Which downballot Democratic candidates do you most badly want to see win this November and why?
As for me, I’m very interested in IL-05 – rooting for Mola Rahm big time:
“Mola Rahm! Sula Rahm!”
Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?
“Mola Rahm! Sula Rahm!”
carpetbagger McClintock will go down just like scandalous Doolittle…would love some updates
She’s a great progressive and her fundraising is going well. (Helloooooo, EMILY’s list!). She’s one of one viable progressive Democrat in the area. You can be sure that if Bennett doesn’t defeat Dent (the incumbent), 2010’s Democratic nominee will make Chris Carney look good. It’s a Kerry district, so don’t tell me she can’t win.
Definitely. Would be a GREAT progressive voice. He’s running against what is arguably the GOP’s best recruit in any House race nationwide, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White.
But White has some W baggage; he was the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign chair for Bernalillo County.
My #1 wish is to see Tom Feeney defeated in my district. Trust me, it’ll be a tossup by election day. Kosmas is gonna win this thing.
Other candidates I badly want to see win:
CA-04 – Charlie Brown – because he seems like a great guy and he actually lives in the district unlike Tom McClintock
CO-04 (Paccione), ID-01 (Minnick) and OH-02 (Wulsin) – Because it will mean the defeat of three of the absolute worst excuse for congresscritters to ever slither into the U.S. House.
FL-13 – Christine Jennings – Because she was the real winner of the race in 2006 but got F’d over in one of the worst election screwjobs in U.S. history.
NC-08 – Larry Kissell – Because the DCCC hung him out to dry in 2006 and he lost by a couple hundred votes.
WY-AL – Gary Trauner – Because it would be so sweet seeing Bush and Cheney BOTH being represented in Washington by democrats at this time next year.
TX-07 and/or TX-10 – Because it’s so much fun tearing DeLay’s gerrymandered map to pieces.
TX-22 – Nick Lampson – Because he’s our most endangered democrat and it’s nice seeing DeLay’s old district represented by a dem.
MI-07 – Mark Schauer – Because a moderate district like this one has no business being represented by a Club for Growth robot.
MD-01 – Frank Kratovil – Because it would be a nice FU to conservatives who purged the very respectable republican Wayne Gilchrest earlier in the year.
LA-02 – Anyone but Dollar Bill Jefferson – Because he is an embarrassment to the party, insanely corrupt and likely to be in jail in the near future.
You might argue that this a bit of a stretch, I’m still skeptical that he can take it from Biggert, but a couple of things have me optimistic for my home district.
1. He out raised Biggert second quarter
2. He one Durbin’s online poll, and Durbin will now actively support Harper (money, time, etc).
3. Obama is running at the top of the ticket
Hopefully we can take this R+5 district.
Since the last poll you had from this race had Democratic State Senator, David Boswell leading. I’m curious to know if he has kept up with that narrow lead
I would love to see Michele Bachmann (MN-6) lose, but it probably won’t happen. And if she wins, there may be a silver lining. To paraphrase former Senator Roman Hruska (R-NE), there are plenty of truly insane people in the world, and they deserve some representaion too.
For those of you who may have missed it, noted Alaskan carabou expert, Michele Bachmann (R-MN), has informed us that the carabou would love to have oil drilling in ANWR because of “the warmth of the pipeline.” She further explained that the pipeline “…would become become a meeting ground and ‘coffee klatch’ for the caribou.” For further information see http://www.dumpbachmann.blogspot.com. Yes, just when you thought we didn’t have Katherine Harris (R-FL) to kick around any more, she’s been cloned!
caribou coffee. maybe that’s where she got the idea.
i’d like to know more about what don young is doing in AK.
Recently on Larry King Live, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, whose district includes northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, was asked if Dick Cheney should come to the Republican convention. She replied, “I think everybody should come to Minneapolis. It’s the most beautiful city in the United States.” Unfortunately for Bachmann, the convention will be held in St. Paul. I wonder if she will find her way.
Kali Ma Shakti De!
I would love to see Mark Souder go in IN-03. Montagano has the appeal just needs the help from Evan Bayh be that as the VP or out campaigning for him. Also very interested in the governors race but have seen nothing on it.
Landrieu, Cazayoux, Carmouche.
James, if you had to pick 2 Dem incumbents most in danger of losing their seats this fall (not including Lampson who is all but gone), who would they be?
Feder and Perriello are where this Virginian is going to spend his time this fall.
