Campaign and Election News – Covering Key Races Around the Country
Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?
43 thoughts on “Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?”
Is Jesse Kelly supposed to be a legitimate challenger for Giffords? I’d heard nothing about him, but he has an add out on the top of drudgereport right now (with a gun in hand), which can’t be cheap. He seems to be pretty much the epitome of the intellectually challenged far right wing, so I’m not sure how well he’d play in a moderate district. But from looking around the internets, he looks to be in it pretty seriously.
I’m sure I could look it up, but in the interest of a good time – which member of the IL Congressional delegation represents Aurora?
“The Palm Beach Post reports that Republican Gov. Charlie Crist asked 21st District Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart to fill out an application for the soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat.”
Then I thought a bit and worked it out – Crist won’t pick him but having his name out there as being under consideration is a nod to the Cubans he needs in the primary. Pretty smart politics.
Anyway, I am most interested in CA-Gov in light of the new polls.
Anthony Foxx (D) vs. John Lassiter (R)
PPP is releasing a poll on this next monday but their twitter page says its a dead heat. This race will shed light on the current political trend in Charlotte. The results will hopefully also maybe shed some light on next years senate race.
Cao is on Maddow right now. I had never seen him on teh television before. He seems like a nervous wreck. Looks a bit younger than I thought he was.
If he is normally this nervous, no way he is getting re-elected.
Is anyone else amused by the Twitter feud between Arlen Specter and Chuck Grassley? I, for some reason, find it hilarious (in a funny way and a sad way). First off, both of these guys are pushing 80. What the heck are they doing on Twitter? Twitter should never be used by anyone over the age of 50, if not younger. Heck, to me, the site is only good for two things: 1) keeping track of film and casting news on Prodcution Weekly’s feed, and 2) fomenting rebellion in Iran.
This reminds me of those parents who try to be “cool” by adopting their kids’ tastes in music or catchphrases. It’s sad. Still, the prospect of two geezers getting into a Twitter feud is too tempting to pass up.
Tom Hayhurst (D) to challenge Rep. Mark Souder (R).
Hayhurst held Souder to a 54-46 win in 2006, his narrowest re-election ever, in a solidly red district that Bush had hit 68% in. Obama narrowed that significantly to a 56%-43% loss, but our 2008 challenger to Souder didn’t do quite as well. Now Hayhurst is back again, and I’m optimistic that the GOP will again have to sweat it out in a district that should be among their safest.
Politico has reported that Doyle will not run in 2010.
Both the Madison CBS affiliate and madison.com, the newspaper’s website, have picked up the story as well.
Sounds as though he’ll be back in the Senate by the end of the recess.
On the flip-side of the medical coin, sounds like there are concerns over whether Sen. Kennedy can serve effectively in his condition. He didn’t even attend his own sister’s funeral this past week. Sad…
One of the local news affiliates is reporting that State Rep. Cretul will not run for Congress. I think this is good news for us, although Republicans still have a few potentially good candidates.
It just occurred to me that if Mark Dayton and Norm Coleman both run for and win their respective nominations for Governor, the MN-Gov race will feature two Senators who served opposite one another.
When was the last time that happened nationally — that two Senators who served opposite one another run against one another for Governor? Has it ever happened?
PA-SEN: Nate Silver has a really good article putting a lot of the polling we’ve seeing in perspective. Basically, yes, things look pretty bad and the potential for devastating losses is certainly there, but a lot of what we’re seeing in polls at is more of the worst case scenario. He specifically looks under the hood of that ugly Rasmussen PA-SEN poll earlier this week.
VA-Gov: Have Deeds and/or 3rd Party groups been doing much to try and drive up McDonnell’s negatives? Firedoglake laid out some attacks on him that would be devastating in NoVa that might convince those who aren’t that into Deeds to come out and vote anyway as anti-McDonnell voters. They wouldn’t play well statewide, of course, but if they were in attack ads on local tv/radio, it would help to remind NoVa what’s at stake.
