Freshly baked thread.
UPDATE (David): I’m doing something I don’t think I’ve ever had to do before at SSP – I’m closing the comments on this thread. I am very disappointed right now. I’m pretty tired of reminding people that this is the Swing State Project, and we discuss politics, not policy, here. You all know that. What’s more, the kind of personal attacks on display in this thread are completely unacceptable here.
that the fact Paterson is out with ads now does not mean he is still running for reelction
followed by the special election in January.
When is the next election of note coming up after that?
Is Kirk really in enough trouble with the base that he needs to come crying to Sarah Palin for help? I have a hard time believing he can lose, but this doesn’t seem like something Kirk would do unless he’s worried or lost his mind.
I’m interested in his prospects at winning the Minnesota gubernatorial race. The Democrats have hard an astonishingly hard time winning the governorship, with a moderate Republican, a pro-wrestler, and a guy with a mullet being the last three.
Further compounding this, mayors from the Twin Cities haven’t historically had a great record at state office. It will be interesting to see if R.T., who is very popular in Minneapolis, can buck that trend.
SD-15 and SD-37. The ol’ rumor mill says that Arnold may tap Abel Maldonado for Lt. Gov., and Arnold also appointed John Benoit to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.
The opening in SD-37 and the possible opening in SD-15 may give us a chance to get to 2/3 in the State Senate, along with taking SD-12 next year. Obama won both districts, and Benoit himself got only 55% last year. (If we win the AD-72 special, then we should work hard on SD-37 as the latter is less Republican.) Obama won SD-37 50-48 and Republicans have only a 42-37 edge in registration.
What other oddball names of Republican politicians are still left for SSP to have fun with?
Governor Chet Culver went up on tv with a new ad this week. He also went to Washington and apparently did some fundraising there. Today was supposed to be the deadline for the governor and AFSCME to work out a deal on concessions to minimize layoffs, but there’s no word yet on any deal reached.
Former Governor Terry Branstad continues to deal with fallout from his meeting last week with a group of prominent social conservatives. He also hired an experienced communications director: Tim Albrecht, who had been working at the American Future Fund and was publisher of Iowa’s Drudge copycat, The Bean Walker. Someone else will take over publishing that right-wing blog aggregator.
The Des Moines rumor mill says Branstad will pick Doug Reichardt, outgoing chairman of the Holmes Murphy insurance company, as his running mate. I don’t understand what Branstad would gain from going in this direction.
Tomorrow Pawlenty’s coming to Iowa for a big GOP fundraiser. It will be the first time Branstad attends an event w/other gubernatorial candidates.
One of the lesser GOP gubernatorial candidates, Iowa Senate Minority leader Paul McKinley, officially ended his campaign today, but so far the others are staying in.
State Representative Chris Rants continues to bash Branstad, while others try to find a niche for themselves without openly attacking the front-runner. For instance, Christian Fong (darling of Iowans for Tax Relief) wants to phase out the state income tax, and State Representative Rod Roberts is advocating against retaining the three Iowa Supreme Court judges who will be on the ballot next November. Branstad has said he opposes same-sex marriage but won’t publicly call for voting down the judges.
I wish know new polls for these races, and not only for primaries.
for Governor.
He’s in, and he’s going to win.
Top offices, who will Christie appoint?
Unfortunately it was a democrat in east TX switching to the republicans… He was probably afriad of losing his seat so he switches teams. That makes it 77-73 from 76-74 That really sucks. It’d be nice to have a dem speaker.
Sen. Edd Houck (D-Spotsylvania) is not ruling out an appointment to the McDonnell administration:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
Keep watching Houck, Roscoe Reynolds, and Phil Puckett — three Dem State Senators in districts that would almost undoubtedly flip in a special election. (Chuck Colgan’s district would too, but at 83 years old, he’s probably not going to be switching jobs… he will probably retire in 2011, though.)
Meanwhile, it looks like Del. Dave Marsden is the Democratic frontrunner for Cuccinelli’s Senate seat. He doesn’t live in the district and barely won on Tuesday, but he’s still probably the best chance of a victory there. The 2007 candidate, Janet Oleszek, is not running, thank God. There are three Republicans running, one of whom used to be on the Fairfax County School Board.
No word on any Dem candidates for Ken Stolle’s seat. Not that there’s much of a chance of victory here.
