This morning, I was watching TV and saw, of all things, an ad where Chuck Schumer was endorsing this message.
Now, I live in solidly blue New York City, so other than some national Clinton and Trump ads, there is practically no political advertising on the airwaves (or cable-TV-waves as the case may be).
I wasn’t totally surprised because I somebody made an off-hand comment about it during the Al Smith dinner, and I had Googled to see that his seat was, in fact, up for election and he had some no-name as a challenger along with the biggest Senate campaign war chest to defend himself against the GOP powder puff. And I suppose that it makes sense to use a little of his money to put up some feel good ads so that his donors think that their money is actually being used.
But still, it was slightly eye-opening reminder that there are some other races out there.
I’m in Carolyn Maloney’s House district, and after some determined Googling, I have determined that she actually has a Republican opponent, Robert Ardini, who is reported to have raised a grand total of zero dollars. I haven’t seen any ads for Maloney in any media, or really for any of the other Congressional races, except for one district in New Jersey where the candidates have dueling attack ads running.
So other than the Presidential slug-fest (which is a foregone conclusion in New York’s tri-state area), it has been pretty totally quiet here for down-ballot races.
So, what’s going on in the walk-over races around you?
Of the 9 US Representatives in MA, all currently Democrats, 4 are running completely unopposed, and 1 has only third party opponents. None of the races are expected to be close in any way.
In the state Senate, 26 of 40 senators are running unopposed, including 3 Republican senators.
In a way, I think I’d dig being the nominee as challenger for one of those utterly hopeless races. Get my name in a federal-office ballot and make only a perfunctory going through the motions of running while speaking with little care of losing votes and be free to throw the Prez candidate under the bus if he goes full wacko. Only likely hassle is depending on the state party committee leadership, if the market will bear it I might be expected to do some fundraising for the party to support real candidates elsewhere.
JR; Move to Alabama and run as a Democrat. Except for the majority-African-American districts a combination of FDR and George Washington couldn’t get elected against any Republican down here.
Part of it is the conservatism of the state, part of it is that the Democratic party never got over the shift in parties in the 1960-70’s and remains a train wreck today.
Here is Sacramento, Congress District 7, Democratic incumbent facing challenge from Republican County Sheriff looking to trade up.
I know very little of the incumbent. Could not pick him\her out of a line up. The challenger has a long history of sexual harassment allegations from his time with Sheriff’s Department.
Illinois’ Governor Rauner isn’t even in an election this year, but he’s getting hit hard by being collected up in the “Trump and Rauner Republicans” group. Trump is being used as a weapon here against those that refuse to repudiate him.
St. Louis is the key media market for four of the eight Missouri Congressional districts. I can’t recall seeing or hearing a single ad for any candidate for any of those four races. OTOH we are getting ads for at least a couple of the nearby Illinois Congressional races.
I typically spend 1-2 weekends each month in Vermont visiting relatives. Unsurprisingly, Pat Leahy doesn’t seem to be campaigning very hard to be reelected to the Senate.
Here in San Francisco, we had a top-two primary (everyone votes for the same set of candidates) for the 12th Congressional District:
Nancy Pelosi (Democrat) - 78.1%
Preston Picus (Independent) - 7.7%
Bob Miller (Republican) - 7.6%
Barry Hermanson (Green) - 6.6%
Which means that Nancy will face the Independent in the general election. His chances are not looking too good. In 2014 she defeated a Republican 83.3% to 16.7%.
Well, here in Northern VA, my representative (Gerry Connelly) is running unopposed. However, in the next district over, the race appears to be tighter as according to the ads, the race is between the woman who hates all taxpayers and wants to raise raise raise your taxes while cackling hysterically at the thought and the woman who hates all women and will not stop until Roe v. Wade is overturned and besides is apparently very very close to Trump in all her positions. One problem I see is that Connelly is being mentioned as a frontrunner for Kaine’s Senate seat, which means it basically won’t matter if he is elected or not since we will just get whoever the governor appoints.
Neither my Democratic Congressman nor Senator have any chance at winning. And the Democrats cannot win the state legislature, either, as there just aren’t enough challengers. As in, they frequently run unopposed.
I’m in a very red congressional district in Ohio. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ad for my current congressman. His campaign site’s news section was last updated in August. Its YouTube account has some ads on it, but the last one was posted in 2014.
Then there’s the Senate race to replace retiring (and none too soon, the useless git) Barbara Boxer. Both the top two in the primary were Democrats, so no danger there. Now it’s a Northern Californian against a Southern Californian. I predict the Northerner will win (Kamala Harris).
