* MD-HD-30: Progressive blogger and founder of Think Progress Judd Legum is running for a seat in Maryland’s House of Delegates. MD has an unusual system whereby the top three finishers in each party’s primary all face each other in the general election, and the top three from that pool all become delegates for that district. The 30th HD went for Obama 52-48, but a few years ago, an out-of-step, conservative Republican snuck through in the third slot by just a handful of votes. Judd (whose blog is here) is taking on this malefactor. We wish him the very best of luck! (D)
* NY-20: The see-sawing continues: at the end of counting yesterday, the semi-official BoE tally had Scott Murphy up by 8 votes. The four counties that hadn’t returned full results for paper ballots, though, were four of the pivotal ones: Saratoga (Tedisco’s base), and Washington, Warren, and Essex (Murphy’s base). The Albany Times-Union puts Murphy’s lead at 34, including some additional numbers from Essex. The Hill, as of this hour, is reporting a 46 vote lead for Murphy as more absentees seem to start trickling in.
* SC-Gov: Rep. Gresham Barrett, one of the House’s most forgettable members, posted surprisingly strong fundraising numbers in his quest to become South Carolina governor: $371,000 in the first quarter, with more than $1 million CoH. He faces a crowded field, most prominently AG Henry McMaster, who raised $287K.
* CA-32: Here’s a strange twist in the CA-32 special election: another Chu has filed to run. Betty Tom Chu, a city councilor and former mayor in Monterey Park, jumped in as a Republican. (She used to be registered as a Democrat and holds nonpartisan office.) There are rumors of bad blood between the two Chus, but this may not necessarily be a dirty trick to sabotage Judy Chu. Although it’s an all-in-one-field primary (where the top vote-getter from each party advances), Betty Chu will have an R next to her name, helping somewhat to differentiate her from Judy Chu. The real confusion may be in the general, which could therefore be Chu vs. Chu.
I’m not worried about the general election if it ends up being Chu v. Chu. The R/D distinction will easily carry our Chu to victory here even if some voters inadvertently vote for the wrong one and narrow her margin of victory. But, this really could hurt her in the primary. If she loses votes to the other Chu, it could make the difference between winning and losing the D nomination for her.
What a strange system they have. Do you get only one vote or do you get three? Presuming you get only one vote, there’s a lot a strategy in who to vote for. If you know the person you like best is likely to finish in the top 3, then you might want to vote for your second favorite choice. Seems like in a district that is evenly split, there’s likely to be one D, one R, and a fight for third place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
State Senator Seth Harp, a Republican representing the 29th District (Northern Columbus area), is running for Insurance Commissioner. He had previously stated that he was going to run for something, just didn’t know what. He specifically said Insurance Commissioner and Attorney General.
I find it interesting that he picked Insurance Commissioner. For one thing, it’s a lower seat on the political totem pole in Georgia. There are also other announced Republican candidates (like fellow State Senator Ralph Hudgens) for Insurance Commissioner but none yet (that I can think of) for Attorney General. So, either he’s expecting a relatively big name (or multiple big names) to enter the Attorney General race on the Republican side or he doesn’t think he can beat State Representative Rob Teilhet, the only announced Democratic candidate for Attorney General.
By the way, we may have a shot at Harp’s seat. It’ll take a lot of work, but we don’t exactly have a lot of prime targets in the state senate.
Gresham Barrett came thru with Inauguration tix when many others failed us. His aide was darn nice too. I’ll never forget him…
Between the Chus it’s hard to choose
Businessman Rafael Nadal that is:
http://www.pasadenastarnews.co…