2022 Congressional & State Elections

[LFC]

Oz has moved to align himself almost exactly with Doug Mastriano on abortion. He has shifted his position over the last few years but now it's about as extreme as it gets.

TV doctor turned Republican senatorial candidate Mehmet Oz has been tough to pin down on abortion.

He claims to be “100% pro-life,” but he also has some exceptions. And as recently as 2019, Oz defended Roe v. Wade.

But now, The Daily Beast has obtained audio from a campaign event this May where Oz staked out his most extreme position yet, telling voters he believes abortion at any stage of development is “still murder,” including from the moment of conception.

“I do believe life starts at conception, and I’ve said that multiple times,” Oz said during the event, a tele-town hall held a week before the Republican primary.

“If life starts at conception,” Oz added, “why do you care what age the heart starts beating at? It’s, you know, it’s still murder, if you were to terminate a child whether their heart’s beating or not.”

He was answering an attendee who wondered how Oz could square his current anti-abortion stance with his statements from 2019, specifically that “the heart’s not beating” six weeks into a pregnancy.

The one-time surgeon explained that, at the time of the 2019 interview, he had been “concerned” about making sure anti-abortion laws could be enforced.

“My mother-in-law wrote a lot of the original pro-life literature in Montgomery County,” Oz told the conservative audience. “My argument in that radio interview was as a doctor, a heart starts beating at around nine weeks. So I was concerned that if legislators picked a timeframe that’s not medically accurate, it would invalidate the law.”

[LFC]

Herschel is not only brain impaired, he's potentially violent and dangerous.

Democrats are escalating their attacks on Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker with a new television ad that calls attention to the violent episodes in Walker’s past.

“Herschel Walker has repeatedly threatened to kill his ex-wife,” begins the narrator of the 30-second spot from Georgia Honor, a political organization closely affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his Senate Majority PAC.

The ad, shared first with NBC News, starts airing Wednesday as part of a $33 million blitz that the group has planned through Election Day. It represents the first substantial effort by national Democrats to amplify abuse allegations against Walker, a former University of Georgia football star who played in the NFL. Walker easily won a GOP primary in May, despite a rival’s attempts to call attention to his baggage and warn that it could be a liability in the general election.

Walker's threats and alleged menacing behavior toward his ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, and other women date to at least 2001, according to police records obtained by NBC News and other outlets. Walker was never criminally charged. But he and Grossman discussed several incidents publicly after Walker's 2008 memoir described his being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, or DID, formerly known as multiple personality disorder. Walker has said he developed “alters” to deal with stress and trauma, and he has noted how memory loss is a symptom of DID.

Great, so he's struggling mightily with massive mental health and memory issues but let's toss him into cauldron of national politics while requiring him to understand a broad array of complex issues. [SMHL]

[pnwguy]

Aug 31, 2022 20:26:52 GMT LFC said:

Herschel is not only brain impaired, he's potentially violent and dangerous.

Great, so he's struggling mightily with massive mental health and memory issues but let's toss him into cauldron of national politics while requiring him to understand a broad array of complex issues. [SMHL]

He should be given access to the highest level of classified information, just like his Orange God-king.  He can pass out copies of top secret documents to his many children, since he considered them top secret too.

[indy]

Sarah Palin is officially a has been, assuming she ever was.

Democrat Mary Peltola wins special U.S. House election, will be first Alaska Native elected to Congress

[goldenvalley]

Sept 1, 2022 0:46:19 GMT indy said:

Sarah Palin is officially a has been, assuming she ever was.

Democrat Mary Peltola wins special U.S. House election, will be first Alaska Native elected to Congress

And now the Republican Party will complain that it is ranked choice voting that leads to fraud...not just drop boxes for vote by mail ballot and Dominion machines.

[pnwguy]

Sept 1, 2022 0:51:11 GMT goldenvalley said:

Sept 1, 2022 0:46:19 GMT indy said:

Sarah Palin is officially a has been, assuming she ever was.

Democrat Mary Peltola wins special U.S. House election, will be first Alaska Native elected to Congress

And now the Republican Party will complain that it is ranked choice voting that leads to fraud...not just drop boxes for vote by mail ballot and Dominion machines.

FIFY

We won't need elections when God(R) anoints leaders directly.  Caribou Barbie was just early, like John the Baptist making the way for The Holy Trump.  Those early prophets often are expendable, when the wicked rise up and kill His Messengers.

[LFC]

Suck it, Sarah. I hope this carries over to November.

Former state lawmaker Democrat Mary Peltola made history Wednesday night, as she won the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young’s (R-AK) term. She’ll be the first Alaskan native to ever serve in Congress.

Election officials revealed the (still technically unofficial) results of the state’s first ranked-choice election — held on Aug. 16 — after a lengthy delay for the remainder of the mail-in ballots to arrive and be tabulated.

