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

  1. i am getting a bad feeling about ron klein’s re-election. he is taking a beating on local talk radio and his probable opponent allen west gets free air time almost daily. there is a video up on youtube of west wipping up a crowd of tea-baggers that has over 700,000 views. yikes!! i think to hold this seat klein must push back on this guy asap!

  2. but nothing has changed except now kaufman has 12-3 to pound away followed but another wing-nut who pounds away from 3-6. the signal for the station(wftl850) can be heard all over south florida. again there is NOBODY on our side to push back. these wing-nuts just have to keep these races close to make a difference.

  3. …about the 22nd and i will stop. it’s just a gut feeling but i think one of kaufmans goals  is to split the local jewish community here, which is quite large, peeling some away from their democratic roots. this could be troublesome in a close race.  

  4. the financial regulation bill.  Outside of the purity votes, I’d like to know the electoral motivation for some of these who voted against it.  I have a hard time believing, outside of some heavily upper middle class districts, that regulating Wall Street is unpopular anywhere.

    And this should be the final nail in the coffin for the argument that Southern rural Blue Dogs are populists.  Many more Blue Dogs voted against this than New Democrats.

    Berry

    Boren

    Boucher

    Bright

    Chandler

    Cuellar

    Davis

    Edwards

    Griffith

    Halvorson

    Hill

    Kaptur

    Kirkpatrick

    Kucinich

    Massa

    McIntyre

    Mitchell

    Ortiz

    Perriello

    Ross

    Schrader

    Skelton

    Space

    Stupak

    Taylor

    Teague

    Visclosky

  5. Long time Republican state senator Dick Day is resigning in January to become become a lobbyist for those trying to bring slot machines to the two horse tracks in Minnesota (don’t get me started).

    Mainly I am interested in the race because I live in the district but I think it also could be a bellweather for the 2010 elections in Minnesota. This area of the state leans Republican (McCain won SD 26 50-47, Coleman won 43-36-21) but both state reps from the district are Dems (In Minnesota each senate district is divided into two state house districts) so Dems can win here with the right candidate. A handfull of republicans have expressed interest and as of yet no democrats have publicly said they are considering the race although I have seen rumors State Rep Kory Kath may look to move up. Kath would be the strongest DFL candidate IMO, he won 57% of the vote in an open seat race in 2008, but of course if he wins his House seat would then open up and it would be a tough hold (it is the more conservative of the 2 House districts that make up the 26th Senate district.

  6. Apparently the Georgia State House Republicans are looking to elect the next Speaker Thursday.  I’m curious to see if this reaches another stage of clusterfucking.  When name I saw interested that made me laugh was Rich Golick.  

    Right, Republicans, your Speaker just resigned because he got caught in 1) a sex scandal, 2) an ethics scandal, and 3) both.  I would hope (well, not really) that you’d have the sense not to elect as your leader an insurance industry counsel who sits on the insurance committee and has supported legislation making it easier to raise auto insurance rates.

  7. Former ISU wrestling coach Jim Gibbons has put out one idiotic press release after another, but the big news of the week (from my perspective) is that ethanol baron Bruce Rastetter is backing Gibbons. I don’t know why he would prefer Gibbons to State Senator Brad Zaun, who has more support from elected Republican officials.

    Rastetter is one of the biggest GOP donors in Iowa and is widely believed to be a major financial backer of the American Future Fund, which is active in a bunch of states besides Iowa. The American Future Fund is trying to get the FEC to overturn robocall bans in Minnesota and North Dakota.

  8. Or majored in something else that fits into political behavior (e.g. anthropology, psychology, sociology)?

    I’m a poli sci major.

    1. I did these before the recount and I do not guarantee they are 100% accurate but this is what I have.

      CD1:

      Franken 39.36%

      Coleman 43.77%

      Barkley 15.81%

      CD2:

      Franken 35.31%

      Coleman 47.46%

      Barkley 16.43%

      CD3:

      Franken 38.77%

      Coleman 46.66%

      Barkley 13.87%

      CD4:

      Franken 50.27%

      Coleman 34.99%

      Barkley 13.85%

      CD5:

      Franken 61.21%

      Coleman 24.78%

      Barkley 12.35%

      CD6:

      Franken 32.91%

      Coleman 48.66%

      Barkley 17.66%

      CD7:

      Franken 36.53%

      Coleman 46.71%

      Barkley 15.78%

      CD8:

      Franken 44.16%

      Coleman 40.21%

      Barkley 14.74%

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