hate rematches

I hate rematches, especially in these districts that are fairly conservative-ish. It always seems like they get really close the first try, then lose by more the following year. I think its because people are willing to express their distaste with their current representation by voting against them, but when it comes down to it, they would prefer to have a republican in office. I do this. I vote against my congress woman Napalitano because I do not think that she's a good congressperson, but if I thought for an instant she would lose to a republican, I would vote for her in an instant.  

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by: Venslor @ Mon May 11, 2009 at 18:52:12 PM UTC

Rematches

Looking only at 2006 House races decided by 10,000 votes or less, the record of rematch losers was pretty bad with two winning (Massa and Kissell) and eight losing (Jennings, Sodrel, Northrup, Bradley, Gard, Wulsin, Hart, and Burner).

In comparison, new opponents won in 6 of 14 races where the winner ran for re-election in 2008 (Markey, Rooney, Jenkins, Titus, Dreihaus, Nye).

None of the four Republican gains involved rematches.

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by: David Kowalski @ Mon May 11, 2009 at 22:52:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

A ninth

Seals.  

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

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by: nrafter530 @ Mon May 11, 2009 at 23:04:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The margin there

was almost 14K, not less than 10K.
Seals may have flailed during his retread, but he wasn't exactly right on the cusp of victory the first time.

22, Democrat, AZ-01
Peace. Love. Gabby.

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by: Nico @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 00:42:46 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Starting to sound like a Crisitunity post

Did he already do on rematches because if not, hint hint.  (I spose I could but I dont wanna)

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by: Andrew @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 00:19:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

You rang?

Did it in January. (Dems only, though.)

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by: Crisitunity @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 02:47:49 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Interesting

I always found it especially funny with Christine Jennings situation, where the voters of her district either picked for her the first time or were not even a hair away from doing so, but they strongly rebuked her in 2008. I mean really, how dare she try to uncover voter fraud?

22, Democrat, AZ-01
Peace. Love. Gabby.

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by: Nico @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 00:55:59 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

IIRC

Didn't Tom Coburn also wade into the KS-Sen race? If I'm right, this contest seems to be attracting some outsize names to the well-wishers lists.

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by: DavidNYC @ Mon May 11, 2009 at 19:03:49 PM UTC

Yup

http://www.rollcall.com/news/3...

posted in another daily roundup.

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by: Andrew @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 00:26:38 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh and

he endorsed Moran while Hastert is endorsing Tiahart.  Moran is the more moderate one, interesting coming from Coburn who cites tampering down on pork for supporting Moran.  Tiahart will probably have the CfG on his side, no?

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by: Andrew @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 00:29:48 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

not the cfg for Tiahart

Moran is the CFG guy.  Its not really that he is a moderate.  He is a fiscal conservative and just not as vocal about the social stuff.  Tiahart is the fire breathing social conservative, that is the split.

(The really have the same voting record on almost everything, but their public personi are really quite different.

26, D, MO-05, Hispanic

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by: 707stuckinKCMO @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 12:39:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Flowers' Statewide Profile

I am not sure how much Paula Flowers' past experience as Tennessee Insurance Commissioner will help her.  The position is not an elected one and she was the Commissioner for one term.  She has some local experience with the energy industry.  Her name recognition in the district is probably about the same or less than the Republican elected officials that have either announced their candidacies for the seat or are considering doing so.

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by: mdouglas @ Mon May 11, 2009 at 19:32:26 PM UTC

GA-Gov: Oxendine got caught.

http://www.ajc.com/services/co...

Mind you, he regulates the insurance industry and takes shit loads from said industry.

Follow the elections in Georgia at the 2010 Georgia Race Tracker.

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by: TheUnknown285 @ Mon May 11, 2009 at 19:46:38 PM UTC

SUSA: All Major California Ballot Measures Headed for Defeat

Looks like only the elected officials salaries prop has any chance of passing.  Man, they sure hate Arnold's ballot measures in California.

http://www.surveyusa.com/clien...

