Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?

One of these days a Congressman from Michigan’s gonna come back home and build a turtle fence lose a Governor’s race!

I swear – the more I drink, the more this Congress is makin’ sense!

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

  1. I was curious to know how many of you felt on how Chet is doing on this cycle.

    I’m been following a few blogs and noticed he scored a few points by protecting the Big 12.

    Flores seems to have alienated a few members from his own base on the grounds that he’s not conservative enough.

  2. If you could have a beer with any Congressman and Senator who would they be? Not together, two different sessions of beer drinking. No rules! For me I would pick Chet Edwards as I like him and I think he probably has a lot of stories. I would pick Scott Brown as Senator. I would love to hear the back-story of the election and get all the juicy details. It is not everyday someone runs such a great campaign.  

  5. Anyone have any insight into this race?  It’s a real head scratcher for me.  Nan Hayworth has outraised John Hall on the strength of $500K in self funding.  But the DCCC has not lifted a finger to protect Hall.  He is not a Frontline Democrat and is not among the 60 races with respect to which the Dems recently reserved TV ads.  Is he way ahead in internal polling?  Is he behind and being left for dead?  I haven’t seen any polls.

    Also, SSP recently moved the race to tossup.  Was that just because of Hayworth’s fundraising edge?

  7. State Senator and Democratic Nominee for the 8th District of Tennessee is up on television to define himself and his narrative before his opponent does.

  8. This is the guy who followed Carly. Any takers on if this will affect her bid to be US Senator?

    Also, he’s getting $40-$50 million on the way out the door, but the company did do well under his leadership with the stock doubling in value.

    Link:  http://gizmodo.com/5606682/hp-…

  9. Sowers and Skelton both voted for Prop C down in Missouri. Hmm this is going to be interesting. But then again, seeing how Obama has the approval levels of states in the deep south down in Missouri this isn’t a bad position to take. Even if it ticks off the netroots.

    http://www.politico.com/news/s…  

  11. For instance, in the United States there’s a map of the county-by-county vote in the ’08 presidential election. I know other countries – i.e. Ukraine, France – have fairly detailed maps of how each region voted.

    I’m looking for something like a map of that with respect to Kenya. From what I’m hearing, the ethnic divides are absolutely astounding: 99%+ support in one place, 90%+ opposition in another.

  16. makes states holding contests in march (didn’t specify if it was only march, or all none early states) proportional and pushes dates back to late jan and feb.  this completely screws with romney’s calculations for 2012 as it creates a whole new set of rules to follow.  

    http://hotlineoncall.nationalj…

  19. Bob Vander Plaats finally made it official: he’s not running for governor as an independent. Basically the Republican Governors Association will be paying him to spearhead the campaign against retaining three Iowa Supreme Court judges who will be on the ballot in November. Formally, BVP isn’t endorsing Branstad, but he won’t be undermining him.

    Branstad showed his cowardly colors–he’s afraid to stand up for judicial independence and stands by while his largest campaign donor (RGA) rewards BVP for not running. At the same time, Branstad is not brave enough to publicly call on Iowans to oust the judges. Loathsome.

  21. When he picks his running  mate, I assume he will have two goals: uniting Conservatives behind him, and gaining support in Hoekstra’s western base. Since I doubt he would pick Hoekstra, we have to go to Hoekstra’s supporters:

    Sen. Mark Jansen

    Pro: Strong fundraiser, from Western MI.

    Con: Running for re-election, moderate

    Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom

    Pro: fundraising, not running for re-election, from West

    Con: pro-choice, low Chamber of Commerce rating (Snyder is attempting to win a Chamber endorsement, and his running mate needs to help, not hurt)

    Rep. David Agema

    Pro: from Western MI, conservative

    Con: Running for re-election

    Rep. Arlan Meekhof

    Pro: Western MI, Chamber of Commerce rating

    Con: running for re-election

    I only looked at state legislators, as they are easiest to find records on and locations. I only looked at Hoekstra backers from Western MI, and disqualified anyone over 65. One exception:

    Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land:

    Pro: elected twice statewide, former running mate of most conservative Mike Bouchard, from Western MI

    Con: Already ran on a ticket as LG this year

  22. Does anybody have any ideas on who is the stronger candidate for attorney general in Florida? I have to vote on this in a couple of weeks and I don’t know who to pick. Who would be stronger in November? Aronberg or Gelber? Thanks.

  23. A former state government agency head has been in the news lately as reports mount of his excessive spending and questionable personnel decisions. When Governor Chet Culver decided not to reappoint the guy to another term, Zaun didn’t try to find out the facts–his knee-jerk reaction was to bash Culver and praise the outgoing division head as one of the best people in state government. Boswell’s campaign pulled out an old news report to embarrass Zaun on this. Because Zaun knew the outgoing division head personally, he defended him without finding out any facts on why Culver wouldn’t be reappointing him. It’s not a big story in itself, but just one example of weakness in Zaun’s record that got no scrutiny during the GOP primary.

