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

  7. Of the most fabulous city on earth? Today seems to be the day to release new TV ads here, and I’ll be posting something shortly on Las Vegas’ hot, hot, hot municipal election this spring.

  8. There probably isn’t going to be an election for this one until November of 2014, but Charlie White’s still under investigation for voter fraud, and he’s still making an ass out of himself, so anything can happen.

  9. If anyone’s every broached this subject before, but for all the talk of Brian Schweitzer running for president in 2016 has anyone ever talked about him running for Montana’s open house seat in 2012? I know it’d seem at first like a step down, but he’s already shown an interest in congress (i.e. Senate run in 2000) and he wouldn’t be the first governor in recent times to do it (Bill Janklow and Mike Castle come to mind). Plus in these one-seat states the at-large congressman is basically in some ways like the state’s third senator, and if Obama wins reelection (or even if he doesn’t) I have a hard time seeing Schweitzer keeping himself in the public eye long enough to build the national profile needed for a presidential run being the governor of a state with such a small population.

  10. I know very little about Mississippi politics, but assuming he’s reelected this year, could he be a potential senate candidate? Is he already? Or is he basically the sort of Democrat that would be more comfortable as a Republican, like Buddy Caldwell in Louisiana?  

  11. Still waiting for Dave’s app to include Arkansas data so I can make my own “plausable” maps of the districts.

    I saw a few maps from Red Racing Horses but I believe that they’re using old data, and aren’t using county splitting (which we will be using this time around).

    Anyway I’m not sure who Griffin will face as a challenger.

    Former State Senator and Lt. Governor-Candidate Shane Broadway (D) has a significant appeal from his home county of Saline in the 2nd district. Which could make him a good candidate for Congress if the 2nd district stays intact. Also I have heard faint whisperings of Bill Halter (D) in the 2nd also….

  14. for Minneapolis city council and park board districts.  Luckily, past political involvement is not a disqualifier but I’ll probably not make myself sound too educated on the subject.  Applications are due March 25th.

  15. Tim Kaine has no idea  what he is going to do.  I starting to think we’d be better off if he didn’t run and Perriello did, since it appears he actually wants to be a senator.  Hopefully Kaine decides one way or the other next week.

  17. I have seen Governor Schweitzer on talk shows several times, including on “Hardball” the other day.  He is so calm and confident, and very well grounded.  He and GOP Chair Sue Lowden of Nevada were being questioned on the recent events in Wisconsin.   She of course thought  the entire Wisconsin situation was a needed conversation, as if demoralizing and dehumanizing teachers is the basis of a healthy debate.  Gov. Schweitzer, on the other hand repeatedly talked about how his state of Montana had a surplus, and that of course public unions should have collective bargaining rights.  He also repeatedly talked about how Wall Street bankers and financiers created the economic mess that we are in, workers didn’t, and yet the workers were being asked to take the blame, and the bankers and financiers aren’t even being asked to contribute to cleaning up the mess.  He doesn’t come across as a silly liberal, but rather as a common sense leader who knows how to bring people together and get the job done.  I really hope he seeks higher office.  I would definitely work on his campaign, something I have never done before.  If he starts in the US Senate or just goes for the presidency, either one is great.  I do, of course, see the advantage of him running for Senate in 2014, if Baucus steps aside, in that it helps him get some more experience.    

  18. Went door to door today and got the 10 (plus a few more) needed to get on the ballot. I’m very excited. While I’m a massive underdog, and the seat is minor, its cool that I can impact the discussion locally with my candidacy.  

  19. In a perfect world race would not matter when it comes to politics or anything else but we do not live in a perfect world. Since the world is not perfect, the recent Census releases got me thinking about the Countries changing demographics and the effect they will have on future elections. I stumbled on a wonderful resource for demographics, especially Hispanic demographics, The Pew Hispanic Center. With a little digging you can find info on the population by state, age, race, citizenship etc.

    http://pewhispanic.org/

    I am sure a lot of people here have seen the site but for those who have not and are interested in such things I thought I would provide a link.

    BTW I may post something more in depth latter but for now I will just say the voting eligible Hispanic population is going to explode over the next decade.

  20. Still very new to politics, and only in his second month, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder still has a lot of folks who haven’t made up their mind about “Rick Michigan”s — as we call him here in Michigan because of his yard signs — job approval, but the turmoil in the Great Lakes, lately, is making up people’s minds, for them…

    Gov. Rick Snyder’s negative job rating has crept up in a new poll. Many voters are still making up their minds about the governor.

    Thirty-seven percent of 600 likely voters surveyed statewide in a Feb. 12-17 EPIC-MRA poll gave Snyder a positive job rating, while 21% gave him a negative job rating and 41% were undecided.

    His negative job rating is 6 points higher than in a Jan. 22-24 EPIC-MRA poll, when his job rating was 38 positive, 15% negative, with 47% undecided.

    However, he still remains personally popular, mostly because he’s a pretty likable guy (i.e. “one tough nerd”):

    In the latest poll, 54% had a favorable opinion of Snyder, compared to 59% in January. A third were undecided; 13% had an unfavorable opinion.

  27. In Maine says he’s going to push right-to-work in Maine which, if it succeeds, would make Maine the only state in the northeast with right-to-work. Interestingly, he talks about it as a matter of compulsory union dues, not collective bargaining or joining a union at all.

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/…

  28. please tell me the DSCC is not really attacking Scott Brown over this:

    The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is circulating a number of clips to reporters suggesting that Sen. Scott Brown’s (R-Mass.) revelations of sexual abuse as a child is either a political stunt or a hypocritical move in the light of his endorsement of a congressional candidate who was accused of insensitivity to sexual assault — including this column by the editor of a Cape Cod website:

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/…

    I could sort of understand their reasoning behind this, but this doesn’t sit right with me at all.

  29. Check out this response from Grover Norquist about Mitch Daniels as it relates to Scott Walker:

    Gee. Will Republican governors follow Mitch Daniels’s lead? Or Chris Christie’s.

    Mitch Daniels’s first official act when elected governor was to call for increasing the personal income tax in the state. Then he wanted other tax hikes. More recently he has suggested that a value added tax would be a fine addition to the federal income tax. And he praised a national energy tax … an oil import fee. An oil import fee is a national energy tax on training wheels.

    This is a model of what not to do as governor. Luckily the Republican Party has 22 states with a Republican governor and a Republican legislature. Indiana is one of the 22. The other states are cutting spending without flirting with tax hikes and are putting limits on the power of public sector union bosses.

    Even some Democrat governors such as New York’s Andrew Cuomo have refused to support higher income taxes and have put the union bosses on alert that they have abused taxpayers for too long.

    Would this count as an indication that the anti-tax crowd could give him trouble in the primaries?

    http://www.politico.com/arena/…

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