Campaign and Election News – Covering Key Races Around the Country
Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?
Okay ramblers, let’s get ramblin’.
38 thoughts on “Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?”
He sure knows how to fire up a crowd. Although I noticed that his little stories tend to ramble on. If you want to watch the speech go to http://www.barackobama.com . This is going to be a interesting primary.
TX-Sen: John Cornyn v. Phantom Democrat
This is the race I am currently the most interested in. I still believe that this has the potential to becoming a second-tier race and possibly, with the right challenger, a top-tier race. However, the buzz seems to be absolutely dead on possible top challengers – either they’re gunning for governor in 2010 or just keepin quiet. Cornyn is vulnerable and this could become a real contest, if only we heard something about someone being interested.
Newly elected Democrat Tim Walz already has a challenger for 2008, and I’m pleased to report that’s Owatonna-area State Senator Dick Day, perhaps the biggest eight-ball in a very crowded field at the Minnesota Legislature. Day has a certain campy likeability when he’s merely shooting off at the mouth with some folksy but incomprehensible tale, but there’s no way he’ll avoid saying something unimaginably stupid over the course of a lengthy campaign that will turn off non-Owatonna voters. Unless the Republicans can field a better candidate than Day, I’m confident Walz will waltz into a second term.
A couple of important pieces of info to pass along to you all:
– The Nebraska Democrats voted yesterday to hold a caucus on Feb. 9, 2008. Normally, our primary is in May, long after the nominee is decided.
– Mike Fahey is strongly considering a run for U.S. Senate. He met with Schumer and Reid last week, and they talked to him about running.
I’m excited that Linda Stender is looking at a rematch with Mike Ferguson. It looks like Charlie Brown and Larry Kissell are back too. I’m hoping Eric Massa, Mary Jo Kilroy, Dan Maffei and Tessa Hafen also run again.
We need strong candidates in PA-06, PA-15, WA-08, NM-01, MI-07, MI-09 and NY-26 to name a few close seats.
Grover “I’m not related to Cleveland” Norquist once compared bipartisanship to “date rape.” I think that would’ve been a more apt description of incumbent protection gerrymandering.
Only 11 Republican Congressman won in 2006 with 70%+, while 112 Democratic Congressman won by the same lopsided margins.
7 Republicans escaped ’06 with less than 50% of the vote; only one Democrat won a plurality of the vote. If we had instant runoff voting, we would have won CO-O4 and NJ-07.
My three big reforms for the electroal process include instant runoff voting, non-partisan redistricting and the federal adoption of Arizona’s Clean Money system.
I mentioned this in the diary and I’ll reiterate it here. There’s a lot of things we say about Franken, stupid is not one of them. He knows that MN is one of our best pickup opportunities of this cycle and he’s done a lot of work helping democrats in the past. Those two things lead me to believe that Franken doesn’t jump into this race unless he knows he can win. Schumer and Reid had to have done extensive polling which resulted in them telling Al that while it won’t be easy he can this race.
Did you know that Mike Sodrel received a lower % of the vote in his 2006 reelection bid than he did in his first run for public office in 2002?
With all the talk that Ciresi is in and Franken about ready to announce, I was wondering if there was still any chance of Minneapolis mayor RT Rybak jumping in? Any Minnesotans with some insight?
For one thing, it’s very unlikely that Bush voters would also vote for Nader, and probably not Dean, either. I don’t know how you could have even expected people who saw your comment to believe that.
Sorry, by even bothering with that, you’ve pretty much invalidated any credibility your assessment of IRV might have had.
Who else do you see jumping in? And, if nobody else does, who wins a Ciresi/Franken primary, in your eyes?
How are we looking to defeat Jon Porter in the Nevada 3rd. It’s a swing district with a pretty Republican representative we nearly defeated in 2006.
Is Tessa Hafen considering running again?
Very interesting news being reported at the D. C. political Report 16 Feb 2007.
“Up or Out: U.S. Representative Thomas M. “Tom” Davis, III (R-VA) said that, if U.S. Senator John W. Warner (R-VA) were to resign, he would run for the seat. Davis also acknowledged that this could be his last term in Congress. He views 2008 as his best opportunity for a Senate run, and regardless of Warner’s decision he has doubts about seeking an 8th term.”
So if Davis steps aside this seat opens up and is in play for a Democratic takeover.
Another corrupt Republican is about to face a Federal investigation!
Recently elected Gov. Jim Gibbons of Nevada is reportedly under investigation by the FBI for allegedly accepting unreported gifts from a company seeking secret military contracts while he was a member of Congress.
What a Governor. Begins office with a sex scandal that he was eventually cleared of wrongdoing and then following that up with a healthy dose of GOP Congressional sleaze.