As an aside, it’s clear that the two most disappointing states for Democrats this cycle are Michigan and Florida. I’m not trying to brush with too broad of a stroke here, as Schauer and Peters in MI and at least Garcia, Martinez, Taddeo, Kosmas, and Jennings in FL look like competitive candidates. But otherwise, so many seats left on the table.
Michigan: MI-06, R + 2; MI-08, R + 2; MI-10, R + 4; MI-11, R + 1.
Florida: FL-05, R + 5; FL-07, R + 4; FL-08, R + 3; FL-09, R + 4; FL-10, D + 1; FL-12, R + 5; FL-15, R + 4. Aside from FL-08, where Grayson is at least starting to raise money, all these races involve nobody raising any significant money. FL-10 is especially glaring.
I’m not saying we’d win in every R + 5 district, but we should at least have competitive races in these types of districts. Hopefully MI and FL will start turning this fall to give the local Dems a little shot in the arm going forward.
The other conspicuously quiet races based on past performance in Presidential voting look to be NJ-02 (D + 4), PA-18 (R + 2), WI-01 (R + 2; granted, Paul Ryan looks to be pretty damn popular), and OH-12 (R + 1).
in PA-6 that shows promise of booting Gerlach? How is Ann Barth doing in WV-2?
It’s midsummer and nothing much is happening, but the seeming total absence of news from PA-6 is a bit disturbing.
NM-01: Gotta love it.
ID-01: Minnick is no joke and I’m guessing will put this one away before the election. I’m not sure he’ll be a great congressman but he’s a pretty decent enviro.
AL-02: Another southern pick-up? Looks like it. Again, I don’t think Bright will be the best congressman but he’ll probably hold this seat for years. We’ll definitely be bitching about his votes next year, though.
WV-02: The beautiful Anne Barth may pull this one off. Her campaign is moving forward and she has friends in high places. Did I mention she is hot?
Man, do I have sub-committee I would like her to sit on.
MO-Gov, MO-06, MO-09: Eternal damnation to my Republican mother-in-law. Great candidates and plenty of DCCC attention make these top tier.
IN-Gov, IN-state senate: Gotta win in Indiana. I’m not sure what’s going on there but it doesn’t look promising.
My favorite moment of the week: Watching Tinker get destroyed by Cohen. Those racist ads went way too far.
Rich Cordray is turning a horrible situation (the forced resignation of asshat Marc Dann) into a triumph. Cordray will be our next senator in 2010.
Ohio US House District 16 has been represented by a GOPer since dinosaurs roomed the earth (namely Regulasaurous Rex.)
To flip a district in Ohio without redrawing the district lines (and/or scandal) is historic and Major John Boccieri is gonna do it.
This seems kinda silly, but I’m actually interested in the Delaware Senate race. I noticed that for his past 3 elections, Joe Biden’s vote has gone down (from 62% in 1990, to 58% in 2002).
I know that the state’s primaries were kinda bypassed because both parties only had one candidate, Biden and Christine O’Donnell, this crazy right wing commentator who sometimes appears on Fox News.
I’d be interested in hearing if Biden would do better or worse in his reelection this time.
I’m rooting for (and contributing to most of them):
Debbie Cook in CA-46 (ok, long shot)
Kay Barnes in MO-06
Judy Baker in MO-09
Linda Stender in NJ-07
Sam Bennett in PA-15
Dina Titus in NV-03
Judy Feder in VA-10
And of course the inestimable Darcy Burner in WA-08.
In addition, upgrading by replacing a bad woman with a good:
Betsy Markey in CO-04
Annette Taddeo in FL-18
Vic Wulsin in OH-02
Anne Barth in WV-02
An even dozen
An even dozen
of paying attention to my own congressional district race.
MO-09 Judy Baker (my long Republican-held district is FINALLY competitive, yay!) tops my list
Other races I am interested in are:
M0-06 Kay Barnes
WA-08 Darcy Burner
WY-AL Gary Trauner
I’m also interested in seeing MN-01 Tim Walz winning reelection by a landslide since he was my #1 house race interest in 2006.
Donate to Helena Moreno!
That primary with those three most talked about candidates Fitz-Gerald, Polis and Shafroth is fascinating to me.
Michael Skelly in TX-7 also had a money bomb recently where he raised some more significant loot, but I haven’t heard much about his speaking/face to face campaigning skills. His ads are good, fund raising good, but this will be a massive uphill fight.
