Swing State Project

One election is over, the next one is coming ever closer with one Presidential hopeful (or wannabe) announcing after another.

You may say it’s way too premature to discuss a possible Democratic cabinet with more than two years to go. But hey: we have a tough and largely successful election behind us. Let’s just have a little fun for now.

If you enjoy this kinda stuff then follow be below the fold.

The following is my dream cabinet for 2009. While it is a “dream” in so many senses of the word there are a few tough choices and compromises involved. I first had to decide who I wanted to win and who could win the Presidency. Some of the cabinet choices are related to that, most are not. My choice for President is in no way a judgment about other candidates. You will find a couple of other contenders as members of my dream cabinet. If you see another person winning the Presidency write a comment and tell us how that would impact some cabinet choices.

You will also notice something else. Since this is a dream cabinet, it is a cabinet of diversity, one reflecting the current make-up of the United States. There are 22 people listed below. President, VP, 15 Cabinet Secretaries plus 5 people with Cabinet rank. Of these half are women. You say this is impossible? Just remember that relatively conservative and Catholic Spain has a center-left government with half the cabinet being women. I also considered ethnic diversity. There a 4 African Americans, 3 Hispanic Americans, 2 Italian Americans and 1 Asian American and 1 Armenian American.

Here’s my 2009 dream cabinet:

President – Barack Obama

Yeah, I think he will run, and yeah, I think he can win the primary (because he’ll go with momentum out of Nevada and South Carolina) and with the right campaign and the right choice for VP (see below) he can win the general election. I think my choices below could be a little more realistic with a President Obama since I doubt that he would stuff his cabinet with a bunch of white men. Wikipedia

Vice President – Anthony Zinni

General Zinni, that is. Yeah, he might not be the most liberal candidate out there but he could balance out the ticket very well. Obama will need a strong VP but one without any personal ambitions. I would have liked a woman on the ticket but unfortunately I seriously doubt the voters are ready for a ticket without any white men on it. Zinni’s position on the Iraq war is in sync with Obama’s – they were both against it. Zinni retired in 2000. This year he got behind VA Senate candidate Jim Webb. Zinni’s also from Virginia and with him on the ticket we can hold those voters concerned about Obama’s inexperience (especially in foreign affairs) and have a couple of states in play like Virgnia. Wikipedia

Sec. of Agriculture – Patty Judge

Judge has been Secretary of Agriculture of Iowa since 1998. This year she ran as Chet Culver’s running mate and will take office as Lt.Gov in January. Wikipedia

Sec. of Commerce – Charlene Barshefsky

Barshefsky was the United States Trade Representative in Clinton’s second term. Wikipedia

Sec. of Defense – Jack Reed

Someone with a certain amount of respect needs to clean up the mess created by Rummy & Co in Iraq and elsewhere. This is a tough and unthankful job. I think Senator Reed (Rhode Island) can do it. He’s on the Senate Armed Services Committee and was a Captain when he left the Army. He attended the US Military Academy at West Point. Wikipedia

Sec. of Education – Anna Eshoo

Eshoo is an Armenian American. Born in Connecticut she serves California’s 14th District (Silicon Valley) in Congress since 1993. She’s a strong supporter of the Gay Rights movement. In Congress she co-sponsored the “College Opportunity for All Act” and the “10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds Science and Math Scholarship Act” and led the development of the Democrat’s Innovation Agenda in which education plays a central role. Wikipedia

Sec. of Energy – Hilda Solis

Solis is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and has been the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on the Environment and Hazardous Materials. She represents California’s 32nd District since 2001. Previously she served in the CA Assembly and Senate and in the White House Office of Hispanic Affairs and the OMB. Wikipedia

Sec. of Health & Human Services – John Kitzhaber

Dr. John Kitzhaber, MD, served as Governor of Oregon from 1995-2003. During his term in office (and previously as President of the Oregon Senate) health care issues were always on the top of his list. He was instrumental in creating the Oregon Health Plan. After leaving office he has kept on working to find solutions to achieve affordable health care for all. Wikipedia

Sec. of Homeland Security – Carolyn Maloney

Maloney represents New York’s 14th District in Congress since 1993. Representing parts of New York City she has been involved in Homeland Security issues ever since the attacks of September 11, 2001. She is chair of the Democratic Task Force on Homeland Security. Wikipedia

