Can we talk about local elections?

[jennyparnassus]

May 5, 2022 11:33:52 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

None of my local seats are competitive (our primary is 5/17). No one running in the primary against my congressional rep (Madeleine Dean, PA-4) or state reps. Oddly, no one running against our state AG for the gubernatorial nomination either. As you may have heard, PA has a wide-open gubernatorial race because our current governor (D) is termed out, and a wide-open senate race because Pat Toomey is retiring (thank god).

The two really competitive races in the Dem primary are senate and lt. governor. I'm still not decided on either.

Senate:
John Fetterman, our current Lt. Gov., is the favorite. He's from western PA, so he would have appeal throughout the state. His wife is amazing and a former undocumented immigrant who does a lot of community work. One issue is that about 10 years ago, when he was mayor of Braddock, PA, he thought he heard gunshots and ended up running down a black man and holding him at gunpoint until the cops arrived and a lot of people don't think he sufficiently apologized for this. Certainly concerning.

Conor Lamb is that guy who won the special election for the US House in 2017. Young, veteran, somewhat moderate. Probably banking on also winning a lot of independents/moderates. He was randomly walking around at a farmer's market I was at last weekend, lol, so I got to shake his hand.

Malcolm Kenyatta is probably my favorite of the candidates. Essentially he suffers from what all other people who aren't straight white men suffer from - everyone LOVES him when they talk to him and thinks he has the best ideas, but they don't think a gay black man from Philly is "electable."

Just curious - since you put "electable" in quotation marks, did you disagree with this?

Keep in mind that this is the primary for the PA Senate rate for outgoing Republican Senator Pat Toomey's seat.

I'm curious how long you have actually lived in Pennsylvania. Did you vote in any of the previous elections for this particular Senate seat? 

Pennsylvania is a very, very purple state. I personally am rooting for Fetterman, but even he is a little bit of a risk as the Democrat's candidate for this particular race. Anyone more liberal than Fetterman is way too liberal of a candidate for this seat.

Why do you think that Bob Casey Jr. has the other PA Senate seat?

[msmerymac]

May 18, 2022 9:01:30 GMT -5 jennyparnassus said:

May 5, 2022 11:33:52 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

None of my local seats are competitive (our primary is 5/17). No one running in the primary against my congressional rep (Madeleine Dean, PA-4) or state reps. Oddly, no one running against our state AG for the gubernatorial nomination either. As you may have heard, PA has a wide-open gubernatorial race because our current governor (D) is termed out, and a wide-open senate race because Pat Toomey is retiring (thank god).

The two really competitive races in the Dem primary are senate and lt. governor. I'm still not decided on either.

Senate:
John Fetterman, our current Lt. Gov., is the favorite. He's from western PA, so he would have appeal throughout the state. His wife is amazing and a former undocumented immigrant who does a lot of community work. One issue is that about 10 years ago, when he was mayor of Braddock, PA, he thought he heard gunshots and ended up running down a black man and holding him at gunpoint until the cops arrived and a lot of people don't think he sufficiently apologized for this. Certainly concerning.

Conor Lamb is that guy who won the special election for the US House in 2017. Young, veteran, somewhat moderate. Probably banking on also winning a lot of independents/moderates. He was randomly walking around at a farmer's market I was at last weekend, lol, so I got to shake his hand.

Malcolm Kenyatta is probably my favorite of the candidates. Essentially he suffers from what all other people who aren't straight white men suffer from - everyone LOVES him when they talk to him and thinks he has the best ideas, but they don't think a gay black man from Philly is "electable."

Just curious - since you put "electable" in quotation marks, did you disagree with this?

Keep in mind that this is the primary for the PA Senate rate for outgoing Republican Senator Pat Toomey's seat.

I'm curious how long you have actually lived in Pennsylvania. Did you vote in any of the previous elections for this particular Senate seat? 

Pennsylvania is a very, very purple state. I personally am rooting for Fetterman, but even he is a little bit of a risk as the Democrat's candidate for this particular race. Anyone more liberal than Fetterman is way too liberal of a candidate for this seat.

Why do you think that Bob Casey Jr. has the other PA Senate seat?

As a member of this community for a dozen or so years, I'm curious as to why you think I don't know much about politics? I've lived in PA since 2013 and have voted in every election since moving here, including the Democratic primary for this seat in 2016 and the general election for the seat when Toomey defeated Katie McGinty. 

People are electable when people elect them. I've lived my entire life with people saying women aren't electable, hence not voting for Hillary Clinton. And then when Clinton actually got a chance and was the nominee and people voted for her, she lost, so now we're back to square one where people don't think a woman is electable, hence not voting for Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 primary, etc. 

If Kenyatta is a great speaker, great politician, has the best ideas, has no skeletons in his closet (unlike Fetterman, frankly)... he should be electable, yes?

That said, I grew up in Buffalo, NY, and have long heard people from upstate complain that all the statewide politicians in NY come from the NYC area (mostly for demographic reasons, since the NYC metro represents 50% of the state population). Even though the Philly area is only around 1/3 of PA's population, and I LIVE in suburban Philly, I do worry about the rest of the state getting fatigued about politicians from this area. Which is a pro for Fetterman and also why I ultimate chose to vote for Austin Davis for the Lt Gov nomination rather than Brian Sims, since he'll be running with Josh Shapiro who is from MontCo. 

