Another day, some more poll work, another home-grown
terrorist shooting. Two generations ago,
much of my wife’s family lived in the section of Pittsburgh where the incident
took place, and some of them are still there.
Needless to say, she was quite concerned, as was I.
We may take back the House on the 6th, but the
evil that has always been abroad in this land, now raising its head once again,
will still be with us. We have no choice
but to fight it relentlessly.
If Nate Silver is to be believed, young Ryan Watts has very
little chance of upsetting Mark Walker here in the NC 6th CD, but he
may well reduce Walker’s margin from 18 points to 5 or 6, which should put it
genuinely in play in 2020. I leave it to
other candidates better situated actually to flip their districts.
One does what one can.
Living in Vermont we have no Democrats in the US Senate race (yes, Bernie Sanders is once again running as an independent--he may have been seeking to be a Democratic president but in Vermont he is an independent*)but we have a wide slate of Independents to choose from. We have a widely watched Governor's race but only because Christine Hallquist is the first trans (major-party?)candidate for Governor and she has little chance according to polling.
ReplyDeleteThis past weekend I was researching whom to vote for in the state rep and state senate races (we have a complicated system where I actually vote for 2 state reps and 3 state senators so there are usually a number of candidates to research). Anyway, all of the incumbents are Democrats. I have been disappointed in one of the State Reps and one of the State Senators and was researching the independent/progressive candidates also on the ballot. I was happy to find two progressive candidates but both seem to take a very dim view of policy research as neither has much to say on some important education issues (Vermont by virtue of low population and a conservative history has an inefficient number of school districts so rational reform is needed). Sadly, none of their answers showed anything but a passing interest in the issues in the state (though they loved talking about carbon taxes which they were a little too simplistic about).
Anyway, this is just preface to a favorite election choice I had to make when I lived in Western Mass (Northampton) 20 years or so ago. Several of my friends were supporting a Green candidate for state rep against a solid but uncharismatic Democrat. My neighbors even hosted a fundraiser for him and the guy seemed pleasant but in my limited interaction with him was not interested in policy. I decided to watch the local cable access debate that had 3 candidates (there was a gruff Republican but he was not likely to gain much interest in Noho). The debate should that the Green candidate was indeed interested in policy matters just not of the state kind. He gave only vague answers to most of the specific issues while always making broader progressive statements. I was not impressed but still thought I might give the novice a chance until the final question where they were asked to talk about the most important issue to them. The Democrat answered health care issues were the most important to him (I agreed 100% and then he quoted a study I was a key author of!--I was easily flattered). Finally the Green candidate stated that his most important issue was mining rights on the Moon and Mars. Yes, he thought the most important issue for a state rep on Earth was mining rights not on Earth. I happily voted for boring Democrat and advised my friends on the Moon and Mars to consider drafting this Green candidate for office there.
*Also, Bernie has started two minor parties that still offer candidates for office on a statewide basis but has not run on either of them for many years. One has degenerated to generally running crackpots.