Campaign and Election News – Covering Key Races Around the Country
Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?
So how many people here are going to see Star Trek?
114 thoughts on “Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?”
after my writing competition.
Meanwhile, I’m watching VA-GOV. The new NYT Mag article about T-Mac is out, and it really doesn’t seem bad for him at all.
Though I love Star Wars. But I’m absolutely going to see this film. It’s from the Producers of my favorite TV show Lost and so far has a near perfect 95% positive reviews on Rottentomatoes.com.
if I find out there is an ass shot of Kirk or something then maybe I’ll see it.
All the rest of my friends saw it last night . . . 300 miles away in the Dallas area. I hate Houston.
As someone whose first Halloween costume as a kid was a Starfleet uniform, I think I’d be disowned if I didn’t go see the movie sometime this weekend. This especially after my parents got to meet with Leonard Nimoy a few months ago, something they’re still talking about.
I’m a bit uneasy about the course that Star Trek has taken over the last few years, especially with the (dreadful) third season of “Enterprise.” Some of the more recent stuff has lost a lot of the thoughtful writing in an effort to fit in more action. I understand, since that’s where the money is, but I think it’s funny that Gene Roddenberry was concerned with the amount of militarism in Star Trek VI, since that was nothing compared to “Nemesis” and some of the more recent television shows.
The power of Star Trek wasn’t that it was a bunch of people running around in space wearing silly costumes and make-up. It was that they told stories that make you think, turn upside-down the moral struggles of the modern day, and question what it means to be human. “The Next Generation” was great at that, as were several episodes of “Deep Space Nine.” And the original series was good, too, if in a more melodramatic way.
So.
What’s that? Oh, right, politics.
I was excited to see Sean Tevis back at it this week. For those that don’t remember, he’s the guy who ran for the state House in Kansas on a quirky, xkcd-style campaign. He raised a ton of money through small donors, and is dedicated to open government, practical solutions, and progressive principles… in Kansas.
Tevis lost by 425 votes (48-52) to a long-time incumbent in a conservative area, outperforming Barack Obama by eight percent. Sam Brownback even came out and campaigned against him, that’s how well he did. As he framed things, he had three options: run again in 2010, suspend and go into a wait-and-see mode, or quit and go back to his normal life.
Instead, he chose Option 4— try to accomplish everything you campaigned on anyway by lobbying state government and demonstrating that he has actual popular support for his ideas. All of that has the added benefit of helping him gain credibility for his 2010 run. To make all of that happen, he’s raising money, with a goal of $9,200 by June through small donors.
You should go help him out. Last time around, if you donated the maximum amount, his mother would send you a personal thank-you DVD.
…
Well. I’ve just re-read all of that– Star Trek and xkcd– and I’ve realized just how much of a geek I am. But I’m okay with that.
movie was fantastic. Hits all the right notes, isn’t too rushed, and washes out the bad taste that was last week’s “Wolverine”.
Already saw it, and I thought it was great.
More of a TNG/DS9 fan than a TOS one, but Abrams did a great job.
Really good movie!!
But it’s going to be very hard for me to separate the mass murderer Syler from the TV show Heroes from his new role as Spock in Star Trek.
Just came home from my law school finals. Hard to believe my first year has come and gone already.
A friend and I will be seeing Star Trek on Sunday. I was never a fan of ST. As my name implies, I’m a Star Wars fan, through and through.I never disliked Star Trek (as I had never seen any of it except some TV episodes), but the fan base has always creeped me out a bit. Still, the immensely positive reaction to the new Star Trek has captured my attention.
and I have listened to it for six hours along with Claptons tears in heaven.
Chet Culver hit a new low in SUSA polling (42 percent approve/50 percent disapprove). I have a theory about why that is. I still don’t think he’s in terrible danger, because Iowans like to re-elect incumbents and social conservatives seem intent on nominating one of their own to run against Culver.
Easily the best movie I’ve seen since The Dark Knight. And far better than any other Star Trek movie I’ve seen.
http://www.politics1.com/ “Friday News Update” (as in yesterday, based on it being 1:24 AM Saturday 9 May 2009 right here)
Or does the actress playing Nyota in the new Star Trek look just like a younger Jada Pinkett Smith. I was sure it was Jada until I saw the credits. Apparently she is played by an actress named Zoe Saldana.