Wonder if Gov. Gibbons is related to Randy “Duke” Cunningham?
He sure knows how to fire up a crowd. Although I noticed that his little stories tend to ramble on. If you want to watch the speech go to http://www.barackobama.com . This is going to be a interesting primary.
TX-Sen: John Cornyn v. Phantom Democrat
This is the race I am currently the most interested in. I still believe that this has the potential to becoming a second-tier race and possibly, with the right challenger, a top-tier race. However, the buzz seems to be absolutely dead on possible top challengers – either they’re gunning for governor in 2010 or just keepin quiet. Cornyn is vulnerable and this could become a real contest, if only we heard something about someone being interested.
Newly elected Democrat Tim Walz already has a challenger for 2008, and I’m pleased to report that’s Owatonna-area State Senator Dick Day, perhaps the biggest eight-ball in a very crowded field at the Minnesota Legislature. Day has a certain campy likeability when he’s merely shooting off at the mouth with some folksy but incomprehensible tale, but there’s no way he’ll avoid saying something unimaginably stupid over the course of a lengthy campaign that will turn off non-Owatonna voters. Unless the Republicans can field a better candidate than Day, I’m confident Walz will waltz into a second term.
A couple of important pieces of info to pass along to you all:
– The Nebraska Democrats voted yesterday to hold a caucus on Feb. 9, 2008. Normally, our primary is in May, long after the nominee is decided.
– Mike Fahey is strongly considering a run for U.S. Senate. He met with Schumer and Reid last week, and they talked to him about running.
I’m excited that Linda Stender is looking at a rematch with Mike Ferguson. It looks like Charlie Brown and Larry Kissell are back too. I’m hoping Eric Massa, Mary Jo Kilroy, Dan Maffei and Tessa Hafen also run again.
We need strong candidates in PA-06, PA-15, WA-08, NM-01, MI-07, MI-09 and NY-26 to name a few close seats.
Grover “I’m not related to Cleveland” Norquist once compared bipartisanship to “date rape.” I think that would’ve been a more apt description of incumbent protection gerrymandering.
Only 11 Republican Congressman won in 2006 with 70%+, while 112 Democratic Congressman won by the same lopsided margins.
7 Republicans escaped ’06 with less than 50% of the vote; only one Democrat won a plurality of the vote. If we had instant runoff voting, we would have won CO-O4 and NJ-07.
My three big reforms for the electroal process include instant runoff voting, non-partisan redistricting and the federal adoption of Arizona’s Clean Money system.
I mentioned this in the diary and I’ll reiterate it here. There’s a lot of things we say about Franken, stupid is not one of them. He knows that MN is one of our best pickup opportunities of this cycle and he’s done a lot of work helping democrats in the past. Those two things lead me to believe that Franken doesn’t jump into this race unless he knows he can win. Schumer and Reid had to have done extensive polling which resulted in them telling Al that while it won’t be easy he can this race.
Did you know that Mike Sodrel received a lower % of the vote in his 2006 reelection bid than he did in his first run for public office in 2002?
With all the talk that Ciresi is in and Franken about ready to announce, I was wondering if there was still any chance of Minneapolis mayor RT Rybak jumping in? Any Minnesotans with some insight?
For one thing, it’s very unlikely that Bush voters would also vote for Nader, and probably not Dean, either. I don’t know how you could have even expected people who saw your comment to believe that.
Sorry, by even bothering with that, you’ve pretty much invalidated any credibility your assessment of IRV might have had.
Who else do you see jumping in? And, if nobody else does, who wins a Ciresi/Franken primary, in your eyes?
How are we looking to defeat Jon Porter in the Nevada 3rd. It’s a swing district with a pretty Republican representative we nearly defeated in 2006.
Is Tessa Hafen considering running again?
Very interesting news being reported at the D. C. political Report 16 Feb 2007.
“Up or Out: U.S. Representative Thomas M. “Tom” Davis, III (R-VA) said that, if U.S. Senator John W. Warner (R-VA) were to resign, he would run for the seat. Davis also acknowledged that this could be his last term in Congress. He views 2008 as his best opportunity for a Senate run, and regardless of Warner’s decision he has doubts about seeking an 8th term.”
So if Davis steps aside this seat opens up and is in play for a Democratic takeover.
Another corrupt Republican is about to face a Federal investigation!
Recently elected Gov. Jim Gibbons of Nevada is reportedly under investigation by the FBI for allegedly accepting unreported gifts from a company seeking secret military contracts while he was a member of Congress.
What a Governor. Begins office with a sex scandal that he was eventually cleared of wrongdoing and then following that up with a healthy dose of GOP Congressional sleaze.
Wonder if Gov. Gibbons is related to Randy “Duke” Cunningham?