Month: June 2007

This is a pretty obscure primary result from a downticket race in Virginia for the Swing State Project to highlight, but you might remember State Sen. Benjamin Lambert as one of the few Democrats who crossed over and endorsed then-Senator George Allen last fall in his bitter race against Jim Webb.  Lambert, a senior African-American state lawmaker in the Democratic caucus, gave a crucial boost to Allen’s campaign in the midst of the raging “macaca” controversy.  Luckily, it wasn’t enough to keep Allen buoyant, and it also inspired a primary challenge from Webb ally Donald McEachin, a member of the House of Delegates–a campaign that proved successful tonight with a 58-42 loss for Lambert.  Somewhat amusingly, Lambert lamented the lack of help he received from Allen in the primary campaign after his loss became apparent:

Lambert said his support of Allen probably cost him his job. “I thought the Allen folks would have helped me more, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Let that serve as a lesson to Democrats who may want to play footsie with Congressional Republicans at this crucial time.

Disappointing news:

Democrat Ron Sparks announced Tuesday that he will not challenge Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008.

Sparks, the state agriculture commissioner, said he decided not to run after talking with state Sen. Vivian Figures of Mobile, who is running.

“I believe that the best chance Democrats have to win that seat is if we are unified and avoid a primary battle,” Sparks said in a released statement.

Sparks is the second Democrat to publicly consider a campaign before opting out; U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, announced in January he would not run for the Senate next year.

Democratic primaries in Alabama have had a history of being nasty, divisive affairs in the past two decades, and it’s understandable that Sparks wouldn’t want to face Sessions with a mortal wound delivered by an opponent–or by meddlesome Republicans.  Still, this is a profoundly disappointing development.  Sparks could have made this a real race.

Race Tracker: AL-Sen

Those were the bold, courageous words of Jim Whitehead, the Republican frontrunner in the June 19th special election to fill the seat of the late Rep. Charlie Norwood of Georgia.  It should be no surprise, then, that Whitehead is doing the best that he can to avoid the tough questions from his potential constituents by ducking as many debates as he can.  After all, he might have to get grilled by people like retired Col. Robert Thomas:

Jim Whitehead’s comment that “Iraq has not been a big thing in our district” because it’s not in our back yard is disturbing.

As a retired soldier and parent of a soldier serving in Iraq, I am very concerned about the war. The Iraq war and 3,422 American dead (as of May 21) may not be a front-burner issue for Mr. Whitehead – he apparently thinks voter fraud is more important – but most of us are very concerned. He says he supports our troops. However, his words suggest he is more concerned about protecting tax dollars. He avoids discussing Iraq and portrays the war as only “another issue.”

Does he realize that virtually all of the Army’s equipment is worn out and needs replaced to maintain readiness in a dangerous world? Does he know what this will cost? With each additional tour in Iraq, soldiers face increased risks of post-traumatic stress and other emotional disorders, and many are on their fourth tour. Post-concussion syndrome from constant exposure to improvised explosive devices often results in permanent brain damage. We are saving more wounded soldiers than ever before, but many are coming home with severe disabilities. We must care for these self-sacrificing veterans for years to come.

Does Mr. Whitehead realize how much this will cost? Where will this money come from? Our soldiers are enduring unspeakable hardships for our freedom, and need our real support! We must put our money where our mouths are. Mr. Whitehead waves the flag and supports our troops as long as it doesn’t cause a tax increase. He talks about ending special projects, but he wants to fight to return the money to us instead of rebuilding our army and caring for soldiers.

Supporting our military and maintaining a safe and free America requires sacrifice and money. Jim Whitehead doesn’t get it, and we need someone who does.

Robert W. Thomas, Evans

(Editor’s note: The writer is a retired U.S. Army colonel.)

