Lots of people have been bugging our esteemed bloggers to lay off the potus race for a bit and take a look at the congressional races. So far they don’t seem to be much inclined to do so. But with congressional approval ratings down the toilet, it’s still important. What is going on in your states at the state, and also the gubernatorial level? How are you inclined to vote? I’m wondering how many are going to do as Whitt said he will, vote all incumbents out, party be damned.
For all of my disgust with the Dem potus, and with the congress, we have some pretty good reps here. I’ll be voting for both my Dem senators again. (if they’re both up for re-election this term, that may not even be the case this year). My Dem house rep is a bit trickier. He does a decent enough job. But he’s a pro-lifer, and i can’t vote for one this time around. Can’t vote R, so was planning to abstain. Saw some lawn signs out for an Indy today, checked him out online, and seems fabulous. Sierra clubber, environwhacko, fair trade, bankster prosecutions, etc. Anti-war. Quaker. If he’s pro-choice, he’s got my vote and problem solved. Same Indy governor this time around for me too.
What’s up in your states?
Vermont is a lost cause for Republicans Amy. Any clown of a democrat is a shoo in.
Ah, but you do have Bernie. Better than any Democrat. RI is a lost cause for Repubs too, but i’m not bawling about that, the ones we do get suck. However, Indies are making inroads here and that’s all to the good.
Here in NJ, Senator Menendez is running for re-election and his well ahead in the polls. He is a good guy, unlike Frank Lautenberg the senior senator, who is an arrogant turd and far far far too old to be in office.
I know people who know both guys and they share my opinions.
Governor Christie is not running for re-election but would be a shoo in. We all like him but understand that not everybody in the rest of the country would understand the Jersey mouth. And a friend of mine who knows his brother (Christie is from my area) says that unless he gets the weight off he will not be running for anything. He is morbidly obese and, yes, it does matter.
My congressman is a republican, Rodney Frelinghuysen, who has been in the job for centuries. He always votes the party line which disappoints me because he is an old fashioned country club republican and I don’t understand why he has allegiance to the Tea Party who seem to run congress these days.
I have seen Rodney at a few fund raisers and he is not exactly Mr. Personality. But he is ok.
I could never vote for him, though.
Elena -
I didn’t know Christie wasn’t running, is he term limited? The Jersey mouth is the thing i like best about him.
I think it’s awesome. Or at least, it’s a language i understand.
Sorry my comments about Christie were not clear. He has not completed his term yet which is why he is not running!
And I meant that he would probably not be seeking national office at his current weight.
If he stays fat he will just stay in his present job.
The mouth is fine, we get it in NJ, but may not travel well. And sometimes he does go too far.
Now i’m maybe getting why Mittens didn’t pick him as VP. Maybe he was afraid of having a Republican version of Biden. Except i guess that Mittens is the Biden on his own ticket.
I laughed my ass off at this on the Beast.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos/2012/08/14/chris-christie-s-best-smackdowns.html
Yes, I saw that and laughed too.
By the way Christie’s best accomplishment is one that no republican running today would ever publicly approve of. He has worked very well with democrats.
But I think Mittens did that too in Massachusetts. ‘cept he can’t talk about that now.
How absurd.
Seems weird taht it’s only been 2 years since Corzine was governor, i though it was a lot longer than that. He’s disappeared off the radar, eh? His ass should be in the dock..
Colorado’s congressional races, or three of them, are up for grabs. Incumbent Scott Tipton (R) is vulnerable to a challenge from state Rep. Sal Pace (D), and state Rep. Joe Miklosi, (D) is hoping to knock off incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, (R).
Of course, Colorado is still in either the “tossup” or “leans D” column for the Presidential race, depending on where you get your information and when you get it. I would suspect if Obama wins the general here, by no means a sure thing, then there’s a decent chance that Sal Pace could unseat Tipton.
The Coffman/Mikloski race is in freshly gerrymandered district boundaries (it’s shrunk, and dramatically, since 2010. It’s a new district altogether for all practical purposes), so not sure what’s up with that.