[zelda25]

May 16, 2022 20:17:46 GMT -5 mouse said:

May 5, 2022 12:51:13 GMT -5 zelda25 said:

Oregon's governor is apparently the most unpopular governor in the country right now, and she's termed out, so it's a wide-open shitshow. Statewide races in OR have been reliably blue for decades, but that's only because the population of Portland-metro edges out (and not by a ton) the population of the rest of the largely very-red state. Right now, everyone is pissed about everything, and a longtime state senator who has been a Dem forever--at least in name--is running for gov as an independent. I don't think she'll win, but she could absolutely Ross Perot the whole thing (I'm verbing Ross Perot here  ).

And this isn't exactly "local," but OR has a new congressional district; Nancy Pelosi's PAC and a California crypto-gazillionaire have thrown a boatload of money at some dude no one has ever heard of, has never held an office, didn't even live in OR after college until the pandemic hit, and has a nearly-flawless record of not voting. Meanwhile, other candidates who actually have longtime ties to the district and track records working for said district are being ignored. Someone make it make sense!

District 6? Yeah, that’s a total shitshow.

Meanwhile here in District 5, I think Shrader might finally go down. In flames, I hope.

I'm happy Salinas won the primary for Dist. 6, and things aren't looking great for Schrader, so that's good news. I'm not super optimistic that Kotek can carry the state in the general, especially with Johnson playing spoiler.

[Deleted]

May 17, 2022 22:33:48 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

Not my district but Madison Cawthorn lost his primary. Good riddance.

This made me absurdly happy when I saw it yesterday. 

[mouse]

May 18, 2022 16:20:35 GMT -5 zelda25 said:

May 16, 2022 20:17:46 GMT -5 mouse said:

District 6? Yeah, that’s a total shitshow.

Meanwhile here in District 5, I think Shrader might finally go down. In flames, I hope.

I'm happy Salinas won the primary for Dist. 6, and things aren't looking great for Schrader, so that's good news. I'm not super optimistic that Kotek can carry the state in the general, especially with Johnson playing spoiler.

I AM SO HAPPY about Schrader. Or really, about Jaimie’s win! She seems awesome.

Yes, Salinas is good news. How Pelosi’s PAC ended up backing the crypto guy, I don’t understand. I’ve had the feeling that sometimes the national groups are really disinterested in understanding our state, but that’s a new and terrible twist.

I don’t know how much to worry about Johnson. Timber Unity ties? Big yikes. But yeah, the general dissatisfaction for the democrats isn’t great.

I’m fired up to get out there for Tina & Jaimie though!

Eta: pre-2016 I’d be hoping the Republicans put up someone terrible, because if there’s one group with worse political timing than Oregon Dems, it might just be Oregon Republicans. But, ikyk 2016.

[zelda25]

May 18, 2022 20:06:15 GMT -5 mouse said:

May 18, 2022 16:20:35 GMT -5 zelda25 said:

Yes, Salinas is good news. How Pelosi’s PAC ended up backing the crypto guy, I don’t understand. I’ve had the feeling that sometimes the national groups are really disinterested in understanding our state, but that’s a new and terrible twist.

I'm totally tightening my tinfoil hat for this, but whatever. I feel like this was a textbook example of unqualified support for the mediocre white guy because he looked like the "safest" choice to get a new blue seat. On top of that, I was particularly irked to see some puff pieces about him in national outlets (like Politico or Vox) that completely neglected to mention that not only did he just appear out of nowhere to run for an office he's completely unqualified for, he was running against people who, like Salinas, had been on the ground working for this area in some form or fashion since forever. It felt to me like the dems at the national level were circling the wagons around him for no good reason whatsoever and somehow getting "nice" stuff about him published by outlets that would ordinarily be more critical in their coverage. The whole thing has been bizarre.

[mouse]

May 19, 2022 16:58:15 GMT -5 zelda25 said:

May 18, 2022 20:06:15 GMT -5 mouse said:

Yes, Salinas is good news. How Pelosi’s PAC ended up backing the crypto guy, I don’t understand. I’ve had the feeling that sometimes the national groups are really disinterested in understanding our state, but that’s a new and terrible twist.

I'm totally tightening my tinfoil hat for this, but whatever. I feel like this was a textbook example of unqualified support for the mediocre white guy because he looked like the "safest" choice to get a new blue seat. On top of that, I was particularly irked to see some puff pieces about him in national outlets (like Politico or Vox) that completely neglected to mention that not only did he just appear out of nowhere to run for an office he's completely unqualified for, he was running against people who, like Salinas, had been on the ground working for this area in some form or fashion since forever. It felt to me like the dems at the national level were circling the wagons around him for no good reason whatsoever and somehow getting "nice" stuff about him published by outlets that would ordinarily be more critical in their coverage. The whole thing has been bizarre.

I don’t think that’s paranoid at all. I don’t understand the emphasis on “electability” and moderation WHEN IT OVERLOOKS QUALIFIED CANDIDATES in search of what, cash? An assumption of biddability because they haven’t been around long enough to know where their own ass is? (<< there’s your paranoia!)

Meanwhile I’m tearing my hair out over this Sherry Hall debacle. By which I mean the latest Sherry Hall debacle because it’s the latest of a long, long list.

[formerlyak]

Reviving this thread since a lot of loca elections happened yesterday.

Sad that Caruso got so many votes for LA mayor - more than Karen Bass. He’s sleazy. And he ran as a D even though he’s been an R until a hot second ago.

The interesting thing to me is even counties like Orange and Riverside that are definitely more R voted to re-elect Newsom.

And, a R may win the Controller’s race. Though he is quite moderate and worked under Obama. He seems smart and qualified. Many liberal voter guides endorsed him, in fact, with the explanation that he’d offer some checks and balances in spending, especially since we have a huge surplus. But an R winning a state-wide race in CA is almost unheard of.

[jeaniebueller]

Plus looks like the San Fran DA was recalled as well