2022 Congressional & State Elections

[LFC]

Trump: Now you see him, now you don't. Or in this case then you do again.

GOP Wisconsin Gubernatorial Nom Deletes Trump Endorsement For Two Seconds

Tim Michels, the Republican nominee for Wisconsin governor, quietly scrubbed Trump’s endorsement from his campaign website sometime after winning his primary race on Tuesday:

…aaaaand tacked it back up there about a half hour after the quiet scrub got called out by the NYT reporter:

Dr. Oz, Pennsylvania’s favorite New Jerseyan Senate candidate, similarly wiped the Trump sludge off his campaign, and say what you will about Oz cynically running for Senate in a state he has no non-academic ties to because he knows he likely won’t win his own state, at least Oz isn’t too chicken to stick to keeping the loyalty-demanding Trump at a hilarious arm’s length.

[LFC]

Greg Abbott nearly went full metal "JEWS! JEWS! JEWS!" on Beto's campaign.

A Dog Bassoon

[AnBr]

fivethirtyeight.com/features/will-this-be-an-asterisk-election/

[goldenvalley]

The GOP slashes ads in key Senate battlegrounds 

As midterm election campaigns heat up in the Senate’s top battlegrounds, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is canceling millions of dollars of ad spending, sending GOP campaigns and operatives into a panic and upending the committee’s initial spending plan.

The cuts — totaling roughly $13.5 million since Aug. 1 — come as the Republicans’ Senate campaign committee is being forced to “stretch every dollar we can,” said a person familiar with the NRSC’s deliberations. Republican nominees in critical states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina — places the GOP must defend this fall — have failed to raise enough money to get on air themselves, requiring the NRSC to make cuts elsewhere to accommodate.

Since Aug. 1, the NRSC has cut ad buys in the battleground states of Pennsylvania ($7.5 million), Arizona ($3.5 million), Wisconsin ($2.5 million) and Nevada ($1.5 million), according to the ad tracking service AdImpact. Separately, a Democratic source tracking advertising buys estimated roughly $10.5 million in cuts by the NRSC since the first of the month.

But don't worry.

“While Rick Scott’s failed leadership of the NRSC continues to be one of Senate Democrats’ greatest assets,” said David Bergstein, spokesperson for the DSCC [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee], “we know McConnell’s super PAC will have significant resources in the weeks ahead and we are continuing to take nothing for granted in each of our battleground races.”

Bergstein was referring to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that has reserved $150 million in ads this fall. Its first spots begin airing Friday in Pennsylvania.

[Traveler]

So I guess we get 8% less ads this fall?

[goldenvalley]

Aug 15, 2022 23:47:02 GMT Traveler said:

So I guess we get 8% less ads this fall?

Maybe not even that if Mitch's PAC kicks in enough $$.

I just wonder if the Republic Senate Committee is suffering from all of Trump's fundraising texts and emails siphoning off the small dollar donors.

[LFC]

“we know McConnell’s super PAC will have significant resources in the weeks ahead and we are continuing to take nothing for granted in each of our battleground races.”

With the way the Ukraine war is going do you think Putin will still send funds to Moscow Mitch?

[goldenvalley]

Aug 16, 2022 3:42:37 GMT LFC said:

“we know McConnell’s super PAC will have significant resources in the weeks ahead and we are continuing to take nothing for granted in each of our battleground races.”

With the way the Ukraine war is going do you think Putin will still send funds to Moscow Mitch?

Good question.  I think Putin did a lot of long term investing so his lack of funds now won't be held against him.  As to Mitch, I always wondered about Chinese funds too.  His wife's family is rich and well connected.

[goldenvalley]

For you PA residents...a word from candidate Oz, just an everyday guy from PA.   LGM had great fun laughing at this.

[Bact PhD]

Aug 16, 2022 19:19:27 GMT goldenvalley said:

For you PA residents...a word from candidate Oz, just an everyday guy from PA.   LGM had great fun laughing at this.

Not exactly a PA resident, but I get the point. There are Wegmans in PA, so he could be excused that mixup. However, someone not named “Martha Stewart” referring to “crudités” when trying to communicate with ordinary folks??? Never mind that he probably hasn’t done his own grocery shopping in ages??? HAHAHAHA!!!!

[goldenvalley]

[LFC]

Aug 16, 2022 20:00:18 GMT goldenvalley said:

Goddam, Fetterman knows how to take advantage of an opportunity. From the Oz tweet comments:

Issues with Oz's 'Everyday Guy' Ad:
1. He doesn't know the correct name of the store
2. He uses the word 'crudités'
3. He can't properly read the prices [he quoted the price for the item next to the salsa]
4. He doesn't know what to get and in what quantities (the servants normally shop)

[pnwguy]

Aug 16, 2022 21:38:48 GMT LFC said:

Goddam, Fetterman knows how to take advantage of an opportunity. From the Oz tweet comments:

Issues with Oz's 'Everyday Guy' Ad:
1. He doesn't know the correct name of the store
2. He uses the word 'crudités'
3. He can't properly read the prices [he quoted the price for the item next to the salsa]
4. He doesn't know what to get and in what quantities (the servants normally shop)

At least Oz didn't have a child-like fascination about grocery checkers using laser scanners...

