Poll: Dead Heat Between Gomez, Markey In MA Senate Special Election

Via McLaughlin Associates(pdf):

RINO Chris Christie screws the GOP again...

NJ Governor Chris Christie will have a special election this fall to fill Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s term. He won't have it at the regular election time because he doesn't want those extra democratic voters to turn out then. There is no requirement to call a special election. Christie could appoint a Republican to fill out Lautenberg’s term.

Via National Review:

Governor Chris Christie is expected to call for an October 2013 special Senate election at a press conference this afternoon in Trenton, N.J.

But did he have other options?

According to a legal document obtained by National Review, Christie did. He could have appointed a Republican to serve out the remainder of Frank Lautenberg’s term, with the next election to be held in November 2014, rather than a special election this year.
“The governor may make a temporary appointment and that person would serve until someone is elected at the next succeeding general election, held in November of 2014.

The winner thereof would serve a full six-year term beginning in January of 2015.”

Insiders tell me that the November 2014 option was advised as the best course of action by national GOP officials, but Christie decided to go his own way.

Actual Good News: Massachusetts Senate Race Now A Toss-Up

GOP candidate Gabriel Gomez would no doubt be a RINO, but he would be much preferable to  Democrat Edward Markey.

Via CSM:

Their turnout is low, the partisanship of voters is high, and those running have to campaign without the energy boost of other candidates vying for office all around them.
In Massachusetts this June, that volatility could make for a tighter-than-expected contest in the race for John Kerry’s former Senate seat, according to a new analysis by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

The Cook report announced Thursday that it was shifting its prediction for the race from “leaning Democrat” to “toss up,” although the group acknowledged it still had its “thumb on the scale” for Democrat Edward Markey, an 18-term congressman who has consistently polled ahead of his Republican rival, businessman Gabriel Gomez.

Keep on reading…

Republicans Win Wiener's Old House Seat

The GOP has won both House special elections. The NY seat is in a heavily democratic district. The Nevada seat is in a district that leans Republican, but the GOP won it by double-digits. Let the democratic panic begin.

(WaPo)With the outcome of his own reelection effort 14 difficult months away, President Obama suffered a sharp rebuke Tuesday when voters in New York elected a conservative Republican to represent a Democratic district that has not been in GOP hands since the 1920s.

Bob Turner, the winner, cast the election as a referendum on Obama’s stewardship of the economy and, in the state’s Ninth Congressional District, which has a large population of Orthodox Jewish voters, the president’s position on Israel.

With 75 percent of the precincts reporting at press time, Turner had a commanding lead, with 53 percent of the vote, compared with 47 percent for Weprin.

Turner, 70, a retired cable TV executive who has never served in elective office, defeated Democratic State Assemblyman David Weprin, 55, who has two decades of experience in public service, to fill the seat left vacant when Anthony Weiner (D) resigned in disgrace in June after more than 12 years in the House.

The defeat came as Republicans trounced Democrats in another special House election Tuesday, in northern Nevada, where Republican Mark Amodei led Democrat Kate Marshall, 56 percent to 39 percent almost from the start.

When Scott Brown took the Kennedy Senate seat in Massachusetts, Democrats went into denial and refused to move towards the center. They paid dearly in 2010 and lost the House. Will they repeat that mistake again?

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee throws in towel on Hawaii special election

Democrats have decided there is no way to beat Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou (R). Two Democrats are in the race and splitting the democratic vote. There are few things better than having a House seat handed to you on a silver platter.

The Hill reported:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is pulling out of the Hawaii special election for Rep. Neil Abercrombie’s (D) seat, effectively handing the seat to the Republicans.

“The DCCC will not be investing additional resources in the (Hawaii) special election,” Jennifer Crider, a DCCC spokeswoman, said in a statement...

The committee concluded there’s no way state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa and former Rep. Ed Case (Hawaii) can split the Democratic vote and still defeat Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou (R).

Meet the Republican Who Wants to Represent Obama's Hawaiian Hometown District

Meet the Republican Who Wants to Represent Obama's Hawaiian Hometown District. Republican Charles Djou is current ahead in the Hawaii special congressional election. Charles Djou was on Hannity last night.

Olbermann: Scott Brown is a homophobic racist teabagger

I know the bar is very high, but this is may be the most shameful Keith Olbermann rant ever. He repeats almost every smear ever directed at Scott Brown and calls Brown every insult he can imagine.

“In short in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible homophobic racist reactionary ex-nude-model tea-bagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees. In any other time in our history this man would have been laughed off the stage as an unqualified and disaster in the making by the most conservative of conservatives. Instead the commonwealth of Massachusetts is close to sending this bad joke to the Senate of the United States.”

Could he have crammed anymore insults into one sentence? Also, if you are a supporter, Olbermann appears to think you must be racist too.



Polling indicates voters are ignoring Olbermann and will elect what he refers to as a "bad joke."

Democrats Internal Polling Has Coakley Up By only Five

According to Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic, internal democratic polling only has Coakley up 5. It was + 15 a week ago. Here is the tweet.



Could it be possible? Democrats won't sleep well until after January 19, 2009.

Hat tip Weasel Zippers.