Campaign and Election News – Covering Key Races Around the Country
Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?
386 thoughts on “Weekly Open Thread: What Races Are You Interested In?”
I’ve wondered. Has anyone here done an analysis of who’s internal polls were more off this cycle? Dems or Reps? I know in the past it has seemed like R internal polls are a bit more skewed; I wonder if that’s true this cycle.
Hope Kyl quits and Giffords gets in. She would be the underdog but there is a chance she could win and if nothing else it means a race the GOP has to think about when those are few and far between in comparison to the other side.
Fox News is co-hosting a debate with the Iowa GOP next August, scheduled with the express purpose of boosting participatino in the “straw poll” that is Iowa Republicans’ biggest fundraising event. Must be nice to have a fake news organization helping you out in the fundraising department.
Anyone care to haphazard a guess? Or is there anyone who thinks its too early to predict? Me, I say the first is Lynn Woolsey, the second is Charlie Rangel, and the third is John Olver.
For the first time since Reconstruction, Republicans have taken a majority in the state house of representative. Rep. Noble Ellington made his party switch official today. Since Rep. Walker Hines switched days after election day, Reps have had a plurality in the state house. http://www.2theadvocate.com/bl…
Update on special election
The primary is January 22, the run-off, if needed, is Feb. 22
Filing ended today.
Senate district 22 (Vacant-I)- former Sen. Troy Hebert was elected to this seat in 2007, as a Democrat, defeating now US Rep-Elect Jeff Landry by ~500 votes. He was recently appointing by Bobby Jindal to oversee the alcohol industry in the state. He became an independent in 2009.
The leading candidates are Reps. Fred Mills and Simone Champagne. Both are party switchers. Champagne switched to Republican in June, Mill the day before filing opened. Mills is an ally of Jindal and former Lt. Gov Scott Angelle, another party switcher. Democrats are not even putting up a fight for this seat, with no Dem filing. This one is likely to be decided in January. 2 independents and 4 Republicans are running. Before Mills switched parties, Champagne had a clear advantage. Now that they are both Republicans, this race is Safe Republican pick-up, but a toss-up between Mills and Champagne. When Republicans win this seat, they will only need one more seat to win the majority, and with at least two senators considering switching soon, Republicans will likely control both houses of the legislature before the October election.
House District 101- US Rep-Elect Cedric Richmond’s seat. Four African-American Dems are running. Roland Barthe, Willie Jones, Wesley Bishop, Errol Bailey are the candidates. Safe Dem hold
SALEM — Former Secretary of State Bill Bradbury has a new job representing Oregon on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council following his confirmation by the state Senate Thursday.
Not exactly a job to keep him in the headlines… more like a corporate board job.
is thinking about running for president? Call me crazy, but if the mustache doesn’t hold him down, I could see him actually getting some favorable attention if he manages to sound competent on the economy. I don’t know if he’d get that many delegates, but perhaps he’d earn enough press to get himself considered for the vice presidential spot.
I remember someone’s diary predicting a possibility of 69-56 split in Kansas house before elections. Instead Republicans now have 92-33 majority in House and 32-8 – in Senate.
Fallout from Iowans voting not to retain three Supreme Court justices continues to make the news almost every day here, and a couple of lawsuits related to the judicial selection/retention process have been filed. I caught up on the news at Bleeding Heartland.
Some Republicans in the Iowa legislature want to impeach the remaining four justices instead of waiting until they come up for retention (one’s on the ballot in 2012, the others not until 2016). There will also be attempts to change our system for nominating judges, which has been in place since 1962.
Also, Governor Terry Branstad will appoint replacements for the three justices who were tossed out. So while this year’s anti-retention tv and radio ads told people to turn the ballot over and vote no, no, no, in 2012 they’ll presumably have to tell people to vote no on the one who participated in the Varnum v Brien marriage decision but yes on the new judges. Unless conservatives decide for some other reason that the new appointees are also “activist,” or that the best way to move toward electing judges again is to vote against retaining all of them in every election).