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/ey…
Charlie Crist=opportunist
Pete secessions has a viable democratic opponent in Grier Raggio.http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/7/801671/-Pete-Sessions-compares-being-female-to-being-a-smoker
How great would it be for the head of the NRCC to be facing both a competitive primary and general election
VA- Was it ever found out exactly what Deeds did to tick off Sheila Johnson? She’s a pretty big time donor to Kaine and to lose her support seemed like the 1st sign of real trouble for the Deeds camp. Seeing/hearing her it just sounded like it was something personal between her and CD.
NJ- Do you guys see Cory Booker challenging Cristie 4yrs from now? Or do you think it would be smarter to wait until Lautenberg retires?
In badly kept secrets being formally revealed news, Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard has officially filed an exploratory committee for governor. Not much to his webpage yet, but he can’t really get going until next year because of the Resign to Run law.
Speaking of my living in NY-15, from another thread…
Are we having an SSP get-together here in NYC anytime soon? Who here lives in NYC other than the big cheeses of SSP (and myself, temporarily)?
Ranting and raving about Healthcare is getting annoying and I firmly support it. It’s like nothing will satisfy them and regardless of what good news there is they find something to bitch about and rant at blue dogs for, as if they don’t realize House Democrats will only make the bare minimum they need vote to get it through and it doesn’t matter which others vote against it. But all this, “I’m not voting for them again! How dare they! ” And more recently enormous faux outrage at relatively liberal pro-choice Democrats like Oberstar and Stupak’s amendment that does nothing but something but do what is fair and prevent public funding for optional abortions in the P.O. And now you’d think that was just the most outrageous compromise ever.
all 62.
We won’t change them all but we’re going to change a lot of them this year.
9 min. lefr and its 212 ya – 206 nay with 36 Dems as nay. didnt think itd be that close. if its this close in the end, whether it passes or not, there could be alot of repercussions in 2010. i think alot of nay Dems…may not get as many congressional funds as theyd like.
people like Melissa Bean, Giffords, etc.
Baron Hill will probably catch some flack for this vote. If the Indiana Republican Party could find someone who could put a sentence together to run against him he would be in for a tough race. Ellsworth also voted for the bill and deserves some props. I hope the left doesn’t hold this against Harry Teague in New Mexico, but that is their prerogative.
politicians with courage, here is Tom Perriello’s donation page:
https://services.myngp.com/NGP…
Roxanne Conlin will file FEC papers next week. She’s already hired a spokesman, but I don’t know about any other campaign hires.
She is making fundraising calls, and I expect her to pull in pretty big numbers in the 4Q. She is a past president of the national trial lawyers’ association.
to vote for healthcare
on Tuesday night was that there would be a high probability of McDonnell finding a way to flip the state senate.
is probably going to do what Beshear is doing in Kentucky. He’ll lure away vulnerable Dem state senators with jobs that pay better and have better security. Also, there’s a very good chance Cuccinelli’s seat will remain in GOP hands. McDonnell crushed Deeds in Nova and before McDonnell enters office, he can use his good will to boost the GOP candidate.
Who would have thought that Dennis Hastert would have ever had anything to do with the passage of healthcare reform.
the Obama vs Mccain race interesting. It was such a historical anomaly.
barring an amazing surprise from him in the next year, I’m not voting for Glenn Nye in 2010. I’m sick of him throwing the Democrats that elected him under the bus time and time again. And I’m saying this as an apologist of his since January. You can crucify me for being a purist all you want, but I’m done with supporting milquetoast “Democrats” who won’t ever take a stand on anything.
needed because of threats to women’s health seriously. It’s ironic that a lot of the Republicans who claim to be opposed to the government interfering with the doctor-patient relationship will vote for the Stupak amendment, which denies PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES the right to fund abortions with subsidized premiums, unless a doctor certifies under penalty of perjury that the pregnant woman’s life is at risk, or that the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. If you’re tired of opposition to this, too bad; it will continue, and you’ll just have to accept that.
But do you really want to debate this here? If not, don’t post an argument like you just did.
You firmly support the ranting and raving that’s going on about healthcare reform or do you support the reform yourself because i’m a bit hazy on your post.
I wonder how many members we’re losing because the house voted on health care….
But you said you wanted to have it, I wouldn’t back down from a challenge even if it was at the barrel of a gun.