Proposition 1A, The Rainy Day Budget Stabilization and Accountability Fund
Certain Yes 38%
Certain No 51%
Not Certain 11%

Proposition 1B, The Education Funding Payment Plan
Certain Yes 41%
Certain No 50%
Not Certain 10%

Proposition 1C, The Lottery Modernization Act
Certain Yes 29%
Certain No 52%
Not Certain 19%

Proposition 1D, on Children's Services Funding
Certain Yes 37%
Certain No 50%
Not Certain 13%

Proposition 1E, on Mental Health Funding
Certain Yes 35%
Certain No 51%
Not Certain 14%

Proposition 1F, on Elected Officials' Salaries
Certain Yes 45%
Certain No 35%
Not Certain 20%

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by: ChadInFL @ Mon May 11, 2009 at 23:45:23 PM UTC

No abortion props this year?

Thank god.  It's getting old now having to spend millions every other year beating those things down.

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by: skaje @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 01:21:21 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

lol

This is only a special election.  They'll probably try parental notificatioin for the 20th time in 2010.

I've also noticed that California ballot proposition polling tends to start out with a lot of support for the props and support quickly dwindles as the election nears.  Sadly one exception to that rule was prop 8...

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by: ChadInFL @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 01:42:17 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Are any of these proposals good

or are they like Arnold's shitty ones in 2005?

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by: IHateBush @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 02:49:05 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Meh, a couple aren't horrible.

1B partially protects education funding the havoc passage of 1A would wrought, but seeing as 1A doesn't look likely to pass, it's a moot point. 1F is harmless faux-populism, preventing legislators and statewide office holders from receiving pay raises when the state is running a deficit. Everything besides that is pretty horrible.

I sent in my absentee ballot today voting no on all six. If 1A looked like it might pass, I would probably vote for 1B. But as it is, I'd rather send my own small message by voting no all the way down the ballot.

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by: Kanamit @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 03:18:24 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'd have done the same.

My blog
Twitter
Scribd
28, New Democrat, Female, TX-03 (hometown CA-26)

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by: californianintexas @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 04:02:25 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Baucus supporting a public option?

http://www.finance.senate.gov/...

His latest policy paper on healthcare reform has a public option included.  Sounds like he may now be on board, which would be huge given he's the point man in the Senate on  healthcare reform.

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by: ChadInFL @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 14:25:13 PM UTC

The rest of the blogsphere

is demonizing Baucus at the moment for not including single-payer advocates.  

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

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by: nrafter530 @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 20:55:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Then they were not paying attention

The AFL-CIO guy testifying today advocated for single-payer.  

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by: ChadInFL @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 21:02:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Really?

Wow, how the hell could they miss that?

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

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by: nrafter530 @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 21:07:39 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'm totally fed up with the purists

at dKos.  They seem to think that the only thing that America cares about is prosecuting those who did enhanced interrogation and pushing an agenda of extreme civil libertarianism.  Then you have a guy who posts on every health care diary that a public plan is worthless and anything but single payer is a failure.  

 

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by: IHateBush @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 23:21:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Agreed

All prosecutions of supposedly illegal interrogations will do is tie up Congress and put the real issues like healthcare on the backburner.  

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by: ChadInFL @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 23:42:06 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Heaven forbid we enforce the law.

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by: Kanamit @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 04:17:49 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I don't see much wrong

with enhanced interrogations or torture toward Islamic terrorists who want to destroy the civilized world.  I just don't, and neither does the majority of the American people.

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by: IHateBush @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 13:16:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

58-40

Americans say torture should never be used, no matter what the circumstances. Source: http://www.salon.com/opinion/g...

And yeah, I do see something wrong with torturing even despicable people just for the hell of it. Namely that it violates everything our country is based upon. And that's leaving aside the fact that we often don't know who exactly we are torturing.

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by: Kanamit @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 21:53:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

You forgot to mention

http://pollingreport.com/terro...

Check a few of these other polls.  A majority of people do not want investigations into these practices, nor do they even disapprove of waterboarding.  Investigations into past practices are nothing more than a distraction from the real issues.  I want universal healthcare hearings, not meaningless hearings on a bunch of terrorists who may or may not have been tortured.

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by: ChadInFL @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 22:11:29 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Okay, look, here's the bottom line.

If I go and attack a pedestrian on the street with a baseball bat, I go to prison. No one says "well, that's all in the past now, so let's just move on." If Bush and Cheney go and do something we have prosecuted both Japanese soldiers as well as our own soldiers for, they get off.

