Justin's Political Corner
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said the mixture of a trending-purple state and a bloody GOP primary could hinder the party’s ability next year to hold the Georgia Senate seat of his retiring colleague.
“It should be a Republican seat, but there’s a perfect storm that could happen that could make that challenging,” said Isakson when he was asked about the race Wednesday at the annual tax, budget and health care policy seminar hosted by BakerHostetler.
The seat of retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., has so far enticed three members of Congress, a wealthy businessman and a former Georgia secretary of state to vie for the GOP nomination. Meanwhile, Democrats are coalescing around Michelle Nunn, the daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and head of the nonprofit Points of Light Foundation.
Earlier this month, CQ Roll Call reported that the Senate race is shaping up to host a test case for Democrats intent on one day making Georgia routinely competitive in statewide races. While Republicans remain especially skeptical that can happen as early as 2014, Georgia still presents Senate Democrats with their best opportunity to pick up a seat so far this cycle.
Isakson maintained that the seat “will probably be Republican,” but the margins of the party’s “overwhelming” victories in the past decade in legislative and congressional races have grown closer over time. He noted that “Georgia was one of the few Southern states that Romney didn’t carry by double digits.”
Tom Emmer has views as staunchly anti-LGBT as Michele Bachmann’s.
NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) – Newark Mayor Cory Booker announced his candidacy on Saturday for a U.S. Senate seat for New Jersey and will run in a Democratic primary set for August to fill the seat of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg.
“I do not run from challenges. I run towards them,” Booker said at a news conference in the city where he has served as mayor since 2006.
After Lautenberg’s death on Monday, Republican Governor Chris Christie called a special election to fill the remainder of the late senator’s term.
Jim Graves, who narrowly lost to Bachmann in the last congressional election.
Read more: With Bachmann not running, Jim Graves pulls out of 6th District race | MinnPost
(via minnpost)
(via minnpost)
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has notified senior Democratic Party officials that he intends to switch his party registration and join the Democratic Party, multiple sources familiar with Chafee’s decision told POLITICO. Chafee, a former GOP senator elected as an independent in 2010, has struggled with low approval ratings…
The Associated Press (@AP) tweeted at 3:17 AM on Wed, May 29, 2013: BREAKING: Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann says she will not run for re-election in 2014 (https://twitter.com/AP/status/339656640011837440) Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download
Jim Graves’ chances of winning may have gone down.
If you want to know what a goddamn tool I can be from time to time, this past Thursday I was at a bar with some friends where they sell pitchers of beer for $3. It’s not good beer by any stretch of the imagination, but by the time you’re halfway through the pitcher you don’t care that it tastes and looks like piss.
In any event, I was most of the way through my pitcher of beer, waiting for my $2 burger (my gut will expand rapidly one day, but it is not this day), and we got to talking about work and our professional lives. My friend is going off to Hollywood to
hobnob with beautiful peoplework with writers, and I had to prove I could be just as much of a name dropper as someone in Hollywood. After all, they say politics is Hollywood, for ugly people.I told my story about meeting Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, including using Senator Levin’s iPhone and getting the world’s most uncomfortable hug from Senator Stabenow. But that wasn’t enough for my beer-addled brain, and so I got a toothy grin on my face and slurred, “Wanna see who I have in my phone’s contact list?”
I worked for Rep. Schauer as a semi-paid intern for a few weeks last summer before I took my job at the State House. I’ve always had a great deal of respect for him — he’s represented me in one way, shape, or form for about seventeen years. In the few weeks I got to work for him, he was friendly, courteous, and whip smart.
I am beyond excited that the former congressman is running for governor. I have a great number of opinions on the current administration in Michigan, most of them negative. Mark is the kind of person I want sitting in the governor’s office down the street from where I work — he cares about working families, he cares about young people, he cares about labor unions, about fairness, about all the things that have taken a backseat in Michigan since Republicans took over Lansing in 2010.
Mark for 2014!
Television personality Pat O’Brien said Tuesday that he’s open to pursuing public office in his native South Dakota, the Argus Leader reported.
