WI-SEN 2022 Megathread: Who stole my cheese?

[Ferguson97]

Is there any word on Ron Johnson running or not?

[Ferguson97]

I'll be honest, I was under the impression that the primary already happened and that Barnes was already the nominee lmao

[Ferguson97]

I actually had to read it three times before I figured out it didn't mean "radical". In all fairness, almost certainly an unintended typo.

In fairness it is almost certainly a typo....but I don't care about being fair to Scott Walker. So Democrats should run with this and call him a racist.

[Ferguson97]

Honestly,
Is Mandela Barnes a strong candidate or not at all?

He's pretty much a generic Dem with higher-than-average name ID running against an unpopular incumbent in a state that was basically tied 2 years ago. Decide for yourself if you think this makes him a strong candidate in this environment.

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/igorbobic/status/1567545742381797376

[Ferguson97]

The entire quote is even worse

https://twitter.com/HeartlandSignal/status/1567607996275908610

Johnson and Baldwin absolutely hate each other, so it's not surprising that he would be denigrating her in his remarks here.

They are objectively the most toxic Senate delegation towards eachother. At least folks like Tester and Daines or Manchin and Capito get along fine as they all have pretty chill personalities. In this case it really seems to be more on Johnson's end but also Baldwin tending to be a pretty firm Dem and ot falling for a lot of R bs.

I do wonder if there's some level of tension between Lee and Romney?

I wouldn't be surprised if there were. Lee is by far the most conservative member of Utah's congressional delegation, as the gay marriage vote will show. And of course, he voted to acquit Trump and has been a hardline conservative through his time in office, much more so than Romney.

Another example of a good Senatorial relationship is that between Brown and Portman in Ohio. Brown is a generic liberal Democrat and Portman is a "country club" Republican, but they've always gotten along well. But from all accounts, Johnson is a distinctly unpleasant individual, and I wouldn't be surprised if his affinity for conspiracy theories is also a factor in his poor relationship with Baldwin.

While I agree Johnson is uniquely toxic compared to most Senate Rs, I would have a hard time seeing Baldwin truly "getting along" with most any R in the sense they're actual friends. She def isn't as toxic overall.

Why would it be difficult for you to envision this?

Prolly just cause the fact she's more progressive than basically every other split delegation Dem. It's be hard for her to be truly friends or even on good terms with any Rs who oppose Democracy and stuff.

Also she's a lesbian, so I imagine it would be difficult to get along with people who oppose your civil rights.

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/MikeBradleyMKE/status/1569484045809258496

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1572240107855581184

[Ferguson97]

So, with the quality of candidates in PA and GA, it's not particularly surprising that they were where scandals have popped up. But man, I wish we could get something snappy like that on Johnson.

We did have RoJo saying that January 6th wasn't an armed insurrection this morning, but that's not going to do him much damage, since he's arguing based on semantics.

https://twitter.com/HeartlandSignal/status/1577298646550421504

He saw the PA and GA campaigns imploding and didn’t want to be left out

[Ferguson97]

Suggestions for a new thread title?

The Mandela Ineffect

[Ferguson97]

Interesting...

https://twitter.com/natashakorecki/status/1582079242808201217

These are things you do when you're very confident about your chances of winning.

[Ferguson97]

Run against an incumbent during a Republican-friendly year

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/HeartlandSignal/status/1585708064090558488

[Ferguson97]

From what I’ve seen on the ground here, I think there has been a definite shift towards Johnson. Evers seems to be holding close, so as of now I think Evers will barely squeak by but I think this will end up about Johnson +4.

What about on the governor’s side?

[Ferguson97]

Barnes was the Cal Cunningham and Bill Nelson of this cycle, an idiot who blew a winnable race and burned the party.

It looks like Johnson may win by just 1%, so I don't really think it's fair to say that Barnes "blew it" considering Johnson was an incumbent, Biden only won the state by <1%, it was a Republican midterm with 8% inflation, etc.