Campaign and Election News – Covering Key Races Around the Country
Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?
Let’s hear it!
35 thoughts on “Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?”
Senate
AK: Stevens, under the cloud of a corruption scandal, is outpolled by a guy who isn’t even running yet.
OR: Notable that it’s both a competitive race between the two parties and a competitive race in the Democratic primary. Seriously, this crap with conflict-of-interest and the Novick campaign needs to stop.
ID: This is one of several races that would make this year unbelieveably awesome if we won it. And Larry LaRocco definitely has the best chance anyone’s had in a while to make a Democratic victory happen.
WY-special: Still waiting to see who runs. But now that watching the WY-AL race last year has gotten me into Wyoming politics, I’m not overlooking this one.
NM: The entire House delegation running for Senate is enough to make this fun to watch, if not for other more obvious reasons.
CO: Another competitive race.
SD: Just to make sure Tim Johnson is safe.
NE: Kleeb could potentially turn this one competitive against Mr. Quitter. I don’t know enough about Ramiondo yet. If Kleeb gets in, this race will be added to my list of races that would make this year unbelievably awesome if won.
OK: Another one of several races that would make this year unbelieveably awesome if we won. This one looks to be David vs. Goliath, with a young up-and-coming state senator who stands for the right things challenging an crusty, antiquated giant of an incumbent.
MN: Notable because a comedian is running…and then more notable because he’s winning. Seriously, though, it’s notable because it’s competitive. Not much else interesting. (Yet.)
LA: The only top-tier competitive race that the Democrats will be defending.
MS-special:
KY: What a great delight it would be to Daschle this guy. Yet another race that would make my year.
GA: I have yet to see Lanier make waves, but the opportunity exists given the lack of enthusiasm toward Chambliss.
SC: I wonder if Graham will survive his primary.
NC: Another possibly competitive race.
VA: Warner out, Warner in. Nuff said.
NJ: I won’t call Lautenberg completely safe until he wins. It’s New Jersey. Okay, maybe it’s not as bad as the Bloody Eighth, but still, I’ve heard crazy things about New Jersey politics.
NH: Shaheen was once vastly outpolling Sununu, but now they’re about even. I’m calling toss-up on this right now.
ME: I look forward to seeing Allen making waves.
House
AK-AL: Young, under the cloud of a corruption scandal, is outpolled by a guy who isn’t even running yet. Except in this case, that guy (Berkowitz) jumps into the race shortly after.
CA-04: Doolittle’s district. Can Charlie Brown do it this time?
UT-02: I’m never going to count any district this partisan controlled by an opposing party as completely safe for the incumbent, though Matheson stands an excellent chance of winning re-election, having proved himself time and time again.
ID-01: Sali (R) was elected in a tighter-than-expected race which included him angering even Republicans with some of his stuff. Two Democrats have outraised him…in Idaho, no less. Definitely a race to watch, and one that would make my year.
WY-AL: After barely losing to Cubin, Trauner is running again, and polls competitively against even Cynthia Lummis. Trauner is also one of the candidates I admire the most, with a down-to-earth attitude and a nonpartisan view of issues. Another race that would make my year.
AZ-01: Renzi is retiring. Who’s next?
AZ-05: Mitchell just got in.
AZ-08: Giffords just got in. Recent polling seems to indicate that she has a weak advantage over Tim Bee, but then again, we all know how good polls are, especially this far before the election. But it’s always good to keep a nice comfortable margin over your opponent anyway.
NM-01: Watch the House delegation run for Senate! Expect a competitive race here.
NM-02: Watch the House delegation run for Senate! Expect a Democratic victory here.
NM-03: Watch the House delegation run for Senate! How competitive can we make this district now that Pearce is leaving?
TX-17: Same reason as UT-02. But the Republicans just can’t seem to dislodge him either. He’s gotta be doing something right.
TX-22: Lampson currently represents part of his old district as well as a bunch of strongly Republican territory. Heck, this is DeLay’s old district. And the Republicans are not going to forget that. Also, this time, they’ll probably not run a write-in campaign against him with a candidate possessing a hyphenated name. Definitely one to watch and to defend well. If Lampson can prove himself to be a second Chet Edwards, he’ll be able to hold this seat for quite a while.
