four candidates
Mother Jones highlights four Democratic candidates for Congress — one for the House and three for the Senate. Of the four, I guess Tammy Duckworth is the one “favorite” — a gerrymander spotlight for the Democrats out of a sea of Floridas and Texases where the 2010 elections propelled further consolidation on the part of the Republicans.
The other three candidates. The 2 most vulnerable incumbents coming out of the 2006 Democratic landslide and a strange political comeback attempt in Nebraska. Firstly Claire McCaskill in Missouri, and there have been developments in this race since this article was published. Her opponent self-destructed somewhat — and we’ll see where that goes. Rasmussen, the Republican friendly poll that I hesitate to mention because of its “one of these polls is not like the other” status — shows Aiken down by 10, and Republican donors fading away. And yet… Aiken will get his support, and at best we can call this about 50-50, leaning one way or another depending on gut level feelings of how red Missouri is these days.
The common thread for Tester in Montana and McCaskill is abandonment by liberal national grassroots organizations. Moveon pointedly skips pasts McCaskill, and Markos Moulitsas has disavowed Jon Tester. That’s interesting — apparently it’s over immigration and his refusal to back the Dream Act. I always thought dailykos was too quick to highlight and celebrate candidacies and victories by various BlueDog pols whose offenses were on their sleeves from the start — far beyond Tester’s nicks and nacks. But it goes where it goes, I suppose.
Finally there’s Bob Kerrey in Nebraska. Mother Jones has to stretch the furthest on him to get to a hopeful chance in the election. So we end with an anecdote where he speaks some blunt truth on global warming to a recalitrant voter, who is won over. Meanwhile the Republican opponent has taken his “Tea Party enfused” nomination victory and hidden from view — there will be a single debate. And Warren Buffet pops Ralph Nader’s dream of an Enlightened Benevolent Plutocracy by pointedly stepping away from the Superpac game. “I will not be doing super-PACs of any sort. I think allowing unlimited contributions to campaigns is a terrible idea and an important and unfortunate step toward a plutocracy.” Well… Nebraska is Nebraska. And Bob Kerrey is just spitballing against the grain on issues like gay marriage. But Missouri is Missouri and Montana is Montana and…