Sec. of Housing and Urban Development – Shirley Franklin

Shirley Franklin is the mayor of Atlanta and was the first black woman to be elected mayor of a major Southern city in 2001. Shirley has been listed as one of the five best mayors in America by Time Magazine. Wikipedia

Sec. of the Interior – Tony Knowles

Tony Knowles career as an elected official is probably over after losing the Governor’s race this year and the Senate race two years ago. Nevertheless, I believe him to be a good choice to head the Dep. of the Interior which is traditionally run by politicians from western states. Wikipedia

Sec. of Labor – John Edwards

John Edwards would probably make a good President. That said, should he not win the nomination, I seriously doubt he’d want to be the running mate again. He has made labor issues an integral part of his campaign and could be a real asset in anyone’s cabinet as Labor Secretary. Wikipedia

Sec. of State – Bill Richardson

Governor Richardson has previously been Secretary of Energy and Ambassador at the UN in the Clinton Administration. Should he not wind up on the ticket he would make an excellent Secretary of State. He would also be the first Hispanic American in this position. Wikipedia

Sec. of Transportation – Gary Locke

Locke was Gov of Washington from 1997-2005 and was the first Chinese American Governor in the US. As so many Governors he could serve in several positions, Sec. of Transportation being one of them. Wikipedia

Sec. of the Treasury – Bill Bradley

The former Presidential candidate is a sentimental favourite of mine. His wife Ernestine Schland would have been one awesome First Lady. The former Senator cares deeply about tax reform. Whether or not his proposals would be a good solution is debatable. Nevertheless, someone needs to clean up after the Bush administration. Wikipedia

Sec. of Veteran Affairs – Max Cleland

Who else, really? Wikipedia

Attorney General – Patricia Madrid

Madrid is the current Attorney General of New Mexico. She chose to run for Congress this year and unfortunately lost against Heather Wilson. Should she run and lose again in 08 or chose not to run, she would make a great choice to head the Justice Dept. Wikipedia

Other cabinet level positions:

Head of the EPA – Tammy Baldwin

The Environmental Protection Agency is more important than ever. Someone who’s knowledgable and passionate about environmental issues like Tammy Baldwin would be a terrific choice. As a member of the House Energy and Commerce committee she strongly opposes drilling in ANWR. Wikipedia

Ambassador to the UN – Susan Rice

Susan Rice was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under Madeleine Albright. She would be the first African American Woman in this job. Wikipedia

US Trade Rep – Ronnie Musgrove

Musgrove was Governor of Mississippi from 2000-2004. During that time he managed to get Nissan to build a plant in his state. He’d probably be a good trade rep for the entire United States as well. Wikipedia

Head of the OMB – Rosa DeLauro

DeLauro represents Connecticut’s 3rd CD since 1991. She has attended the London School of Economics and is a member of the House Appropriations and Budget Committees. Wikipedia

WH Chief of Staff – Donna Brazile

No, a black President doesn’t necessarily need a black Chief of Staff. That said any Democratic President could use a CoS of the caliber of Donna Brazile. She was Al Gore’s campaign manager in 2000 and might have become his Chief of Staff then. It’s likely that she will play a major role in the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign, no matter who the nominee is. Wikipedia

This is it. What are your thoughts? Who would you like to see in what position? Comment away.

cross posted from Turn Tahoe Blue

Atrios flags an AP report wherein presidential aspirant and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee complains about John McCain’s campaign finance reforms. Bottom line is that senators can transfer unlimited amounts of campaign cash to their presidential warchests, but governors can’t do the same. It’s crap, and it’s one of the many reasons I oppose much of our current campaign finance regime. But that’s not why I’m penning this post.

Rather, what I want to know is why Mike Huckabee’s presidential chances are taken any more seriously than Felix Macaca’s at this point. Just take a look at this:

2006 Ark. Gov. Results (Open Seat)

Mike Beebe (D): 55
Asa Hutchinson (R): 41

Hutchinson, the Republican candidate who sought to succeed Huckabee, got utterly pounded. And yeah, 2006 may have been a good Democratic year, but several Republicans in much bluer states hung on: Arnie in CA, Pawlenty in MN, and Carcieri in RI just to name a few. Sure, those guys were incumbents, but Arkansas went to Bush by ten points in 2004 – Rhode Island went to Kerry by twenty. Consequently, I consider Hutchinson’s loss to be one hell of a shellacking.