JOSH SEGALL IN AL 03 SHOULD BE GETTING MORE ATTENTION
But I just can’t help it…
http://www.actblue.com/page/c4o
In particular, I’m pulling hard for…
House:
Debbie Cook (CA-46) (it’s my local hot race)
Dina Titus (NV-03) (I have friends & family there)
Linda Stender (NJ-07) (She’s been a fave of mine since 2006)
Darcy Burner (WA-08) (See above)
Martin Heinrich (NM-01) (He’s an awesome progressive, and I happen to have friends up there)
Charlie Brown (CA-04) (see above)
Jim Himes (CT-04) (Chris Shays sucks!)
Senate:
Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
Kay Hagan (NC)
Jeff Merkley (OR)
OK, that’s my hotlist! 🙂
Well I narrowed it down to 15 and that was difficult, lol.
AZ-8: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords v. Sen. Tim Bee.
Bee is one of those despicable homophobia enablers. He won’t say if he supports Az’s pending gay Marriage Ban Amendment, yet his was the deciding vote in Committee that put the Amendment on the ballot in the first place. Plus my parents live in AZ-8 and I am really trying to get mother to feel her inner estrogen and vote Giffords, rather than feel her inherent conservatism and vote Bee.
CO-4: Betsey Markey v. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave: Musgrave is the Avatar of the Gingrich Congress, a nearly flawless embodiment of all that was Gingrich which is why she has to go. Time to see Gingrich’s Avatar out the door.
FL-24 Suzanne Kosmas v. Rep. Tom Feeney. Feeney is so completely corrupt.
ID-1 Walter Minnick v. Bill “Brain-fade” Sali. There aren’t enough words in the English language expressing the utter contempt I have with this buffoon. The one bright-side to Sali is he is leading a rebellion of the purist right versus the establishment right in the Idaho Republican Party. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo aren’t conservative enough I guess. The distinction is something only a wingnut can actually perceive, the rest of us just have to trust them 🙂
KS-2 Rep. Nancy Palmer Boyda v. Lynn Jenkins. Let the realignment roll-on. Jenkins may be better than Ryun but that is no reason to put her in Congress. Plus I am distantly related to Nancy.
KY-3 Rep. John Yarmuth v. ex-Rep. Anne Northup. Time to put a fork in Anne’s career. Yarmuth is surprisingly progressive given he hails from Kentucky.
MI-7 Mark Schauer v. Rep. Tim Walberg. I have a genetic imperative to oppose Religious Right winguts. Can’t help myself here, Walberg is so out of touch with reality.
Mo-6 Kay Barnes v. Rep. Sam Graves. Until Nikki Tinker came along Graves had run the most homophobic commercials smearing his opponent in the 2008 election cycle. His incessant attempt to link Kay Barnes with “San Fransisco values” is so annoying and insipidly stupid. Graves has to go.
NV-3 Dana Titus v. Rep. Jon Porter. Titus is charging hard and I think Porter is in a world of trouble in this race.
NH-1 Rep. Carol Shea-Porter v. ex-Rep. Jed Bradley. I fear for Carol and this is the one race I think SSP is overly optimistic about a Democrat’s re-election prospects. Hope I am wrong about this.
NC-8 Larry Kissell v. Rep. Robin Hayes. If Rahm Emmaneul had not fumbled the ball in 2006 in NC-8, it would be Rep. Larry Kissell vs. ex-Rep. Robin Hayes.
OH-2 Victoria Wulsin v. Mean Jean Schmidt. I try to be civil at all times but Schmidt is such a beyotych I can’t help myself when Schmidt is the topic. Nuff said.
PA-11 Rep. Paul Kanjorski v. Lou Barletta. Barletta is the darling of the anti-immigration crowd. I would rather not see him in the House and Kanjorski is exhibiting a severe case of incumbent rust so far in 2008 and I fear for his seat.
VA-2 Glenn Nye v. Rep. Thelma Drake. The Dems blew this race in 06 with a flawed nominee and it is time for Velma to exit stage right as Virginia continues to shift Blue.
WI-8 Rep. Steve Kagen v. John Gard. Just look at the quotation appended at the base of my post. Says it all about this race.
Note: I can’t add MN-6 Bachman to my list b/c Dem. Elwyn Tinklenberg is not my type of Democrat. He is pseudo-Religious Right far as I am concerned.