Is Jesse Kelly supposed to be a legitimate challenger for Giffords? I’d heard nothing about him, but he has an add out on the top of drudgereport right now (with a gun in hand), which can’t be cheap. He seems to be pretty much the epitome of the intellectually challenged far right wing, so I’m not sure how well he’d play in a moderate district. But from looking around the internets, he looks to be in it pretty seriously.
If you look at lifetime progressive punch scores for senators the worst five, and six of the worst seven senators are named either John or Jim
I’m sure I could look it up, but in the interest of a good time – which member of the IL Congressional delegation represents Aurora?
“The Palm Beach Post reports that Republican Gov. Charlie Crist asked 21st District Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart to fill out an application for the soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat.”
Then I thought a bit and worked it out – Crist won’t pick him but having his name out there as being under consideration is a nod to the Cubans he needs in the primary. Pretty smart politics.
Anyway, I am most interested in CA-Gov in light of the new polls.
Anthony Foxx (D) vs. John Lassiter (R)
PPP is releasing a poll on this next monday but their twitter page says its a dead heat. This race will shed light on the current political trend in Charlotte. The results will hopefully also maybe shed some light on next years senate race.
Cao is on Maddow right now. I had never seen him on teh television before. He seems like a nervous wreck. Looks a bit younger than I thought he was.
If he is normally this nervous, no way he is getting re-elected.
Is anyone else amused by the Twitter feud between Arlen Specter and Chuck Grassley? I, for some reason, find it hilarious (in a funny way and a sad way). First off, both of these guys are pushing 80. What the heck are they doing on Twitter? Twitter should never be used by anyone over the age of 50, if not younger. Heck, to me, the site is only good for two things: 1) keeping track of film and casting news on Prodcution Weekly’s feed, and 2) fomenting rebellion in Iran.
This reminds me of those parents who try to be “cool” by adopting their kids’ tastes in music or catchphrases. It’s sad. Still, the prospect of two geezers getting into a Twitter feud is too tempting to pass up.
Tom Hayhurst (D) to challenge Rep. Mark Souder (R).
Hayhurst held Souder to a 54-46 win in 2006, his narrowest re-election ever, in a solidly red district that Bush had hit 68% in. Obama narrowed that significantly to a 56%-43% loss, but our 2008 challenger to Souder didn’t do quite as well. Now Hayhurst is back again, and I’m optimistic that the GOP will again have to sweat it out in a district that should be among their safest.
Politico has reported that Doyle will not run in 2010.
http://www.politico.com/news/s…
Both the Madison CBS affiliate and madison.com, the newspaper’s website, have picked up the story as well.
Sounds as though he’ll be back in the Senate by the end of the recess.
On the flip-side of the medical coin, sounds like there are concerns over whether Sen. Kennedy can serve effectively in his condition. He didn’t even attend his own sister’s funeral this past week. Sad…
One of the local news affiliates is reporting that State Rep. Cretul will not run for Congress. I think this is good news for us, although Republicans still have a few potentially good candidates.
http://www.cfnews13.com/Politi…
It just occurred to me that if Mark Dayton and Norm Coleman both run for and win their respective nominations for Governor, the MN-Gov race will feature two Senators who served opposite one another.
When was the last time that happened nationally — that two Senators who served opposite one another run against one another for Governor? Has it ever happened?
PA-SEN: Nate Silver has a really good article putting a lot of the polling we’ve seeing in perspective. Basically, yes, things look pretty bad and the potential for devastating losses is certainly there, but a lot of what we’re seeing in polls at is more of the worst case scenario. He specifically looks under the hood of that ugly Rasmussen PA-SEN poll earlier this week.
VA-Gov: Have Deeds and/or 3rd Party groups been doing much to try and drive up McDonnell’s negatives? Firedoglake laid out some attacks on him that would be devastating in NoVa that might convince those who aren’t that into Deeds to come out and vote anyway as anti-McDonnell voters. They wouldn’t play well statewide, of course, but if they were in attack ads on local tv/radio, it would help to remind NoVa what’s at stake.