There aren’t many Republicans here in Maryland but there seems to be a high percentage of them who are MAGA, judging by the candidates they have been running lately (per flurb above). We’re a closed primary state so Hogan will have to defeat a bunch of far righties just to get a chance in November. I don’t know if he can do that.
I know there is precedence for popular governors not being able to swing that into a senate seat but I am nevertheless worried. Hopefully, Maryland Democrats are sophisticated enough to realize the very real danger of putting a Susan Collins-ish GOP senator in there when the margin is already so tenuous.
Strange times. But it is fact that running Hogan would give MD Republicans a much better chance of winning the seat than the run of the mill Trump sycophant. I wouldn’t count out the possibility of a Hogan primary win, though, he has enormous name recognition. And the Dem opponent will not.
I hope we don’t end up living with a bad mistake for at least six years.
I wondered what other posters think of the senate candidates in California for this March election. Neither incumbents are on the ballot. Both were of short tenure and were what I might call junior senators. One of the vacancies is a full-term Senator; the second seat is the 2 yr end-term of the other seat.
The Republican candidates haven’t apparently won a seat since forever ago and all have short odds. The one anyone has apparently heard of is Steve Garvey, a formal baseball player and novice politician.
The Democrat with the most apparent support is Adam Schiff, a current US rep who helped lead a committee to impeach Trump. There are two other Democrats who have no funding , Barbara Lee a sometime US rep and a Kathy Porter; they’re arguably proper candidates but not many have heard of them.
My quandary is voting for Lee or Porter vs Schiff, in placing one in the full -term and the other in the 2 year seat. Schiff has a traceable record that could most easily help Biden and Harris in the polls or in getting legislation through. On the other hand, Lee and Porter represent demographics and bring life perspectives not commonly held in the Senate; in the long term these are equally valid reasons to vote for these candidates.
As I mentioned earlier I wondered who you might vote for in the two seats. Of course my assumptions above are blurred and goofy so I welcome your tutelage for sure!
There aren’t two seats up. There are two elections for the same seat, one for the last two months of the current term and one for the next term. Alex Padilla was elected to a full term in 2022.
As a Democrat not in California who doesn’t much care which Democrat wins, my firm wish is that Steve Garvey gets the second spot on the ballot so that donors don’t continue to waste money that could be used in more important races.
Some encouraging polls coming out for Jon Tester in Montana these days, whose seat is definitely in some jeopardy. With West Virginia almost surely lost to Republicans, holding Montana would be very big.
Lee has indeed been trailing by contrast and is the de facto third-place finisher (of the Democrats), which is pretty much where she has been pretty much pegged from the start. Much to her great annoyance - it is highly likely that only bad timing prevented Lee from being appointed to the seat by Newsom. In which case she’d have been the incumbent and the whole complexion of this race could have been different.
Before the media blitz of the campaign where Schiff has been spending like a drunken sailor, I highly doubt that Schiff would have been considered all that much more prominent than either Porter (considered a rising star - very vocal and visible during assorted hearings, where she acted like the law professor she was) or Lee (House member for a billion years or at least since 1998 and consistently just about the most liberal member thereof). What he was, was better-connected internally in the party. Also maybe a little blander than either, which oddly can be an asset.
Initially, with Lee shoved to the side, it was regarded as a two-person race between Schiff and Porter, with Schiff having a small edge. But at this point Schiff has it sewn up. The only question is will the Democratic splintering allow Garvey to sneak into the jungle primary as the #2. Which seems quite likely - at which point he promptly becomes a sacrificial lamb. Garvey’s odds of winning the actual election in CA are probably in the single digits. If that.
Thanks Tamerlane for discussing this with me. I voted for the candidate Lee who is a long shot but I’ve admired her across the state for many years because of her stance on issues. That seems like the best reason to vote sometimes.
I read a column about Michigan’s districts for this year’s elections. It seems like Michigan is vital. I don’t know anyone who lives there but found it
interesting in any case.
Edit: my mistake - when I saw you mention “districts,” I thought you were talking about Michigan’s House elections, as opposed to four areas of Michigan that will play a key part in the Presidential and Senate elections
Yes I say how you mean the article was more about regions as opposed to my writing ‘districts.’ I guess I respect how difficult it is to pool voters together like the article did. For instance, i’ve got an uncle from Dowagiac, MI. A political scientist might try to say my uncle would be similar to his neighbors, a legislative district or a whole region. I get how that’s hard to do.
Former Congressman Justin Amash has jumped into the Republican side of things in the Michigan race.
He’s the guy who actually left the Republican party while in Congress and voted to impeach Trump. I have no idea what he’s thinking. There’s no way he can win the Republican primary.
Yeah I’m not sure what ol’ Justin thinks he’s bringing to the table here. He’s basically Peter Meijer without the massive statewide name recognition. Plus he abandoned the party while in Congress.
