Month: November 2008

The supposed heir apparent to Joe Biden’s Senate seat, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, has pulled his name from consideration for the soon-to-be-open seat, according to Chris Cillizza.

This actually may not come as that big a surprise, as Beau Biden will be deploying to Iraq for a year as a military lawyer and will not be available to serve in the Senate during that time. Importantly, the younger Biden did not rule out running for the seat in the 2010 special election, when he would be done with his military obligation.

So, this really doesn’t alter the conundrum that we talked about last week facing incoming governor Jack Markell (or outgoing governor Ruth Ann Minner, depending on the order in which the handovers happen): does Lt. Governor (and gubernatorial primary loser) John Carney get the nod, with the expectation of a permanent post, or does an elder statesman placeholder get the seat for two years, followed by Beau Biden (or a battle royale between Biden and Carney)?

The Alaska Department of Elections has posted an updated count of their hotly-contested Senate race, and Begich has doubled his lead:

Mark Begich (D): 146,286

Ted Stevens (R): 143,912

The Anchorage Daily News reports that more results will be posted between 4 and 5pm Alaska Time. Looks like we’ll finally put this sucker to bed today.

The Alaska election website was just updated and Begich’s lead is up to 2,374 votes.  Not sure if this is it or there are more votes to count.  By my very quick math this is outside of recount territory of 0.5% of the total.

http://elect.alaska.net/data/r…

First Read has the unconfirmed news that Barack Obama has selected Eric Holder, the former deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno, to take the big job:

President-elect Obama has offered Eric Holder the position of attorney general, and Holder has accepted it, according to sources involved in the process. The formal announcement has been held up while Obama transition team members ran the idea past key senators. And Obama wanted to announce members of his financial team first — Treasury Secretary and so on.

Holder is a former superior court judge and U.S. attorney in Washington and a former prosecutor in the Public Integrity section of the Justice Department. He was Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno, during which he was well regarded. At one point, he strongly considered running for mayor of Washington, D.C., but decided being the No. 2 official at Justice was too good to pass up.

An oft-mentioned possibility for AG up until now was Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, whom many Dems consider a dream candidate to run for John McCain’s (possibly open) Senate seat in 2010. It’s still possible that she could be placed elsewhere in Obama’s cabinet, but for now, she still appears to be available.

Quinnipiac has released a new poll today testing the 2010 waters in Florida, and their numbers confirm what we’ve known for a long time: GOP Sen. Mel Martinez is in rough shape as his first term expires.

Only 36% believe that Martinez deserves to be re-elected, while 38% of voters say he does not. In a match-up against “the Democratic candidate”, Martinez only pulls in 36% of the vote to the Democrat’s 40%. His favorable rating is similarly lackluster: 31-28, with a plurality (37%) saying they haven’t heard enough to form an opinion of the man. Quinnipiac’s Peter Brown calls these numbers “not awful”, but that’s only true by perhaps a hair’s width of difference. They’re certainly not numbers that provide an incumbent with a sense of comfort two years out from his first re-election.

Of course, an opportunity like this one will only pan out if Dems can recruit a solid candidate — for my money, I think I’ll take state CFO Alex Sink. Sink has the highest name recognition and favorable rating of all the potential Senate candidates tested in this poll (Reps. Allen Boyd, Kendrick Meek, and state Senator-elect Dan Gelber being the others), but there are numerous other options available on the table right now.

Stephanie Tubbs-Jones was the Representative from OH-11 (in and around Cleveland, basically)until her sudden tragic death in August. The Cuyahoga County Democrats chose her former chief of staff, Marcia Fudge, from a very crowded field, to endorse in a special primary election, which was held on Oct 14.

After the county Party endorsed Fudge, a number of contenders dropped out and Fudge easily won the primary, for the special election to fill the remaining two months of this term. Today is that special election.She is the only candidate on the ballot. Her automatic win means that she will enjoy a two month edge in seniority over the other members of the new class of Reps.

And (of course) she already easily won the General Election on Nov 4 for the new, full term starting in January. It’s an 85% Democratic District.

But there is one big question looming. After the 2010 census, Ohio is going to lose two seats in the U.S. House. And, if they can hang on, the Democrats will control the State General Assembly House of Representatives and the Governorship.

OH-11 is the only U.S. District in Ohio which has a majority of African-American and other minorities. It is also BY FAR the most Democratic in the state under the gerrymandering of the GOP.

In the other urban areas in Ohio, the GOP has tried to carefully slice the suburbs and exurbia with pieces of the inner cities to create House Districts that they can control. (Don’t even talk to me about the General Assembly, especially the Senate…)

That is until 2006 when Zack Space was able to capture an open “scandal” seat in OH-18. And now this year, we have successfully flipped OH-16 and OH-01 and will probably capture OH-15.

So back to reapportionment. The GOP has been able to hold majority control of our “purple” state by creating seats that are solidly but NOT overwhelmingly Republican. On the other hand they have created Democratic seats (OH-09,OH-10, OH-11 and OH-17) which “quarantine” very large numbers of urban Democratic voters.

Will we be able to redraw the map, with two less seats and still be able to maintain Districts with such high concentration of urban Democratic voters?

