that they literally have a company in the large suburb of Minnetonka ready to go with photo ID checking machines, a price tag, and everything ready to go.  They say, look it’ll help a local company.  I say, look, it’s jack ass Republicans wasting $20 million of my tax dollars on disenfranchising voters in a manner that wouldn’t stop a single case of voter fraud in the first place.  (All of our cases are of felons voting, which the DFL has tried to fix it by passing legislation to coordinate computer systems and voter rolls with the justice system.  T-Paw vetoed it because it didn’t have photo ID in it.)

    I really worry the DFL will fuck this up, as it’s clear with Dayton and his messaging throughout the campaign that we aren’t a very coordinated bunch.  I have the entire campaign I’d run planned in my head and am just waiting on Kos to email back with Soros’ contact information.

  14. They are planning on setting up offices in early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina to make sure they don’t let the GOP dominate those states during the primaries.  I wonder if this will decrease the # of independents who vote in the GOP primaries/caucuses?

    WP Article on Obama Re-elect

  15. New user here, I finally created an account after being a long-time lurker.  Anyway, can someone tell me if there’s a delay period before I can write a diary or if I’m just overlooking the link, thanks.

  16. Any word on Frank Wolf retiring?

    Also, does anyone know how many people live in VA-10n who aren’t originally from VA-10?

    1. Yeah, win or lose on the CBA stuff, he’s lost the war.  Never again will unions give Republicans the benefit of the doubt in the midwest.

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