Tag: Candidates

Happened across this while skimming Blue Indiana.  Apparently, the Sheriff of Lake County, Roy Dominguez, announced when addressing a gathering of law school students his hopes to run for Governor of Indiana in 2012.

http://www.blueindiana.net/dia…

I’ll be the first to say I know absolutely nothing about Indiana, the distant gubernatorial race, or Dominguez.  I take that back…I know I’d like to see Evan Bayh swallowed and then spit out by an anaconda…but that’s all!  This guy may turn out to be a gadfly or for all I know he could turn out to be an underdog we can root for, I don’t know.

What I do know is that the guy seems interesting:

http://www.lakecountysheriff.c…

He also didn’t fall flat on his face with his choice of venue.  He apparently tied the announcement in very nicely with the speech topic of overcoming racism and prejudice and following your dreams, so it sounds like the guy can weave a narrative and impress people:

http://www.post-trib.com/news/…

Also of interest, there’s polling out on the favorability ratings of Bayh and Lugar as well as Obama:

http://www.blueindiana.net/dia…

I’m surprised Obama has such high favorables to be honest, and if he can keep them at that level in 2012 then maybe there’s a chance we can drag some Dems into the governorship and Lugar’s seat if he retires.  It may be a little too early to think about this, but it’s out there so we might as well do so.  Personally, I’m hoping to hear from someone who can provide more information on this than me.

Hillary Clinton has pulled far, far ahead of Barack Obama in New Hampshire.  And that’s bad news for us as Democrats.  Why?  Well, think of it this way:

In order to win Congressional and Senate races in the more “purple” states, we need someone at the top of the ticket whose presence energizes in a positive way.  In 2004, down-ballot Dems had to run away from John Kerry, who was a liability.  Hillary is hated throughout middle America, and will not be able to appear with candidates at fundraisers or any other event.  If Hillary gets the nomination, she might squeak by with the presidency, but we will lose many, many races down-ballot.  Somebody stop her . . . please!!!!!!!!!

21st Century Democrats released
our new
2007-2008
candidate questionnaire today.

Here at 21st Century Democrats, we think too many organizations endorse
candidates based on a checklist of surveys of incremental policies that won’t do
much to fix what is wrong in this country. Checklist questionnaires tell you if
a candidate supports your issue, but they don’t tell you whether a candidate is
actually going to do something about it if they get elected.

Political strategists and consultants tell our candidates to support incremental
policies which will not offend voters. The strategy is to play it safe and wait
for Republicans to fail so badly that voters will elect Democrats. This is
exactly what happened in 2006.

This strategy doesn’t inspire people to vote. When you act like a Republican,
you fail to build the political will for making the massive policy changes we
need. We believe electing a Democratic majority is not an end itself, but rather
the means to an end. Our ultimate goal is to create a real progressive society –
one that is just, fair, tolerant, and sustainable. So if you really want to get
there, you need to identify and elect candidates who want to build a progressive
society and have the leadership skills to take us there.

Leadership is about offering solutions and building the political will to
support them. That’s why we work to elect Democrats who will be leaders inside
the Democratic Party on Capitol Hill, in state Houses, counties, and cities
across the country – Democrats who will take us to the next level.

We think the best way to find visionary candidates to support is to skip the
standard checklist that a lot of DC groups use and, instead, to engage in a
conversation with candidates about their vision and bold ideas. Most candidates
find this very different and very refreshing. Filling out our
questionnaire is the first part of this conversation, a way for candidates
to introduce themselves and their ideas to us. And in the process, they learn
we’re not business as usual.

In 2006, we were proud to support
a great slate of
candidates, including
Jon
Tester and
Sherrod
Brown in the Senate, and
Keith
Ellison and
Kirsten
Gillibrand in the House. And 21st Century Dems were fighting in the trenches
of state and local races, too –
Ted
Strickland for Governor of Ohio,
Mark
Ritchie for Secretary of State of Minnesota,
Jamie
Raskin for the Maryland State Senate, and
Ike
Leggett for County Executive in Montgomery County, Maryland. We supported
Andrew
Rice for State Senate in Oklahoma and
Gabby
Giffords for Congress in Arizona. We helped candidates all across the
country, up and down the ballot, some targeted and some who were not. And we won
9 of 11 primaries we were involved in.

We’re excited about the 2008 campaign season, and we’re looking forward to
working with more visionary candidates. Last time around, 21st Century Democrats
helped get some big wins for Democratic candidates, and this time we’re looking
to do even more.