TX-23: Ciro Rodriguez was elected reportedly because Bonilla got lazy between the all-candidate primary and the runoff. But this year, Rodriguez has the chance to prove himself, without Bonilla’s help.
NE-03: If Kleeb runs again, this will be interesting. If he doesn’t…well, it could still be interesting. You never know when people completely devoid of political experience run extraordinary campaigns (even with shoestring budgets).
KS-02: Nancy Boyda will face off again with Jim Ryun, after winning an unexpectedly competitive race in 2006. Granted, this was the kind of race like ID-01 or WY-AL that I’d pay attention to, but I just never ran into it online. But we won it, and that’s good. Now she just needs to hold the seat. And it’s Kansas. It may be flatter than a pancake, but that doesn’t mean it’s a Republican stronghold…especially when the Republican party is dominated by nuts.
IL-14: Hastert’s old district, which is surprisingly only moderately partisan. It’d be awesome to Daschle McConnell and capture this seat as well.
IN-06: I saw this one in my list, looked up information on it, found it represented by Mike Pence (R), and wondered why I had it here. I think I’ve seen something here at SSP about either him or Barry Welsh, his 2006 opponent. Maybe it was something about how Welsh got 40% against Pence with no national party funding at all. This may be a race to watch.
IN-07: Special election. And then November election. I want to see who’s actually running in each before making predictions.
IN-08: Ellsworth was first elected in 2006 by landslide facing the wrong way relative to this district’s R+9 PVI. But then again, this is the Bloody Eighth. Anything can happen here.
IN-09: ROUND FOUR…FIGHT!
OH-02: At the end of this year, I do not want to see Mean Jean looking forward to another term in Congress.
OH-05: Is it still possible? A PVI of R+10, but a competitive special election which bled the NRCC coffers, preceeded by a bloody Republican primary. Who knows what will happen here…
OH-15: With the departure of Pryce, Kilroy is quite likely to win this.
OH-16: Regula retires from a mildly partisan (R+5) district. Winnable?
OH-18: While Space is in Republican territory (R+6), it’s not too partisan. But he’s also a first-term congressman, and he’ll have incumbency but there won’t be Bob Ney to help him. Definitely one to watch.
GA-08: Marshall hung onto an R+8 seat with a narrow margin. Definitely one to watch as well.
GA-12: And another one to watch, a seat barely kept in 2006.
NC-08: Larry Kissell came within 329 votes of unseating an incumbent representative. He was a history teacher with no political experience, and ran without help from the national party. (Why is it that so many people without political experience are doing so well? I seriously contend there’s a strong anti-incumbent mood across the US.) I want to see Kissell victorious this year, and he definitely can be.
FL-09: A weakly partisan (R+4) red district that was lost by about that margin. Can we win it this time?
FL-10: Bill Young. There’s been enough discussion on him and his district here. And it’s only marginally partisan, too.
FL-13: I don’t think people have yet figured out the “official” winner in this district, but no one really cares anymore. I’d rather Jennings not bother with the legal whatnot after the recount, but…whatever. I’ll be tuning into this Floridian vote-counting circus again this year, though.
FL-15: Weldon is retiring in an R+4 district.
FL-16: Even though the district is listed as R+2, people keep on talking about Mahoney being vulnerable. True, he did get elected after Foley fell out of Congress, but did also beat Negron, who ran a quite respectable campaign with a nice slogan (“Punch Foley for Negron”) under bad circumstances. This time Mahoney will have his chance to prove himself.
FL-18: Annette Taddeo may be running against Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. I want to see what comes of this.
FL-21: Watch Raul Martinez go head to head with Lincoln Diaz-Balart. This one will be interesting.
FL-22: While Republicans outnumber Democrats barely in this district’s registration, both Kerry and Klein won it. I’m predicting a hold, probably by a sub-10% margin, but probably over 5%.
FL-25: The other Diaz-Balart brother will be challenged by Joe Garcia, a Democratic Party county chair.
