(Bumped – promoted by James L.)
Never a dull moment, huh? What a week it’s been: the ousting of the supreme crumb-bum Ernie Fletcher in Kentucky, chamber pick-ups in Virginia and Mississippi, a Republican “wunderkind” exposed as being out of his league and out of his mind in Illinois, a couple more SCHIP-hating Republicans retire from the House (making that 16 GOPers and counting), and last but not least: word that Rep. Tom Udall will run for Senate.
How did the week treat you?
When I emerged, the world looked even bluer than before. It’s never been a better time to be a Democrat and alive!
Gordon Smith abused his Senatorial Franking privileges and I helped stuff letters for Jeff Merkley’s response.
Measure 49 Passed big to protect our farms and forests from Walmarts, gravel pits, and subdivisions.
Willamette College Dems hosted a ballot drop party (we have vote by mail here) with excellent turn out.
Only bad thing, Measure 50, which is essentially Oregon’s version on SCHIP got crushed thanks to a $11m campaign by big tobacco.
All in all a great week.
To answer the question posed: Oregon Senate is what I’m interested in. Its going to be a great race.
Anyone have any updates on candidates for these races;
WV-02
NY-03
PA-15
FL-08
FL-15
CO-04
NV-03
AZ-01
MS-Sen
UT-Gov
VT-Gov
The entire Michigan Democratic Delegation announced they will be supporting a fundraiser for Gary this December.
Gary even broke $50k raised on ActBlue this week, from over 240 donors!
Definitely the most interesting race. The reddest state of the Deep South has a potential/probable retirement…and the most popular politician beside non-candidate Barbour is a Democrat. I’m excited.
John Unger is running in WV-02 and is thought to be a pretty strong candidate. Haven’t heard a peep out of NY-03, which is too bad. Peter King is a strong candidate, but this is a blue-and-getting-bluer district. I think Dave Mejias, our candidate last time, was hurt by his late entry, because this is such an expensive seat to contest.
MS-Sen, well, we’re all waiting/hoping for Cochran to retire.
WV 2 State Senator John Unger
NY 3 nothing
PA 15 Sam Bennett
FL 8 larger number of candidates including 06 nominee Charlie Stuart.
FL 15 Steve Blythe/Bob Bowman
CO 4 Betsy Markey
NV 3 Robert Daskas
AZ 1 State Rep Ann Kirkpatrick
MS Sen Nothing
UT Gov Nothing
VT Gov Nothing
I was really excited to see Rick Noriega pick up endorsements from DFA, Wesley Clark, and John Kerry this week. The campaign is gaining momentum and it’s exciting to watch the support build for a candidate that really might turn Texas blue.
1. Last election we won 4 congressional seats in PA – the most of any state. CQ lists 4 more Republican seats as potentially competitive: CD-3, CD-6, CD-15, and CD-18. Do we have/can we get first tier candidates for these races?
2. Texas has 19 CDs controlled by the Republicans. CQ lists none of these as potentially competitive. This supposes a lot of Texans have swallowed Republican orthodoxy “hook, line, and sinker”. I wonder if we can make a run at several of these CDs next election, considering the Bush “favorite son” effect may have skewed the apparent Republican voting trends in prior elections in some of these CDs.
Interested in drafting Kleeb into the race.
Check out our website at DraftKleeb.com
This past week also included the filing deadline for Congressional races in Illinois. It appears we have a big advantage in IL-11 with State Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson up against three lessor known (lower tier) Republicans. We also have quality candidates in the IL-6 (Morgenthaler), IL-10 (Footlik and Seals), IL-14 (Foster), IL-18 (Versace). The question is can our candidates “catch fire” in any of the other Illinois CDs (IL-13, IL-15, IL-16, and IL-19)? In 2006 Tim Johnson (R-Inc) won IL-15 with 57.6% of the vote and Judy Biggert (R-Inc) won IL-13 with 58.3%. Difficult but not impossible?