After the second round of tabulating, Peltola had 51.5 percent of the vote to Sarah Palin’s 48.5.

Palin was attempting a political comeback after a decade out of the fray. Some political analysts had warned that Palin’s mud-slinging fest with fellow Republican Nick Begich would split the Republican vote, making each too radioactive for GOP voters to rank second. Such infighting could only benefit the Democrat.

Peltola will have the chance to serve for longer than the next few months. She’s also in the running for the seat’s next full term, and advanced through the top-four primary earlier this month. That ranked-choice election will take place in November, where she’ll again face Palin and Begich, along with Libertarian Chris Bye. Former Trump aide Tara Sweeney finished fourth in the primary, but subsequently dropped out, opening the spot for Bye.

[pnwguy]

Sept 1, 2022 0:51:11 GMT goldenvalley said:

And now the Republican Party will complain that it is ranked choice voting that leads to fraud.

The blame game is on.

[LFC]

Sept 1, 2022 18:49:45 GMT pnwguy said:

The blame game is on.

She may actually be right (but I simply can't watch because her voice is like having hot needles driven through my eardrums). Giving voters their most wanted representation (i.e. ranked choice voting) may very well have caused her loss. She might have won under the old rules which allowed a fairly unpopular candidate to win it all.

[jackd]

Even if she Is right, so what?

[andydp]

Sept 1, 2022 0:51:11 GMT goldenvalley said:

Sept 1, 2022 0:46:19 GMT indy said:

Sarah Palin is officially a has been, assuming she ever was.

Democrat Mary Peltola wins special U.S. House election, will be first Alaska Native elected to Congress

And now the Republican Party will complain that it is ranked choice voting that leads to fraud...not just drop boxes for vote by mail ballot and Dominion machines.

You were saying ?  Our favorite brain dead logic master is at it again.  Leaving him wide open to the question: What if Gov Palin had won ?

Republicans rage against ranked choice voting after Alaska election

“Ranked-choice voting is a scam to rig elections,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) tweeted after results from Alaska’s special election showing Peltola won Wednesday. “60% of Alaska voters voted for a Republican, but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion—which disenfranchises voters—a Democrat ‘won.’”


www.yahoo.com/video/republicans-rage-against-ranked-choice-202941316.html

[pnwguy]

Sept 1, 2022 22:01:25 GMT jackd said:

Even if she Is right, so what?

Well, she didn't WIN, so therefore the election was RIGGED against her.  Those are the magical MAGAt words to say to her supporters. Anytime a MAGA Republican doesn't win, the election was rigged and fraudulent.  Therefore their solution is to effectively eliminate elections that allow for non-Republican voters.  Problem solved!  

[LFC]

Sept 1, 2022 22:01:25 GMT jackd said:

Even if she Is right, so what?

I should have added /snark at the end.

[LFC]

Dems are finally starting to fight. I've only seen Biden's highlights so far but this video snippet is Brian Kemp getting his ass handed to him by Stacey Abrams.

[LFC]

The Lincoln Project came out with a response to gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake saying "We need to fire the federal government." I love the finish: "Right now Kari Lake is just a kook with crazy ideas. But if Arizona elects her for governor? Her crazy ideas could crush Arizona's economy." Of course she'd never consider giving up that fat federal cash supplied by blue states but I like taking Republicans at their word and smearing them with their own feces ideas.

[LFC]

Peter Thiel dropped a bit of a shitshow (paywalled) into Moscow Mitch's lap. Remember, Mitch, this is the kind of person you decided the GOP should serve. You made this.

You may have seen reports about the ongoing tug-of-war or game of chicken between Peter Thiel and Mitch McConnell. In short, it’s about who picks up the tab for the campaigns of Thiel’s political proteges Blake Masters in Arizona and JD Vance in Ohio. Both campaigns are floundering and both need money badly. Given Ohio’s GOP advantages, even a floundering campaign leaves Vance still in a fairly strong position. But it wasn’t even supposed to be a contest. You can go to others for the inside gossip on the back and forth between the two men. I want to focus your attention on something more general.

Thiel’s gambit is very redolent of the standard VC play. It’s sort of a question why Thiel isn’t picking up the tab for these guys in the general. After all, at his level of wealth, funding a Senate campaign isn’t a huge lift. But why should he pay? After he made Masters and Vance the nominees McConnell and the GOP generally simply had no choice. What are they going to do? Surrender the Senate seats to spite Thiel? Of course not. By getting them the nominations, Thiel’s hand picked candidates became the only path to the majority. It’s rather ingenious actually. Fund them in their start up phase and then leave it to others to get them through the really hard part. McConnell is left playing the part of the legacy corporation now saddled with a high priced startup that wasn’t all that it appeared.