Now can you imagine if Tim Kaine (VA) or Chet Culver (IA) had gone down to defeat like this? Mark Warner and Tom Vilsack would have been laughed off the presidential wannabe stage. Indeed, the victories of their successors were crucial to both Vilsack and Warner, as it keept their future ambitions alive.

So could someone please tell me why Huckabee isn’t a joke? At least George Pataki and Mitt Romney can offer lame reasons for their own failures (northeastern open seats should never be easy for the GOP to defend). But what’s Huckabee’s excuse? He’s got none. I know Arkansas has traditionally been more hospitable to Dems than other Southern states, but right now it’s got three of four Dem Congressmen, two Dem Senators, Dems in control of the entire state legislature, a Dem Governor, and Dems elected to every other statewide office. This guy has clearly done jack to build his own state party.

My only answer for now is that the Gang of 500 must love him. I won’t bother to speculate as to why that might be (though feel free), but in a just world with a thoughtful, critical media, Mike Huckabee would rate no higher than Screaming Lord Sutch.

(Bumped – promoted by DavidNYC)

Alright, let’s keep the ball rolling. And don’t forget to help fill out the 2008 Race Tracker wiki.

P.S. Please welcome Left in the West to the SoapBlox network. As I’m sure you know, L/W was the place for MT-Sen coverage in 2006 and I’m sure it’ll be a hopping place for more of the same in 2007 & 2008. Now, with user diaries, it can only get better.

P.P.S. Please don’t forget the Blue Majority ActBlue page. We’ve just added netroots hero Larry Kissell’s recount fund to the list.

Good news out of TX-23. As of today, all of Ciro Rodriguez’s former Democratic challengers in the open primary for TX-23 have now endorsed his campaign. Third place finisher Lukin Gilliland has offered up his northside campaign headquarters and staff.

“Henry Bonilla simply hasn’t done his job to provide fresh ideas on how to protect our troops and bring an honorable peace to the war in Iraq. This runoff represents the people’s chance to make changes in our Iraq policy and bring our troops home. Bonilla continues claiming to support our troops and yet he continues to send them into harm’s way,” said Albert Uresti.

“The Republican leadership has failed, as signaled by the November elections. Uniting the Democrats behind one democrat in this Congressional election is important so that we may continue the change of direction in our country,” said Uresti.

The Urestis’ endorsement is an important lynchpin in Rodriguez’s plan to unite Democrats to defeat Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla. Senator Carlos Uresti represents a district that mirrors the boundaries of the 23rd Congressional District and Albert Uresti garnered the second most votes among Democrats in the special election contest that ended November 7, 2006.

Both brothers declare that Bonilla has not represented the concerns of the people of the 23rd Congressional District and believe Rodriguez provides an opportunity toward a new direction that puts people above the powerful special interests that have created a failed Republican government in Washington.

(I agree with Karl’s correspondent – the way to win here is to let the DCCC do it’s thing. I never like to knock a fellow Dem, but it’s clear that Ciro ran a less-than-great campaign in his primary against Cuellar. So the outside help is welcome. – promoted by DavidNYC)

Another update on this race is here.

Below is an update from a friend in the know down in San Antonio.

Here’s the lowdown as of sometime today… DCCC people were flying into town today to tell Ciro’s what’s going down.  If he liked it and was willing to play by the rules, fine.  If not, they’re gonna pack it up.  I’ll probably have more information on this meeting sometime later on this week.

From what I hear, the D-trip might just run this entire campaign as an independent expenditure.  Let Ciro try and raise some money so he can do his own thing, but run mail, field (the real field program) and any other media stuff through the d-trip. The DCCC is bringing in a top notch field person to run their show and that’ll be that.  If there is one way to win this district with Ciro at the helm, this is basically the way to do it.

Additionally, our statewide Democratic candidates are coming together to help Ciro out either way, as our state party does little. From David Van Os, former Attorney General candidate (below the fold):

All the recent statewide candidates are coming together to join Barbara Radnofsky as co-hosts of a luncheon fundraiser for Ciro Rodriguez in Houston on Monday (November 20, details to follow). We are all standing together to demonstrate our determination that the Democratic community must come together and go all out for this opportunity to get rid of Henry Bonilla and replace him with a true representative of the people, Ciro Rodriguez.

Further, tonight at the Bexar County Democratic Executive Committee meeting, John Courage publicly donated $2,000 to Ciro’s campaign.

