Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?

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71 thoughts on “Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?”

  1. Alex Sink raised $1.28 million in the past quarter and has $2.1 million COH. While he only had six weeks time, McCollum raised just $1 million, which strikes me as low for his first quarter of fundraising when he needs to catch Sink. Polls have not been great so far, but I like Sink’s chances of finally returning Florida’s Governorship into Democratic hands.

  3. anyone else think it helps begich?  if she runs against him there’s the quitter meme, and lt gov what’s his name will prob run 4 re-election to gov in 2014, assumming he wins in 2010.  begich isn’t clear, but it has to help.

  4. In case you haven’t heard. I feel good about this race, now that it has attracted top campaign talent.

  5. If Ensign (not sure how to spell his name) resigns or is forced out that would make Reid realy safe I think.  What republican wants to face Reid and his 25 million dollar war chest when you can face titus or some state senator.  I thnk that would have to make Reid Safe.

  6. I live in North Carolina and NC politics are basically my life. So far here on SSP there have only been two or three NC redistricting diaries and I would love to see more NC diaries. Now that we control all of the marginal districts it’ll be interesting to see how we can shore up the Dem. incumbents while maybe messing with the GOPers somehow. So yeah, can’t wait to see some more stuff about NC!

  7. Two stories (see below) have talked about the increasing numbers of Hispanic voters in Georgia, from a local point of view.  Gwinnett County is one of the large counties in the Atlanta Metro Area, Republican be trending our way.  Whitfield County is a county near Chattanooga, Tennessee, heavily influenced by its textile industry, likewise Republican but not trending our way (seems more stagnant than anything).

    http://www.gwinnettdailypost.c…

    http://northgeorgia.timesfreep…

  8. I keep meaning to write a diary here bringing together a lot of recent developments in the Iowa governor’s race. I updated the IA-Gov page at the Race Tracker Wiki today.

    This week Governor Chet Culver hired Teresa Vilmain as a consultant for his campaign. She is very highly regarded in Iowa and played a critical role in Tom Vilsack’s come from behind gubernatorial campaign in 1998. Vilmain worked for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and I don’t think most people appreciated how many first-time caucus-goers the Clinton campaign managed to turn out (not enough to win the Iowa caucuses, but an impressive number). When I talked to former Clinton staffers and volunteers while writing this diary, no one had a bad thing to say about Vilmain.

    The Republican field is starting to take shape. Bob Vander Plaats is definitely in and is sticking with his unconstitutional promise to ban same-sex marriage in Iowa by executive order if elected.

    A young professional from Cedar Rapids, Christian Fong, recently declared his candidacy. He’s an interesting figure and may have the potential to give Culver more trouble than the other likely Republican candidates. I wrote a diary at Bleeding Heartland about Fong, largely focused on the similarities between his political strategy and Barack Obama’s.

    Former Iowa House Speaker Chris Rants formed an exploratory committee last month and continues to campaign around the state.

    Iowa Senate minority leader Paul McKinley formed an exploratory committee this month.

    Bill Northey just confirmed yesterday that he is running for re-election as Iowa secretary of agriculture–not for governor.

  9. There’s an interesting article on DailyKos today about governors’ races.

    The basic point that diarist Steve Singiser makes is:

    If you are the chief executive of just about any American state at this moment, there are simply no good choices. At this point, it is down to deciding what tax to raise amid a deluge of wailing and shouting, or deciding which essential program is going to be cut beyond recognition.

    There is virtually nothing to be done that it is not going to result in hard feelings and political peril. Such are the times that we live in and they govern in.

    He also points out that both parties are vulnerable in states where the governor is of their party – including open-seat races with incumbents who are not running.

  10. Wish it was November and the MN-Gov race could finally get going with Rybak, MAK and Coleman all in. It’s going to be crowded, it’ll be interesting to see if there could be a no endorsement at the DFL convention, not likely but it’s a interesting thought.

    MN-06 is obviously a hot race with Dana coming to town and Clark getting closer to becoming a official candidate as well as Reed’s impressive fundraising.

    The crowded field there makes me wonder who we’ll get in MN-02 and MN-03. Doesn’t look like our 08 candidates will run again. Will Bonoff? Will one of our impressive state legislators from MN-02?

    Also, a shameless plug. I’m running for a DFA Netroots Nation Scholarship and would really appreciate the SSP vote. Just click on add your support and log in or register for a DFA account, it will take less than a minute and would mean a lot. As a bonus I will bring a babka to any SSP gathering at NN, so vote for me and get the best creation on Earth.  

  11. Gillibrand is offering an amendment to a defense bill that wouldput a moratorium on gay military discharges.  The news story does put this in all probab

    The procedural portion would be adding the amendment to the bill, it’ll pass, the House would then add it in the conference committee and then Obama would certainly sign it.  The moratorium is only for 18 months but that is plenty enough time to pass Murphy’s bill and get one going in the Senate that will fully repeal it.

    I also just emailed her campaign and said I’ll be donating if Maloney is competitive at all.  We need so many more strong and out pro-gay rights Senators.  I love having Franken now for that, Klobuchar is a bit of a shit on this issue.  It’s kind of like, we all know she is going to vote for gay marriage and is really strong on gay rights, wouldnt know that if you ever heard her talk as a politician/candidate bc she didnt have a competitive endorsement and didnt have to make that stand.  I need to meet her and hound her about that, we are at a point where if you aren’t for gay marriage, you have no business being a Democratic politician from above the Mason-Dixon line (with obvious exceptions).  Starting with 2010, Im at the point where I wont be volunteering or donating to a candidate unless they say, Im for gay marriage.

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