Swing State Project

Exxon Ed Whitfield’s Hypocrisy knows no bounds. We have already seen how he and his campaign believe that theft and vandalism is a Christian Value. However, on no issue does Exxon Eddie seem to be more Hypocritical than on the issue of Healthcare.  

He talks a real good game:

While pharmaceuticals have helped millions of Americans live longer and better lives, the cost of modern medicines has skyrocketed in recent years. Many Americans are forced to take chances with their health, simply because they cannot afford the costs of modern medicines. This is unacceptable. Medicine should never be a luxury item. I am committed to working with my colleagues in Congress to drive down the prices of prescription drugs and make them affordable for the millions of Americans who currently take them. This includes our work to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit for our seniors, as well as efforts to bring down the costs of prescription drugs across the board, so that all Americans can enjoy the better quality of life that these medications bring.

http://whitfield.house.gov/iss…

Now, although that does make me feel warm and fuzzy all over, it just does not match at all with his voting record. One case in point:

Would require negotiating with pharmaceutical manufacturers the prices that may be charged to prescription drug plan sponsors for covered Medicare part D drugs.

Proponents support voting YES because:

This legislation is an overdue step to improve part D drug benefits. The bipartisan bill is simple and straightforward. It removes the prohibition from negotiating discounts with pharmaceutical manufacturers, and requires the Secretary of Health & Human Services to negotiate. This legislation will deliver lower premiums to the seniors, lower prices at the pharmacy and savings for all taxpayers.

It is equally important to understand that this legislation does not do certain things. HR4 does not preclude private plans from getting additional discounts on medicines they offer seniors and people with disabilities. HR4 does not establish a national formulary. HR4 does not require price controls. HR4 does not hamstring research and development by pharmaceutical houses. HR4 does not require using the Department of Veterans Affairs’ price schedule.

While this bill would have helped all who struggle with high drug prices, this bill could have actually saved the government untold amounts of your tax dollars, yet Exxon Eddie would seek to lecture us all on Government waste. Yet another hypocrisy.

And the worst part is that Exxon Eddie will continue to vote against anything that even takes a step towards any kind of Universal Healthcare. It is a shame for Kentucky’s Children because Exxon Ed Whitfield couldn’t even find it in his heart to cast a vote for 6 million AmericanCHILDREN!! He was too busy doling out Corporate Welfare, and fighting for Lobbyists.

Exxon Eddie has voted to deny coverage to those who MAY not be able to pay. He has voted to limit all of our rights of Retribution in the courts provided us by our Constitution. In his 14 yrs. of representation, Ed Whitfield has managed to vote in the interest of Public Health a whopping12% of the time.

This is important for Democrats on the national level that want to have enough votes to pass major improvements on Health Care. We all know the fight that awaits us from the money that can be raised by the Insurance and Drug lobby. We need every single vote possible to even have a chance of taking baby steps in the right direction.

We can change a definate vote against improved Health Care in America, into a vote we can count on. Heather Ryan has stated that working for change in our healthcare system is the first Fight she wants to be part of in the new Congress.

She has the fire to fight the Republicans here:

She has a new-look website and has pleasantly surprised Democrats in this district with her fiery campaign. I know the consensus is that Democrats can’t win in this district and Kentucky in general, but this district has been highly ignored while the Republicans have invested here. Our district has a Democratic tradition and is over 60% registered Democrats. If we get the resources we need, we can win this race.

I think no matter what else we all may disagree on, we all know that we simply have to elect more votes to Congress, votes that are serious about real change. Heather offers us New Leadership:

Not just for our district and Kentucky, but for grassroots Democrats who desperately need someone who won’t cave on major votes. How many times have we been frustrated at a Congress that consistently doesn’t have the votes to fight? We have a solid shot at adding a Democratic vote here.

I have set a goal of raising $10,000 for Heather on the blogs before the November elections. If she can get the funds to run T.V. in this huge district, she will win. This district has seen no progress under Whitfield and if the voters of this district are shown that, they will come home to vote Democrat.

