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

  1. Ohio Supreme Court just ruled, not to count 1000 contested ballots.

    No shock there, scum bag 7-0 Republcians.

    It’s a coin toss now.

    26,000 to count though.

    Good Luck

    Mary Jo.

  2. 1. Will Chris Matthews be as good a candidate as Al Franken?

    2. The list of least healthy states came out a few days ago. LA, MS, SC, TX, AR, FL, OK, AL, TN, GA and NV occupy 40-50 (not in exact order). Is there any link between these unhealthy states and their habit of voting Republican most of the time (if not all the time)?

    3. Eric Holder – Great resume with a big flaw. The Mark Rich pardon. Were there any other candidate besides Mr Holder considered seriously? Will this enable Republicans to run candidates with bigger flaws in future. I am concerned because the Republicans flaws tend to be a lot worse.

    4. Napolitano – How does her departure help us in AZ?

    5. I voted against Prop 8 in CA (Constitutional ban on gay marriage) and was unhappy about it. I had remarked in these pages some time ago that this vote is premature for those who support gay marriage. Another 4-5 yrs and we might have won.

    (i) What did the gay community/ people actively associated with the cause do to stall this at this time?

    (ii) Did the prop 8 (and the anti-abortion prop 4) make it harder for democrats to beat republicans in congressional elections? I am particularly concerned about CA-04 where you cannot blame it on socially conservative minority voters voting for Obama and against prop 8.

    6. Where are the greens celebrating Obama’s defeat in Missouri?

  3. Or just everyone is really busy with other news?  I remember a lot more excitement over other special elections that were exceedingly harder to win.

  4. LA-02 is going to Democrats, OH-15 is probably going to Democrats, VA-05 is going to Democrats, CA-04 is going to Republicans, the only seat really left to be decided is LA-04.  I’m interested in LA-04.  

    We’re looking at a 258-259 Democratic majority in the US House.  Adding to CVH’s success which was pissed on immediately after the election.  

    MN-Sen.  Here’s what’s going down.  Franken’s numbers (They are claiming a +4 lead) is based on how the local election officials would have called all the challenged ballots.  This +4 lead assumes they find the 133 missing ballots in Minneapolis.  On top of 20 military ballots they found in Minneapolis.  The envelope has yet to be opened so we don’t know how those will fall.  

  5. to name the new Senator?

    And that is an open seat right now. As opposed to NY where Clinton is still the Senator (I presume waiting until confirmed to resign)

    If Danny Davis is in fact his selection, just make the appointment already.

  6. CO-Sen: Any polling yet on Salazar v. Owens? Or Salazar v. any other credible CO GOP pol left?

    NV-Sen: Yeah, we may have to work to keep Reid in office. Still, I’m not as freaked out as some on other (cough)DKos(cough) blogs have been. There’s no reason to primary Reid or depose him as Majority Leader. Let him help President Obama pass our agenda, and he’ll slay whatever dragon the GOP tosses his way.

    AZ-Sen: Now that Obama stole Napolitano from AZ, what do we do? Who do we run? Please tell me Jim Pederson isn’t our only option!

    CA-Sen: Who wants to lose to Barbara Boxer? I guess the GOP can’t settle on a sacrificial lamb just yet.

    CA-Supreme Court: Probably the most interesting & hardest fought campaign here will be the one that’s caused by The State Supremes’ decision on overturning Prop H8. If they do it, we’ll defend the judges. If they don’t, we put an initiative on the ballot to repeal H8. Should be fun!

  7. http://www.politico.com/news/s

    The Ohioan joins a still-fluid field of candidates, including South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson; Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis; former Tennessee Republican Party chairman and Mike Huckabee campaign manager Chip Saltsman; and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.

    Sounds hot.  I can’t wait for Newt to get in on this action.  

  8. Number One on my list, the presidential race in 2012.  Zogby already releases a poll on the Republican prospects for 2012.  We have races in 2009 and 2010 to get through.

    Palin 24%

    Romney 18%

    Jindal 16%

    Huckabee 10%

    Guiliani 5%

    Ron Paul 3%

    We don’t even know where some of these people may be in 2 years.  Will Palin win re-election, will she challenge Murkowski?  Will Jindal be re-elected?  Ron Paul? Cause he did so well in 2008.

    Who knows what unforeseen events will happen?  Jindal, Louisiana, a hurricane?

    And as far as contenders, what about Charlie Crist and potential senate candidate Jeb Bush?

    If anything this poll just really bugs me.

    1. So the RNC has $59 million in the bank right now.  Why?

      Mike Duncan, the current head, is from Kentucky.  Quite possibly he’s a McConnell ally and wanted to put the cash into Senate and some House races.  Maybe there was a difference of opinion with others preferring to fund McCain (as expected).  No agreement, no funding.

      Maybe Duncan et. al. wanted to sabotage McCain and have a lot of money to “rebuild the party” come 2009.

      Maybe they couldn’t think of places to spend the money.  Really stupid as at least 18 Republican incumbents in the House were left with under $100 K cash on hand.  

      Fwiw, the names of incumbents we bled white:

      Don Young, $75,634

      Scott Garret, NJ-5 $50,852

      Todd Platts $90,892 (as of 10/15)

      Jean Schmidt, OH-2 $51,004

      Mark Souder $44,832

      Judy Biggert $52,619

      Walter Jones $36,846

      Mike Rogers, AL-3 $42,405

      Gus Bilirakis, FL-9 $26,205

      Vern Buchanan, FL-13 $91,496

      Mario Diaz-Balart, FL-25 $13,731

      John Sullivan OK-1 $63,663

      John Culberson, TX-7 $28,260

      Michael Burgess, TX-26 $28,260

      Trent Franks, AZ-2 $87,438

      Doug Lamborn, CO-5 $21,001

      Brian Bilbray, CA-50 $60,469

  9. With Hutchison very likely running for governor, are there any other senators who might be looking at departing DC for gubernatorial runs in 2010?  Feinstein has been mentioned frequently as Schwarzenegger’s successor.  What about Thune?  He has been looked at as a rising star by many and, if he is looking at 2016, getting some executive experience would be good for him.  However, I am not sure about South Dakota and whether or not Rounds is term-limited.

    Also, with Obama, Biden and Clinton all leaving vacancies, it doesn’t sound like any other senators are under intense speculation for Cabinet posts (Bingaman for Energy seems like an outside possibility, perhaps), so the likeliest possibilities for vacancies would be the ones who leave to run for governor.

  10. She seems to want it to be a cabinent level position. How about Obama makes it one, but only if Snowe agrees to be SBA head. Then we get that seat.

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