( – promoted by DavidNYC)
Slow week here at the SSP – I’ve been utterly slammed with work lately. Though, good news: I was just admitted to the bar this week. Not the good kind of bar, but at least the kind that helps me earn a living.
What have you been up to?
UPDATE: Boxer running again in 2010. Guess you can never start too early.
Congrats, David– you have gone through the second of the two Jewish rites of passage. The first, of course, is the Bar Mitzvah. And the second is the Bar Exam!
Here in Chicago, our municipal and aldermanic alections are this month (Tuesday, Feb. 27). In theory these elections are non-partisan (not that it matters much; Republicans in Chicago are virtually an extinct species, and have been for a long time).
In the Mayor’s race, incumbent Richard M. “DINO” Daley (what else do you call a guy who throws President Bush a big dinner for Bush’s 60th birthday?) faces two African-American challengers, including Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown. Unfortunately for Brown, Daley has a political warchest the size of some 3rd-world countries and that the voters had been conditioned to accept corruption for most of the past century. It may be that the only vote than can stop Daley from being Mayor longer than his father was (which “DINO” Daley can accomplish by winning and serving the full four-year term) is that of the US Attorney. This might explain why Daley was dining the man with the pardoning pen on Bush’s 60th birthday (which also was the day Daley’s former patronage chief was sentenced to prison in federal court for corruptionand other related offenses). It may also explain why he and his brothers are now singing the praises of Barack Obama. Did Obama whisper those magic words into Daley’s ear: “I’ll let you pick the U.S. Attorney”?
We have a race of sorts for City Clerk, but the guy Daley just appointed to the job to replace the previous clerk (who pled guilty to taking bribes in federal court) is a heavy favorite to win.
Then there are the 41 competitive races for Alderman (out of the city’s 50 wards; please save your comparitive jokes with Ali Baba and those 40 thieves of his… we’ve heard them before). Many of these races will be hotly contested. We can expect to see a few bricks tossed thru campaign office windows and perhaps some even nastier stuff before the votes are counted. Remember, candidates need a majority of thevotes to win on February 27. If not, the top two finishers in a race square off in a run-off on April 17.
Here in Maine, Democratic first district Congressman Tom Allen is considering challenging Susan Collins, the fairly popular and somewhat moderate incumbent.
New England Dems smell blood in the water after last year’s elections which brought about Democratic congressional gains in Connecticut and New Hampshire, a new senate seat in Rhode Island, and the first Democratic Governor in Massachusetts since 1991.
This race could be a replay of Rhode Island’s past senate race between moderate Republican Lincoln Chafee and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse. Voters ended up deciding that while Chafee was a nice guy who often took moderate positions, they just couldn’t live with contributing to a Republican majority. Whitehouse ended up winning.
Maine certainly has its differences from Little Rhodey. But both races feature a moderate Republican versus an authentic Democrat. And Maine seems to be turning pretty blue. The governor is a Democrat, Democrats control both houses of the legislature, and both House seats. In presidential elections we’ve voted for Clinton in ’92 and ’96, Al Gore in 2000, and Kerry in 2004.
This should be a great race.
(tomallenforsenate.blogspot.com)
Just by the fact that she’s not submitting anti-gay marriage resolutions this term to me translates that she is vulnerable. I hope that Angie Paccione runs again. I’d be willing to move from DC to Colorado just to work that compaign.
One of the more interesting developments I have observed is how the Jeb BUSH machine to a large degree is shifting towards Mitt Romney and how the backers of GOP Gov. Charlie Christ appears to be joining the McCain campaign.
Are Charlie Christ and Jeb Bush rivals rather than allies? I do perceive Christ as significantly less interested in the Terry Schaivo, gay bashing, anti-choice issues than Jeb Bush.
The question I have that I cannot yet puzzle an answer to is why Romeny rather than Brownback for the Bush machine? Romney is fluid to say the least on social issues whereas Brownback is every wingnuts dream President. But truth to tell I am seing more signifcant wingnut defections towards Romney than the media would have you believe. Jay Sekulow is the water carrier for the Theocons on legal issues and strategy and he backs Romney (see my presidential endorsements diary).
The other dynamic is that the Cuban American community in Florida appears to be shifting towards McCain. The Cuban GOP Congressmen Lincoln & Mario Diaz-Balart and Ilena Ros-Lehtinen have endorsed McCain.
It is important to understand your foe. How are others reading the strength of GOP candidates in Florida’s presidential primary?
The AP is reporting that GA-10 Congressman Charlie Norwood is leaving the Washington DC hospital where he was undergoing treatment for lung and liver cancer to return home to Georgia where he will receive hospice care. He may resume treatments once home in Georgia.
here is a link to the complete story from the Yahoo news filter: http://news.yahoo.co…
This congressional district is clearly going to have a vacancy soon and it is time to beat the bushes for a Democratic opponent once Norwood does pass away (and it sound like that will happen sooner rather than later). He has held the seat since his first election in 1994.
Anyone know if Georgia fills vacancies via special election or will GOP Gov. Sonny Perdue get to appoint a replacement? House seats vacancies are usually filled via special elections.
Great news! Joe Negron who was the GOP nominee to replace disgraced Republican Mark Foley in the Congress announced today he WILL NOT be a candidate for FL-16 in 2008.
Take that as a sign that Tim Mahoney is likely to hold the seat if he makes no major mis-steps between now and November of 2008.
Info posted at the D.C. Political Report.