VA-01: Can we beat Wittman now that he’s actually in office?
VA-11: This is the seat Tom Davis is retiring from. Ten people, five from each party, are looking at the seat now.
MA-05: Nikki Tsongas ran a lackluster campaign and was weakly elected in a D+10 district. This is definitely worth monitoring.
Sorry, lack of most CA, PA, and NY races.
And to finish off this long post with some humor:
“What are you doing to my electoral map?”
“I’m gluing LEDs to Republican-leaning districts.”
“Why?”
“Because when I’m done, they’ll be red light districts.”
Does running a longshot Presidential bid from the fringe ofyour party get you primaried? We’ll find out.
1. OH-10 Democratic primary between Kucinich and Cimperman.
2. TX-14 Republican primary between Paul and Peden.
Chris Ward, the guy the NRCC has fired and asked the FBI to investigate over fraud concerns just happens to be Rep. Fossella’s re-election campaign treasurer.
Please see my recent diary. We don’t even have an actual Democrat on the ballot. A whacko who tried (and failed) to run for Senate in 2006 as a Libertarian and/or Reform Party nut is the only choice in the primary.
Robin Weirauch chose to forgo a fourth try for the US House seat and is instead running for Henry county commissioner. No other Democrats came forward. So, we’re stuck with this guy, and no, he is not going to beat Lackluster Latta.
definetly watching Oregon and Maine closely. Allen and Merkley have clear shots at the nomination but don’t match up in financial resources. I realize that the DSCC has a huge financial advatage but I’d like to see less of that money going to blue states and more of that cash end up in Red states like Idaho and Kentucky.
and before someone on here decides to go into a tirade about how Merkley doesn’t have a clear shot. I’d like to make it clear to everyone that Steve Novick is toast. Members of his campaign have acted in completely unprofessional ways that have shown a clear conflict of interest and it doesn’t stop there. Merkley has begun to outraise Novick, has the institutional support, and is going to blow him out of the water. This race is Merkley’s to lose.
I’m new to the forum here but I’d like to weigh in on a critical race that’s been of interest to me lately.
It’s evident to just about anybody that Elizabeth Dole has not spent a lot of time in North Carolina, let alone done anything to bolster her poor approval ratings. That said, she does have two Democratic challengers but they’re not impressing me as of late.
But- what if (and I stress that), what if, John Edwards jumped into this race? Since he’s out of the presidential race now, he’ll have a lot more time on his hands, and I think he should seriously consider running for the Senate again. He would be an extremely credible candidate against Liddy Dole, because he has been a senator before, and since he has run for president twice, he can take advantage of the huge fundraising and support networks that he has built up over the years. This would be so awesome if he did run and beat Dole. I have heard that there is already a “Draft John Edwards for Senate” campaign in a few social networks, such as Facebook.
What do you all think of this? Will he do it?
This just got interesting yesterday as Dana Rohrabacher went from another comfortable romp over a no-name opponent to having the best viable opponent in the district.
From a press release late Saturday,
Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook announced today her intention to run for the 46th Congressional seat held by Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.
?”Our nation faces big problems: a growing energy gap, a struggling economy, global warming, the escalating costs of health care, and the war in Iraq”.? Mayor Cook said. ?We need new people with new passion and new ideas who have experience working across party lines to get results.?
Cook faces long odds in this heavily Republican district. But Cook believes that the best and most creative solutions are coming from non-partisan elected officials at the local level, who are close to their constituents. ? We need to focus on the basics: where we work, where we live, and our place in the world.?
Cook made the announcement Saturday, Feb. 2 during a Democratic Mayor’s breakfast at the Democratic Party of Orange Countys Biennial Convention in Anaheim .
Cook, an attorney and a former small business owner, is serving her second term as mayor of Huntington Beach since being elected to the Huntington Beach City Council in 2000 and reelected in 2004. On the council, Cook is recognized for her common sense and her commitment to fiscal responsibility.
She helped lead the fight to prevent the Orange County Sanitation District from dumping massive amounts of partially treated wastewater into the ocean. Cook has promoted energy efficiency and other green initiatives in Huntington Beach city government.