Please help Heather’s campaign. With all the millions floating around in the blogosphere, just a bit of that would win this race. Invest in real change here:

I am almost 40% there!!

Polls have now closed in Colorado, where we’ll be following the results in the CO-02, CO-05, and CO-06 primaries. Polls have also closed in Connecticut as of an hour ago; results for CT-04 are available here.

RESULTS: Associated Press | 9News

1:31AM: Polis declares victory. And it only cost him $5.3 million.

12:02AM: Sorry for the lack of updates; I just sliced a thumb in a kitchen mishap and decided to tend to that. Polis is still up by 1300 votes with 27% in. Lamborn (lucky bastard) and Coffman appear to be winners. Looks like the CO SoS will be turning blue in 2009.

10:54PM: 15% reporting in CO-02, and Polis is producing a bit of daylight: 43-39 (1400 votes).

10:51PM: That’s more like it. With 93% reporting, Mike Coffman leads Wil Armstrong by 42-32 (5600 votes). Looks like he has this one in the bag.

10:38PM: 10% reporting in CO-02, and Polis leads by 500 votes.

10:29PM: I think it’s ganja break time in CO-05 and CO-06…

10:23PM: Michael Phelps wins Gold #10!

10:18PM: 29 of 457 precincts reporting in CO-02 (6%), and Polis’ lead is trimmed down to 450 votes.

9:49PM: 4% reporting in CO-02, and Polis leads by 600 votes. And just in case you missed it, the AP called CT-04 for Jim Himes.

9:43PM: Thousands of votes are pouring in now. In CO-02, Polis leads by 42-40 (570 votes), while in CO-05, Lamborn has pulled ahead to a 46-29-26 (Crank-Rayburn) lead. Over in CO-06, Coffman is up big with a 42-32 lead.

9:36PM: Polis now leads by 42-38.

9:27PM: Some early numbers from CO-05: With a single precinct reporting, Lamborn leads Crank by three votes.

9:21PM: Coffman is leading Wil Armstrong by a 41-36 margin in the early ballots. With 0% of precincts reporting, many more votes are yet to be counted, of course.

9:17PM: Over in CT-04, SSP favorite Jim Himes is crushing loon candidate Lee Whitnum by 91-9 with 39% in.

9:15PM ET: The early votes are in, and Polis leads Fitz-Gerald by 41-38 in CO-02. This could be close.

SurveyUSA (8/9-11, likely voters, 7/12-14 in parens):

Kay Hagan (D): 41 (42)

Liddy Dole (R-inc): 46 (54)

Chris Cole (L): 7 (-)

(MoE: ±3.9%)

So the gap closes from 12 to 5 points, but here’s the rub: SUSA is now including Libertarian Chris Cole in the match-up, and it seems very doubtful that he’ll be able to perform this well on election day. For now, Cole is taking heavy chunks from males (11%), voters aged 18-34 (12%), and independents (21%). Those numbers will dissipate by November — likely in both directions.

It’s still good news for Hagan, who went up on the air with her first general election ad today. Dole’s also been hit recently by ads from the DSCC and Majority Action. Hopefully the two prongs of Hagan’s positives and the DSCC’s attacks will help to keep the numbers moving in the right direction.

SSP currently rates this race as Lean Republican.

(H/T: RandySF)

As I have been execting, Kay Hagan is closing in on Elizabeth Dole in a new Survey USA poll.

