There’s somethin’ happenin’ here.
UPDATE: Jeb Bradley (R) to seek rematch against Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in NH-01. You can bet he won’t hesitate to go ugly this time. (Thanks to jwgoodwin.)
UPDATE II (James): From the “Where Are They Now?” file–former KY-02 candidate and state Rep. Mike Weaver (D), is going to run for State Treasurer.
which is up for reelection in 2007, along with all major statewide offices. The Republicans have been crowing in the press about 2007 being the year the Republicans finally take over the state. What can we do to stop this? I plan to write a diary on the entire Louisiana House of Representatives soon, and this will hopefully serve as a platform for fundraising and organizing.
There’s been so much talk about the presidential race between the two parties, no ones thought about an independent. No, I don’t mean Bloomberg, who’s rumored to be planning an independent run and said he may spend up to 500 million dollars. Nor do I mean a purely speculative independent run for John Mccain, should he fail to win the nomination (think Anderson 1980). I mean, who is going to represent the CFLP in the 2008 election? Not sure who I mean, sure you do, I’m referring to the Connecticut For Lieberman Party. I’m all a twitter wondering who’s going to don the party’s platform and crisscross the country under the CFLP banner. I mean someone has to run, otherwise Lieberman just made up his own party as an arrogant egotistical way to stay in the race, and that couldn’t be ol’ kindly joe Lieberman could it? Nah. now Lieberman would be the obvious choice, but him running for president would remind people he was once the 2000 Democratic nominee and more importantly that he once had (or pretended to have once getting the veep nod) Democratic positions on issues. Since that is not something that applies to CFLP voters we’d need someone else. Someone who represents the CFLP, someone who supported starting the war and kept supporting it until it became unpopular not to, is fairly conservative, but liberal when need be. If the person voted against flag burning that would also be a plus… How about Hillary? If she fails to get the nomination I say the CFLP nominates her as their presidential candidate, she’d be perfect for the party. If you would like to run for president or any office as a member of the CFLP, please contact the party chairman and only member: John Orman.
So many people keep talking about redistricting and I presume gerrymandering, but… that’s the exact same thing they did to us! Remember Tom Delay, do we really want to be like him? I thought democrats were supposed to be better than that. I can understand redistricting in states where republicans created an unfair advantage, (Texas) but states where republicans haven’t had control of the legislature in years? As for the number of seats in the us house, Louisiana only has TWO democratic seats, what’s the worst redistricting, could do, take those two away? Even staunchly conservative southern states such as South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi have at least a few democratic seats. While we do need to build the party, we also know when we need to sift the blame to the other side, lest republicans surge even worse four years from now and create a long-lasting majority.
I think that’s good.
Shea-Porter was in for a tough challenge regardless. Better to run against a Congressional rubberstamp with a record of voting with the Worst President Ever, than some brand new fresh face. Mayor so-and-so could just run as a generic Republican, against kinda-left-wing-Democrat, which could be a tricky race. Bradley can be easily and very honestly tied to Bush, allowing us a will-be-increasingly-rare opportunity to refight the Bush-Democrats war that we’ve already won.
I assume Bradley is pretty well connected, which is scary, but at least he wears the Bush millstone. I think on balance it’s better for us this way.
Plus Shea-Porter will see everything coming. This is an opponent she has fought before.
And while it’s changed a lot since I lived there, you can bet the field won’t be cleared for Bradley. There are still a lot of Republicans there, and after last November quite a few of them are former officeholders like Bradley. (They too can be criticized for having lost their last race, but at least they can say they didn’t lose that particular seat!) The mayor of Manchester would be my biggest worry if he were to run, but it doesn’t sound like he’s planning to. Here’s hoping for a crowded primary field – and I think we’ll get it.
There’s a special election being held on February 27th to fill the vacancy in Florida House district 3. Although, for the most part, Northwest Florida is overwhelmingly conservative, district 3 is the most Democratic and was represented by a Democrat until 2000 when Holly Benson won the seat (against John Wyche, who is running again in the special election). Elizabeth Campbell who ran in the general election last November is running again as well. According to the numbers from 2000 on registered voters, the district is 48.8% Democratic, 37.8% Repub and the rest are independents. This looks like a seat we should own and it would be sweet to add to the number of dem pickups in the Florida house this year.
I’m keeping a close watch on the state senate election coming up on Feb. 7. Craig Johnson seems like he’s got all the mo’ but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.