Today’s primaries are in California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota. Here’s a preview from Steve Benen.
Here’s an update on the Missouri Senate Primary from Hell: So far, the various Republican creatures posing as “candidates” have not been spending a lot of money on television ads, or else they aren’t running ads in the St. Louis media market. All of the political ads on television here are for elections in Illinois, which is holding primaries on June 28. The Missouri primary isn’t until August 2, so maybe the Missouri campaigns are holding back until the election is closer. The illinois ads are obnoxious enough, though.
In Illinois, BTW, there are a mess of Republicans running to be nominated for governor to run against incumbent Democrat J. B. Pritzker. All the Republicans are running against CRIME and also promise to do the usual things nobody needs doing, like keeping trans women out of sports and Critical Race Theory out of elementary schools. I’m kind of mildly interested in which one of these bozos actually attracts votes. And I sincerely hope J.B. Pritzker gets another term. I understand he has a primary challenger but haven’t seen any television ads from her.
I understand that former Missouri governor Eric Greitens is the front runner for the nomination for retiring Roy Blunt’s Senate seat. State Attorney General Eric Schmitt is close behind, and U.S. Representative Vicky Hartzler is a close third (all three discussed here and here). It looks like any one of those three has a shot at the nomination right now, and they would all be disasters in the Senate. Polling in single digits are U.S. Rep. Billy Long, state senator Dave Schatz, and Mark McCloskey, who is scraping the bottom of the polls at around 2.5 percent. Billy Long is the fellow who resembles a talking potato and who believes abortion rights are the leading cause of mass shooting. There was talk that Long had received Donald Trump’s endorsement, but that announcement may have been premature. The alleged endorsement doesn’t seem to have moved any needles for him, at any rate.
There are a bunch of declared candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination, but the only ones considered viable at the moment are Lucas Kunce and Trudy Busch Valentine. Valentine is an Anheuser-Busch heiress, a daughter of August “Gussie” Busch Jr., who has worked as a registered nurse but has not run for elected office before. Lucas Kunce is an “antitrust advocate” and former U.S. Marine who also is new to politics but seems to have a knack for campaigning and has had a few guest spots on MSNBC. Valentine has gotten a lot of endorsements from the state Democratic establishment, but she seems shy about public appearances. Either one would be an acceptable senator, especially in comparison to the freak show the Republicans are running, although neither is quite as liberal/progressive as I would like. I understand Kunce is the current frontrunner.
What’s interesting about state polls is that while Greitens is the front runner for the nomination, he is also the most vulnerable to being beaten by Kunce in head to head polling. But a lot can happen between now and August, never mind November, so I’m not making predictions.
I'm interested in Trump candidates being elected in the primary and defeated in the General. It won't happen every time but in November what's the statement by the majority?
The Big Show starts on Thursday. What I've read is that they hired a producer with a track record to treat this as a live documentary with the potential to attract a growing audience from week to week. I think the material is there for a dramatic presentation – if he pulls it off, the message needs to be from week to week – you need to watch it!
They also need to post the heartings on youtube so people who want to make an argument, lke in a blog, can post a clip or point to that section of the hearing if you want to see it in context. I don't think many Republicans will be swayed, but the GOP is badly outnumbered by Democrats and Independents.
The two are linked – the primaries and the hearings. If Republicans select the most rabid Trumpsters in the primary and Independents are swayed in large numbers by the hearings that what they saw on J6 was an orchestrated attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as provided for in the Constitution, they will vote AGAINST Trumpsters in large numbers. (it's not that this CAN happen – it HAS happened with Roy Moore.)
The other factor between now and November is the probability of violence by Trumpsters against Democrats. So far the mass shootings have been a series of nuts who aren't linked to Proud Boys… but they are lurking and chomping at the bit. My opinion (and I'm wrong fairly often) is that when Trumpsters declare a shooting war against liberals, there will be a massive shift against Trump.
In your "Show Me" state of MO, maha, it looks like the RepubliKKKLAN Party is out "Showing" all of the "me's" out there that "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" could also be a grand title for a tell-all book about the GQP Party over the last 50 years.
Also, everytime I see a group of RepubliKKKLANS on TV, I start seeing the crowd of creepy creatures from the barroom scene in "Star Wars."
Does that happen to you too, or is it just me?!?
I'm not sure about results yet but the early word is low turnout. No conclusions yet but Trump casting doubt about election integrity COULD cause voters to not bother. But was Democratic turnout also low? Can the hearings energize voters by explaining how desperate the situation could get with Trumpsters in control?
Chicagoan here. I'm sorry you're being deluged with all the carp from from our downstate Republicans. The primary should cut down on the jibbering.
Here in Illinois, wingnut challengers to Pritzker are all running against "crime" (I put that in quotes, because we know that's not what they are really running against) while ignoring what's at bottom of the crime wave, easy access to guns. That's because, like republicans in general, they're paid to pretend guns have nothing to do with increases in crime. True to their brand — hypocrisy, they mock Chicago's gun laws that don't work, while ignoring the fact that gun crazy policies in neighboring states — WI, IN, MO, where gun laws are practically non existent, essentially nullify Illinois and particularly Chicago’s gun laws. Criminals go there, legally buy guns, bring them back here and sell them on the street. They’re so plentiful they’ve gotten cheaper.
Republicans offering up increasingly dumb analogies, like Scalise saying we didn't ban airplanes after 9/11, thus we shouldn't ban guns, aren't wearing well. Blaming democrats for everything isn't a solution to anything. That's also becoming apparent.
At this rate, I don't think the midterms are going to be the disaster the mainstream press is rooting that it will be, for democrats.
Well, tonight's the night. Let's hope the J6 committee is able to pull off a complelling narrative that results in the indictment of that bag of shit Trump and all of his co-conspirators.
I think that the justice dept should announce a pending potential indictment for seditious conspiracy against Ginni Thomas just to get people to pay attention.
FBI arrests Ryan Kelley, GOP candidate for Michigan governor, for his role in Capitol riot (yahoo.com)
I see that the Justice Dept. has taken my advice but, this guy Kelly is a small potato. They should've went for the big dumpling like I suggested. That only makes sense. They should heed the immortal words of Bill W. as written in the A.A. big book…."Half way measures avail us nothing."