CPRM, Pt 2: AL (RO) 7/17; GA (RO) 7/24; TN 8/2; 274K ballots left in CA (user search)

I'm kind of glad I didn't participate in this thread last night. It was bad enough watching the results roll in on CNN. So much pessimism and negativity towards the Democrats. If one ever wonders why we are so self-conscious just take a listen to the people saying that Democratic enthusiasm is actually a bad thing for the party or how Trump's NFL shenanigans is the silver bullet issue for Republicans. It was quite frustrating and clearly there was some of that in this thread too.

What I saw was the Democratic Party avoiding a disaster that was never really going to happen. It doesn't look like they are going to be locked out of any races, and the candidates that won are pretty decent. I am less worried than I was 24 hours ago, which I never really should have been. It's amazing what a little patience can do.

In my home state I am surprised to see that John McCann, the GOP nominee for NJ-05 (my district), and his "Steve Lonegan is a loser, I'm Trumpier than he is!" campaign succeeded. Seriously, he sent out mailers with a typically inarticulate quote from Trump about what a loser Steve Lonegan is. For all I know, it worked. I thought for sure I would have to worry about Lonegan's nutty ass potentially representing me in Congress. Instead we got some random guy who seems almost exactly as bad. I'm not too worried about Gottheimer losing though. Hopefully we'll never see Lonegan run for office in New Jersey ever again! Though losing never stopped him before.
As for Menendez, in spite of winning the primary by a closer margin than he should have, I don't think we're going to see a repeat of 2002 with Torricelli. The environment does not seem like it will resemble 2002. Menendez just sucks though. I doubt he will lose but I would rather that he makes an effort to remind Democrats and Trump opponents what's at stake, as control of the Senate hangs in the balance. If he does that, Hugin's inevitable ads attacking him for being corrupt shouldn't be too much of a threat in this state. We've elected corrupt people many times before. I just don't want Menendez to get lazy with this, he really needs to get back in the good graces with New Jersey's voters. They aren't all like me. He has my vote because I'm a partisan hack and I do not want to risk the Democrats taking control of the Senate, even though it's not particularly likely either way. I would still consider this race safe Democratic. His alleged vulnerability may very well be yet another media narrative.

Finally, I want to talk about Montana's senate primary on the Republican side. I was very amused to see how competitive Fagg was against Rosendale for most of the night, I honestly wonder how many of the votes for him were in jest: "Hardy har, his name is Fagg, he won't win but I'm voting for him!" I guess that makes up for the whole wedding cake thing, Republicans. It was also amusingly awkward to hear Anderson Cooper and Steve Kornacki, two gay men, say his name as they discussed the election returns. Rosendale won though of course. But if that primary indicates anything, it's that he might not be a great challenger. Tester is probably one of the more favored Romney-Trump state Senate Democrats.

	Welcome, Guest. Please login or register. Did you miss your activation email? June 02, 2024, 04:39:01 PM

News: Election Simulator 2.0 Released. Senate/Gubernatorial maps, proportional electoral votes, and more - Read more