Dave Wanzenried is a solid second-tier recruit for the Democrats. I met him once and talked to him for about 10 minutes in 2009, and he’s a nice guy.
I don’t think he’ll be particularly competitive against Rick Hill, but if for some weird reason the teabaggers raise their ire against Hill and Stapleton or some other GOP nut gets the nomination, he’d be able to take advantage of it.
He’s about in the same tier as Scott McAdams or such in Alaska.
I just wonder if this means that no higher-profile Democrat like Bullock, Juneau, Carol Willams or McCulloch (in order of likelihood to get in) is going to take the plunge. Sen. Wanzenried is sure well-connected enough to know of their intentions (he’s a key member of the Missoula Democrats, Bullock is also a Missoula Democrat so I’m sure they know each other very well). And I’m sure he also knows that he would get killed in a primary with either of those four.
A little off topic so forgive me but as a Hispanic it is so freaking disappointing to have this go down. For the life of me I can’t understand why Tester, Baucus, Hagan, Nelson (NE) and Pryor didn’t just vote yes to debate and no on the final vote. It would have passed with these 5 DEMOCRATIC votes for the procedure. For all I care let it get an up or down vote and say no on the final vote. Murkowski, Bennett (UT) and Lugar all voted for cloture.
Definitely a disappointing blow especially when we are talking about kids here. So much for the Snowe, Collins, Brown, Voinovich and Kirk.
Unfortunately this is not going to happen for a while now.
Does he not realize that short of Brian Schweitzer, we will lose the seat? Then we are that much closer to not having HCR, DADT, Food safety and a whole lot of other things…
Sen. Gillibrand says she now has Republican support for the 9/11 First Responders’ Healthcare Act (which passed the House and fell short at 57-42 in a party line cloture vote recently). It would reopen the fund to help take care of people who were at Ground Zero and still suffer from lung and mental reprecussions and help make sure that it covers all first responders, not just the ones who were on the NYC payroll.
So I finished studying for the night for a final that’s on Monday and was feeling bored, so I decided to look up exactly how the races in the CO State House went. Even though Dems were pushed into a 33-32 minority, they didn’t do bad at all considering 7 Dems were term-limited out compared to 1 GOPer. So I decided to look up that race in Colorado’s 61st (which contains Aspen, CO). Here, incumbent Dem-turned-Indie Kathleen Curry was running as a write-in candidate due to some technicality. It was a three-way race between her, a GOPer, and a Dem named Roger Wilson. She came in second to Roger Wilson, making the seat Democratic again. However, when I looked at Roger Wilson’s site, I discovered that he looks a lot like actor Donald Sutherland. Here are the pictures for comaparison:
Roger Wilson
Donald Sutherland
Yep, I was this bored.
Matt Yglesias has a funny post up about the “chilling possibility” that Sandra Lee could be de facto or de jure First Lady come 2017. (“Semi-homemade state dinners?” he muses.)
Democrats release a pretty interesting press release detailing some of the major things that happened between the time START was signed to today. Here’s a peak…
# Lady Gaga debuted her meat dress.
# Lindsay Lohan returned to rehab, was released, and went back in again.
They fixed it so that the revenue-raising provision was the one that originated in the House and approved it tonight by unanimous consent. Coburn lifted his objection at the last minute. It will be voted on in the House and then sent to the President.
I’ve wondered. Has anyone here done an analysis of who’s internal polls were more off this cycle? Dems or Reps? I know in the past it has seemed like R internal polls are a bit more skewed; I wonder if that’s true this cycle.
Hope Kyl quits and Giffords gets in. She would be the underdog but there is a chance she could win and if nothing else it means a race the GOP has to think about when those are few and far between in comparison to the other side.
Fox News is co-hosting a debate with the Iowa GOP next August, scheduled with the express purpose of boosting participatino in the “straw poll” that is Iowa Republicans’ biggest fundraising event. Must be nice to have a fake news organization helping you out in the fundraising department.