What may be complicating things is that Masters is doing really, really badly. He’s a bad candidate. Dobbs has hurt him. Mark Kelly is significantly ahead of Masters and has been comfortably around 50% for a while. Unlike Vance, pouring money into Masters’ campaign certainly looks like throwing good money after bad. So McConnell and his Senate leadership campaign may be ready to cut him loose and focus on really critical races in Georgia, Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Nevada. Maybe that’s why there’s an argument at all.

Regardless, give Thiel some credit for thinking how to apply some of the logic of the VC world to the electoral realm.

You want to defend the seats, Mitch? You cough up the cash. Meanwhile Thiel got the candidates he wanted and now is avoiding most of the cost to get them elected. SUCK-AH!

[goldenvalley]

Sept 2, 2022 15:57:10 GMT LFC said:

Peter Thiel dropped a bit of a shitshow (paywalled) into Moscow Mitch's lap. Remember, Mitch, this is the kind of person you decided the GOP should serve. You made this.

You may have seen reports about the ongoing tug-of-war or game of chicken between Peter Thiel and Mitch McConnell. 

You want to defend the seats, Mitch? You cough up the cash. Meanwhile Thiel got the candidates he wanted and now is avoiding most of the cost to get them elected. SUCK-AH!

Mitch rode the tiger of Republican extremism for a long time. The Trump years were the end result of it. He's already given up on getting a Senate majority or even 50%. He can retire anytime and live comfortably knowing that he destroyed the Supreme Court's credibility, got some nice tax cuts set up for his friends, and managed to choke off voting rights legislation.

[LFC]

Best candidates? One.

According to a report from Jezebel, the Donald Trump-backed candidate to be Michigan's next secretary of state was accused by her ex-husband of attempting to kill herself, him and their two daughters when he asked for a divorce.

Kristina Karamo, a 202O election conspiracist who won the GOP primary with an assist from the former president, was accused of attempting to crash the family car during an argument in a family court motion filed in 2021 by her ex-husband.

As Jezebel's Susan Rinkunas wrote, "Karamo’s ex-husband, Adom Karamo, claimed that the candidate threatened to kill their daughters, now 13 and 14, in documents seeking parenting time with their daughters after the marriage ended, filed in Michigan family court in 2021. Adom described an alleged incident in which he was driving the whole family, and Karamo 'attempted to wrestle control of the vehicle' from him and 'crash it.' He claimed that she said, in the moment, 'F*ck it, I’ll kill us all.'"

In the motion, Adom Karamo claimed that was not the first time Karamo threatened self-harm and he asserted that she was subsequently "committed to a healthcare facility for a mental health evaluation."

Two.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a Republican candidate for Clark County public administrator has been arrested, booked into the Las Vegas City Jail, and charged with impaired driving after police pulled her over and discovered alcohol in her car.

"Patsy Brown told police she had one beer before driving Thursday night, but officers found an open vodka container and spilled alcohol on the passenger side of a gray Kia Sorento she was driving, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department," reported Sabrina Schnur. "Brown was pulled over near Alta and Vista Run drives in Summerlin because her headlights were off, according to the arrest report. She told police her dad had recently died and she was going through a hard time."

"Officers found a red plastic cup with alcohol inside on the passenger side of her SUV, alcohol spilled on the floor and an open bottle of New Amsterdam Vodka," the report continued. "The results of her field sobriety test were redacted, but officers noted a 'moderate to strong odor of alcohol' coming from her."

According to Brown's candidate profile submitted to the Review-Journal, "she co-hosts a radio talk show about the Armed Forces Chamber of Commerce and was managing partner of a Los Angeles law firm."

[LFC]

The stupid, it burns. Trump cast doubt on mail-in ballots and told Georgian's to not use them, handing control of the Senate to Democrats. Now we have Sarah Palin making just as dumb a maneuver. What a twit. I guess the one thing that she and Trump have in common is any and everything is all about them.

Republican congressional candidate Nick Begich reprimanded his rival, Sarah Palin, for Democrats’ Wednesday win in Alaska’s special election for its at-large seat, saying she cost the party by instructing “supporters not to rank candidates” in the state’s ranked-choice voting system.

Democrat Mary Peltola’s victory “really boils down to Sarah Palin,” Begich told National Review. “Sarah Palin’s unfavorables in the state of Alaska are so astronomically high, so high in fact, that the only other more unfavorably thought of politician in Alaska is Joe Biden,” said Begich, who insisted that Palin “cannot win statewide in Alaska.”

According to Begich, Palin’s unpopularity can be attributed to her “early resignation from the governorship, her pursuit of fame, and the monetization of her national notoriety immediately following her resignation.”

