News & discussion on house and senate races

Anyway, I would appreciate it if we could get back to Nimh's orginal intent (as I understand it) for this thread. Any interesting races in your area of interest?

Reading it reminded me of realjohnboy's comments about how the Democrats are trying to move to the center.

Delicious irony.

IN WASHINGTON, Democrats are challenging the nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court because he opposes abortion. In Pennsylvania, those same Democrats are working to help Robert P. Casey Jr. topple Republican Senator Rick Santorum -- because Casey opposes abortion.

In the same vein, there's Republican Congressmen out there who, on foreign policy, are of isolationist bent, yet whose logical place in the Party, I'm sure, you would nevertheless not doubt, considering how they represent the party's ideology in so many different (other) ways. But when one is proposed as the new Secretary of State, I'm sure the equation for the Republican establishment (or for you) on whether isolationist convictions are still acceptable changes entirely.

. I agree there's greed on both sides of the aisle and the sooner they're weeded out (if only), the better.

JustWonders wrote:

Reading it reminded me of realjohnboy's comments about how the Democrats are trying to move to the center.

Delicious irony.

<starts reading>

Quote:

IN WASHINGTON, Democrats are challenging the nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court because he opposes abortion. In Pennsylvania, those same Democrats are working to help Robert P. Casey Jr. topple Republican Senator Rick Santorum -- because Casey opposes abortion.

<screeches to halt>

Hel-lo... it is quite a different issue where a future Judge on the Supreme Court stands on abortion than where a Senator stands.

Mr Bush's approval rating rose recently, from the high 30's to the mid 40's.

Nothing really new here. I just wanted to keep this thread going.

Hi, everyone. Nimh started this thread a bit early.

Many Democrats assert that the vigorous challenge to Mr. Lieberman is overshadowing the governor's race and taking money and attention away from three closely contested House races in Connecticut that many strategists consider crucial to the Democrats' majority hopes.

"It's absolute Democratic cannibalism," said John F. Droney, a former Democratic state chairman in Connecticut.

The liberals' campaign is clearly rattling Senator Lieberman, who has not faced a serious primary challenge in his three terms [..].

He has been cold-calling scores of state party delegates who will meet to endorse a candidate on Friday. He is boasting of union endorsements and interest groups he once took for granted. He has already run commercials and mailed letters to delegates from prominent Democrats like Senators Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid to remind voters of his liberal record on issues like the environment, abortion rights and gay rights.

"Connecticut's a progressive state," Mr. Lamont said at a fund-raiser in the home of a Yale professor in North Haven on Sunday. "You're not going to lose a senator. You're going to gain a Democrat."

A growing cast of prominent activists is backing Mr. Lamont. Markos Moulitsas, who advised the presidential campaign of Howard Dean in 2004 and founded the blog Daily Kos, is appearing in a campaign commercial for Mr. Lamont.

James H. Dean, the brother of Howard Dean and the chairman of the grass-roots group his brother formed in 2004, supports Mr. Lamont. Tim Tagaris, recently the Democratic National Committee's Internet outreach coordinator, has become director of Internet operations for the Lamont campaign.

Even the state's best-known independent, former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker, has announced his support for Mr. Lamont because of Mr. Lieberman's support of the war.

On Tuesday, the National Organization for Women's political action committee endorsed Mr. Lamont, in part because he said, unlike Senator Lieberman, that he would have supported a filibuster to prevent confirmation hearings for Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court.

At the end of this year's first quarter, the senator had $4.7 million in his campaign account compared with about $375,000 that Mr. Lamont had on hand. The senator has been endorsed by prominent state Democrats and he has long ties with many local party leaders. But those supporters also warn that liberals could turn out in large numbers on Primary Day, making the outcome less than certain.

"[..] if I were in his shoes I wouldn't be taking chances with an August primary," said Al From, the founder and chief executive of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist group of which Senator Lieberman is a past chairman. "Because nobody's paying attention, and you don't know who's going to vote."

Mr. Lamont, 52, says his frustrations with Mr. Lieberman solidified in the spring of 2005, when the senator voted to allow a federal court to review the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose case drove a national debate over right-to-die issues.

[A] poll by Quinnipiac University released this month [..] showed that 83 percent of Democrats thought going to war was wrong. It also showed Senator Lieberman leading Mr. Lamont, by 65 percent to 19 percent, among registered Democrats.

[..] Mr. From said [..] of the senator's critics: "There's a group in our party that makes a lot of noise and I don't think they've ever won an election. They're trying to take out one of the great statesmen our party has and that's wrong."

This weekend, the 1,607 delegates to the state Democratic party convention will nominate a candidate for the Senate, and Mr. Lieberman is expected to win the nomination handily. But Mr. Lamont will get his name on the ballot for the Aug. 8 primary if he wins 15 percent of the delegates, which many party leaders think is likely. "If he gets 25 percent, that will be sending a real message to Lieberman," said Leland Tolo, a West Hartford delegate who said he would back Mr. Lamont.

Lieberman, 64, who was first elected in 1988, captured 1,004 delegates compared with Lamont's 504 at the Connecticut Expo Center, where many in the sea of delegates shouted "bring them home" in reference to American troops in Iraq.

The 2-1 margin of victory assured Lamont [..] the 15 percent of delegates required for an Aug. 8 primary. [..]

A Stamford native, Lieberman dominated the urban vote, winning 37 of 50 delegates in Stamford, 57 of 69 in his current hometown of New Haven and 43 of 54 in Hartford. [..]

Lamont, who won 19 of Greenwich's 22 delegates, fared well in rural areas with fewer delegates. He won several small towns, including Kent, Bridgewater and Roxbury.

"The official Democratic Party is behind Lieberman," said Edward Krumeich Jr., a Greenwich delegate who supported Lamont. "It's the grass roots that are the Lamont supporters."

Lamont also made a strong showing in medium-sized cities such as New Britain (24 delegates to Lieberman's seven) and Norwalk (14 to eight).