O’Brien raised the possibility during an interview on comedian Adam Carolla’s podcast, saying that one of his political science professors at the University of South Dakota long encouraged him to run for office, which he said he “still may do.”
He did not specify which office he may pursue. South Dakota has both an open U.S. Senate race and a gubernatorial election next year.
h/t: TPM Livewire
Booo!!! Mark “I Hiked The Appalachian Trail” Sanford wins SC-01, returns to Congress in Special Election to replace Tim Scott (R), who went to the Senate. Sad that Elizabeth Colbert Busch lost.
Ann Callis also announced at the meeting that she is stepping down to run for a seat in the new 13th Congressional District. She will make a formal announcement on Monday. Hylla, who was elected chief judge this week after a vote by the other circuit judges, has chaired the circuit’s Mediation Committee that focuses on medical malpractice reform. He is also co-chair of the Mental Health Task Force.
Hylla became a judge in 2006, running on a slate with Callis, and judges Barb Crowder and John Knight. The four were up for retention last November and faced pressure from a grass-roots group known as Citizens for Judicial Integrity. All four were retained.
Also running for the Dems in IL-13: George Gollin.
Moments ago, Gary Peters announced that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Carl Levin in 2014.
h/t: eclectablog.com
Ed Markey won the Democratic Primary for the US Senate special election. A great win for progressive politics.
EDWARDSVILLE - Chief 3rd Circuit Judge Ann Callis plans to resign soon to begin a run for Congress in 2014, sources say.
The decision would place her as a potential Democratic challenger to incumbent U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, a Taylorville Republican who was elected from Illinois’ 13th Congressional District in November.
Callis declined to comment. The Illinois Judicial Code of Conduct requires a judge to resign office upon becoming a candidate for a non-judicial office, either in a primary or general election.
She briefly had considered a run in the 12th Congressional District last fall before party chairmen nominated Bill Enyart of Belleville, who went on to win election.
Callis is a former assistant state’s attorney in Madison and St. Clair counties. She was an associate judge from 1995 to 2001 and has been a circuit judge since 2001.
Her legal career began as a prosecutor in the state’s attorney’s offices in both Madison and St. Clair counties.
In 2002, she became the first woman ever elected a circuit judge in Madison County and primarily has worked as a criminal court judge, hearing dozens of major criminal cases. In 2006, she became the first woman elected chief judge of the circuit. She now is in her fourth term as chief judge.
She was retained by the voters last November.
H/T: The Alton Telegraph
The Republican Party is losing one of its potential front-running candidates for governor.
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock has opted not to seek the governor’s mansion, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
The young GOP rising star is expected to make a formal announcement Friday.
“He said back in the fall he was going to see whether he thought he could do more good running for re-election for Congress or running for governor,” Schock aide Steve Shearer told the Peoria Star late Thursday.
Schock, 31, ultimately decided to remain on Capitol Hill, where he serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, said Shearer, Schock’s chief of staff and campaign manager.
But the young third-term Peoria congressman also faced the reality of a crowded GOP field — and a tough general election race if he prevailed.
Republicans still potentially in the running include state Treasurer Dan Rutherford; state Sen. Kirk Dillard, of Hinsdale; state Sen. Bill Brady, of Bloomington; Winnetka millionaire Bruce Rauner, and WLS-AM (890) radio talk show host Dan Proft.
Rauner has already formed an exploratory committee stocked with business leaders capable of raising money to add to contributions Rauner can make from his own fortune.
“Aaron realized he is only 31 and is not willing to risk everything against Rauner’s millions and probably Lisa Madigan,” said one state House Republican familiar with Schock’s thinking.
Madigan, the Illinois attorney general and daughter of state Speaker Michael Madigan, is eyeing a primary run against Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Former Commerce Secretary William Daley also is a possible Democratic candidate.
h/t: Chicago Sun-Times
AP sources tell @donnacassataap that Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, Finance committee chairman, to retire apne.ws/10b6315#MTSEN
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) April 23, 2013
