When I woke this morning in my Central Pennsylvania home, there was an OBAMA sign in my front yard that I neither put there nor authorized. It is my lot in life to live very near a polling place, which I usually think of as a pleasant convenience except that it can be difficult to make a left-hand turn into traffic on Election Day.
I felt about the sign much the same way I felt about the first dandelions of Spring, that I found blooming in my yard last night when I got home from work. Except that the dandelions are inevitable, while the Obama sign was put there deliberately by some human who does not care who I'm going to vote for or what I think.
With profound thanks to lipris, whose currently top-recommended diary on an amazing victory in the fight to take over the New York State Senate led me to this ad, I'd like to highlight a political ad that was part of the effort in NY-SD-48 that has immense potential as a template for some of the candidates kossacks like best:
I haven't learned much about him yet, but a Democrat who, at the very least, appears to have put some thought into lining up some meaningful support, has announced a challenge to Republican Congressman Steve Buyer, the incumbent in Indiana District 4.
His name is Nels Ackerson, and his website is here:
This quiet, sprawling, sleepy district in the Pennsylvania hinterlands is generating more political news this cycle than it has for decades, since the retirement of long-term Republican incumbent John Peterson makes it an open seat.
As many of you are aware, 6-term Republican incumbent John Peterson announced a surprise retirement recently in this large, rambling, mostly rural district, which has been such a safe seat for the Reds that Peterson ran unopposed more times than he had a challenger.
Both parties have been scrambling to identify a candidate, and some more of the speculative possibilities ducked out yesterday.
The local paper that dominates the county with the biggest population in District 5 (Centre County) rapidly pulled together a survey of what's available to both parties in the way of prospective candidates:
E-mail received today from Congressman Jerry McNerney, CA-11, the mighty conqueror of all that is Pombo, reminds us that this coming Sunday is Veterans Day. Folks who followed his David-vs-Goliath struggle to overthrow the appalling Republican incumbent in his district might remember that Jerry's underdog campaign actually got started when Jerry's son, a serviceman on active duty, urged him to run despite the odds.
I think we should consider doing something to show that progressive Democrats honor our veterans. If there are local ceremonies in your area, show up. If you have a flag, fly it. If you don't have a flag - why wouldn't you have a flag?. If you have a friend, a neighbor, a family member who's a vet, contact them.
I try not to put "breaking" in subject titles, because it looks so silly a few hours after you post one...
Diana Irey, the corrupt harpy who tried it last time, is busy keeping her snout in the smaller trough of her local office, so she's not going to run against Congressman John Murtha again in 2008.
John Russell, 45, a hawk on the war, is moving into the district to run on the Republican ticket:
So word has it that Republican Congressman Tom Davis's disappointment over being out-maneouvred in his quest to move up to the Senate (because his state party leadership oiled the machinery for former Governor Gilmore to be their nominee, instead) has got him sulking to the point where he may not run for re-election to his current House seat (VA-11) in 2008.
He may re-consider. But that's the narrative now, as we head into the by-elections for the Virginia State Assembly on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007 - that is just TWELVE DAYS AWAY.
David is a freshman who is fighting to hold his seat against a rich, reactionary Republican. But there are some other good choices on the Virginia ballot, too.
A little over a month ago there was a flurry of interest in the 9th Congressional District of Tennessee, where progressive Democratic state legislator Steve Cohen won the 2006 primary and subsequent general election to succeed Congressman Harold Ford, who resigned the seat to run for the US Senate. Several diarists alerted the kossack community to the fact that one of the sore losers among the candidates who lost the 2006 primary was mounting a primary challenge to Cohen. Serious questions were raised about the motive for refusing to accept the verdict of the voters in the 2006 election in diaries such as this one:
Well, in a way, I did. I'm in Washington for the American Library Association annual conference, or cattle stampede. 27,000 librarians, crowding into all the hotels and restaurants. I was lunching by myself on 6th St. The restaurant was both crowded and noisy, and the tables are so close together they're almost touching. When they seated me I discovered I was across from Senator Lieberman at the next table, this close.
He was chatting up a younger woman with stringy dark brown hair. She may have been a political reporter covering the Presidential campaigns, because that's what some of the conversation was about. Oh, don't look shocked. Of course I listened. I didn't have anything else to do, and besides, he was talking loudly because (as I said) the restaurant was noisy.
What was the theme of his discourse? Do you have to guess? It was Poor Joe Lieberman, of course.
As you all know, before we get to the 2008 general election that (quite rightly) occupies so much of our attention and planning skills, there are a few shorter-term goals to keep track of. There have already been a few special elections to fill open seats at various levels of government, and there will be more. And there are several states with elections scheduled for 2007. Virginia, for one, elects delegates to their state legislature this year.
I've just been contacted by a progressive State Assemblyman who will be facing a challenge in the June 12 primary. He needs help, and money.
An invitation to the first round of voting for a 2008 Progressive Patriot to receive some cash support from Russ Feingold's PAC is in our "In" boxes today. This first slate consists of Democratic freshmen whom Russ Feingold expects may face stiff challenges.
Step one: DCCC raises money as usual, only even more effectively with a winner's smile
Step two: Instead of pumping $3.2 million into a vanity contest in the fiercely expensive IL-06, just because it's next door to Rahm's home district, take that same money, $3.2 million, and divide it into 32 $100,000 chunks
Melissa Hart, GOP incumbent in Pennsylvania's 4th district, wouldn't, in a normal electoral cycle, be in much danger of losing her seat. True, she's a mini-Me version of Orc-on-Dog Santorum, on social issues, but her constituents, alas, don't dislike that. She's a wholly-owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry, and even that would pass muster in her sleepy district... except for the Bush Administration's assault on Medicare prescription benefits (courtesy of Nancy Johnson, CT-05, who wrote the final draft of the legislation, I understand). However, seniors do care about social security and prescription drug coverage.
If you've read some of my diaries you know that I try to keep a sharp eye on where Exxon/Mobil PAC's bloated profits go. They always go bad places. But this cycle the Club for Growth seems to be influencing where the Exxon/Mobil PAC spends money, as well.
Exxon/Mobil normally devotes most of their largesse to protecting incumbents (including a few Democratic incumbents, I am sorry to say). Each cycle they do select a handful - less than a dozen, sometimes fewer - of challengers to support. When they do support a challenger or a candidate for a seat that's open, they invariably support a Republican. Republicans who were not yet in office, but who received campaign donations from Exxon/Mobil, have included Jim Talent and some other folks who did get in and turned out to be obnoxious.
Aragorn! ( Also the star of A History of Violence. )
Do you know what Viggo Mortensen wants for his birthday?
Well, most years, neither would I.
But I happen to know what Viggo Mortensen wants for his birthday, this year.
