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Christmas Open Thread

by: Ryan_in_SEPA

Mon Dec 24, 2012 at 21:12:39 PM EST


Merry Christmas boys and girls.  

On the holiday theme, there have been some truly naughty and nice elected officials this year.  To keep it simple, please list which campaign surprised you the most and deserves a stocking of goodies and which campaign disappointed and deserves a lump of coal.
Ryan_in_SEPA :: Christmas Open Thread
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Christmas Open Thread | 31 comments
Best + Worst
Todd Akin's campaign was clearly the "Naughtiest."  And Tommy Thompson's was pretty bad too. And Mourdock.

Orrin Hatch ran a strong primary campaign, I think the Yes on 30 campaign in California was very effective, and Tammy Baldwin surprised me with how well she did.  

Age 20, CA-18 (home), CA-13 (college)

Check out my blog at politicohen.com

Berkeley Class of 2015.

So is NORAD
tracking Kerry Bentivolio tonight?

R, MA-7/MD-7/moving to WV-1
Just sighted
With a red tinfoil hat over ground zero.  

24, Male, R, NY-10

Christie-Toomey 2016!

[ Parent ]
I was wondering the same thing...


20, Male, Conservative Republican, TN-08 (home), VA-01 (college)
[ Parent ]
I wish we were on dKos
So I could give you a "4!"
[ Parent ]
woah. you're an oldtimer.
The 1 through 4 system hasn't existed in, what, 6 years?
[ Parent ]
I still remember "Carl"
Who gave everyone a "3!"
[ Parent ]
Speaking of the Congress Claus....
NRO gives him a nice write up today:
http://www.nationalreview.com/...
It's worth a read. This is really a real life Mr Smith goes to Washington story.
[ Parent ]
Wow
He's a great representative for the washed up rural guy that has never been in a city. He seems authentic.  

24, Male, R, NY-10

Christie-Toomey 2016!

[ Parent ]
I'll tell you the truth
I'd love to meet him. Very few authentics nowadays.  

24, Male, R, NY-10

Christie-Toomey 2016!

[ Parent ]
TexasAnsweRs
Nice: Ted Cruz
He came out of nowhere and beat the RPT establishment in a statewide primary: that's never happened before.

Naughty: Todd Akin
Is there any other legitimate answer?

Lifelong Republican, TX-17

TX-04: Hall may run again
May
It sounds like he is in better shape than many of his younger counterparts.  Any who runs two miles a day at his age is doing something right.  

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
Why would he say otherwise?
Why instantly make himself a lame duck?
[ Parent ]
Rep. Elect Gabbard
Also wants to be replaced to Inoyue's senate seat.

http://votetulsi.com/updates/2...

19, Dem, IL 7, MN 4 (College)

lol
The website title when I clicked that was "Sorry Tulsi Gabbard"

22, Libertarian Republican CA-14
Liberals dream things that never were and ask why not.  Conservatives shout back "Because it won't work"
[ Parent ]
She has guts!


24, Male, R, NY-10

Christie-Toomey 2016!

[ Parent ]
Agree
Such unabashed ambition is good to see.  Also it is practical since Senate seats open up so rarely in the state.

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
Gabbard site
I really dislike websites that completely rip off the Obama '08 template, right down to the fonts.  Kuster's was the same way.  Design something original if you are supposedly a free-thinking public servant, there are plenty of creative web designers out there!
[ Parent ]
Not web designers who do A/B testing
to select the fonts most likely to generate click-throughs and donations and such...
[ Parent ]
Complete list of candidates
14 names in all... Hanabusa, Schatz, Gabbard, Case and some other strong contenders here.

http://hawaii.politics.governm...

Libertarian Conservative, Norway.

[ Parent ]
Best/Worst
well, for sheer incompetence I have to give the naughtiest award to McCotter. Todd Akin is an idiot but he only self-destructed once (maybe twice if you count refusing to bow to reality and drop out). McCotter self-destructed at least four times - botching a presidential campaign, botching the petitions, botching an attempted write-in campaign, and then botching his resignation.

Best, other than obviously Heidi Heitkamp (there's no contest for best campaign of the year.) - A handful of house candidates: Eric Swalwell for being the one to forceably retire Pete Stark. Andy Barr, for pulling out a major surprise victory. Martha McSally, for doing much better than expected and probably setting herself up to win in 2014. And Dan Benishek, who managed to hold down MI-1 against a tough opponent when incumbents in significantly better positions (Hayworth, Canseco, etc.) lost.

R, MA-7/MD-7/moving to WV-1

Benishek
The district was almost R+7 this year. It was almost a Bachmannesque underperformance. Though the basics are very different.  

24, Male, R, NY-10

Christie-Toomey 2016!

[ Parent ]
Were he voting like Crawford or McKinley
I'd agree with you - but the fact that he beat a credible opponent in a targeted race while being the exact wrong kind of R for the district makes the victory impressive for me.