[AnBr]

www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/shifting-education-levels-in-political-parties-could-explain-voter-turnout-146143813603?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_mtp

[Traveler]

Aug 16, 2022 22:06:15 GMT pnwguy said:

Aug 16, 2022 21:38:48 GMT LFC said:

Goddam, Fetterman knows how to take advantage of an opportunity. From the Oz tweet comments:

At least Oz didn't have a child-like fascination about grocery checkers using laser scanners...

This is great stuff. Humor is good.

[LFC]

More fascist Republican candidates. This one is from Arizona.

Mark Finchem, the GOP nominee for Arizona secretary of state who is endorsed by former President Trump, posted a “Treason Watch List” to his Pinterest account, CNN first reported on Tuesday.

Finchem, who currently serves as a state representative, repeatedly posted about anti-government conspiracy theories and stockpiling ammunition to his Pinterest account. CNN reportedly uncovered the previously unreported posts from links on his defunct Twitter account.

Pinterest is a social media platform where users can post by creating digital mood boards. Some boards on Finchem’s account include innocuous content related to food and dogs. But Finchem also has a board on his account titled “Treason Watch List,” which includes incendiary posts that appear to demonize Democrat Jesse Jackson, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and former Secretary of State John Kerry.

In a now-deleted board labeled “Thought Provoking,” Finchem reportedly pinned a number of posts with extremist rhetoric, some of which compared Democrats to Nazis and invoked the Holocaust to argue against gun control, according to CNN. There were also reportedly posts in the board that called for stockpiling ammunition, and a cartoon that compared former President Obama to Adolf Hitler.

“What makes us think IT CAN’T HAPPEN IN AMERICA?” one of Finchem’s posts in the “Thought Provoking” board read, which opposed gun control and depicted Jews being rounded up by Nazis, CNN reported.

Additionally, other posts in the “Thought Provoking” board espoused conspiracy theories that the Mexican Army was infiltrating the United States and planning a full-scale invasion, alongside Islamophobic posts baselessly claiming that Sharia law was descending upon the U.S. soon, according to CNN.

This one from New Hampshire.

A New Hampshire Republican who’s promised to defy the presidential election results, should he be called upon to do so in 2024, is leading in that state’s Republican Senate primary.

That Republican, Don Bolduc, received support from 32% of voters surveyed, doubling the support of his next most popular competitor Chuck Morse, at 16%, according to a new poll from the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College.

If Bolduc sounds familiar to non-New Hampshirites, they may recall an interview he gave The New Yorker last year. When asked if he would “walk the walk” when potential election objections come before the Senate again in 2024, Bolduc replied, “absolutely.”

“I thought there was a tremendous amount of fraud” in 2020, Bolduc said separately in the interview, justifying his signing of a letter, along with other retired military leaders, that said the nation was engaged in a fight between supporters of Socialism and freedom, and asserted, “The FBI and Supreme Court must act swiftly when election irregularities are surfaced and not ignore them as was done in 2020.”

Former national security advisor and Trump pardon recipient Michael Flynn participated in a fundraiser for Bolduc last October.

[goldenvalley]

No surprise that Liz Cheney lost the Republican Primary for her seat. Some MAGA person will the nominee for the GOP.  I was amused to see an interview with Adam Kinzinger (also on the way out) who said Cheney will chase Trump to the gates of hell. 

[pnwguy]

Aug 17, 2022 3:35:04 GMT goldenvalley said:

No surprise that Liz Cheney lost the Republican Primary for her seat. Some MAGA person will the nominee for the GOP.  I was amused to see an interview with Adam Kinzinger (also on the way out) who said Cheney will chase Trump to the gates of hell. 

She is ready to fight. I sure disagree with much of her
polítics but keep up the fight. Her concession speech was amazing oratory and a call for any and all sane Americans to gird for the battle ahead.

youtu.be/4R1Nu23nx2o

[LFC]

Murkowski survived.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has made it past the Republican primary with a slight edge over her Trump-endorsed challenger.

With roughly 62 percent of ballots tallied, Murkowski had more than 43 percent of the vote. Kelly Tshibaka, the former commissioner of Alaska’s Department of Administration, had 41 percent.

Alaska changed its voting methods for this cycle, and the top four candidates of any party get a golden ticket to the ranked-choice general election. That means that the two Republicans will now face a rematch in the general.

Murkowski’s team set expectations for their candidate low: they likened the primary to the Olympic qualifiers, saying that making it is all that matters.

Alaska voters greenlit the new voting method in a 2020 ballot referendum.

