Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?

First, please follow our new-and-improved Twitter feed. Rather than have our RSS feed automatically pump out each post, we now lovingly handcraft our tweets from the finest artisanal electrons. So follow SSP today.

Second, if you haven’t already seen it, check out our awesome redistricting contest. There’s babka in it for the winner (natch). UPDATE: Check it out – we have our first entry, from MattTX2. Nice work!

And finally, check out Carly Fiorina addressing her supporters in Bakersfield, Calif.:

Carlyfornia dreaming indeed.

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

  2. Carly Fiorina demonstrates the amazing ability to advocate for tractors’ rights without noticing a mathematical pun.

  3. They had trouble recruiting anyone in 2008, and I don’t remember contested GOP primaries in 2002, 2004 or 2006. Now five Republicans are taking on Boswell.

    Most of the GOP establishment are behind either Jim Gibbons or Brad Zaun, who are going to have the most money unless one of the lesser-known Repubs can self-fund (I have no idea).

  4.  

      Between Carlyfornia and Chuck “Q: Is he not man? A: He is DEVOre”, the Senate race is looking weirder and weirder. That’s OK with me; it just makes it more likely that Boxer has an easier re-election. Supposedly Tom Campbell is considering switching from CA-Gov to the Senate race which might add some sanity and gravitas to the GOP field, but it is still looking real good for Babs.

  7. Now that we won’t have a Gordon to defend this R+13 district, it will be a quite hard seat to hold.

    What is our Dem bench in Al Gore’s old seat looking like?

  8.    The 2 feet+ of snow predicted to fall in DC will give me oodles of time to win that babka.  Mother nature and, dare I say, Republican Jesus, are on my side.

  9. Update.

    I posted about this race last week when the seat just opened up. This week he dates for the election have been set and the field is starting to form.

    Candidate Filing Period:             December 23, 2009 to December 29, 2009  

    Special Primary (if necessary):    January 12, 2010

    Special Election: January 26, 2010

    So far 5 Republicans and 1 Independence party candidate have declared.

    http://www.owatonna.com/news.p…

    No Democrats have declared so far but someone is expected to early next week (Rumor is it is District 26A state Rep Kory Kath who would be a very strong candidate).

    This election will be a 3 way affair as the Independence Party has a legitimate candidate in Waseca mayor Roy Srp. The IP historicly does very well in this are of the state(Dean Barkly got over 20%)

    To me the Republican field looks weak. The biggest Republican name is Owatonna mayor Tom Kuntz, who last year lost to Kath 57-43 in the state house race. The Reps will hold a convention Dec 28 to narrow the field.

  10. Just saw it, great movie.  Go see it.  Not often you get a big budget movie with heart and meaning these days.  And ya, it’s also good that the right-wingers hate this movie.  ðŸ™‚

  11. I sent $25 out of my own pocket to Bill Hedrick to this district (I live here), while I was in SF for College.  I was pleasantly surprised when I came down here I had a hand written Thank You card from the Campaign Manager thanking me for my donation.

    I’m not sure if this is common or not, because I had never donated money to a candidate, but It really makes me want Bill Hedrick to win this district even more than before.

  13. i thought this week i would turn my “sockpuppet like maniacal focus” on tom perriello. he appears to be one of the biggest targets of the nrcc. any thoughts out there as to his chances of surviving 2010?

  14. SurveyUSA just put them at 56%-39%, a very good showing for a governor right now.  I’m curious if anyone knows why he’s doing so well.  Has Alabama made it through the recession well?  Are Alabama voters just so partisan they’ll approve of him?  Is he just doing his job really well?

  17. Here are the exit polls from 2008 with Castle vs. Hartley-Nagle

    Total             Hartley-Nagle Castle  

    Democrat    (48%)        62%     38%      

    Republican  (31%)        10%     90%      

    Independent (20%)        36%     64%

    Basically, all a dem would need to have done in order to unseat Castle in 2008 would have been getting 82%+ of democrats will leting the other numbers hold the same. Had the DCCC recruited John Carney or Jack Markel in 2006 or 2008, Michael Castle would be retired living on the beaches of Florida like his wife wanted. With Carper’s landslide 70% win in 2006 and Obama and Biden’s coatails in 2008, it is really questionable why the DCCC did not recruit a top tier candidate to take out Castle.

    In 2010, If Beau Biden runs, he is like to get at least 90% of dems and 43% of indies leaving me to conclude that the final results on election will look like:

    55% Biden

    45% Castle

  18. From CQ Politics:

    One of the seven Republicans challenging freshman Rep. Glenn Nye (D-Va.) is dropping out of the race and backing Scott Rigell, an automotive executive who is a leading candidate for the 2nd district seat.

    Chuck Smith, a lawyer and former Marine, said in a statement Friday that he was ending his campaign and backing Rigell. whom he said was a “successful entrepreneur” who has “turned around a business, started new businesses, created good jobs, and balanced a budget.”

    Apparently, Smith had been fundraising poorly, so his withdrawal wouldn’t seem to have any negative effect on the Republicans’ chances to defeat Nye.

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