James Marlow, the Democratic front-runner, on the other hand, supports the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and would have voted to override the President’s veto of the recent Iraq supplemental bill containing withdrawal language.  The dichotomy couldn’t be clearer than that.  While Whitehead has outraised Marlow by a nearly 5-to-1 ratio, it could be very interesting to see to what extent the better-funded Republican vote fractures next week, and if Marlow can slip himself into a run-off.

Race Tracker: GA-10

Yep we have hit the magical 300. 17 months before election day too. We have so many more candidates in the field this cycle than at the same time in 2005.

Once again go and take a look at the 
2008 Race Tracker Wiki. & DCCritters.

Below the fold for all the news.
(cross posted at MyDD and Daily Kos)

300 races filled! This of course includes 233 districts held by Democratic Congresscritters.

But we also have 67 GOP held districts with confirmed Democratic opponents.

So here is where we are at (GOP Districts):
Districts with confirmed candidates – 67
Districts with unconfirmed candidates – 6
Districts with rumoured candidates – 29
Districts without any candidates – 100

1) The GOP held districts with confirmed Democratic challengers are as follows:
AL-04,
AK-AL,
AZ-01,
AZ-02,
AZ-03,
AR-03,
CA-04,
CA-24,
CA-26,
CA-41,
CA-48,
CA-50,
CO-04,
CT-04,
FL-01,
FL-08,
FL-09,
FL-13, [Either through the House of Reps investigation or Jennings has committed to another run.]
FL-15,
FL-21,
FL-24,
FL-25,
GA-10 [SPECIAL ELECTION JUNE 19TH],
ID-01,
IL-10,
IL-14,
IN-06,
IA-04,
IA-05,
LA-01,
MD-01,
MD-06,
MI-07,
MN-06,
MO-06,
MO-09,
MT-AL,
NE-02,
NV-03,
NJ-07,
NJ-11,
NM-01,
NM-02,
NY-25,
NY-29,
NC-03,
NC-08,
NC-09,
OH-01,
OH-02,
OH-07,
OH-15,
OH-16,
PA-03,
PA-15,
TX-04,
TX-08,
TX-10,
TX-11,
TX-13,
TX-14,
VA-05,
VA-06,
WA-04,
WA-08,
WI-01,
WY-AL,

2) The following 2 GOP held districts have candidates that are expected to run but are yet to confirm:
NJ-05,
NY-26,
OH-14,
PA-18,
VA-10,
WV-02,

3) The following 33 GOP held districts have rumoured candidates – please note that some of these “rumours” are extremely tenuous!
AL-01,
AZ-06,
CA-03,
CA-42,
CA-45,
DE-AL,
FL-06,
FL-10,
FL-12,
IN-03,
IN-04,
KY-05,
MI-09,
MN-02,
NE-03,
NV-02,
NJ-02,
NJ-03,
NJ-04,
NY-03,
NY-13,
NC-05,
OK-04,
PA-06,
TN-07,
TX-02,
UT-03,
VA-01,
VA-11,

4) And last but not least the following 106 districts have not a single rumoured candidate:
AL-02,
AL-03,
AL-06,
CA-02,
CA-19,
CA-21,
CA-22,
CA-25,
CA-40,
CA-44,
CA-46,
CA-49,
CA-52,
CO-05,
CO-06,
FL-04,
FL-05,
FL-07,
FL-14,
FL-18,
GA-01,
GA-03,
GA-06,
GA-07,
GA-09,
GA-11,
ID-02,
IL-06,
IL-11,
IL-13,
IL-15,
IL-16,
IL-18,
IL-19,
IN-05,
KS-01,
KS-04,
KY-01,
KY-02,
KY-04,
LA-04,
LA-05,
LA-06,
LA-07,
MI-02,
MI-03,
MI-04,
MI-06,
MI-08,
MI-10,
MI-11,
MI-12,
MN-03,
MS-01,
MS-03,
MO-02,
MO-07,
MO-08,
NE-01,
NY-23,
NC-06,
NC-10,
OH-03,
OH-04,
OH-05,
OH-08,
OH-12,
OK-01,
OK-03,
OK-05,
OR-02,
PA-05,
PA-09,
PA-16,
PA-19,
SC-01,
SC-02,
SC-03,
SC-04,
TN-01,
TN-02,
TN-03,
TX-01,
TX-03,
TX-05,
TX-06,
TX-07,
TX-12,
TX-19,
TX-21,
TX-24,
TX-26,
TX-31,
TX-32,
UT-01,
VA-02,
VA-04,
VA-07,
WA-05,
WI-05,
WI-06,