I was also surprised to see Simon Pegg cast as Scotty. Weird because he’s mainly known for low budget British comedies like Shaun of the Dead. He played the role great.
and man have I been missing out! SSP is now my go to blog for both food and politics.
Trek will be insane this weekend so I’m going to wait a week.
As for political races, I’m still interested in the Michigan Governors race that’ll be happening next year. The only hope in hell that Democrats have at retaining the seat is for Granholm to get appointed to the SC and for Cherry to run as an incumbent. Because the pure hatred at Granholm and the Democrats handling of the state economy will lead to certain defeat.
Having said that, I’m deeply disappointed in every candidate that is currently running for the office as a major candidate from both parties (this exclude Rick Snyder, who doesn’t have a hope in hell of getting the Republican nomination but he has done a good job with the Ann Arbor Spark organization).
OK it’s not really a race but it does have something to do with elections.
While I still think Minnesota runs good clean elections the Franken/Coleman debacle has pointed out some flaws in the system that the State legislature is trying to fix.
The state Senate passed an Election reform package that now goes to the House.
– Allow in person early voting 18 days before an election. The Biggest problem in the Franken/Coleman contest was with absentee ballots. Early in person voting would cut down drasticly on the number of people who now vote absentee.
– Move the Primaries from September to June. This is something I have long wanted. On the whole I think primaries are a good thing, but a September primary is so late a contested primary really puts a party at a disadvantage.
– Online Voter registration
– Special Elections for Senate vacancies due to death or resignation (but not for situations like the Franken/Coleman recount).
To me all these changes make sense and I hope the House passes them too and Gov Pawlenty signs the bill (T-Paw has indicated he supports at least the early voting part of the bill).
BTW as a big geek of course I will see Star Treck, but I will wait a week or two for the crowds to die down first.
but I really wish they had made a movie based on Star Trek Voyager instead.
New compromise measures supported by Diane Feinstein and Arlen Specter may pave the way for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
With 900,000 union members in the state of Pennsylvania, the Arlen Specter firewall appears to be crumbling. He knows he can’t win a Democratic primary in Pennsylvania without labor, and they have made it clear that their support is contingent on his vote on Employee Free Choice.
Which is why Penny Pritzker and fellow billionaires are getting nervous, publicly breaking with the White House and President Obama over his support for the bill.
The “centrist” Dems of the Senate, led by Tom Harkin, know they won’t be able to shrug and say “what can we do, we only have 59 votes” much longer. They have thus been trying to write an acceptable compromise so the party’s progressives (including the unions) don’t decide to stay home when Specter and others need their help in the 2010 elections.
According to the National Journal:
[Diane Feinstein’s] proposal would replace the card-check provision, which would allow workers to unionize if a majority signed authorization cards and strip a company’s ability to demand a secret ballot election. “It’s a secret ballot that would be mailed in … just like an absentee ballot. The individual could take it home and mail it in,” Feinstein said. If a majority mailed the ballots to the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB would recognize the union.
As Harkin says, the Feinstein compromise has the advantage of “protecting the secret ballot, so people can do it in private,” which neutralizes that particular right-wing criticism of the bill.
The other bone of contention has been arbitration clause of the Employee Free Choice Act. Specter himself supports “last best offer” arbitration. It’s also called “baseball arbitration,” and has incentives to get both parties to quickly make their best, most reasonable offer. Bill Samuel of the AFL-CIO says “we’re open to that.”
Labor will no doubt be disappointed with such sacrifices to the bill, but if it means getting something passed, they will probably be happy to make these concesssions which satisfy the demands of critics like Blanche Lincoln, Mark Pryor, Jim Webb, Michael Bennet, Mark Udall and Ben Nelson.
George McGovern was recently dis-invited from the Progressive Magazine’s 100th anniversary event because of his outspoken opposition to the bill on behalf of his good friend Rick Berman. If McGovern is interested in reclaiming his reputation among progressives as something more than the pawn of a right wing astroturfing scumbag, he now has the opportunity to acknowledge that these compromises would satisfy his concerns.
These are all officially non partisan. In Austin Leffingwell and McCrackin are the Dems (Burnt Orange folks really seem to prefer Leffingwell) and in San Antonio Julian Castro is the good guy.
Keep an eye on Austin to see how low Carole Strayhorn (D, no R, NO Independent!) goes.