In the 1990s, Cook led grassroots efforts in Huntington Beach that saved public parks and beaches from commercial development. As an attorney, she worked on the legal team that set precedent in protecting environmentally sensitive coastal habitat including the Bolsa Chica mesa.
Cook currently serves as Chair of the Energy and Environment Committee for the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and Chair of the Orange County Parks Commission.
Cook has spoken across the country and internationally on the challenges local governments face from the peaking of world oil production. She is a member of the board of directors of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas.
Cook has ties across the 46th congressional district which stretches along the coast from Costa Mesa to the Palos Verdes Peninsula . In addition to a degree in Earth Science from Cal State Long Beach, she has an honorary AA degree from Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa as a result of 25 years of volunteer work in the Horticulture Department. While in her 20?s she purchased her first home in Westminster and volunteered in the Fountain Valley schools and Fountain Valley neighborhood watch program.
Cook has been a resident of Orange County for more than 40 years. She is married to John Fisher, has one son and a grandson.
Republicans hold a 60,000 vote advantage in registration in this district, but Rohrabacher has a dismal record of supporting his district’s needs, has an abysmal environmental record in a costal district, and is generally perceived as an embarassing bozo.
In 2006, Rohrabacher did virtuallly no campaigning, transferred $250,000 to the NRCC, and won by a wide margin.
Meanwhile Diane Feinstein narrowly won this district.
Again, this is a tough, tough district, with a weak Democratic party, a late start and a heavily Republican district.
But it’s another blow to Republicans nationwide Rohrabacher will have to campaign in his own district instead of just raising money for other Repubulican candidates.
NM-Sen, NM-01, NM-02, NM-03
New Mexico is going to be a very, very exciting place come October and November.
Here’s my blogpost at the AFL-CIO blog about the recent wave of retirements.
This weekend I spent some time looking at Tom Periello (VA-5) and Steve Sarvi (MN-2), both of whom have interesting international experiences and are underdogs in what could be sleeper races.
By a hell of a lot.
BARF!
I haven’t posted here since PA’s 10th came into play (and we knocked Sherwood out of the office, much the same way he knocked around his mistriss…and got Democrat Chris Carney elected).
That said, I’m a little nervous about PA-11. Current Dem. Rep. Paul Kanjorski is expected to be challenged by Republican Hazleton Mayor (and xenophobe-extraordinaire) Lou Barletta. Barletta has appeared on Lou Dobbs many times in the last 2 years and Dobbs even went to Hazleton to a town hall with him to discuss the immigration “problem” in this town. Barletta specializes in appealing to the worst in people (he picked up on this issue after Kanjorski spanked him in the 2002 election). Barletta makes Tom Tancredo look like Cesar Chavez…and will probably be getting tons of money piped in from zealots across the U.S.
The district is definitely Democratic and Kanjorski’s edge was improved in 2000 when Scranton was gerrymandered into PA-11, but it’s not your typical liberal Northeastern district, and I am worried Barletta’s fear mongering on the immigration issue. Please check out the race…
Senate
AK: Stevens, under the cloud of a corruption scandal, is outpolled by a guy who isn’t even running yet.
OR: Notable that it’s both a competitive race between the two parties and a competitive race in the Democratic primary. Seriously, this crap with conflict-of-interest and the Novick campaign needs to stop.
ID: This is one of several races that would make this year unbelieveably awesome if we won it. And Larry LaRocco definitely has the best chance anyone’s had in a while to make a Democratic victory happen.
WY-special: Still waiting to see who runs. But now that watching the WY-AL race last year has gotten me into Wyoming politics, I’m not overlooking this one.
NM: The entire House delegation running for Senate is enough to make this fun to watch, if not for other more obvious reasons.
CO: Another competitive race.
SD: Just to make sure Tim Johnson is safe.
NE: Kleeb could potentially turn this one competitive against Mr. Quitter. I don’t know enough about Ramiondo yet. If Kleeb gets in, this race will be added to my list of races that would make this year unbelievably awesome if won.