R, MA-7/MD-7/moving to WV-1
[ Parent ]
MI-01 never was R+7 in reality
This is why I don't like PVI and don't use it. I don't care what the top numbers are. They are almost irrelevant to that district. Benishek didn't underperform. He won.

That is largely a rural, heavily independent, populist, social conservative, somewhat conservadem district. If I had to compare it to anything politically, I'd say a cross between the West Virginia districts in the 90's and 2000's, the Dakotas, and the Iron Range. Even that's off a bit.  

I'll probably do a write-up in detail about that district at some point. Benishek isn't Bachmann who underperforms generic R. Benishek is probably close to a yooper version of generic R and performed similar to generic R+ in that district. There's national D, and "Yooper D" and the difference between the two can sometimes be double digits. Gary McDowell was Yooper D. He wasn't Obama or worse, John Kerry. He won the most R seat in the UP three times with NRA support, defeating a Yooper R State Senator in 2004 where dems struggled.  

Joe Mack and Dominick Jacobetti held two of the districts forever. They were legends who held the districts forever. Stupak was a rookie compared to those two. Those two set the Yooper Dem tradition there that still hangs on for me to this day. Things are changing some, but very slowly.  


MI-08 - Chairman - Livingston County Republican Party - Opinions are my own and not that of LCRP.  

[ Parent ]
Best/Worst
I'm tougher on my own.

Best:

R - Pat McCrory in North Carolina? That's our big pickup. There was nothing in Pat Toomey's level of excellence in victory this year, but there were some bright spots.  Heller survived despite a mess in Nevada. Ted Cruz in the primary and didn't make it close in the general. Andy Barr's win was impressive. MarkWayne Mullen fought old traditions in Oklahoma to win as did Rothfus in the Critz district.

D - Jon Tester. Many thought he was a goner. Heitkamp. McIntyre. A lot of good defenses. On the state level Terry Brown in the thumb. He knows how to win R+ districts.  

Worst - This one is tough.

D - Berkley. She had no business putting herself in a position to lose Nevada with all the self induced errors on the part of the GOP overall there.

R - Where do I begin. Romney with Project Orca. McCotter's petition. The "talked into running" type of campaigns from supposed to be strong candidates Thompson and Hoekstra. Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock's mouth.


MI-08 - Chairman - Livingston County Republican Party - Opinions are my own and not that of LCRP.  

Forgot Baldwin on the D's
I didn't think she could win statewide with her views and Madison background. I was wrong on that.  

MI-08 - Chairman - Livingston County Republican Party - Opinions are my own and not that of LCRP.  
[ Parent ]
List
Best:

R: Heller, surviving against a D rep in an increasingly D state. Tom Smith, who despite not holding high political office before gave Casey a run.

D: Tester, surviving against the only rep in a decently R state. He isn't particularly moderate (albeit moreso than many Ds) but manages to convince Montanans that he is. That takes a good campaign.

Worst:

D: They all had a pretty good night. I guess Berkley and Casey could both go here. Kucinich in the congressional primaries with his weird flirtations with Seattle and trouncing in Ohio.

R: Romney. There are a large number of reasons, but perhaps his out of touchness with political reality can be best summed up in the fact that he unskewed his own polls.

Also Rehberg, Berg, Akin, and Mourdock for obvious reasons.

Libertarian-R New MA-5. Christie-Martinez 2016.

My best gift
My favorite uncle, who likes to send me a picture message any time he sees something named Reagan (like Reagan Meats in Glenview, IL or Ronald Reagan National Airport) captioned "best [meat store, airport, etc] ever," gave me a hat that says "USS Ronald Reagan CVN-76." I'm tooootally wearing that next time I'm on Bryn Mawr's campus when I get back to school just for the hell of it. :p

From suburban Chicago's North Shore, now living on suburban Philadelphia's Main Line. Back home until July.
Christmas Gifts
I got The Victory Lab and have been reading it every chance i get when I'm not busy constructing tunnels in Minecraft.

19-Cubano, R, CA-38
Turning L.A. County Red


Making CA a Golden State
[ Parent ]
Victory Lab was really interesting
Good choice.

Age 20, CA-18 (home), CA-13 (college)

Check out my blog at politicohen.com

Berkeley Class of 2015.
[ Parent ]
Christmas Open Thread | 31 comments
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Elections have consequences -- from the race for President to the race for one seat on a city council. The political economist Max Weber wrote that the state possesses a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. But in the United States, the state is divided into myriad federal, state, and local entities. And the elections to fill those entities are the products of the fascinating interactions between campaigns, party affiliations, voter turnout, and the media spotlight. Red Racing Horses analyzes those elections -- from a Republican-leaning perspective -- to keep a close eye on the process of electing officials, and to offer our perspective on the election-related issues of the day. Thank you for visiting, and we hope you'll enjoy the blog.

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