With Republican Gov. Linda Lingle of Hawaii term-limited in 2010, Democrats have a good shot at picking up the Governor’s office next cycle. Who should run for the big job? And who will the Republicans nominate to defend the seat?

Democratic Sen. Dan Inouye will also be up for re-election in 2010, and would be unbeatable if he wanted another term. But Inouye will be 86 that year, and is unsurprisingly the subject of retirement rumors. If he calls it quits, Lingle is obviously the GOP’s best bet to make this a race, but there are several Democrats on the bench who could make strong candidates. Who should run?

(Cross-posted at C4O Democrats)

It wasn’t that long ago when I was just crying in my bedroom, not knowing what I could do next. Prop 8 had passed in California, and it felt like I was completely stripped of my human rights. Why did everything go so wrong when it seemed like the worst had just ended with Barack Obama’s victory?

But in the next few days, hope returned. Lawsuits were filed to protect people’s rights. People soon took to the streets to protest the temporary “win” for hate. And most importantly, a new civil rights movement was born as people began organizing to show the state, the nation, and the world that love conquers all.

So how has a temporary defeat resulted in a sudden push for victory?

In the months before the November 4 election, the “old school” LGBT political organizations (like Human Rights Campaign and The Task Force) and a HUGE group of elite “old school” West Coast political consultants decided to run a top-down, cautious campaign to defeat Prop 8. There was little mention of the married couples about to lose their legal rights. There were no feet on the ground organized by the campaign to talk to neighbors in the community about the threat to everyone’s civil rights posed by Prop 8. There were just a 12-page long phone bank script and rounds of TV ads trying to respond to the constant barrage of lies pounding the airwaves. That was a recipe for disaster.

Fortunately in the days following the disappointing election day results, something changed. Everyday people rose up to fight for their rights. Suddenly, an angry (but peaceful) uprising was transforming into a full-fledged movement. And then, it spread beyond California. It became a national uprising for equal rights.

And really, this is why I now feel a calm sense of reassuring hope. Now don’t get me wrong, I refuse to become overconfident in expecting the California Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8 and/or a successful repeal campaign in 2010 and 2012. Rather, I am glad that so many of us have now realized that we are working to make victory happen.

I was once told by a New Age influenced family member that “you create your own reality”. At first, I scoffed it off. But now, I know what she meant. We create our own reality by taking action, joining the impact, making it happen. We have the power now to make our case to the court, convince the voters, overturn Prop 8, and guarantee civil rights for all.

The power is ours. The time is now. What can we do in the coming days, weeks, and months ahead to end hateful discrimination and let love prevail?

From the Shreveport Times:

Vice President Dick Cheney will be guest of honor Friday at a fundraiser for Dr. John Fleming, Republican hopeful for the 4th Congressional District seat now held by Shreveporter Jim McCrery, a fellow political pachyderm who chose not to run for re-election.

The event will be at 10 a.m. at a private residence in Shreveport and is by invitation only, said Fleming, who won the Republican stake in the congressional race in a hard-fought Nov. 4 runoff against fellow Republican and Shreveport businessman Chris Gorman.

Democrat Paul Carmouche isn’t taking this one sitting down — in fact, he’s dishing out some duckies of his own (via press release):

John Fleming has invited guests to pay $10,000 for their picture with Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday.   In honor of his visit, Paul Carmouche’s Congressional campaign has invited the public to attend “Coffee with Carmouche” where anyone can come and enjoy coffee and doughnuts with Paul and talk about their issues of concern.   The first 25 people through the door will receive a rubber duck, to symbolize the Vice President’s status as a lame duck. […]

“This campaign is about the people, not the powerful,” Carmouche said.  “I will always keep an open door in Congress, and listen to the concerns and needs of my constituents.”

“In tough economic times, it is ironic that Dr. Fleming would host a $10,000 a person fundraiser with the very symbol of the failed policies of the past eight years,” Carmouche campaign spokesmen Bert Kaufman said.  “Mr. Cheney’s visit underscores just how out of touch and risky Dr. Fleming is for the voters of the 4th Congressional District.”

Geaux ‘Mouche! We all know how well-received Darth Cheney was in his last appearance in a Southern special election.

Cross posted at www.21stdems.org/blog

This month we won a historic electoral victory. But our work didn’t end on election day – it only started.

As President-elect Obama said on election night:

“This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.”

The time to make real, lasting change is upon us.

Now we must repair the damage inflicted by eight years of Republican misrule, and put our country back on track. As progressives, we must fight to ensure that the Democrats in control of our government respect the voters and enact policies that put the American people first.

The first 100 days of our new government could very well determine America’s path for years to come. To make sure our voices are heard, 21st Century Democrats has drafted a petition outlining our priorities to the Democratic leadership. The petition was based on feedback from our membership, and our desire to see progressive activism extend beyond the election and into

This is a critical time for our country. We can’t sit back and let the Republicans in Washington push the Democrats to the right. We’d like to as everyone to take a moment to check out our Progressive Priorities 2009 petition, and share it with your friends. Your signing the petition will let our leadership know that we want progressive change, not a Republican-lite government.

Thanks!