OK: Another one of several races that would make this year unbelieveably awesome if we won. This one looks to be David vs. Goliath, with a young up-and-coming state senator who stands for the right things challenging an crusty, antiquated giant of an incumbent.
MN: Notable because a comedian is running…and then more notable because he’s winning. Seriously, though, it’s notable because it’s competitive. Not much else interesting. (Yet.)
LA: The only top-tier competitive race that the Democrats will be defending.
MS-special:
KY: What a great delight it would be to Daschle this guy. Yet another race that would make my year.
GA: I have yet to see Lanier make waves, but the opportunity exists given the lack of enthusiasm toward Chambliss.
SC: I wonder if Graham will survive his primary.
NC: Another possibly competitive race.
VA: Warner out, Warner in. Nuff said.
NJ: I won’t call Lautenberg completely safe until he wins. It’s New Jersey. Okay, maybe it’s not as bad as the Bloody Eighth, but still, I’ve heard crazy things about New Jersey politics.
NH: Shaheen was once vastly outpolling Sununu, but now they’re about even. I’m calling toss-up on this right now.
ME: I look forward to seeing Allen making waves.
House
AK-AL: Young, under the cloud of a corruption scandal, is outpolled by a guy who isn’t even running yet. Except in this case, that guy (Berkowitz) jumps into the race shortly after.
CA-04: Doolittle’s district. Can Charlie Brown do it this time?
UT-02: I’m never going to count any district this partisan controlled by an opposing party as completely safe for the incumbent, though Matheson stands an excellent chance of winning re-election, having proved himself time and time again.
ID-01: Sali (R) was elected in a tighter-than-expected race which included him angering even Republicans with some of his stuff. Two Democrats have outraised him…in Idaho, no less. Definitely a race to watch, and one that would make my year.
WY-AL: After barely losing to Cubin, Trauner is running again, and polls competitively against even Cynthia Lummis. Trauner is also one of the candidates I admire the most, with a down-to-earth attitude and a nonpartisan view of issues. Another race that would make my year.
AZ-01: Renzi is retiring. Who’s next?
AZ-05: Mitchell just got in.
AZ-08: Giffords just got in. Recent polling seems to indicate that she has a weak advantage over Tim Bee, but then again, we all know how good polls are, especially this far before the election. But it’s always good to keep a nice comfortable margin over your opponent anyway.
NM-01: Watch the House delegation run for Senate! Expect a competitive race here.
NM-02: Watch the House delegation run for Senate! Expect a Democratic victory here.
NM-03: Watch the House delegation run for Senate! How competitive can we make this district now that Pearce is leaving?
TX-17: Same reason as UT-02. But the Republicans just can’t seem to dislodge him either. He’s gotta be doing something right.
TX-22: Lampson currently represents part of his old district as well as a bunch of strongly Republican territory. Heck, this is DeLay’s old district. And the Republicans are not going to forget that. Also, this time, they’ll probably not run a write-in campaign against him with a candidate possessing a hyphenated name. Definitely one to watch and to defend well. If Lampson can prove himself to be a second Chet Edwards, he’ll be able to hold this seat for quite a while.
TX-23: Ciro Rodriguez was elected reportedly because Bonilla got lazy between the all-candidate primary and the runoff. But this year, Rodriguez has the chance to prove himself, without Bonilla’s help.
NE-03: If Kleeb runs again, this will be interesting. If he doesn’t…well, it could still be interesting. You never know when people completely devoid of political experience run extraordinary campaigns (even with shoestring budgets).
KS-02: Nancy Boyda will face off again with Jim Ryun, after winning an unexpectedly competitive race in 2006. Granted, this was the kind of race like ID-01 or WY-AL that I’d pay attention to, but I just never ran into it online. But we won it, and that’s good. Now she just needs to hold the seat. And it’s Kansas. It may be flatter than a pancake, but that doesn’t mean it’s a Republican stronghold…especially when the Republican party is dominated by nuts.
IL-14: Hastert’s old district, which is surprisingly only moderately partisan. It’d be awesome to Daschle McConnell and capture this seat as well.
