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

  1. Didnt gain much traffic, so I’m posting it higher up. Who are candidates running for office this year that could potentially find themselves on national tickets?

  3. I’ve been arguing with someone who’s not exactly a right-winger, but who thinks Obama is a socialist (and who wrote “the world is a better place” when Ted Kennedy died), who proclaimed (in regards to the NC-Sen Rasmussen poll):

    I am not interested in polls with 13 percent undecided. It’s not useful.  No Republican incumbent except Cao is going to lose. Bank on it. Once the people see she’s another liberal she’s toast. She’ll be another Coakley, without the tire iron.

    I asked about the Rasmussen numbers, from the immigration poll that showed 58% wanted to strip citizenship from children of illegal immigrants, with its 9% undecided, to their recent poll of the NC-Sen race.  To which he actually came back with this insanity, upping the crazy even further:

    In the Rasmussen poll, a strong majority, over 55 percent supported the proposition. So the undecided is irrelevant. In the Burr/Marshall poll, they were tied up. And that poll was a weird anomaly. 7 percent Third Party, that’ doesn’t happen pretty much ever. Again, talk is cheap. Do you want to put money on Marshall? 1:1 Odds, how about 100 bucks?

    No republican incumbents in Congress are gonna lose. Bank on it.

    Yes, he’s actually making the case that if a poll shows over 55% supporting something, the poll is awesome and the undecideds are “irrelevant”.  But if a poll shows each side under 50%, then the undecideds make the poll useless.

    ROFLMAOPMP!!!!!!!!!!!

    So… since I don’t actually gamble (at least not with my own money, LOL), anyone here want to take him up on his offer?  ðŸ˜€

  4. SO I’ve been hearing several people write off Travis Childers chances of reelection. With toss-up as the best rating.

    My question is this

    regarding state senator Alan Nunnelee

    how much of his district over laps with the 1st?

    and how effective do you feel his campaign will be since all his primary opponents have decided to support him?

  5. AL-Gov Republican Primary: Now that Bentley vs. Byrne on July 13 has been established, I’d like to see which one is currently ahead.

    Regarding Bentley, he’s interesting because he made a promise NOT to take a salary as governor until the state of Alabama reaches full employment (i.e. 0% unemployment). You and I both know that somewhere, anywhere, there’s always somebody with no job, so getting 0% unemployment is pretty much a pipe dream. I hope Bentley is getting income from another, legal, source otherwise he’s going to have a tough four years paying the bills.

    AL-Ag Comm. I only included this race as pertaining to my interest because of that hilarious ad from Dale Peterson after the runoff supporting John McMillan against Dorman Grace. Peterson asked all his supporters to vote for McMillan, and I’d like to see if that ad has had any effect. It’s safe to say whoever wins this runoff is pretty much the new Ag Comm. of Alabama.

    RI-Gov. Is Chafee still ahead in this three way race?

    SC-Sen. I’ve seen polls out already, and Jim DeMint is obviously in the lead. But here’s my prediction of what will happen if Linda Ketner enters the race as an Independent.

    DeMint: 60%

    Ketner: 30%

    Greene: 10%

    I’m guessing Greene will still somehow retain a chunk of the African American vote, while Ketner gets most of the other Democrats. The rest who would usually vote Democrat are frustrated about the situation and throw their votes to DeMint.

  6. I’m curious to see if Lincoln has gotten any sort of bounce from her perceived “come from behind” runoff victory.

  8. Weak showing for Terry Branstad’s lieutenant governor choice at today’s Iowa GOP state convention. Bob Vander Plaats’ name was placed in nomination, and Kim Reynolds only beat him 56-44% (she got 749 votes out of the 1,349 delegates at the convention). I expected her to do better, especially after State Rep Kent Sorenson endorsed Reynolds for lt. gov last night. Sorenson is one of the most fanatical Vander Plaats supporters out there; he thinks Chuck Grassley is too moderate and in January vowed never to vote for Branstad under any circumstances.

  9. I saw this on cqpolitics and it seems pretty ineffective. Yep, she is rich and wants to spend her money on running for public office, why is that so horrible? I get the part in the middle where they criticize Meg’s alleged policies, but why not just say that instead of doing the whole Queen Meg thing? Again maybe it is just me, but it came off as really ineffective.  

  10. Anybody know what’s going on in:

    Michigan’s 1st or 3rd,

    New Hampshire’s 2nd,

    Florida’s 12th or 25th,

    or Wisconsin’s 7th?  

    I see Red to Blue has weighed in on a couple of them, but Red to Blue has been out to lunch on a few.

  11. Today, the formerly undefeated U.S. national team was eliminated from the World Cup by Ghana.

    Terry McAuliffe was in attendance.