Praise to those states where we already have a full slate of house candidates – Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

It is also interesting to note that we have only one race left to fill in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia. Thats 16 states with a full slate (17 when I can conform Unger in WV-02) and 6 states with one race to fill! That is almost half the states full or nearly full 17 months before election day, an impressive feat indeed!

Please note that in some races others at the racetracker site have confirmed candidates that I haven’t. This is because to satisfy me a confirmed candidate has either filed with the FEC, The Sec of State or has an active campaign website, or even if they come and blog and say yep I am running. Others are not so rigorous.

It is also great to see candidates in VA-06 and TX-11, 2 of 10 districts we did not contest in 2006!

We are well on track to beat the 425 races we contested in 2006.

*** Tips, rumours and what not in the comments please.***

Check out this release posted on the DCCC’s site on the Congressional race heating up in Pennsylvania’s 3rd.  U.S. Rep. Phil English, a relatively uncharismatic candidate, has managed to coast to election victories over the last twelve years as a result of dysfunction within Erie’s Democratic party (spoken as a former resident of Erie, not as an expert!). 

But when Kyle Foust, Chair of the Erie County Council, announced his interest in running against Rep. English, the waves started to work through English’s infrastructure.  Foust has a big family name in Erie (his father was a legend in Erie local politics), and the district has more registered dems than republicans. 

From the DCCC site:

Judging by the reaction of English and his staff, it’s clear they consider Foust a credible challenger. English expressed “surprise” that Foust would acknowledge interest in a congressional run, considering it’s a year away. And Brad Moore, the Erie County Republican Party chairman and a former English aide, wrote in a news release, “The ink isn’t even dry yet for Councilman Foust’s position on the November ballot to represent his County Council district for another term, and he is already declaring he intends to run for Congress.”

That’s not subtle. The political chase is on.

MyDD’s Jonathan Singer recently had an excellent pair of posts chronicling the ethics controversies currently swirling around two of Alaska’s Republican federal statewide officeholders: Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens.  While the FBI is sniffing around Stevens and his son, Young has been catching heat for inserting a $10 million dollar earmark in a 2006 transportation bill that just so happened to boost the fortunes of a local real estate developer–and Don Young fundraiser–over the objections of local officials:

The Republican congressman whose district does include Coconut Road says he did not seek the money. County authorities have twice voted not to use it, until Mr. Young and the district congressman wrote letters warning that a refusal could jeopardize future federal money for the county. […]

Mr. Young’s role, first reported by The Naples Daily News, has escalated objections to the project. Environmentalists say the interchange would threaten wetlands. And a Republican commissioner of Lee County, Ray Judah, is campaigning against the interchange, calling it an example of Congressional corruption that is “a cancer on the federal government.”

“It would appear that Don Young was doing a favor for a major contributor,” Mr. Judah said.

With former Governor Tony Knowles having flamed out in two successive elections, Democrats are setting their eyes on recruiting who they believe will be their party’s next great hope to take on one of these highly-entrenched incumbents next year:

With a trio of stories today involving ethical allegations against Alaska Republicans, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich’s phone started ringing early with calls from Capitol Hill.

Begich, a popular mayor who won his second three-year term a year ago, is being courted to challenge one or the other of Alaska’s longtime Republican incumbents, who have more than 73 years of combined congressional experience. He’s the son of the late Rep. Nick Begich (D-Alaska), who died in a 1972 plane crash with the late Rep. Hale Boggs (D-La.), in a remote part of the Frontier State. Begich, now 44, was 10 at the time.

