Senate 2016

Yesterday, Blue America launched a Draft Donna Edwards Act Blue page and all Blue America members got this email from us:

Despite nonsense from the Beltway media, the only "surprise" about Barbara Mikulski's retirement announcement yesterday was that she made it yesterday. There was no chance she was running for another term. She'll have served in the Senate for thirty years (the longest-serving woman in the history of Congress, when you recall that she was also in the House for a decade, from 1977-1987).

Reactionary Pennsylvania Blue Dog Chris CarneyYesterday we took a quick look at the Senate race starting to form up in Florida. Best case scenario: corrupt power-monger Debbie Wasserman Schultz doesn't run (and neither does Charlie Crist) and Alan Grayson beats conservative Democrats Patrick Murphy or Gwen Graham.

New Dem Patrick MurphyA lot hinges on Rubio, of course. He has his flip-floppin', confused little heart set on a presidential/vice presidential run.

By Missouri standards, Kander is a progressive. The NRA gave him a "D" and the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition has ranked him between 86 and 100% since 2009. At 33, he's the youngest statewide-elected official in the whole country-- and he's very popular in Missouri and was expected to skate to reelection next year.

Of all the Senate seats the Republicans have to defend in 2016, Illinois is probably the one they dread most. Mark Kirk is a weak candidate with an undistinguished, uninspiring record in a blue-leaning state. Although there are no party registration statistics available, recent elections gave the Democrats 40 seats in the Illinois state Senate to the GOP's 19 and 71 in the state House to the GOP's 47.

The winning formula for Ohio Democrats?Tea leaf readers in Ohio interpreted Tim Ryan's years-in-the-making switched position on Choice-- he's always been anti-Choice, has promised supporters for years he was on the verge on switching and then, last month finally did-- to mean he would be running for statewide office.

In the 2006 midterms Blue America made a ghastly mistake. We allowed ourselves be be taken in my a bold-faced liar and fast-talking charlatan running for Congress in northeast Pennsylvania. Although we were warned that Carney, a former employee of Douglas Feith in the Bush White House, was untrustworthy, we endorsed him and helped him raise money and develop strategies against against Republican incumbent Don Sherwood.

Illinois Democrats can do a lot betterIllinois is one of the most Democratic-leaning states with a vulnerable Republican seantor-- Mark Kirk-- up for reelection in 2016. Local fave Hillary Clinton is likely to sweep the state comparable to how Obama did in 2008, when he thumped McCain 3,419,348 (62%) to 2,031,179 (37%). Kirk himself was elected in the 2010 midterm, low voter turnout, with just 48% of the vote against a weak Democrat who got 46%.

Gavin Newsom and Eric Garcetti, into techWhen I first moved to California, the U.S. senators were both from Northern California. Democrat Alan Cranston, from a prominent Northern California family was from Palo Alto, when he was elected to the first of 4 terms starting (1968). Republican S.I.