In an election for United States Senator in North Carolina today, 08/12/08, 12 weeks till votes are counted, incumbent Republican US Senator Elizabeth Dole edges Democratic State Senator Kay Hagan 46% to 41%, according to this latest SurveyUSA pre-election tracking poll conducted exclusively for WTVD-TV Raleigh. But: Libertarian Christopher Cole gets 7% today, which, when combined with another 5% of voters who are undecided, makes the Senate race today fascinating to watch and difficult to handicap. Compared to a SurveyUSA poll released four weeks ago, on 07/15/08, which did not include Cole by name, Hagan is flat, Dole is down. Cole gets 11% of male votes today, siphoning key votes Dole needs to win. Cole gets 12% of young votes today, siphoning key votes Hagan needs to win. Cole gets 9% of the white vote today, cutting Dole’s lead from 30+ points to 20 points. Though Dole holds 82% of the GOP base today, that’s down from 90% in July. 1 in 5 NC Independents today vote for Cole, which takes key votes away from both candidates. Dole is running for her second term in the United States Senate. Hagan is serving her fifth term in the North Carolina State Senate. Support for 3rd-Party candidates often collapses as Election Day nears, and that may or may not happen in North Carolina in 2008. Today, 12 weeks out, voters with a message they want to deliver to both Republicans and Democrats are using Cole as their protest vehicle.

This was taken before Kay launched her ads, which I expect to pull her even closer.

Another busy night tonight, with three primaries in Colorado:

• CO-02 (D): Jared Polis, Joan Fitzgerald and William Shafroth
• CO-05 (R): Doug Lamborn, Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn
• CO-06 (R): Steve Ward, Mike Coffman, Will Armstrong and Ted Harvey

Care to make any guesses? Also, by what margin will Jim Himes beat nutjob Lee Whitnum in CT-04’s Democratic primary? Polls close in Colorado at 9pm Eastern, and in Connecticut at 8pm.

The Florida Division of Elections has released their latest tallies of voter registration by congressional district (as of 7/28), and Democrats are posting some big gains since 2006 in targeted races this fall.

Let’s take a look at the numbers in the chart below. In the 2006 column, we have the GOP’s voter registration advantage in each district as of October 10th, 2006. In the next column, we have the most recent spread, followed by the net change. In the last column, we’ve ranked the districts according to the percentage change in the GOP-Dem spread. Take a peek:

The ground is shifting quickly in the Orlando-based 8th District, where GOP Rep. Ric Keller could be facing a real battle to hang onto his seat. The next biggest shift is in South Florida, where Democrats have posted huge registration gains in recent months, and where Democrats Annette Taddeo, Raul Martinez, and Joe Garcia are giving Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers the fight of their lives.

The biggest black eye for Florida Democrats continues to be the open seat of FL-15, where despite having cut into the GOP’s voter registration advantage by over 9000 votes, Democrats were not able to find a top-tier candidate for the race. Democrats held retiring Rep. Dave Weldon to a 56-44 margin with an unknown candidate in 2006, but it appears that our candidate this year won’t be much stronger: both Democrats in the race have raised under $40K each.

Still, there’s a lot of good news here, and we should see some exciting races in Florida this fall.

SurveyUSA (8/9-11, likely voters, 6/13-16 in parens):

Bruce Lunsford (D): 40 (46)

Mitch McConnell (R-inc): 52 (50)

(MoE: ±4%)

The June survey may have reflected a bit of a post-primary bounce for Lunsford, who hasn’t really been able to land any solid blows on Mitch McConnell since then. All things considered, Lunsford isn’t that far behind the heavily entrenched McConnell, and there’s still plenty of time left on the clock for this one to get interesting.

SSP currently rates this race as Likely Republican.

UPDATE: We get emails. Despite Kentucky having a Democratic voter registration advantage of 57D-33R-9I (the same breakdown of SUSA’s June poll), this time SUSA pegs the electorate at 50D-39R-9I. If you adjust the numbers back to the June breakdown, the gap closes to five points. I’m not so sure that we should place much faith in such a method, but it is true that most (if not all) of SUSA’s Kentucky polls from 2007 pegged Democrats at least a few points higher than 50% of the electorate.

(H/T: conspiracy)

This diary discusses a just announced major campaign by FreedomWorks Oregon to try and fool people into thinking that drilling is the only way to secure a sustainable energy future.  Major h/t to the Oregonian on this one (http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/energy_campaign.html).