IN-06: I saw this one in my list, looked up information on it, found it represented by Mike Pence (R), and wondered why I had it here. I think I’ve seen something here at SSP about either him or Barry Welsh, his 2006 opponent. Maybe it was something about how Welsh got 40% against Pence with no national party funding at all. This may be a race to watch.
IN-07: Special election. And then November election. I want to see who’s actually running in each before making predictions.
IN-08: Ellsworth was first elected in 2006 by landslide facing the wrong way relative to this district’s R+9 PVI. But then again, this is the Bloody Eighth. Anything can happen here.
IN-09: ROUND FOUR…FIGHT!
OH-02: At the end of this year, I do not want to see Mean Jean looking forward to another term in Congress.
OH-05: Is it still possible? A PVI of R+10, but a competitive special election which bled the NRCC coffers, preceeded by a bloody Republican primary. Who knows what will happen here…
OH-15: With the departure of Pryce, Kilroy is quite likely to win this.
OH-16: Regula retires from a mildly partisan (R+5) district. Winnable?
OH-18: While Space is in Republican territory (R+6), it’s not too partisan. But he’s also a first-term congressman, and he’ll have incumbency but there won’t be Bob Ney to help him. Definitely one to watch.
GA-08: Marshall hung onto an R+8 seat with a narrow margin. Definitely one to watch as well.
GA-12: And another one to watch, a seat barely kept in 2006.
NC-08: Larry Kissell came within 329 votes of unseating an incumbent representative. He was a history teacher with no political experience, and ran without help from the national party. (Why is it that so many people without political experience are doing so well? I seriously contend there’s a strong anti-incumbent mood across the US.) I want to see Kissell victorious this year, and he definitely can be.
FL-09: A weakly partisan (R+4) red district that was lost by about that margin. Can we win it this time?
FL-10: Bill Young. There’s been enough discussion on him and his district here. And it’s only marginally partisan, too.
FL-13: I don’t think people have yet figured out the “official” winner in this district, but no one really cares anymore. I’d rather Jennings not bother with the legal whatnot after the recount, but…whatever. I’ll be tuning into this Floridian vote-counting circus again this year, though.
FL-15: Weldon is retiring in an R+4 district.
FL-16: Even though the district is listed as R+2, people keep on talking about Mahoney being vulnerable. True, he did get elected after Foley fell out of Congress, but did also beat Negron, who ran a quite respectable campaign with a nice slogan (“Punch Foley for Negron”) under bad circumstances. This time Mahoney will have his chance to prove himself.
FL-18: Annette Taddeo may be running against Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. I want to see what comes of this.
FL-21: Watch Raul Martinez go head to head with Lincoln Diaz-Balart. This one will be interesting.
FL-22: While Republicans outnumber Democrats barely in this district’s registration, both Kerry and Klein won it. I’m predicting a hold, probably by a sub-10% margin, but probably over 5%.
FL-25: The other Diaz-Balart brother will be challenged by Joe Garcia, a Democratic Party county chair.
VA-01: Can we beat Wittman now that he’s actually in office?
VA-11: This is the seat Tom Davis is retiring from. Ten people, five from each party, are looking at the seat now.
MA-05: Nikki Tsongas ran a lackluster campaign and was weakly elected in a D+10 district. This is definitely worth monitoring.
Sorry, lack of most CA, PA, and NY races.
And to finish off this long post with some humor:
“What are you doing to my electoral map?”
“I’m gluing LEDs to Republican-leaning districts.”
“Why?”
“Because when I’m done, they’ll be red light districts.”
Does running a longshot Presidential bid from the fringe ofyour party get you primaried? We’ll find out.
1. OH-10 Democratic primary between Kucinich and Cimperman.
2. TX-14 Republican primary between Paul and Peden.
Chris Ward, the guy the NRCC has fired and asked the FBI to investigate over fraud concerns just happens to be Rep. Fossella’s re-election campaign treasurer.
http://ny13.blogspot.com/2008/…
Please see my recent diary. We don’t even have an actual Democrat on the ballot. A whacko who tried (and failed) to run for Senate in 2006 as a Libertarian and/or Reform Party nut is the only choice in the primary.