And if you paid any attention to what I'm saying, you'd note that I am not advocating immediate trials. All I am advocating is visibility.

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by: Kanamit @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 22:17:01 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The more appropriate analogy

is if you beat up a child molestor who is trying to seduce a little boy or girl.

You have indeed violated the law, beating the shit out of anyone is illegal, but few give a shit.

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by: IHateBush @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 22:45:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Beating the shit out of someone out of what is essentially self-defense is not.

Systematically torturing people who haven't even been convicted of crimes in order to gain faulty intelligence that you can use to sell an illegal war to the American public is.

Obviously this discussion is futile. All I will say is that human rights must apply to even the most despicable human beings, or else they are simply human privileges.

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by: Kanamit @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 22:59:09 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

This is the only place

where I can support prosecuting torture.

gain faulty intelligence that you can use to sell an illegal war to the American public is.

Using the torture for the purpose of fabricating evidence of a link between Saddam and 9/11 to prop up a bogus war is so beyond the pale, that investigations are called for.

But even so, it should be done as quietly as possible, without big public fanfare, in a way that the rest of Obama's agenda takes precedence, not the investigations.  And results of the investigations shouldn't be released until the primary parts of the agenda, economy,health care, energy, education, and climate change are passed into law.

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by: IHateBush @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 23:03:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh come on

The crap coming from the social libertarian left netroots is getting ridiculous.  These people are calling on everyone from top Bush Admin officials to low level interrogators to CIA operatives being outed and prosecuted.  It's impractical and outright dangerous to do that.  Now thay are calling our current President a torturer, which is completely unacceptable.

I certainly don't want Congress wasting valuable time grandstanding by holding hearings in defense of terrorists when they should be working on healthcare reform and other problems that people actually care about.

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by: ChadInFL @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 14:34:39 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

And no

they can't do both...if they hold hearings and start trials of Bush administration officials, that WILL BE the story, it will be unprecedented, the media will focus solely on that for the next 18 months-2 years. It'll be a media circus and our ability to speak out for healthcare reform and other problems will be seriously muted.


Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

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by: nrafter530 @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 15:41:58 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

"In defense of terrorists"?

Really? What, are you reading from a book of Bush quotes or something? It's in defense of the rule of law.

That being said, I never said it was practical. That doesn't mean that there shouldn't be an effort made to bring those who authorized the use of torture to justice.

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by: Kanamit @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 22:02:25 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The only thing I would support

is if the UN or the ICC decided to bring charges against BushCo and the Obama admin quietly complied.

I don't want Obama wasting one speck of political capital on this.  I'm now thinking that it was a big mistake to release the memos, because it has already caused a firestorm that has taken attention away from the economy, health care, energy, and cap and trade.

We are in an unprecedented crisis, and we have two options, save the country by making huge policy changes, or investigating the previous criminal regime.  You can't do both.

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by: IHateBush @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 22:49:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Then we are in agreement.

Besides the memos. I think the ICC bringing charges against him would be ideal.  

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by: Kanamit @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 22:55:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

If it was looking like they might be convicted

in either the U.S. or the ICC I think both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would seek asylum in a friendly country and thus avoid going to prison.  

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by: HarrisCountyBrian @ Thu May 14, 2009 at 00:31:36 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Now that we've got power, let's not misuse it

the way the Republican base has.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01

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by: Glenn Magus Harvey @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 04:41:58 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

How did they miss that?

Because they hear what they want to hear.  Most of the "debate" at Daily Kos today was regarding the people who are alleged to be doctors and nurses supporting single-payer who were kicked out of the healthcare testimony before Baucus's Senate panel.  Nevermind the fact that these people didn't even have a right to interrupt the proceedings, much less testify.

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by: ChadInFL @ Tue May 12, 2009 at 23:44:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

But it's a blatant lie

How can they say "they closed the door on single-payer advocates" when they didn't? I mean, is the blogsphere becoming the left version of Fox now?  

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

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by: nrafter530 @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 07:20:47 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Do you really expect more than that

from these people?  I don't.  I don't visit places like Open Left, where they treat Obama as if he is Bush.

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by: IHateBush @ Wed May 13, 2009 at 13:18:57 PM UTC

[ Parent ]