Cross-Posted from Loaded Orygun: http://www.loadedorygun.net/sh…

According to an article published on the Oregonian’s website (link above), FreedomWorks Oregon announced today that it will launch a more than $1M campaign that intends to:

expose “how anti-energy radicals are opposed not just to energy development but to our modern way of life.”

 As evidence of this they cite a poll conducted by Republican pollster Moore Information services that shows that

solid majorities of Oregonians said they favored energy independence, construction of large wave energy farms in marine reserves off the coast and development of large wind energy farms “in scenic or wildlife sensitive areas in Oregon.”  More than two-thirds of poll respondents also said they believe that environmental groups “can be unfair and unreasonable in their efforts to stop energy development” and that they are unwilling to pay $6 a gallon or more for gas to protect the environment

.

Now you might be asking who FreedomWorks and Moore Information are, so see below for more:

FreedomWorks Oregon:

Founded by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) in 2004, FreedomWorks is a libertarian organization in the model of the Club for Growth.  They are well known for their efforts to propose the flat tax, curb lawsuit damages and school voucher programs.  They are also opposed to Net Neutrality.  The Oregon chapter is headed by Russ Walker, a longtime conservative activist in the state.

Moore Information:

Founded by Bob Moore in 1981, Moore Information is a Portland-based polling firm that works almost exclusively for Republican candidates (including Gordon Smith of Oregon and Don Young of AK).  They are well known for their biased polling questions, such as the following:

Q: “Why do you say things are on the wrong track?”

A (separated by commas): Too many liberals/democrats, education/schools, Condition of government/decision-making process, Irresponsible spending, Taxes, Economy/Business Development, Irresponsible/Unqualified Politicians, Gay Civil Rights, Health Care Concerns, Environmental Issues. See this question on page 2 of the document linked here: http://www.moore-info.com/MI_ORClimateDec07.pdf

His full client list is here: http://www.moore-info.com/clients.html.

So What should we do about it:

If this pisses you off, donate to a good Oregon progressive ASAP to counteract this BS.

Here are some good candidates to donate to:

Jeff Merkley (OR Senate): http://www.jeffmerkley.com/

OR House Democrats (OR Legislature): http://www.oregonhousedemocrats.com/

OR Senate Democrats (OR Legislature): http://www.sdlf.net/

Or if you don’t want to donate locally, there is always that Barack Obama guy: http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

Let me know what you think.

During the last six months of our work around the country, it became evident to us that potential activists who lived in cities did not have the opportunity to receive state-of-the-art political training. At 21st Century Democrats we believe that an essential component to Get-Out-the-Vote activities in urban areas is a trained force of people in precincts and Wards who know how to speak to voters in their neighborhoods. We have been fortunate to work in partnership with several Representatives all around the country in launching our Urban Youth Initiative. This weekend, we have a free training in Kansas City, open to anyone who is interested.

Our plans call for training 500 urban activists in field skills such as targeting, door-to-door communications, canvassing, data collection and analysis, message development and other important elements for winning elections. We’re excited about the political potential of all the people who have signed-up for these trainings. We strongly believe that these efforts will make our cities a better place to live in with equality for all.

The introduction video from our political team is below the jump…

If you’d like to know more details and specifics, sign up here.

As you can imagine, these training’s aren’t free. If you’d like to kick in $10 to buy us a round in appreciation, we’d be very grateful.

Yesterday, Congressional Quarterly changed their rating of New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District from Lean Republican to No Clear Favorite.

This means that every single House rater including CQ, the Cook Political Report, Swing State Project, The Rothenberg Report, and Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball have predicted NJ-03 to be either Tossup or Lean Democrat. This is a historic moment, with Republicans having controlled this seat in Congress since 1882.

This is a prime opportunity for a Democratic pickup in a district that has been trending Democrat, and for the first time in history, Democrats outnumber Republicans.

The campaign has made tremendous strides and is gaining momentum throughout the district. Take a look at the campaign YouTube and see all the great stuff from the Adler for Congress campaign.