SSP Daily Digest: 11/19

• AK-Sen: In the words of Bart Simpson, “he’s like some kind of non-giving-up guy!” Joe Miller just keeps contesting the Alaska Senate race despite rigor mortis having started to set in. Today he added another legal action to the already-long (and expensive) tally, asking a federal judge for an injunction stopping state officials from certifying the election. Miller’s latest gripe is that the state started the count a week earlier than scheduled, forcing him to pull together a volunteer ballot-challenging team on short notice, meaning that “an indeterminate number” of misspelled ballots got through. (That number would have to be several thousand for this challenge to have any hope of succeeding.) This, of course, has to work in parallel to a separate suit, still in process, where he’s trying to force the state from counting any misspelled ballots.

• CT-Sen: Since she apparently has absolutely nothing better to do with her piles of money, Linda McMahon is actually running a post-election “thank you” ad. Speculation is rising that she’s trying to stay top-of-mind for 2012, where there’s the possibility of running against Joe Lieberman (an option she said she wasn’t taking off the table). The article also cites increased buzz about Ted Kennedy Jr. running for the Dems. Rep. Chris Murphy is known to be interested too, and soon-to-be-ex-SoS Susan Bysiewicz, despite a year of nonstop bungling, is also in the mix.

• VA-Sen: Here are a couple more Republican names who are checking out the Senate race in Virginia. One is an establishment figure, Prince William Co. Chairman Corey Stewart, but the other is Bert Mizusawa, a retired Army Reserve brigadier general whom you might remember as the more-conservative opposition from the VA-02 GOP primary this year, who lost to Rep.-elect Scott Rigell. Also, the Tom Perriello buzz (in the event of Jim Webb not running again) seems to have gotten loud enough that the Washington Post has taken notice.

• NY-01, NY-25: The race in the 1st is down into the double digits, as Tim Bishop made up more ground yesterday as absentee ballots counted in his home turf of Southampton started reporting. Randy Altschuler’s lead is 81 votes, representing a gain of more than 200 for Bishop (although Altschuler’s camp says they did “better than expected” in Dem areas that reported, and that the more GOP-friendly Brookhaven has yet to report). In the 25th, Dan Maffei upped his percentage of the absentee votes coming in from the first half of votes from Onondaga County, enough to gain 521 votes, now trailing Ann Marie Buerkle by 303. He’ll still need to maintain that pace to win, though, as more GOP-friendly Wayne County has yet to report.

• DSCC: Harry Reid is now saying he’s “in no hurry” to fill the still-empty DSCC slot, but Beltway CW seems to find the fickle finger pointing more clearly in Patty Murray’s direction. With Michael Bennet having pretty thoroughly declined, Reid and the White House are now making a “full court press” on Murray (who also helmed the DSCC’s 2002 cycle).

• CO-St. House: 197 votes is all that kept Dems from controlling the trifecta in Colorado for 2012. The last outstanding race in the state House was concluded, with Republican Robert Ramirez beating Dem incumbent Debbie Benefield by 197, flipping the state House to the GOP by a 33-32 margin. (Dems control the state Senate and the governor’s chair.)

• IA-St. Sen.: It’s been two and a half weeks since an election, and you’re already hungry for another one? Well, we’ve already got one on tap coming up very soon: the legislative special election to fill Lt. Gov.-elect Kim Reynolds’ seat in SD-48, scheduled for Jan. 4. It’s light-red turf in Iowa’s rural southwestern corner, though, so likely GOP nominee Joni Ernst (the Montgomery Co. Auditor) is probably the favorite. The local parties will select their nominees next week; despite losing the state House, Dems still control the state Senate.

• Redistricting: Eight members of the new California citizens’ redistricting commission have been named (one of whom is a former US Census director). If you make unsupported assumptions based on their professions, it looks like we may have done well with the “unaffiliated” picks. Six more will be added before work begins.

92 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 11/19”

  1. is still a legitimate candidate… just a less so than before.  she made a LOT of mistakes in this election and she needs to repair her image of competency to have a chance against lieberman this cycle.

  2. As far as Brookhaven being friendly for the GOP, while that is generally true at the local level, its pretty much marginal at the national level, especially when compared to the district as a whole.  For example, Obama won the district by 3.83, but he won Brookhaven by 5.55.  In 2004 Bush won the 1st by 0.67, Kerry won Brookhaven by 0.59.

  3. here. The district strongly favors a Republican. In theory, anything can happen in a low-turnout special election right after new year’s, but I expect the Iowa GOP to spend more money defending this seat than the Iowa Democratic Party spends trying to win it.

  4. Recounts have begun in both seats. In SD 13, the certified results put Democrat Tod Bowman up by 71 votes. In SD 47, the certified results put Republican Mark Chelgren up by 12 votes.

    If anyone out there has ever done RAGBRAI (that’s the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa), you may have seen Chelgren as “Chickenman”. Here’s another good photo.

  7. of the Californian redistricting board are Asian. 5 out 8 are female and 6 out of 8 are minorities. And 7 out of 8 have relatively high earnings, and every single one has a college degree (which I guess is to be expected).  

  10. Budget Chairmanship for Ag Chairmanship.

    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c…

    I guess it goes to Ben Nelson, then?  Could such a thing help him considering NE loves farm subsidies and whatnot even though it didn’t help Lincoln?  Well, there was that GOP poll that showed him at 50/45 approval and he hopefully has learned from Lincoln about what NOT to do to be re-elected.

  11. in the Colorado state legislature. She was an incumbent who ditched the Democratic party last year. Weird hijinks in state law caused her to have to run as a write-in candidate (despite not being like Murkowski, who actually ran in a party primary).

    The race was down to a couple of hundred votes after Curry won a decision to count undervotes. In the end, the Democrat eked out victory and Curry conceded yesterday after deciding not to litigate further.

    But if the race mentioned above went the Democrat’s way and Curry had pulled out victory, the chamber would have been 32-32-1. Curry isn’t very Republican policy-wise, but she is also really pissed with the Democrats. She would have been a hot commodity in that chamber.

  13. Is Joe vying to alienate EVERY Alaskan voter?  I mean, I expect his supporters to appreciate the initial challenge to the results, but it’s like he’s trying to make sure he never gets elected to any office again with this stunt.  This is sore loserism on steroids.

    Then again, this is the guy that praised East Germany’s immigration policies and had a reporter detained for being annoying.

    Really, Alaska dodged a bullet with this guy.  Joe The Miller makes Sarah Palin looked even-keeled.

  14. I just don’t know what to think about the far-far right.  As someone who dislikes Republican politics more than I like Democrats, it is entertaining to see food fights like Murkowski-Miller, Laudon-Angle, O’Donnell-Castle, McMahon-Shays and on and on.

    However, the far right did win several elections–Rubio, Paul and Toomey–and a whole host of House seats.  Part of me wants to see the far right take control of the Republican Party and run its brand off the map, but the damage they might do to the country could be huge.  Obviously, I’d rather see a Sen. Castle than O’Donnell or Murkowski over Miller.  The same holds for the Presidential nomination–if Sara Palin goes ahead with running for president, she would be the weakest opponent for Obama.  However, if she got the nomination and the country remained in a super-sour mood, she might win.  I don’t want that by any means.  

    So, fellow SSP readers, what do you think?

  15. that says “Should Pelosi resign?  Yes or no?”

    Anyone know if this site is legit, or another opinion-pushing site like Newsmax?

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