Robin Weirauch chose to forgo a fourth try for the US House seat and is instead running for Henry county commissioner. No other Democrats came forward. So, we’re stuck with this guy, and no, he is not going to beat Lackluster Latta.
definetly watching Oregon and Maine closely. Allen and Merkley have clear shots at the nomination but don’t match up in financial resources. I realize that the DSCC has a huge financial advatage but I’d like to see less of that money going to blue states and more of that cash end up in Red states like Idaho and Kentucky.
and before someone on here decides to go into a tirade about how Merkley doesn’t have a clear shot. I’d like to make it clear to everyone that Steve Novick is toast. Members of his campaign have acted in completely unprofessional ways that have shown a clear conflict of interest and it doesn’t stop there. Merkley has begun to outraise Novick, has the institutional support, and is going to blow him out of the water. This race is Merkley’s to lose.
I’m new to the forum here but I’d like to weigh in on a critical race that’s been of interest to me lately.
It’s evident to just about anybody that Elizabeth Dole has not spent a lot of time in North Carolina, let alone done anything to bolster her poor approval ratings. That said, she does have two Democratic challengers but they’re not impressing me as of late.
But- what if (and I stress that), what if, John Edwards jumped into this race? Since he’s out of the presidential race now, he’ll have a lot more time on his hands, and I think he should seriously consider running for the Senate again. He would be an extremely credible candidate against Liddy Dole, because he has been a senator before, and since he has run for president twice, he can take advantage of the huge fundraising and support networks that he has built up over the years. This would be so awesome if he did run and beat Dole. I have heard that there is already a “Draft John Edwards for Senate” campaign in a few social networks, such as Facebook.
What do you all think of this? Will he do it?
This just got interesting yesterday as Dana Rohrabacher went from another comfortable romp over a no-name opponent to having the best viable opponent in the district.
From a press release late Saturday,
Republicans hold a 60,000 vote advantage in registration in this district, but Rohrabacher has a dismal record of supporting his district’s needs, has an abysmal environmental record in a costal district, and is generally perceived as an embarassing bozo.
In 2006, Rohrabacher did virtuallly no campaigning, transferred $250,000 to the NRCC, and won by a wide margin.
Meanwhile Diane Feinstein narrowly won this district.
Again, this is a tough, tough district, with a weak Democratic party, a late start and a heavily Republican district.
But it’s another blow to Republicans nationwide Rohrabacher will have to campaign in his own district instead of just raising money for other Repubulican candidates.
NM-Sen, NM-01, NM-02, NM-03
New Mexico is going to be a very, very exciting place come October and November.
Here’s my blogpost at the AFL-CIO blog about the recent wave of retirements.
This weekend I spent some time looking at Tom Periello (VA-5) and Steve Sarvi (MN-2), both of whom have interesting international experiences and are underdogs in what could be sleeper races.
By a hell of a lot.
BARF!
I haven’t posted here since PA’s 10th came into play (and we knocked Sherwood out of the office, much the same way he knocked around his mistriss…and got Democrat Chris Carney elected).
That said, I’m a little nervous about PA-11. Current Dem. Rep. Paul Kanjorski is expected to be challenged by Republican Hazleton Mayor (and xenophobe-extraordinaire) Lou Barletta. Barletta has appeared on Lou Dobbs many times in the last 2 years and Dobbs even went to Hazleton to a town hall with him to discuss the immigration “problem” in this town. Barletta specializes in appealing to the worst in people (he picked up on this issue after Kanjorski spanked him in the 2002 election). Barletta makes Tom Tancredo look like Cesar Chavez…and will probably be getting tons of money piped in from zealots across the U.S.
The district is definitely Democratic and Kanjorski’s edge was improved in 2000 when Scranton was gerrymandered into PA-11, but it’s not your typical liberal Northeastern district, and I am worried Barletta’s fear mongering on the immigration issue. Please check out the race…
http://www.thetimes-tribune.co…
Oregon 5 is a Dem-held swing seat, held by Darlene Hooley.
Oregonians, any idea on a successor?