The Texas Democratic Party, to no surprise, is dragging its feet. But we statewide candidates are plenty used to that because we all experienced the TDP’s inertia over the past year. So we are not waiting around for the TDP and I encourage all of you to join us and make Ciro’s campaign your #1 political priority for the next month. Please right now set aside the runoff election day as a day that you are going to be in the 23rd congressional district knocking on doors all day getting the Democratic vote out.

Go to Ciro’s website and contact the campaign to find out the other different ways you can help. Also please call and write the State Party Chair, Boyd Richie, and insist that the large paid staff in the party office all be sent out to the field in the 23rd to help win this election behind our candidate, Ciro Rodriguez.

In my recent race for Texas Attorney General the voters honored me by giving me majorities in some of the rural west Texas counties that are in the new district with which Ciro is not familiar. I am fortunate to enjoy some good support networks in those counties and I have offered to travel to the area with Ciro and introduce him to my supporters and ask them to exert maximum effort to get out the votes for his candidacy. Ciro’s campaign manager accepted my offer on the spot at the Bexar County CEC meeting tonight. I look forward to doing whatever I can to help pull this one out. I believe that other recent statewide candidates are going to do so also. Several of us will be with Ciro Monday at the Houston fundraiser and will be discussing plans with him and his campaign manager for campaigning for him.

The parts of southwest and west Texas that are in the reconfigured 23rd are Democratic country. Henry Bonilla has been lying his way into people’s votes for much too long. Ya basta!

(cross-posted from Daily Kos)

A couple days ago, I posted about a new blog I am starting with the help of others. It’s called Progressive Wave, and our stated goal is clear: we will be blogging about, in the form of primarily citizen journalism with some traditional blogging (hard to make it down to Washington, D.C., for example), our new representatives and senators in Congress. As of right now, we have people who will be blogging for us in the following districts and states: AZ-08, PA-07, PA-08, CA-11, KY-03, NY-19, NY-20, and VA-Sen. We have had others express interest in IA-01 and CT-02 as well, but I do not have concrete commitments for them. Even if your district (or one you’d be interested in) is already covered, please feel free to blog for us – the more we can spread the load around within a district, the better it works out for all of us.

Below, you’ll find a general description of what Progressive Wave is all about. I hope you can help us out. Thanks!

It’s great to see citizen journalism in action. A project here at Daily Kos is picking up steam – where we ‘adopt’ a congressional committee and keep tabs on their progress. It’s a great idea, and by all means one that we should encourage; after all, a democracy thrives when its citizens participate actively within it.

Before the election I was thinking of taking a similar principle and applying it to our newly-elected Congresspersons and Senators in the U.S. Congress. Many of our newly-elected representatives come from extremely close races (such as Patrick Murphy in PA-08 or Joe Courtney in CT-02), or they are in areas that will make it a challenge for them to be re-elected every time they are up (Nick Lampson in TX-22 or Nancy Boyda in KS-02). While the Netroots-endorsed list has only included challengers, it’s inevitable that we will have to begin defending our incumbents, beginning in 2008.

And that’s where we come in.

The project I’ve been working on is entitled The Progressive Wave. Our slogan is ‘Not left, not right, but forward’. In the end, progressives of any stripe are about progress, and that is what our new representatives have a chance to do in Washington. In a sense, I view TPW as a step forward for the blogosphere as well. One of the things I learned about blogging firsthand about the CT-Sen race and the PA-08 race is that citizen journalism is incredibly useful tool for informing the blogosphere at large about the actual circumstances on the ground as it pertains to a race. No longer do we have to rely on traditional media sources for our information, but we can get an unfiltered view of what is occurring directly from the source.

What do I hope to accomplish with TPW? One thing I hope is that we can keep track of all our newly-elected representatives in their travails – whether it be those who held safe seats for us, such as Amy Klobachar in MN-Sen, or those who won by squeakers, such as Jon Tester in MT-Sen. We’ll be keeping a birds-eye view of the legislation they support, critiquing the speeches they give, and also acting as a sort of ‘accountability’ check on Democratic politicians. We don’t want to see those who represent the best and brightest of our future to become disappointments (a junior senator from Illinois comes to mind, at least for me). By informally tracking what they do – as well as attending events when they are in-state and writing about it – you have the power to keep the rest of us up to date. And come campaign time, we will be a veritable source of firsthand information from the ground about the race. Especially for House races, which occur every 2 years, it is paramount that we can report back what is occurring within the district.