“There are just some issues that I agree with [the Democrats] on,” said Mr. Simpson, of Idaho. “I thought that credit card bill was a good vote, quite frankly.”
I’ve already done the Georgia map. The maximum number of districts is 55. Georgia has 56 state senate districts. So, I’m also working on a state senate map for Georgia using 55 districts but holding over some area for the 56th district.
I’m also working on a Texas CD map just for shits and giggles. Based on demographics, I have found quite a few potential pickups, and I still haven’t done much with the Dallas area.
On a side note, DRA is like crack.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney told CBS this weekend that he wasn’t sure if his former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, was still a Republican. Cheney told moderator Bob Schieffer: “My take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn’t know he was still a Republican.” Powell served as National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to President George H.W. Bush and later was Secretary of State to President George W. Bush. Powell endorsed Barack Obama for President last year and recently said right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh was doing more harm than good for the Republican Party. Cheney, by contrast, said he’d prefer a GOP led by someone like Limbaugh. “If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d choose Rush Limbaugh … I don’t think the Republican Party ought to move far to the left.”
Thank you for restoring my confidence in your party, Mr. Cheney.
after my writing competition.
Meanwhile, I’m watching VA-GOV. The new NYT Mag article about T-Mac is out, and it really doesn’t seem bad for him at all.
Though I love Star Wars. But I’m absolutely going to see this film. It’s from the Producers of my favorite TV show Lost and so far has a near perfect 95% positive reviews on Rottentomatoes.com.
if I find out there is an ass shot of Kirk or something then maybe I’ll see it.
All the rest of my friends saw it last night . . . 300 miles away in the Dallas area. I hate Houston.
LOL
http://politicalwire.com/archi…
As someone whose first Halloween costume as a kid was a Starfleet uniform, I think I’d be disowned if I didn’t go see the movie sometime this weekend. This especially after my parents got to meet with Leonard Nimoy a few months ago, something they’re still talking about.
I’m a bit uneasy about the course that Star Trek has taken over the last few years, especially with the (dreadful) third season of “Enterprise.” Some of the more recent stuff has lost a lot of the thoughtful writing in an effort to fit in more action. I understand, since that’s where the money is, but I think it’s funny that Gene Roddenberry was concerned with the amount of militarism in Star Trek VI, since that was nothing compared to “Nemesis” and some of the more recent television shows.
The power of Star Trek wasn’t that it was a bunch of people running around in space wearing silly costumes and make-up. It was that they told stories that make you think, turn upside-down the moral struggles of the modern day, and question what it means to be human. “The Next Generation” was great at that, as were several episodes of “Deep Space Nine.” And the original series was good, too, if in a more melodramatic way.
So.
What’s that? Oh, right, politics.
I was excited to see Sean Tevis back at it this week. For those that don’t remember, he’s the guy who ran for the state House in Kansas on a quirky, xkcd-style campaign. He raised a ton of money through small donors, and is dedicated to open government, practical solutions, and progressive principles… in Kansas.
Tevis lost by 425 votes (48-52) to a long-time incumbent in a conservative area, outperforming Barack Obama by eight percent. Sam Brownback even came out and campaigned against him, that’s how well he did. As he framed things, he had three options: run again in 2010, suspend and go into a wait-and-see mode, or quit and go back to his normal life.
Instead, he chose Option 4— try to accomplish everything you campaigned on anyway by lobbying state government and demonstrating that he has actual popular support for his ideas. All of that has the added benefit of helping him gain credibility for his 2010 run. To make all of that happen, he’s raising money, with a goal of $9,200 by June through small donors.
You should go help him out. Last time around, if you donated the maximum amount, his mother would send you a personal thank-you DVD.
…
Well. I’ve just re-read all of that– Star Trek and xkcd– and I’ve realized just how much of a geek I am. But I’m okay with that.
movie was fantastic. Hits all the right notes, isn’t too rushed, and washes out the bad taste that was last week’s “Wolverine”.
Already saw it, and I thought it was great.
More of a TNG/DS9 fan than a TOS one, but Abrams did a great job.
Really good movie!!
But it’s going to be very hard for me to separate the mass murderer Syler from the TV show Heroes from his new role as Spock in Star Trek.
Just came home from my law school finals. Hard to believe my first year has come and gone already.