    Coincidence…?

  13. So about the SurveyUSA poll showing Burr (R) up by 10 points over Marshall (D), some people noticed the partisan breakdown is 38% GOP, 39% Dem, and 22% Indy.

    The NC registration numbers are (look at that tiny scrollbar at the top of the page) 45.1% Dem, 31.6% GOP, and 23.3% Indy.  The turnout in 2008 was 42% Dem, 31% GOP, and 27% Indy.  Granted, that was a good year for Democrats.

    Now, we’re all assuming the turnout in 2010 will favor the GOP more.  But by how much?  Will it actually increase to where the GOP only trails the Dems by 1 percentage point in turnout, like SurveyUSA shows?

    I tried finding the last midterm election that had a pro-GOP environment, 2002.  Except… there were issues with the exit polls, and so VNS never released them.  :-\  Anybody know of turnout numbers from 2002, or even 1994, so we have something to go on, rather than “feelings” of what the turnout should be?

  15. This is my second state convention to attend, 2008 was my first. White gave his speech on Friday night and he did very well. He obviously has been receiving coaching regarding public speaking when compared to his past performances. Most of the speech is available online here:  http://www.txdemocrats.org/whi…

    I strongly reccomend watching it. There are two things I noticed through the convention that are bothering me.

    1. White barely mentioned energy in his convention speech, this is White’s ace card and I think he should have used it and continue to make it a central plank in his platform, specifically, calling for re-regulation of the Texas utility companies.

    2. There was a lot of focus on Rick Perry, and this convention was a hard negative on Governor Perry. Our governor’s mansion burned down in 2008 and since then Perry has been living in a multi million dollar mansion, sticking the tax payers with the $10,000 per month bill. This is, hmm, a bit expensive, but it has gotten WAY too much focus. I’d prefer the focus to go to school drop out rates, energy bills, public safety, and Perry working part time rather than dedicating himself to solving these problems. If you want to go negative on Perry, I think the best is to call him the do nothing governor. It’s been 10 years, and what is that great reform or program Perry created . . . oh right nothing. Just call it what it is, we don’t need new programs but we need to update and re-evaluate our current programs to accommodate our growing state population. White did pledge to live in a double wide trailer he would pay for until the gov’s mansion is rebuilt.

    Besides that, White (and Sen. Van De Putte, Rick and Melissa Noriega, Dallas DA Craig Watkins, and at least 6 state reps) all showed up at the Blogger’s party Friday night. It was very encouraging to see them all reach out to the online community. Blogger party did turn into youth dance club by midnight and was THE party at the convention. I checked out the Young Dems party as well, decent, had Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee at it.

    Looking to the 2010 general, I am optimistic at both Dallas and Harris county. Harris should still elect some more dems county wide and see 0 state reps flip either way. Dallas looks to complete the county wide transition to the democratic party, but I am unsure about our 3 or so state reps that are at risk (Miklos (D), Vaughn (D), Kent (D)) but I am optimistic about flipping Harper-Brown (R) to the Dems. There does appear to be a serious effort placed on Tarrant County (Fort Worth) by Bill White, which I find optimistic. I think freshman State Sen. Wendy Davis who won in 2008, laid the foundation on how to run in Tarrant County.

    There is one other statewide that caught my attention, and that is Jeff Weems who is running for Railroad Commissioner. For those who do not know, RRC does nothing with trains, it’s about energy; oil, and gas regulation. Jeff is running against some dude republican who beat the incumbent RRC, Victor Carrillo, who has admitted he lost the primary due to having a Hispanic last name. Weems is very knowledgeable, aggressive, and looks ready to move on the job. The problem is the cash, he’s got very little. It appears he will be focusing on the Barnett Shale gas reserve located under Fort Worth and the surrounding area, a traditional republican strong hold. This is a good strategy, if he can persuade some voters there and ride White’s coattails everywhere else, he could get in with White. Supreme Court candidates Jim Sharp and Bill Moody are the only other candidates to have a shot of winning this fall.

    Ok, that’s what I got. I’m just happy my hangover has worn off.

  19. Vote for Washington so we can find out how much of a race it actually is in the Evergreen State and, more importantly, so we can beat the Paulists.  

  20. How would you describe yourself on fiscal and social issues? Curious to see what everyone here is.

    Fiscally and socially conservative.  

  21. So asshole is talking about how horrible of a person Robert Byrd is and trashing him for…wait for it…mourning his wife’s death. What a dick!  

  24. Blakeslee has 49.4%, down from 49.7% on election night in the California 15th State Senate district. Looks like the absentees shifted towards Laird.  

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