Tipton is my congresscritter in the 3rd district, which is huge and covers all of the west and most of the southern parts of the state. On the map it looks damn near as big as all the others (7, total) put together and might even be bigger. He’s pretty conservative, but he’s no crazy wingnut.
I don’t know much about his challenger Sal Pace yet. If Pace’s enviro position is more thoughtful than Tipton’s, which should not be difficult, I imagine that’s where I’ll go.
On the other side of the coin, the Republicans have high hopes that Joe Coors can beat Democrat incumbent Ed Perlmutter. That’s in the 7th, another district with big changes in boundaries this time.
So Colorado is a political zoo this go-round. We gave up answering the phone a couple of weeks ago, letting the nut-screener pick it up.
I like reading about Congressional races but have none to report on, from this side of the water. I can sort of see why MT doesn’t write about them. Not because they aren’t crucial and fascinating but because it probably takes a lot more work to (convincingly) drag the national story of of any particular local contest, while the easier national story: who takes the House and the Senate, is such a many headed beast that it’s so much easier to fall back on the latest tittle-tattle and/or pissing war in the presidential race.
I know that there is supposed to be a fairly large chunk of the electorate who supposedly don’t even more difficult than usual to credit. Yeah there’s a lot of people who won’t tell a pollster which way they are going to vote, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t pretty much figured out the answer. The die must by now -barring Black Swans- already be cast.
Bluth -
There are still some key races that could be covered though. Mass for one is a pretty big. Maine. And i don’t even know what others, but it would be nice to have at least a bit more info.
Has anyone taken this quiz, to find who your ideal candidate is? I got Jill Stein first, then Gary Johnson, then Stewart Alexander (who dat?), then Obama, Paul, and Mittens last.
But for party i got Democratic, then Green, then Libertarian, and the R’s last.
http://www.isidewith.com/
That was kind of a hoot, Amy.
I got Stein, Alexander, Obama, Paul, Romney.
Johnson didn’t come up on radar for me.
By party; Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Republican (8%)
Interestingly, I scored almost 60% concordance with “American Voters.” That left me wondering what that metric would have been if I had scored with Romney coming out on top. I’d take the quiz again to find out, but can’t bring myself to say I don’t “believe” in evolution, even in jest.
I got Stein, then Obama, then Alexander then Paul, then Romney, no Johnson either.
By party 98% Dem, which surprised me a lot. Only 2% Republican.
Would be interesting to answer all the questions the same, but slide the bars the other way and see where one ended up, but… that’s for another day.
OK, I took the quiz again, this time doing my best to impersonate someone from the bronze ages. (no evolution, scrap medicare and the ACA, no healthcare for illegal immigrants, pro death penalty, no gun control, no gay marriage, no abortion, kick the UN out of New York — you get the idea)
And behold;
96% Romney
80% Ron Paul
70% Virgil Goode (huh?)
16% Obama
By party: 99% Republican, 36% Libertarian, 1% Democrat.
And 29% concordance with “American Voters”
So who in the hell is Virgil Goode?
Never heard of him until today. Up until 2000 he ran as, and was elected as, a democrat.
Gunny, as I mentioned on the other thread, I came in 98 percent Dem and 67% with American Voters. If your avatar came in 99% Republican (how did you miss the last 1% I wonder?) and only 29% with the American voters, then either the site is not accurate or lots of Republicans are voting party over views. Which actually does seem likely.
Jill Stein is the Green Party nom, that’s the one who Bim is voting for. Virgil Good is on the ballot in Virginia (Constitutionalist Party, i think), and along with Gary Johnson, looks to take votes from Mittens. So VA may well go to Obama. Sherman Alexander is the one i never heard of, I’ll have to google him.
I thought it was interesting that i had 92% agreement with the Democratic Party, but Obama was 4th for me. That should say quite a bit right there. Unfortunately i didn’t check which percentage of the American people i agreed with, i’d guess it’s less than Gunny and Bluth.