A friend and I will be seeing Star Trek on Sunday. I was never a fan of ST. As my name implies, I’m a Star Wars fan, through and through.I never disliked Star Trek (as I had never seen any of it except some TV episodes), but the fan base has always creeped me out a bit. Still, the immensely positive reaction to the new Star Trek has captured my attention.
and I have listened to it for six hours along with Claptons tears in heaven.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
Chet Culver hit a new low in SUSA polling (42 percent approve/50 percent disapprove). I have a theory about why that is. I still don’t think he’s in terrible danger, because Iowans like to re-elect incumbents and social conservatives seem intent on nominating one of their own to run against Culver.
Republican moderates seem to want someone from the business community, but one of their hoped-for candidates (female CEO of Vermeer Corp) just said she isn’t running for governor next year.
Easily the best movie I’ve seen since The Dark Knight. And far better than any other Star Trek movie I’ve seen.
http://www.politics1.com/ “Friday News Update” (as in yesterday, based on it being 1:24 AM Saturday 9 May 2009 right here)
Or does the actress playing Nyota in the new Star Trek look just like a younger Jada Pinkett Smith. I was sure it was Jada until I saw the credits. Apparently she is played by an actress named Zoe Saldana.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm075…
I was also surprised to see Simon Pegg cast as Scotty. Weird because he’s mainly known for low budget British comedies like Shaun of the Dead. He played the role great.
and man have I been missing out! SSP is now my go to blog for both food and politics.
Trek will be insane this weekend so I’m going to wait a week.
As for political races, I’m still interested in the Michigan Governors race that’ll be happening next year. The only hope in hell that Democrats have at retaining the seat is for Granholm to get appointed to the SC and for Cherry to run as an incumbent. Because the pure hatred at Granholm and the Democrats handling of the state economy will lead to certain defeat.
Having said that, I’m deeply disappointed in every candidate that is currently running for the office as a major candidate from both parties (this exclude Rick Snyder, who doesn’t have a hope in hell of getting the Republican nomination but he has done a good job with the Ann Arbor Spark organization).
OK it’s not really a race but it does have something to do with elections.
While I still think Minnesota runs good clean elections the Franken/Coleman debacle has pointed out some flaws in the system that the State legislature is trying to fix.
The state Senate passed an Election reform package that now goes to the House.
http://www.startribune.com/pol…
The highlites.
– Allow in person early voting 18 days before an election. The Biggest problem in the Franken/Coleman contest was with absentee ballots. Early in person voting would cut down drasticly on the number of people who now vote absentee.
– Move the Primaries from September to June. This is something I have long wanted. On the whole I think primaries are a good thing, but a September primary is so late a contested primary really puts a party at a disadvantage.
– Online Voter registration
– Special Elections for Senate vacancies due to death or resignation (but not for situations like the Franken/Coleman recount).
To me all these changes make sense and I hope the House passes them too and Gov Pawlenty signs the bill (T-Paw has indicated he supports at least the early voting part of the bill).
BTW as a big geek of course I will see Star Treck, but I will wait a week or two for the crowds to die down first.
but I really wish they had made a movie based on Star Trek Voyager instead.
http://democracyforamerica.com…
I’ve applied for a Netroots Nation Scholarship from DFA. So, here’s my shameless plug.
Thank you all.
Plus, I’m watching MI – 11. We’ve got a semi-credible candidate, but I hope the DCCC pulls a rabbit out of its hat and recruits someone better.
This actually sounds like a reasonable compromise. I’ve always been a fan of keeping the ballot secret anyway.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Austin: http://www.kxan.com/generic/ne…
San Antonio: http://www.ksat.com/politics/f…
These are all officially non partisan. In Austin Leffingwell and McCrackin are the Dems (Burnt Orange folks really seem to prefer Leffingwell) and in San Antonio Julian Castro is the good guy.
Keep an eye on Austin to see how low Carole Strayhorn (D, no R, NO Independent!) goes.
See here:
I’ve already done the Georgia map. The maximum number of districts is 55. Georgia has 56 state senate districts. So, I’m also working on a state senate map for Georgia using 55 districts but holding over some area for the 56th district.
I’m also working on a Texas CD map just for shits and giggles. Based on demographics, I have found quite a few potential pickups, and I still haven’t done much with the Dallas area.
On a side note, DRA is like crack.
Thank you for restoring my confidence in your party, Mr. Cheney.