California:  The peculiar logic of the state’s “top two” primary.  Two Democrats are in the general election.  One is Dianne Feinstein, long a partisan foil of derision but made more so for her actions during the Kavanaugh hearings.  Running against her, to her left, is Kevin De Leon.
… who … well… the state’s Republicans may just choose to vote for the “Bernie-crat” and the “socialism” he represents.

Texas:  Saw a guy in a “Beto for Texas” t-shirt.  That would be great.  Except for the part where he’s in Oregon.  Unless, maybe, Beto O’Rourke has a different constituency in mind…

Arizona:  No duh that Kyrsten Sinema was talking about the elected politicos and not the “people”.  But does it matter in a representative democracy?  Granted, the answer lies in who you’re wanting to vote for.  She’s still acting the part of social critic– always fine lines in assuaging political movements.

As it were, Martha McSally wants you to know… Kyrsten Sinema is a TRAITOR.  The fact-checkers look into it, and see that her hypothetical flotsam of 2003… fall somewhere short of it.

Tennessee:  Somewhat interesting ad campaign from Marsha Blackburn… Trojan Horse.  It is lazy, because all we have is the free floating head of Phil Bredesen.  Maybe it’s not worth the production costs to come up with something smoother.

Things are a little weird in this senate campaign.  Two new polls are out showing Blackburn up by three and down by one — statistical tie with a shrug toward the Republican.  Odd, because… everyone left Bredesen for dead since the race had been tied and then polls showed the bottom fell out and him sliding down to being down by fourteen.  What happened?  Did everyone move on from Kavanaugh – Bredesen’s disappointed liberal supporters shuffling back into the fold?  New topics emerge — it’s all about health care all of a sudden!  Taylor Swift actually successfully move the needle?  Republicans get complacent as Trump moves on to stump in the other states?  Really… what just happened here?

As it were, interesting to note… a typical headline for the mainstream media blaring “Polls show Tight Race“… and then the conservative Breitbart gets us…  Poll: Marsha Blackburn Leads Democrat Phil Bredesen in Tennessee Senate Race — indeed true, but if we had the partisan balance reversed, and a Democrat who had opened up a fourteen point lead that had suddenly slid down to three… it would be a different headline.

New Jersey:  God is on Bob Menendez’s side.  Good … strategy?
Have to counter-act… this...

“President Obama’s Justice Department had evidence that for several years Menendez had been traveling to the Dominican Republic to engage in sexual activity with prostitutes, some of whom were minors,” the attack ad states.

I suppose the idea is that in order to run a counter-attack on the ads, Bob Menendez is forced to dip into the real story of his corruption case.  But other than that… Sheesh.

Missouri:  I suppose we can give James O’keefe’s outfit something:  it’s better material than what they got out of Tennessee — ie: some words out of the candidate’s mouth.  They aren’t all that interesting — a call to campaign volunteers that you de-emphasize some things and emphasize other things to the more conservative electorate. As for they wouldn’t have interviewed him had they known he was from Project Veritas… yeah, you don’t say.

(Did Claire McCaskill really bluntly write out her cynical 2012 strategy?)

Michigan:  I really don’t understand what the take-away for making an issue of this would be.  Are they suggesting the candidate is sending out secret subliminal nazi messages to a core voting bloc?

At about the 10-second mark of James’ first general election TV ad, which is titled, “Ready to Serve,” the ad shows a school hallway as James, in his narration, talks about “failing schools.” To the left in the hallway is a bulletin board with a red, white and black swastika pinned to it. 

There is no mention of the symbol nor does it appear to have any direct link to the rest of the ad, which is centered on James’ argument that change is needed in Washington to fix Michigan’s most pressing problems. It was not immediately clear at which school the ad was shot.

I suppose we can say that if the schools are teaching the kids to be nazis, they are indeed failing schools.  If they’re teaching kids that nazis were a thing… it is a sign of success.

Indiana:  Battle of the surrogates:  Joseph Biden stumped for Joe Donnelly; Mark Pence stumped for Mike Braun.   Sign that Joe Donnelly is in a pickle…

The video opens with clips of Medicare for All protesters, as a voiceover ominously warns that “socialists want to turn healthcare over to the government.” “Over my dead body,” Donnelly says. He later declares, “I support ICE” and and touts his support for military spending. He closes by quoting President Ronald Reagan’s mantra: “Peace through strength.” 

No firearms shooting “Medicare for All”, though.  (That’s for Republicans and Joe Manchin.)

As for Braun…

“If Hillary Clinton was president, I would not be running for Senate,” he tells me in his office at Meyer Distributing, the company he founded more than three decades ago. “I’d be hunkered down in southern Indiana, trying to survive over the next two years.”

Doubt it.  Isn’t the standard line that you’ve been called out to “fight” the opposition in some resistance or other?

Florida:  Rick Scott and Hurricane Michael… the Rose Garden Strategy in action.  Scattered local Democrats praise the governor’s response — (some conservatives and crankly liberals see Christ Christie as being the deciding factor in 2012) — Bill Nelson aims to move the topic… some hard-headed political analysis floats around on what the facts of the shattered area mean for heavily Republican area voting.

Montana:  The “personal vendetta angle” is all the rage.  Matt Rosendale has Trump coming in to stump.  Tester has… Jeff Bridges?

West Virginia:  Someone explain to me Nick Saban’s politics?

North Dakota:  It is nauseating to see some grand high fiving from conservatives and Republicans upon the sad fallout of Heidi Heitkamp’s naming of some sexual assault victims.  Some poor vetting on Heitkamp’s part as she segues into her post-senate life, having to make one last point against the ascendant Republican and his words about “prairie tough”… goes a tad screwy.

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