2019 legislative races

Lobbyist (right) beat the progressive (left) for Virginia House speakerBlue America didn't endorse too many candidates in the Virginia legislative election-- just 6 outstanding progressives who we were able to vet to our satisfaction. Three won-- Lee Carter (53-46%), Elizabeth Guzman (52-47%) and Danica Roem (56-44%)-- and three lost-- Herb Jones (60-40%), Qasim Rashid (58-42%) and Eric Stamps (61-39%).

This morning, Aaron Blake noted at the Washington Post that "When President Trump was elected, he promised the GOP that they would win so much they would get tired of it. But for a third successive election year since then, the Republican Party has walked away the loser." Also this morning a top Democratic congressional staffer told me that she spoke to "two different Republican Hill staffers who have expressed serious concerns with how badly last night went for them.

Let's follow up on last night's pre-election special for Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi and New Jersey. The results look excellent tonight... unless your name rhymes with DUMP. Trumpanzee did the trick in Kentucky, a scorching red R+15 state... where the GOP lost the governor's mansion.

I don't know much about Democratic strategist Kevin Walling other than he was one of the founders of-- and the first political director for-- the right-of-center Inside-the-beltway group No Labels-- and that he is often called upon by right-wing media to play the role of "the Democrat," particularly on Fox New, Fox Business News, Newsmax and the neo-Nazi One America News Network (OAN).

Eric Stamps-- too progressive for the governor?Ralph Northam was probably the most conservative, Republican-friendly Democrat in the Virginia state Senate when he served between 2007 and 2013, at which time he was elected lieutenant governor. He admits that before being elected to the Senate he had voted for George W. Bush twice.

Most bigoted smear campaign of the year in being run by Republican Richard Stuart (l) against Qasim Rashid (r)-by Fergie Reid, Jr.As November 5th-- Election Day-- approaches in Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, and New Jersey, Virginia Democrats can flip their General Assembly by re-electing all of their (D) House and Senate incumbents, and by winning a minimum of 2 Republican HDs and 1 Republican Senate d

On Sunday, The Advocate published a feature by Michael Keegan, president of People for the American Way, The Most Important LGBTQ Race in 2019 Is Danica Roem's.

The governor of New Jersey is Phil Murphy, a Democrat. Both Houses of the state legislature are controlled by Democrats, the Senate 26-14 and the Assembly 54-26. There's just one New Jersey congressional district that elected a Republican in 2018. It would be easy as pie for New Jersey Democrats to gerrymander the map to make Chris Smith's 4th CD go from an R+8 district to a much more winnable R+1 or 2 or even an even district that a Democratic candidate could easily win.

Flo Ketner is a Berniecrat running for the Virginia state Senate in an election that will be decided by Virginia voters in about 3 months. The Democrats need to flip 2 Republican-held seats to win back the Senate. The 19th district, south of Roanoke, consists of Salem City (12% of the voters) plus parts of 7 counties-- Franklin (19%), Floyd (8%), Montgomery (12%), Bedford (3%), Carroll (6%), Wythe (7%) and Roanoke (34%).

In less than 4 months the Virginia state Democratic Party needs to win 2 seats-- maybe just one now-- to flip the House of Delegates. The party and the DLCC have their status quo candidates in the easiest districts-- generally speaking the ones Northam won that are occupied by Republicans.