Facing a term limit in the spring of 2009, Begich is in a minor bidding war between the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — which wants him to challenge Rep. Don Young (R), who took his father’s seat after the crash — and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — seeking a challenger to Sen. Ted Stevens (R), 83, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history.

Now, if you were Begich, which race would you prefer to take a crack at?  Barring a retirement by either of these geezers (which is not outside the realm of possibility), I’d lean in favor of a Begich vs. Young match-up.  Both Young and Stevens are institutions within Alaska, but Stevens moreso, what with his seniority and his curious tie collection.  And while Young has cruised to comfortable re-election margins after a couple of scares in the early 1990s, the luster was removed after his relatively humble performance against little-known Democrat Diane Benson in 2006, where Young only won by a 57-40 margin despite outspending Benson by a nearly 10-to-1 ratio.  (Compare that to his 2002 and 2004 wins of 75-17 and 71-23, respectively.)

On top of that, the potential negative campaign narrative against Young could be devastating.  The last time I checked, Alaska and Florida are on polar opposite ends of the United States, and that could be especially damning if Begich and the DCCC slam Young for being “the unofficial representative of Florida.”   “Don Young (FL-AL)” has a pretty good ring to it, wouldn’t you say?

Race Tracker: AK-Sen | AK-AL

(Bumped – promoted by DavidNYC)

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.  Or so they say.

Anyway, let’s take a break from our usual weekly grind of horse race open threads, and instead turn to summer reading material.  What’s on your reading list this summer?  I’ve recently read The Thumpin’: How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution by Naftali Bendavid and World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks.  Both were excellent reads, but alas, only the former mentioned the Swing State Project in its text.

The Hotline picks up on an article written by FindLaw’s Vikram David Amar exploring the constitutionality of a state legislature’s ability to constrain the Governor’s choices for a U.S. Senate vacancy, such as in Wyoming, where Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal must select one of three options presented to him by the state Republican Party in the wake of Republican Sen. Craig Thomas’ recent passing:

He notes that the U.S. Constitution only says that state legislatures may “empower” govs to make SEN appointments. This raises the question whether 1). A legislature can force a governor to appoint a senator if a governor choses to leave a SEN vacancy, and 2). Whether the legislature, once it’s empowered the governor to make an appointment, can give itself or a state party any ability to shape that appointment.

Amar notes that the phrase “”as the legislature may direct”, which appears elsewhere in the Constitution, does NOT appear in the relevant SEN appointment section, which might lead one to conclude that a legislature may only give its governor no power or total power regarding a SEN appointment.

[…]

But let’s say Freudenthal doesn’t want to feel obligated to pick one of the WY GOP’s 3 nominees? As Amar points out, he simply could appoint a Dem or GOPer of his own choice, at which point the U.S. Senate (the “Judge of the … Qualifications of its own members”) would have to determine if it accepts the new member or not. Of course, a SCOTUS case could also easily ensue from such a move.

As a Dem in such a deep-red state such as WY, one wonders if Freudenthal would really pursue such an “in-your-face” move as simply trying to appoint his own selection, on the assumption he wants to preserve good relations with the GOP legislature and his own political viability. Ultimately, there’s a good chance he’ll simply appoint one of the 3 GOP nominees presented him. And yet, one wonders if it’s not out of the question that he might attempt to dangle the threat of a peremptory appointment as a bargaining chip. Perhaps he would send word to the GOP central cmte regarding which candidates he would prefer or dislike, hinting that he might force the constitutional question if they fail to comply?

Perhaps he might insist on a compromise whereby he appoints a GOPer if the legislature agrees to pass a special election bill that would elect a new senator in November 2007 (when a Dem might have a better chance of winning, with no presidential coattails to worry about)? Who knows?