And Sarah Palin is coming back like a bad burrito. I thought for the most part we had seen the last of this grifting steaming pile of moose turds but she smells the money. Rich Lowry was almost right about seeing starbursts in her eyes. What he actually saw was dollar signs. Fingers crossed she loses in November.

Sarah Palin is on track to compete in November’s general election to represent Alaska in Congress, a seat until recently held by the late Rep. Don Young (R). She also got the votes she needs Tuesday to remain in the running to finish out Young’s current term — but the full results of that special election wont be known for a couple more weeks.

This is all a little confusing: There are two elections in play — both held Tuesday — along with a host of changes, implemented this year, to how Alaska conducts its elections, including a shift to ranked-choice. Here’s what you need to know.

Palin — along with Nicholas Begich, Republican scion of a major Alaskan Democratic family, and former state Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat who would be the first Alaska Native in the state’s congressional delegation — is competing to finish out the Young’s term in a special election. Independent Al Gross, who ran for Senate in 2020, also qualified for the general election but dropped out.

Voters have ranked their choices, but the winner won’t be clear until at least the end of August as mail-in ballots trickle in and officials tally the votes.

On Wednesday morning, with an estimated 69 percent of ballots tallied, Peltola had 37 percent of the vote in this race. Palin had 32 percent, and Begich had 28 percent.

[LFC]

The final tally of the fates of the 10 Republican House members who stood up for America shows just how thoroughly Trumpism has infected the GOP.

MAGA Revenge Mission Completed

As expected, House Jan. 6 Committee vice chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) was defeated in her primary by Trump-backed Harriet Hageman last night. Cheney’s was the last primary of all the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.

• The vote tallies in Cheney’s race, with approximately 99 percent of the ballots counted as of this morning, show it was a bloodbath: Hageman got 66.3 percent of the vote, while Cheney reached only 28.9, per the Washington Post.

• Cheney’s defeat means only two of the 10 pro-impeachment House Republicans will still be in Congress come next year:
  ◦ Dan Newhouse (R-WA)
  ◦ David Valadao (R-CA)

• In addition to Cheney, three other pro-impeachment GOP lawmakers who dared to run again ended up losing their jobs:
  ◦ Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA)
  ◦ Peter Meijer (R-MI)
  ◦ Tom Rice (R-SC)

• The remaining four just straight-up resigned:
  ◦ Fred Upton (R-MI)
  ◦ John Katko (R-NY)
  ◦ Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH)
  ◦ Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), the one other Republican besides Cheney on the House Jan. 6 Committee.

• In contrast, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the only Republican senator who convicted Trump in the impeachment trial to face a primary this year, survived her primary against Trump endorsee Kelly Tshibaka. However, they’ll both be facing off against each other again in the general election due to Alaska’s “top four” voting system.

[LFC]

Wyoming completes its transformation to a banana republic.

Election Truther Now Set To Be Wyoming’s Next Secretary Of State

Chuck Gray, a Trump endorsee and 2020 election fraud conspiracist, won the Republican primary for Wyoming secretary of state last night. And since no Democrats ran for the position, Gray’s victory means he’ll be overseeing the elections in 2024.

[LFC]

Fingers crossed.

We’ve known that Wisconsin would be a key Senate battleground this year. But until just recently we didn’t know who the Democratic nominee was. Now we know it’s Democrat Mandela Barnes, who had essentially cleared the field by the time of the primary vote. A new Marquette Law poll just came out – this is Charles Franklin’s poll, which is the premium in-state poll. It shows Barnes up by seven points over Johnson 51%-44%. In June the same poll found a 46%-44% race. That difference is likely a mix of shifting electoral landscape and Barnes consolidating potential supporters after the primary ended.

I do not count Johnson out. He’s won two straight elections he was not expected to win, both against former Sen. Russ Feingold. He’s a canny and able politician. But unless this poll is a significant outlier Wisconsin looks like the strong pick up opportunity Democrats were hoping for. For an incumbent to be running behind a challenger who has crossed the 50% threshold is a perilous place to be.

[AnBr]

Aug 17, 2022 14:33:36 GMT LFC said:

The final tally of the fates of the 10 Republican House members who stood up for America shows just how thoroughly Trumpism has infected the GOP.

Awww…Wyoming…where men are men and sheep are scared

[LFC]

Aug 17, 2022 22:56:16 GMT AnBr said:

Aug 17, 2022 14:33:36 GMT LFC said:

The final tally of the fates of the 10 Republican House members who stood up for America shows just how thoroughly Trumpism has infected the GOP.

Awww…Wyoming…where men are men and sheep are scared

When Dems were talking about making D.C. a state I remember how Republicans tried to defend why it shouldn't be but Wyoming should. D.C. has more people and nearly 4X the GDP but ... "LOOK! COWS!"

[pnwguy]

Lying is a pre-requisite candidate condition for the GOP.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/18/liz-cheney-concession-call-trump-harriet-hageman