Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?

So during a visit to the Miami headquarters, Crist took small nibbles of three products coming to a Burger King near you: the “Bourbon Whopper”, “BK fire-grilled ribs” and funnel cake sticks.

“Oh my word, that is delicious. Get it away from me,” after taking a bite of the hamburger with the familiar toppings of lettuce, tomato, onions and mayo and an added kick of bacon, pepperjack cheese and Bourbon sauce. Of the ribs he said, “Unbelievable…that is delicious. Superb.” He declared the funnel cake sticks — which he declined to dip in the icing to save himself a few calories — “kind of light and flaky, like a beignet.” He added, “Probably dangerous for my diet to have come here.”

(SOURCE)

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

  3. As a gay man, I can confirm that only gay men and Mary Poppins say things like “oh my word.” You gotta love the divesity in this race. The next Senator from Florida is either going to be an African-American, a Cuban-American, or a silver-haired twink with a tanning bed.

  6. Georgia State Senator David Adelman (D-42nd-Atlanta, Decatur) was recently nominated to be Ambassador to Singapore.  Before, however, he was heavily rumored to be in line to be U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.  Is there a difference in laws regarding the amount and type of political activities allowable to ambassadors versus U.S. Attorneys?  For example, what are the laws regarding fundraising for candidates, hosting events, speaking at events, etc.

    I’m asking because Adelman’s former Chief of Staff Elena Parent is running next year in the 81st House District in what is currently our biggest pickup opportunity.  Does being an ambassador give Adelman more leeway to help his former staffer than he’d have as a U.S. Attorney?

  7. If Rubio is his general election opponent.  Attack him on the Fair Tax.  I listened to Rubio’s intervire on the Todd Long radio show (ya, the Todd Long who ran for the R FL-08 nomination in 2008) and Rubio stated that he supported the Fair Tax 100%.  Mainstream Florida voters don’t want a near 30% tax on everything they buy.

  8. She got 48% (and lost a point) against Mel Martinez in a republican leaning year where there probably tons of voter fraud in Florida. I think she would definately be able to beat Rubio.

  11. Iowa Republicans are bashing Bruce Braley (IA-01) over the possible transfer of Gitmo prisoners to the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois, just across the river from Clinton, Iowa. (The Des Moines Register reported that people in Clinton support the idea because they think it will bring jobs and new residents to the area.)

    I believe the Republican attacks on Braley are aimed at a wider audience. He is very likely to run for Senate if Harkin retires in 2014 or Grassley retires in 2016.

    Republicans have a candidate against Braley for 2010; Dubuque businessman and conservative newspaper columnist Rod Blum. I am not at all worried about Braley holding this D+5 district, although in theory a “perfect storm” of rising unemployment, low D turnout because of a demoralized base, and a Republican with unusual strength in Dem-leaning Dubuque could make this race competitive.

  12. Chuck Norris endorsed Bob Vander Plaats in a newspaper column six months ago, and last night he held a $5K per couple fundraiser for Vander Plaats at his Texas ranch. Not clear how much money was raised–probably $100K to $200K. Vander Plaats is still going to be outspent by Terry Branstad in the GOP primary, but he should be able to raise a decent amount of out of state money. The November issue of Focus on the Family’s magazine had Vander Plaats on the cover.

    Last Sunday’s Des Moines Register Iowa poll was horrific for Governor Chet Culver; the only good news is that Vander Plaats is citing it as proof that he could win the general (he led Culver 45-38). The more Republicans who believe that, the better. The last thing we want is for Branstad to run away with the primary.

    I am wondering whether national Teabaggers might take more interest in the Iowa gubernatorial primary. The problem is, Vander Plaats is much of a religious conservatives’ candidate.

    Tonight (Saturday) is the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson Jackson dinner; it will be livestreamed here beginning at 6:30 pm central. I don’t know the order of speakers; Culver will be on at some point. Joe Biden’s the headliner.

  13. ID-01: Having Minnick in office in an R+19 district is so awesome, and I want this awesome to continue.  Plus, ID-01 was my consolation prize for us losing WY-AL.  But I’m hoping that Minnick can hold on because he’s gotten first elected in a presidential year, not an off year.

    VA-05: I’ve heard some very nice comments about Perriello’s being one of the more principled and straightforward politicians.

    FL-08: Obvious reason is obvious.

    CT-Sen: I really want Dodd to stay on.  He’s quite progressive; there isn’t much in the way of issue-based reasons to dump him.  I want to see his numbers improve, though unfortunately I’m not around CT to actually talk to people about him, heh.

  14. For some reason, I find myself far more interested in the issues come this session of Congress.  I don’t know why.

    Not to the point of telling people to every conservative Democrat (in fact, I’ve spoken in defense of Bright, Griffin, Minnick, and others), and I do agree with them on some issues.  But on the other hand, I gotta say that some things would really really benefit constituencies that oppose them on really stupid ideological grounds.  Such as South Carolina opposing health care funding or stimulus money.

    To me, these things are not about “liberal” versus “conservative”, but “what’s the obviously better idea”, party affiliations and ideological labels be damned.

    I was just reading the Wikipedia article on Bob Conley, and suddenly realizing that I was far less amused at the prospect of having him as a Democratic Senator than I was back around election time in 2008.

    And come to think of it, Lindsey Graham is causing the Republicans more headaches than him losing to Bob Conley (plus Bob Conley being in the Senate) would.

    I’ve also wondered whether it would be useful for the Democratic Party to run ads in deep-red areas against Republican opposition to things like healthcare reform.  For example, run ads in Oklahoma or South Carolina saying how much more the average household would pay for healthcare, or something like that, if their Republican representatives/senators got their way with the legislation.  Just to weaken support for them in the long term.

  15. For the past few weeks Internet Explorer has been telling me that “www.swingstateproject.com does not exist,” so you can imagine my relief upon successful loading of the site today. Good to be back.

  16. and I figured some people here might be interested.  I’m trying to break down the 2008 and 2004 Presidential votes (in Michigan) by ancestry.  I’m using the census to first break it down by municipality, then assigning each municipality to an ancestry, again using the census.  I then calculate the combined results from each ancestry group.  In theory, the results should be relatively accurate, as long as the samples are large enough, although of course there are a lot of variables, so it isn’t extremely scientific.  I was motivated by a story in the digest a few weeks ago which did something similar, except only calculating for “Dutch” and “Scandinavian.” I haven’t gotten very far, but the most intriguing thing that I have discovered is that contrary to the CW, The “Swedish” ancestry group is actually, in Michigan at least, one of the most conservative groups of all, having gone 53-45 for McCain, and 55-44 for Bush.  The sample is rather small for that group though.  Finns were a bit more liberal, but still closer than I would have expected- 53-45 for Obama, and 50-49 for Bush.  I’ll probably do a diary when I’m completely finished.

  17. It said he’d announce for Senate in 48 hours: it’s been over 72 and nothing yet.  Probably doesn’t invalidate the whole report but worth mentioning.  

  19. Moore (D) is supposed to announce a retirement today. His is the first straight up retirement by either party this year. Obama won his district with 51% of the vote. Moore was getting real reliable for us on near anything.

    This SUCKS!!! I blame the teabaggers for that death threat they sent to his office earlier this year.

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