Anyone care to haphazard a guess? Or is there anyone who thinks its too early to predict? Me, I say the first is Lynn Woolsey, the second is Charlie Rangel, and the third is John Olver.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/swee…
Looking for any help pointing me to a list of GOP filibusters in 2010 that blocked legislation or an appointment.
Not just threats of filibusters, or even ones that failed. I’m talking filibusters where Reid filed for cloture, it was voted on, and didn’t make it.
Here are a few examples:
1. 9/11 First Responders
2. Defense Appropriations with DREAM and DADT
3. Craig Becker
4. DISCLOSE ACT
5. Middle and lower class tax cuts only.
More?
Bingaman and others are talking about filibuster reform in the upcoming Senate session. They can point to these as examples.
http://www.politico.com/news/s…
If Nevada ends up third, that would probably help Romney a great deal.
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headl…
For the first time since Reconstruction, Republicans have taken a majority in the state house of representative. Rep. Noble Ellington made his party switch official today. Since Rep. Walker Hines switched days after election day, Reps have had a plurality in the state house. http://www.2theadvocate.com/bl…
Update on special election
The primary is January 22, the run-off, if needed, is Feb. 22
Filing ended today.
Senate district 22 (Vacant-I)- former Sen. Troy Hebert was elected to this seat in 2007, as a Democrat, defeating now US Rep-Elect Jeff Landry by ~500 votes. He was recently appointing by Bobby Jindal to oversee the alcohol industry in the state. He became an independent in 2009.
The leading candidates are Reps. Fred Mills and Simone Champagne. Both are party switchers. Champagne switched to Republican in June, Mill the day before filing opened. Mills is an ally of Jindal and former Lt. Gov Scott Angelle, another party switcher. Democrats are not even putting up a fight for this seat, with no Dem filing. This one is likely to be decided in January. 2 independents and 4 Republicans are running. Before Mills switched parties, Champagne had a clear advantage. Now that they are both Republicans, this race is Safe Republican pick-up, but a toss-up between Mills and Champagne. When Republicans win this seat, they will only need one more seat to win the majority, and with at least two senators considering switching soon, Republicans will likely control both houses of the legislature before the October election.
House District 101- US Rep-Elect Cedric Richmond’s seat. Four African-American Dems are running. Roland Barthe, Willie Jones, Wesley Bishop, Errol Bailey are the candidates. Safe Dem hold
progressive favorite for OR-Gov in ’10
http://www.oregonlive.com/poli…
Not exactly a job to keep him in the headlines… more like a corporate board job.
is thinking about running for president? Call me crazy, but if the mustache doesn’t hold him down, I could see him actually getting some favorable attention if he manages to sound competent on the economy. I don’t know if he’d get that many delegates, but perhaps he’d earn enough press to get himself considered for the vice presidential spot.
http://www.politico.com/news/s…
Allyson Schwartz was one of the few Democrats at the tax bill signing yesterday. that indicates to me that she’s gearing up to run against Pat Toomey.
Kansas state Senator switches too:
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/Ra…
I remember someone’s diary predicting a possibility of 69-56 split in Kansas house before elections. Instead Republicans now have 92-33 majority in House and 32-8 – in Senate.
Fallout from Iowans voting not to retain three Supreme Court justices continues to make the news almost every day here, and a couple of lawsuits related to the judicial selection/retention process have been filed. I caught up on the news at Bleeding Heartland.
Some Republicans in the Iowa legislature want to impeach the remaining four justices instead of waiting until they come up for retention (one’s on the ballot in 2012, the others not until 2016). There will also be attempts to change our system for nominating judges, which has been in place since 1962.
The 2012 retention campaign could play out quite differently from this year’s. Supporters of the Supreme Court justice on the ballot are likely to run more of a candidate-specific campaign on why he should be retained, whereas this year the pro-retention message was more about process and maintaining the integrity of our judiciary.