What does it require from any of you? Not much, aside from a little of your time. I am aiming to have as many bloggers as possible join the project; we have somewhere around 35-40 House districts that need to be covered, as well as 8 senators (PA, RI, MT, MN, MD, OH, MO, VA) that will also need to be written about. After that, how much participation you’d like to put in is completely up to you. Personally, as I was quite involved in the PA-08 race, I will be attempting to speak with Congressman Murphy occasionally about the latest from Washington. I also hope to speak to some of his staff from the campaign about the field operation and the communications department. I consider this to be an ‘open-source’ blogging project in that there is no set or defined style one has to go about covering their representatives. You make the blog in your image.

That being said, we still need a lot of bloggers. I currently have a few people lined up so far for the following: NY-19, NY-20, AZ-05, AZ-08, VA-Sen, and CA-11. That being said, you can definitely blog those, along with any others you may be interested in. The only requirement of sorts is that it would be preferable that you live in-district, or if not, live within a reasonable distance such that you are not blogging about an area which you are unfamiliar with. If you are interested, please join our group over at DFALink. Our current working comments section can be found here. If you are unable to blog about the races, I’d appreciate any sort of technical support, particularly in the area of graphic design.

Ultimately, this is a project that, at its core, is about local politics. But in the age of the blogosphere, being connected to the Internet is incredibly important. The Progressive Wave is all about supporting our politicians who will move us forward in D.C., but it’s also about taking the blogosphere to the next level – citizen journalism. I hope you’ll join me for the ride.

The last thing I want to do right now is shut down and take break from blogging, especially with tumultuous recount situations in FL-13 and NC-08, where the very sanctity of voting rights is being put at risk by faulty technology and self-serving motives.  But I have no choice.  I have a mountain of work to finish in the next few weeks, so I’m going to have to take a break from the Swing State Project for a while.  I’d like to again thank David for letting me handle the ropes here over the past half-year, and to all of SSP’s readers for bearing with me.  This was an election cycle that none of us will soon forget, and I’m looking forward to charting a course with you over the next two years for even greater things.

See you sometime in December.

From the invaluable TPM Muckraker:

Lawyers for Democratic House candidate Christine Jennings threw down the gauntlet yesterday, asking a state court to secure electronic voting machines and data used in the election.

The move would preserve the equipment in Florida’s Sarasota County for scrutiny by Jennings’ legal team. A hearing on the suit is scheduled for this afternoon. [Update: The judge granted the Jennings campaign’s request to secure the voting machines today.]

It’s just the first step of what is likely to be a litigious aftermath to a close and ugly election (thanks in part to the NRCC’s rampant robo calling in the district). The state began a recount and audit of the election yesterday. Once the audit and second recount is completed and the results certified on November 20th, the Jennings campaign has ten days to contest the results of the election if they still show Jennings down. Before the recounting began, she was down 386 votes.

The fight will center around the district’s Sarasota County, where the electronic machines did not register a vote in the Congressional race for 18,000 voters (13%) – what’s called an “undervote.” That’s compared to only 2.53% of voters who did not vote in the race via absentee ballots.

A study by the local paper, The Herald Tribune, found that one in three of Sarasota election officials “had general complaints from voters about having trouble getting votes to record” on the electronic machines for the Congressional race. Since 53% of voters in Sarasota County picked Jennings over the Republican Vern Buchanan, those missed votes would likely have put Jennings in front.

Needless to say, this is a very serious matter. It’s also going to get very expensive, which is why we’ve added the special FL-13 recount fund to the Blue Majority ActBlue page. And this is not just a chance to add to our majority. For those of you who have expressed concerns about the integrity of electronic voting machines, this is an important showcase for that issue. If you want to help make sure that voting technology is scrutinized under a bright spotlight, then it’s time to back up words with deeds.

I just tossed in $100 earlier today. I urge you to please give as well. And there’s an extra bonus: This is none other than Katherine Harris’s old seat!

From the AP:

A roller-coaster recount that stretched nearly a week and uncovered significant vote-counting flaws in at least three communities came to an end Tuesday night, confirming [Democrat] Courtney’s general election victory over Rep. Rob Simmons.

Recounts in each of the district’s 65 towns gave Courtney the nod, although his election-night margin of 167 votes narrowed to 91, according to results tabulated by town clerks. Nearly 250,000 votes were cast.

God, it feels to do this again: add CT-02 to the big board, Johnny!