  24. 1. How much does it cost to commission a poll? I am assuming that it depends on the state. Like I am sure California would be more costly than say Delaware. I am not in the market but I am just curious.

    2. If Meg Whitman loses this year has anyone heard what she might do next? I would think she would be a very strong candidate in an open Senate seat in 2012. Similar to how Feinstein got the seat. That is kind of a scary thought actually. I suppose Obama coattails would hurt her but I think she would be very competitive.  

  26. http://hotlineoncall.nationalj…

    Look at the analysis of the ’98 and ’80 elections for details. The key is the total net votes by party.

    conclusion:Murry should perform somewhere between 1 and 7% better in the general relative to the primary.

  28. So is PPP going to poll this race for Kos? Rasmussen is all over ND-AL and SD-AL but can’t be bothered to poll this one. Or maybe he’s just not releasing the results.  

  29. Diane Black: 24,273

    Lou Ann Zelenik: 24,089

    Black’s lead has been cut to 184, from around 800 on election night. I think military ballots are still being counted, and, so far, they favor Zelenik. Zelenik has not yet conceded either.  

  32. right now I’m looking at the LA Metro map because I’m going to be there for a bit and I know quite a bit of the geography already because of how much time I spend on DRA playing around with California/LA County. This is what too much politics nerdiness does to you.

  33. I shall introduce you to the next Senator from Florida.

    http://www.senatebill.us/

    I beg you to spend just a little time on his site, it is hilarious. I am not sure if he thinks he is running for President or Senate. Especially the family values page. I will give you some highlights.

    Abortion

    It is a travesty that approximately 52 Million unborn American Citizens have been murdered in our country under the “Roe v. Wade” doctrine propounded by Supreme Court “Justice” Harry Blackmun. I personally pray that this MONSTER will burn in Satan’s ovens for eternity.

    Gay Rights

    Remember that the existential survival of the Human Race is predicated upon reproduction of children following normal sexual interaction between a man and a woman — and the successful rearing of those individuals into adulthood. Thus, Homosexuality & Lesbianism are antithetical to human survival. (Which is not to deny the existence of artistically talented “Gays” in our society. Let us welcome their cultural contributions, urge them to co-exist peacefully in their closets, but prevent the spread of their “affliction.”)

    Since Homosexuality and Lesbianism are learned behaviors in my opinion, we need to keep the kids away from these perverts and thus disfavor homosexual “Families”. As an aside, we need to identify The Roman Catholic priestly “Pedophilia” for exactly what it is: almost 100% HOMOSEXUALITY with kids! (But the “Drive-By Media” doesn’t subscribe to that “Narrative” for obvious P.C. reasons).

    (What a mess they made of a great word “Gay” which we used as kids to describe positive, upbeat, happy attitudes and actions!) So, will you join me in a pledge to NEVER USE THE WORD “GAY” to describe these deviants, ever again, in your conversation? Please always “call a spade a spade”: The accurate terms are … What did I hear you say? … That’s better.

    The working mom and for some odd reason breast-feeding

    I disapprove of unmarried couples “Living Together”. I believe children should be born to a married man & wife and lovingly but firmly raised by two opposite sex parents. Boys in particular need their father’s presence (what I call: “Superior Testosterone”) to develop normally. I think we should make divorce harder to achieve: Fractured families are anathema to normal childhood development.

    I think “mom” should at least attempt to stay home with the kids up through kindergarten. I am strongly pro-Breast-Feeding.

    Immigration

    I intend to do away with our “Press Button One For English”

    The Post Office

    I would also take the USPS away from the feds; and in fact probably ban it entirely. (Why do we need this monstrosity now that we have e-mail, Satellite-Phones, T.V., BlackBerrys, Texting, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, UPS & FedEx?)

  37. What would happen if a prominent Democrat entered the race against Sanders? Would the DSCC and VT Dem party be able to support Sanders, or would they have to support the Dem?  

  38. That seems to be the plan if McInnis wins Tuesday. I guess this also says what GOP insiders think about Norton’s chances in the primary. Norton is interested, and has started testing the waters. Tancredo would drop out if Republicans replaced McInnis. I wonder how Norton’s former Senate primary opponent (and Buck endorser) Tom Weins feels about this, since he is also testing the waters for the Gov nomination. http://politicalwire.com/archi…

  39. Ya’ll were right: its impossible :(. So, I’m giving up on that. Instead, I’m going to make a map based on a 7-0 R delegation come 2011, which is harder to do without fucking u anybody than a 6-1 R delegation.  

  40. I only saw the last 5 minutes. I will watch it later. I will post thoughts on the daily digest, unless thats the wrong place for it.  

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