North Carolina: Progressive candidate Jim Neal makes James Carville shut his mouth. Unfortunately, with the primary only five weeks away, no one knows anything about the candidates.
South Carolina: With the filing deadline past, the closeted Lindsey Graham is facing one primary challenger and one right-leaning independent challenger. The Dems have a primary between Michael Cone and the unknown Bob Conley. [h/t to the Guru]
New Jersey: Annoyingly centrist Rep. Rob Andrews is threatening to primary Sen. Frank Lautenberg. While it is true that Sen. Lautenberg is getting old, he is one of the most progressive members of the Senate and a member of the Appropriations committee. I’d much rather see Rep. Rush Holt replace Lautenberg than Rep. Andrews.
Nebraska: The relatively progressive Scott Kleeb has a little problem.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Democrat Scott Kleeb will be using a driver this year on the campaign trail for U.S. Senate.
Kleeb, who teaches history at Hastings College, had his driver’s license revoked earlier this month after he racked up six traffic tickets in just less than two years. One ticket was for making an illegal turn; the rest were for speeding.
It’s probably safer to make him a senator so he’ll never have to drive himself again.
Kansas: Most people don’t even know that Jim Slattery is in the race, but the Republicans were worried enough to send Laura Bush to Kansas City to raise some cash for the woeful Pat Roberts.
Alabama: Vivian Figures continues to make news by pushing her smoking ban. She also held a fundraiser with Hammerin’ Hank Aaron. I hope her fundraising picks-up because I can’t stand Sen. Jeff Sessions.
Mississippi: Even though he is a serious wingnut, former governor Ronnie Musgrove is probably the strongest candidate the Dems have to take over Trent Lott’s old seat. But stuff like this won’t help. I can hardly pretend to care.
Minnesota: Sen. Amy Klobuchar is a lot more popular than Sen. Norm Coleman. Go Al Franken!!
Oregon: The race between Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick is heating up. Novick is attacking from the left, but most people I know in Oregon say that there isn’t much difference between them on policy.
Maine: Rep. Tom Allen is getting pro-active on the housing crisis. The Kennebec Journal laughs at Susan Collins’ attendance argument.
Alaska: Mayor Mark Begich issued his first ever veto, which was then overridden. But look at what it was about. Jeebus.
Oklahoma: This editorial would be more convincing if they could spell ‘Inhofe’. But I agree with the sentiment.
Colorado: The Politico writes up the race.
Got any senate news?
“New Jersey: Annoyingly centrist Rep. Rob Andrews is threatening to primary Sen. Frank Lautenberg. While it is true that Sen. Lautenberg is getting old, he is one of the most progressive members of the Senate and a member of the Appropriations committee. I’d much rather see Rep. Rush Holt replace Lautenberg than Rep. Andrews.”
Oh, you mean Frank “Military Commissions Act of 2006 No Habeas for you” Lautenberg? Fuck him. Whatever he’s done in the past was largely wiped out by this one very big mistake. And as I recall, his constituents were begging him NOT to vote in favor of the MCA.
Unfortunately, Andrews is a total piece of shit himself, who also supported the MCA.
In Jersey it is really a shame that the Democrats aren’t doing more.
Lautenberg is 84 and while he is healthy and generally a good senator he still has the stink of Torracelli and corrupt Jersey politics on him, given how he got his reprise term. I don’t like the idea of him not serving out his term and having another Democratic insider appointed to the position and through incumbency never get a chance to vote for a better candidate.
This is especially true because the GOP here is clueless. It can’t raise money. It’s leading candidate wouldn’t come back from the skiing vacation to attend caucuses. And he defends getting fired as head of his family’s business (Goya) by saying he didn’t come to work drunk, only hungover.
See: http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1206855724218030.xml&coll=1
I have been saying Holt should run for over a year, but at this point I support Lautenberg over Andrews.
BTW- It looks like Andrews is in. And you should bookmark Blue Jersey because they are the rockingest local bloggers out there.
New Jersey is fast becoming an albatross around the national Dem’s necks (albeit a small one), which has been Repug strategy for years: They get the governorship and then ruin the state’s finances, then lose power and complain how the Dem’s F’d everything up trying to fix the mess they made. Dems have also frequently passed the buck with Repug complicity, trying to avoid the inevitable tax increase/decimation of valued services. If you knew none of the state’s history, you’d say it was a prime example of the failure of tax-and-spend policies, something that could be used against Dems nationally as New Jersey continues to disgrace itself to more and more national interest.
Rush Holt for Senate: My Senator IS a rocket scientist!!
what, people care about New Jersey all of a sudden?
Well, if you are going to be selling Democratic/Liberal Rule, New Jersey’s mess is bound to come up…
Bob Tuke is now in the race against Lamar Alexander. According to Wikipedia’s summary, Tuke is:
Chris Lugo has decided to run as an independent or for the Greens, now that the vacuum on the Democratic side has been filled.
Don’t know that either of them has much of a chance, but then I live in Alexander’s home turf and he’s VERY popular here.
Alexander stands to wield a lot of power in the next Congress if he gets reelected. It will be hard to knock him off, but Tuke’s tough marine image is a good start.
re Mississippi Senate: Musgrove sucks. He’s a theocratic dumbass–and that’s just for starters. The beef processing plant stinkup is just what you get with him. It’s also the latest reason I’m glad I’m a vegetarian. I’m weighing actually not voting for him in November. But Wicker is a total turd, and in MS, once you’ve got a Senate seat you’re there for life or longer. If there’s a chance Musgrove could pull it out, I might give him a vote–I want a 60-Democrat Senate NOW!
And on NJ, I’m a Rush Holt fan. I’d like him to succeed Lautenberg (who’s not perfect, granted, but he’s still pretty progressive for an octogenarian). Andrews looks like a wanker/DNC type. (But sadly, he’s still better than Musgrove!)
NC: Jim Neal kicks ass!
MN: Al Franken is cool. I’d love for him to be part of that Democratic supermajority in the Senate.
Fortunately, there is not much news to report from South Dakota – especially since Steve Kirby decided not to run (hmmm…think it had anything to do with his funding of the abortion ban?). Johnson should be okay – although I am pissed at him: Patriot Act x2, FISA…ugh. Gotta love those SoDak Dems…