May was manna from heaven for elections junkies, with some truly exciting primary and special elections to watch. June is shaping up to be a pretty respectable sequel. We’ve identified as many noteworthy races as we can think of in the following chart, but if there’s anything we’re missing, please let us know in the comments!
Get ready to shake some action.
P.S. SSP’s complete primary calendar is available here.
Parker Griffith loses tomorrow 🙂
CA-11, CA-19, Lt. Gov, and AG.
fitchfan28 points out in the Daily Digest that the GA-09 special is on June 20, not June 8. : )
There is the special election in the CA-15 State Senate seat. It is John Laird (D) vs. Sam Blakesee (R). This seat is a big pickup opportunity for the Democrats.
should be added
If James had to add every primary he would be here for hours.
The “R” next to AL-5 isn’t red like the other letters. A sly jab at Parker Griffith?
Peterson will win, because no one else gives a RRRRRRip about Alabama!
There is no R primary in UT-2, as Morgan Philpot won the nomination at the Republican Convention. There is only a D primary between Rep. Jim Matheson and challenger Claudia Wright. There has been much speculation that Republicans in the district may be tempted to vote for Wright in the D primary in hopes of enhancing Philpot’s chances in November. However, the R Senate primary should minimize the effect of any such inter-party crossover.
The is the most amusing primary I have seen in a good long time. We have the infamous Chicken Chick from Bartertown riding around in the 100k motor home that she now leases. Opposite her we have the darling of the right wing gun nuts sitting under an umbrella with a picture of L. Ron Hubbard on it. This is almost too good to be true. There is a third candidate, Danny Tarkanian, but he does not seem to be moving ahead like one would think considering his opposition. Even with the endorsement of Glem Beck he is still trailing the two aforemention nut cases. But things could still change, I expect Lowden’s anti-Scientology ad to have an impact. But can the former UNLV basketball star go the distance? He has a poor track record in seeking elective office. I would love to hear what others think, esp. about the ad I mentioned. -Rollo Weems
We have three Democrats running in IA-Sen. I expect Roxanne Conlin to win easily (although strangely, the Des Moines Register just endorsed Tom Fiegen).
Two Democrats are running against Steve King in IA-05. Mike Denklau has several endorsements from well-known Democrats in the district, like former Congressman Berkley Bedell and retiring State Representative Roger Wendt. Also, Ed Fallon is backing Denklau. Former Harkin staffer Matt Campbell has some labor endorsements. Campbell seems to have more of a base in the Sioux City area, Denklau in Council Bluffs. I have no clue who is positioned to win the primary.
A few Iowa House Democrats are facing primary challengers. In a couple of cases, one of the candidates dropped out of the race, but his name will remain on the ballot (true for one district in the Iowa City area and another in Waterloo).
The most significant contested Iowa House Democratic primary is House district 66 in Des Moines. This is Ed Fallon’s old seat, a heavily D area which has been represented by community activist Ako Abdul-Samad for two terms. An anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage Baptist minister is running against Ako in the primary. I think Ako will win but it’s really important to GOTV for this race. We do not need a social conservative representing one of the most Democratic districts in Iowa.
There are lots of contested primaries on the Republican side: two guys running for state treasurer, three for secretary of state, lots of Iowa House and Senate districts with multiple Republican candidates. I am hoping for a few tea party primary victories, which should help our candidates in November. One good example is conservative leaning Iowa House district 8. The long-serving Democrat is retiring. This district really “should” go Republican, but
to all my fellow Californians here, the Sacramento Bee has compiled all the fund raising reports up to May 22nd for the down ballot candidates and placed them in a Google spreadsheet.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capito…
https://spreadsheets.google.co…
A couple of points:
1) Debra Bowen only 67k on hand, a little worry some for an incumbent when compared to Treasurer Lockyer who has over 8.6 million on hand, Controller Chiang with 1.1 million on hand. (Abel Maldonado doesn’t really count that much because he’s only be lieutenant governor for a few months but if your wondering his COH is pretty bad too.)
2) Kamala Harris has more COH than Chris Kelly for the final stretch, but that’s rendered moot since Kelly can do a Meg Whitman and write himself a check when he needs too. But Harris has enough to at least hit back when Kelly attacks her over the airwaves.
3) Dave Jones going for broke?
Obviously he will just not right before each election. Mark Blumenthal takes this fact on in his latest National Journal column.
http://www.nationaljournal.com…
Not sure I buy the arguments he got in response from Scott. When polling so often why not poll on the eve of the actual voting? Can anybody find evidence from 2006 and 2008 that he is telling porkies?