Of course, the major caveat is that we’re talking about Dave Freudenthal here, a guy who is probably the least partisan Democratic Governor in the country.  Who could forget his 11th hour support of Gary Trauner, even as he cruised to an easy re-election?  Or his dismissal of Howard Dean and the national party as ‘too liberal’ and ‘out of touch’?

It’s pretty hard to imagine Freudenthal playing hardball with the state GOP.  But, who knows?  He’s term-limited, and perhaps if the choices presented to him are that bad, maybe his passions will be stirred into provoking a constitutional battle?

UPDATE: Rollicking DailyKos discussion here.

Race Tracker: WY-Sen

Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s first announced opponent, Mikal Watts, is bringing the noise:

San Antonio trial lawyer Mikal Watts has launched his bid for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination by donating and loaning his campaign fund a total of $3.8 million — an amount equal to Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn’s cash on hand.

“I took John Cornyn’s first-quarter report and matched it to the penny,” Watts said.

“We’re going to start with a level playing field, and then we’re going to start raising money and see what the people of Texas have to say.”

Watts, 39, donated $1.9 million to his exploratory committee and loaned it another $1.9 million. He formed the committee June 1, and its paperwork was available Wednesday.

And Watts won’t have much trouble raising money, if his $1.1 million fundraiser for the DSCC back in April is any indication.  Altogether a shrewd move by Watts — you’ve got to believe that some of Watts’ potential primary opponents would think twice about going up against that kind of money.  And, as Burnt Orange Report commenter colin argues, if you’re going to partially self-fund, you might as well do it early to stave off “sluggish fundraising” narratives.

UPDATE: State Rep. Rick Noriega, another potential entrant in the Democratic primary, responds:

Noriega said Thursday: “I am seriously looking at the race, but whether or not I get in or not, I have no intention of getting into a back and forth with a bank account. I do not want to reinforce the unhealthy idea that a candidate is judged solely on money.

“My focus would be the people of the state of Texas and whether (GOP U.S. Sen. John) Cornyn’s rubber stamp support for Bush, and the national leadership that has failed to provide a clear mission for our involvement overseas, is good for Texas.

(H/T: BOR)

Race Tracker: TX-Sen

When I was a 17-year-old high school student in Austin, I volunteered for Congressman Jake Pickle, the legendary Texas Congressman who held the CD-10 seat for 31 years, from 1963 until he retired in 1994. Back then CD-10 was known as “LBJ’s District” because a young Lyndon Johnson had held it. LBJ used the seat to lead implementation of FDR’s New Deal, and his efforts brought electricity to central Texas.

Congressman Pickle was a worthy heir to the LBJ legacy. His work to reorganize Social Security has kept the program solvent and functioning into the present. He also brought a great deal of research and technology investment to the area, and was a strong and effective advocate for higher education and the University of Texas.

Now I’m running for that seat myself. And though the district has changed dramatically (thanks to Tom DeLay and his partisan allies), the promise of public service I learned in Congressman Pickle’s office still holds true today: honor the past and imagine the future.

Washington used to do a better job of addressing the needs and values of our citizens, thanks to public servants like Mr. Pickle. Not a perfect job, but a better one.

No more. The partisan zealots who have seized control have us headed in the wrong direction. There is a dangerous disconnect in the foreign policy they pursue under our name, and a mean-spirited push to do away with, rather than improve, vital services here at home.

We need a change in Washington. Now.

From Iraq to immigration to health care, Mike McCaul is neither honoring the past, nor imagining a future that makes sense. Simplistic, moralistic stands taken by poll-tested politicians haven’t made things better, nor has his rubber-stamping the failed Bush administration’s every policy.

It won’t be easy to make a fresh start. But with your help we can. Please come to my web site at www.dangrantforcongress.com today and sign up or contribute if you can. We’re especially looking for volunteers from the district – Ted Ankrum ran a great campaign last time and I’m looking to build on those efforts.

I know if you help send me to Washington, D.C. we’ll have a representative that everyone in the district can be proud of. I saw Congressman Pickle at work first hand, and I’ll work hard to honor the past and imagine the future.