Palin’s campaign did not respond to several inquiries from National Review, but it has put out statements casting blame for the loss on the ranked-choice system and calling for Begich — who she says “cost the Republicans a seat in Congress” — to drop out of November’s rematch race between the two GOP candidates and Peltola, who now enjoys the advantage of being an incumbent.

“Nick Begich is now a three-time loser. His ego-driven insistence on staying in Alaska’s congressional race after repeatedly failing to garner a majority of Republican votes, while I have consistently won the vote, has just cost Republicans a seat in Congress. Fortunately, there is still time for Begich to do the honorable thing and withdraw before the November election,” Palin said.

[LFC]

Oz goes lower showing just how big a piece of shit he is. Just like too many other Republicans, destroying other people's lives for a little political advantage is no problem. These people have no souls.

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman on Thursday rejected a "sad and desperate" demand from his rival that he fire from his campaign staff two brothers who were granted clemency after arguing they were wrongfully convicted of second-degree murder.

In 1993, Lee and Dennis Horton were accused of providing a ride to a friend who killed a man at a Philadelphia bar. The brothers, who insisted they were innocent, declined plea bargains that would have seen them released from prison in 5 to 10 years, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, and received life sentences instead.

They were ultimately released in 2021 after the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, which Fetterman chairs, unanimously recommended that their sentences be commuted.

The Oz campaign, in a press release Thursday morning, referred to the Hortons simply as "convicted murderers," however, part of a months-long effort to paint their Democratic opponent as lenient on crime.

[snip]

"Does Dr. Oz believe that the wrongfully convicted should die in prison?" Fetterman continued. "Does this man have any compassion? He's making a predictable and fear mongering attack against two men who spent 27 years in prison for a crime they didn't commit."

Just like Trump and DeSatanist would gladly have any number of innocent people incarcerated if it provided a photo op.

[pnwguy]

Sept 4, 2022 17:04:41 GMT LFC said:

Oz goes lower showing just how big a piece of shit he is. Just like too many other Republicans, destroying other people's lives for a little political advantage is no problem. These people have no souls.

Just like Trump and DeSatanist would gladly have any number of innocent people incarcerated tortured and executed if it provided a photo op.

FIFY

[LFC]

Extremist (but slickly packaged) governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin headed up to Maine to support racist and general all around nutjob Paul LePage.

[LFC]

Redistricting in California took a slam-dunk red seat and made it a bit more competitive (here's a Wayback link if you can't get to it) by including Palm Springs in the new district. Apparently Palm Springs has a large LGBTQ community and one that votes at a higher rate than the surrounding area. The incumbent is a classic piece of Republican work who:

• Voted to decertify the election after the insurrection
  
• Stated publicly he hoped some of the insurrectionists would be let go
  
• Voted against the House investigation into the Jan 6 insurrection
  
• Voted against the first Trump impeachment unless Joe and Hunter Biden were investigated at the same time
  
• Signed a legal brief urging SCOTUS to overturn Roe v Wade
  
• Has a long anti-LGBTQ history until just this summer, clearly out of vote panic
  

 
He's standard Republican trash and now he has to face more of the people he's treated like shit. It's still a tough fight but I hope they toss his bigoted, fascist ass out of office.

[goldenvalley]

Sept 5, 2022 15:53:42 GMT LFC said:

Redistricting in California took a slam-dunk red seat and made it a bit more competitive (here's a Wayback link if you can't get to it) by including Palm Springs in the new district. Apparently Palm Springs has a large LGBTQ community and one that votes at a higher rate than the surrounding area. The incumbent is a classic piece of Republican work who:

• Voted to decertify the election after the insurrection
  
• Stated publicly he hoped some of the insurrectionists would be let go
  
• Voted against the House investigation into the Jan 6 insurrection
  
• Voted against the first Trump impeachment unless Joe and Hunter Biden were investigated at the same time
  
• Signed a legal brief urging SCOTUS to overturn Roe v Wade
  
• Has a long anti-LGBTQ history until just this summer, clearly out of vote panic
  

 
He's standard Republican trash and now he has to face more of the people he's treated like shit. It's still a tough fight but I hope they toss his bigoted, fascist ass out of office.

Palm Springs had a mayor for 8 years recently who happened to be gay, but was probably reliably country club Republican, though cities tend to have nonpartisan offices.  The mayor was a Naval Academy grad, served a lot of years in the Navy, then was part of the Reagan Administration's Grace Commission looking for waste and inefficiency in federal spending.  

[pnwguy]

Sept 5, 2022 15:45:20 GMT LFC said:

Extremist (but slickly packaged) governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin headed up to Maine to support racist and general all around nutjob Paul LePage.

Youngkin's backstage advice: "If you're going to be photographed with an AR-15, wear a vest, Paul.  No, not a camo vest stuffed with 10 magazine clips"