Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?

I can feel the earth begin to move – I hear my needle hit the groove.

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

  1. I’m interested to see who the party endorses for SoS and Attorney General.  It’s been harder to follow home-state politics between being out of state for school and the fact that finals are fast approaching.

    Nothing like a big event like this to get me up to speed.  Hopefully there will be some coverage of what kind of presence the gubernatorial candidates have there as well, even though there won’t be an endorsement in that race.

  3. This may be off topic, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good book on why exactly we were taken off the gold standard and the dangers of going back.  I am tired of having to argue with the Paulists without a bevy of sources with which to throw in their face on this matter.

    I e-mailed Robert Reich (his website) and a staffer wrote back to me that she couldn’t think of one.  Any help out there?  

  5. Republicans are holding their 1st District Convention to pick a Challenger to Tim Walz today. There are 5 candidates with State Rep Randy Demmer and longtime consevative activist and 1994 endorsed candidate for Governor Allen Quist the main two.

    http://www.startribune.com/pol…

    This is my District and I am interested to see how crazy the Republicans in it are (A hint may be they chose Steve King of Iowa to give the keynote speech). Demmer is a generic Republican. He is as conservative as the other candidates but comes off as somewhat reasonable. Demmer has the support of most establishment Republicans. Quist is flat out nuts and is the candidate of the teabaggers. He is from the Michelle Bachmann wing of the party (more accuratly Bachmann is from the Quist wing of the Party). I doubt either could beat Walz but Demmer would definantly be the stronger candidate IMO.

  6. Bachmann’s GOP challenger has switched to running in the Independence Party.  Although the article makes it sound like he plans on just showing up to the endorsement convention and be like, hey pick me instead!

  7. Conventional wisdom was that Marty Seifert was the odds on faverite to get the GOP nod for Governor (He won the straw poll at the precinct caucuses) but Tom Emmer seems to have all the momentem. Emmer won the Straw polls at todays 3rd and 4th District conventions easily. Many of these same delegates will attend the state convention.

    FWIW there is a rumor from some guy on twitter (I know) that Siefert is considering switching to the 7th CD race to face Collin Peterson. If true that would be a huge get for the Republicans.

  8. (If this isn’t an appropriate topic for this site just let me know and I won’t mention anything like it again)

    Assuming the Liberal Dems surge is real and lasting it looks possible they could get the second most votes or even the first most.  My question for people much more knowledgeable than me is can they beat Labour in seat numbers or are the boroughs too drawn up against them?    

  10. I’m aware a lot has already been mentioned on previous threads, but those are essentially dead now.  I fail to see how crist could challenge Nelson, if that’s an option he’s considering, seeing as how little time he has.  the filing deadline would be April 2012, but he would probably have to jump in around mid to late 2011 to keep Jeb out.  This means  he would only have a year to rehabilitate his image.  This seems unlikely even if the electorate changes from the teabaggers, to a more sensible one by then.  Also, anyone else find it weird how so many evangelicals are supporting the Anti-Crist? (Sorry, it’s hard to resist).

  11. I know Leonard Boswell tends to underperform the top of the ticket, and I know he’s one of the few (maybe the only?) seven-term incumbent still in the Frontline program, and I know Van Hollen was just in town to raise money for Boswell, and I know Iowa Republicans are crowing like they have the race won already, but I just don’t see any of the bozos in the GOP field beating him.

    NRCC-annointed candidate Jim Gibbons is raising the most money (almost as much as Boswell in the 1Q), but he doesn’t seem to know what to do with his money or how to campaign. He keeps issuing lame attacks and didn’t capitalize on the time he had to campaign full-time while State Senator Brad Zaun was tied down in the Iowa legislature.

    Meanwhile, the Iowa legislature has adjourned for the year, giving Zaun more time to campaign, but he only raised $52,700 in the 1Q after raising only about $30K in 4Q 2009. This guy is a sitting state legislator and former mayor of a prosperous Des Moines suburb. I can’t believe he isn’t raising more money. He also stupidly agreed to appear at a function with an anti-abortion extremist, then pulled out at the last minute. If Zaun is the nominee, I guarantee Boswell’s campaign will let everyone know that he was ready to attend a fundraiser with a guy who thinks killing abortion providers is justifiable homicide.

    The tea party candidate, Dave Funk, hasn’t reaised enough cash to run a real campaign. The moderate Republican, Mark Rees, is self-funding as supposedly is ready to commit $200K to the race, but I can’t see a moderate winning even a crowded primary.

    Many people expect Zaun to win the primary, even though DC insiders have decided on Gibbons.  