Also, Governor Terry Branstad will appoint replacements for the three justices who were tossed out. So while this year’s anti-retention tv and radio ads told people to turn the ballot over and vote no, no, no, in 2012 they’ll presumably have to tell people to vote no on the one who participated in the Varnum v Brien marriage decision but yes on the new judges. Unless conservatives decide for some other reason that the new appointees are also “activist,” or that the best way to move toward electing judges again is to vote against retaining all of them in every election).
http://thepage.time.com/2010/1…
Dave Wanzenried is a solid second-tier recruit for the Democrats. I met him once and talked to him for about 10 minutes in 2009, and he’s a nice guy.
I don’t think he’ll be particularly competitive against Rick Hill, but if for some weird reason the teabaggers raise their ire against Hill and Stapleton or some other GOP nut gets the nomination, he’d be able to take advantage of it.
He’s about in the same tier as Scott McAdams or such in Alaska.
I just wonder if this means that no higher-profile Democrat like Bullock, Juneau, Carol Willams or McCulloch (in order of likelihood to get in) is going to take the plunge. Sen. Wanzenried is sure well-connected enough to know of their intentions (he’s a key member of the Missoula Democrats, Bullock is also a Missoula Democrat so I’m sure they know each other very well). And I’m sure he also knows that he would get killed in a primary with either of those four.
A little off topic so forgive me but as a Hispanic it is so freaking disappointing to have this go down. For the life of me I can’t understand why Tester, Baucus, Hagan, Nelson (NE) and Pryor didn’t just vote yes to debate and no on the final vote. It would have passed with these 5 DEMOCRATIC votes for the procedure. For all I care let it get an up or down vote and say no on the final vote. Murkowski, Bennett (UT) and Lugar all voted for cloture.
Definitely a disappointing blow especially when we are talking about kids here. So much for the Snowe, Collins, Brown, Voinovich and Kirk.
Unfortunately this is not going to happen for a while now.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
Does he not realize that short of Brian Schweitzer, we will lose the seat? Then we are that much closer to not having HCR, DADT, Food safety and a whole lot of other things…
One vote against your party … Gosh.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/…
Seriously weak.
passing the stand-alone repeal of DADT going on as we speak!
http://www.politico.com/blogs/…
Sen. Gillibrand says she now has Republican support for the 9/11 First Responders’ Healthcare Act (which passed the House and fell short at 57-42 in a party line cloture vote recently). It would reopen the fund to help take care of people who were at Ground Zero and still suffer from lung and mental reprecussions and help make sure that it covers all first responders, not just the ones who were on the NYC payroll.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12…
So I finished studying for the night for a final that’s on Monday and was feeling bored, so I decided to look up exactly how the races in the CO State House went. Even though Dems were pushed into a 33-32 minority, they didn’t do bad at all considering 7 Dems were term-limited out compared to 1 GOPer. So I decided to look up that race in Colorado’s 61st (which contains Aspen, CO). Here, incumbent Dem-turned-Indie Kathleen Curry was running as a write-in candidate due to some technicality. It was a three-way race between her, a GOPer, and a Dem named Roger Wilson. She came in second to Roger Wilson, making the seat Democratic again. However, when I looked at Roger Wilson’s site, I discovered that he looks a lot like actor Donald Sutherland. Here are the pictures for comaparison:
Roger Wilson
Donald Sutherland
Yep, I was this bored.
Matt Yglesias has a funny post up about the “chilling possibility” that Sandra Lee could be de facto or de jure First Lady come 2017. (“Semi-homemade state dinners?” he muses.)
http://yglesias.thinkprogress….
Democrats release a pretty interesting press release detailing some of the major things that happened between the time START was signed to today. Here’s a peak…
http://www.democrats.senate.go…
http://thehill.com/blogs/healt…
They fixed it so that the revenue-raising provision was the one that originated in the House and approved it tonight by unanimous consent. Coburn lifted his objection at the last minute. It will be voted on in the House and then sent to the President.
http://dyn.politico.com/prints…
People are freaking out about it in DK, looks like a left wing rant more than anything else but still kind of scary if true.
Does anybody think this has any legitimacy?