  14. I’m hearing that Bill Johnson, the guy who dropped out of the GOP Senate primary, is planning to run for gov. He has lost lots of his supporters (the few he had) because they were all anti-Paul people that didn’t like Grayson, but he has been giving soft support to Paul.

  15. Proving that Virginia’s nomination system is the most fucked-up in the country, the state board of elections released a chart showing the nomination process by district:

    http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cm…

    Depending on the district, it can be a primary, caucus, or convention. I don’t know what the difference between the last two are. Anyway, here’s what I’ve managed to piece together from the SBoE and other sources, in regards to candidates:

    1st CD – Incumbent Rob Wittman faces a primary challenge from “ballot box to the bullet box” teabagger fave Catherine Crabill, last seen losing a state House election in a district that went 69-31 for McDonnell. Krystal Ball will be the Dem nominee, as she secured a majority of delegates to the convention and her opposition dropped out.

    2nd CD – Incumbent Glenn Nye is unopposed for the Dem nomination, while Scott Rigell will trounce a pack of other, lesser-known Republicans in the primary: Scott Taylor, Bert Mizusawa, Ed Maulbeck, Ben Loyola, and Jessica Sandlin.

    3rd CD – Incumbent Bobby Scott may or may not be unopposed; Republicans were trying to get Chuck Smith, last seen making no impact whatsoever in the 2nd district GOP primary, to run against him. Not sure if it happened or not.

    4th CD – Incumbent Randy Forbes will face off against Dem Wynne LeGrow, a retired doctor from Emporia, a small town in the rural swath of the district that’s known mainly for being a speed trap on route 58.

    5th CD – Incumbent Tom Perriello, of course, is the Dem candidate. State Sen. Robert Hurt has six other Republicans running against him for the nomination, the names of whom I’ve not bothered to learn because they won’t beat him while there’s six non-Robert Hurt candidates in the primary.

    6th and 7th CD – Incumbents Bob Goodlatte and Eric Cantor are, for now, unopposed. The Democrats have until the convention in mid-May to find someone to take on the unenviable task of running against either.

    8th CD – Incumbent Jim Moran is unopposed for the Dem nod, while, seemingly every cycle, two Republicans step up to run against Moran. Seriously, there’s a primary every cycle and maybe four or five thousand voters show up for it. Nobody cares because it’s the friggin’ 8th district, even Creigh Deeds mopped up here.

    9th CD – Incumbent Rick Boucher is likely to face Morgan Griffith; Griffith also has a bunch of nobodies running against him for the Republican nomination, but with a convention, he’ll have the party apparatus on his side, so he’ll have no problem winning there.

    10th CD – Incumbent Frank Wolf vs. Democrat Jeff Barnett. No primaries here. Dem candidate Rich Anthony dropped out at the last minute due to health problems.

    11th CD – Incumbent Gerry Connolly is unopposed, while ’08 nominee Keith Fimian and Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity will slug it out in the Republican primary. There were one or two others who threw their hats into the ring (including that awesome Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance dude), but neither managed to make the ballot.

  20. Jerry, Scott, Gordon (UK, but still) Brown Brown.  I hate that guy, he thinks he’s so important b/c his last name’s also his first.  I’m on googlenews and it says “Brown, something politics.”  This probably sounds silly, but how about fewer people with common last names in politics?  for clarity’s sake.

  22. The first quarter reporting deadline passed and I can’t find the first quarter fundraising numbers for the North Carolina 2010 United States Senate candidates.  The Federal Election Commission website (www.fec.gov) does not seem to list them.  I did find numbers on the website for Richard Burr’s first quarter fundraising.  A recent Roll Call article lists Senate fundraising numbers and it says N/A for the three prominent NC Democratic Candidates(Cunningham, Lewis, and Marshall).  Does anyone know the fundraising numbers for them and how they can be found?  Also, what are the chances that the nomination is decided by a runoff?  

  23. Don’t know where else to ask- I’m hoping that a SSPer could help me out!

    I am looking for religious statistics by congressional district. does anyone have a link for a website that lists the religious makeup of each congressional district?

    also- is there a way to see the 2008 primary election breakdown by CD as well? I am looking to see how a specific CD voted in this election. i have a database that lists this by county, but i need it by CD.

    Please post the links or message them to me if you can.

    Thanks to anyone who can help!

  25. http://hotlineoncall.nationalj…

    A few excerpts from the article:

    “Writing that Case’s election would signal that HI “is still more comfortable with Democrats, but not with the status quo” — which the paper believes is represented by state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D)”

    How the hell Case is not the status quo is beyond me. I can understand reasons for endorsing Case but saying Case is not establishment is like calling Yankees underdogs.  

Comments are closed.