Senate 2018

Hugin & Menendez-- living proof of why primaries are so importantSinema (AZ) is the worst Democrat in the House-- the one that is most supportive of Trump and most opposed to a progressive agenda.

Who would ever have imagined Texas would have one of the most closely watched Senate races of 2018? Certainly not the DSCC, which hasn't spent a nickel in Texas. But the race has captured the hearts of so many Texans-- and, in truth so many Americans from coast to coast-- because of what an exceptional candidate Beto is and because of how exceptional bad Ted Cruz is.How much would you pay to hear Trump's put downs of Cruz a week from next Wednesday if Cruz loses! But the race is totally too close to call.

Missouri used to be a swing state. It used to be called a bellwether, in fact. But that was a long time ago. The state went for FDR all 4 times he ran and then followed by voting for Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Adlai Stevenson, JFK. LBJ. Nixon twice, Jimmy Carter, Reagan twice and... somewhere in those Regan years, they started swinging towards the dark side for real. Now they're a red state.

When Ted Cruz first ran for the Senate six years ago, the Houston Chronicle endorsed him. Friday, they made up for that mistake with a scorcher of an endorsement for BETO against him. Yes, "with eyes clear but certainly not starry," they enthusiastically endorsed Beto.

Newspaper editorial endorsements don't move elections-- but they can be a signal that a wave is coming. Yesterday we saw how conservative newspapers in Maine, Texas and Iowa had endorsed progressive Democrats, Jared Golden, Dayna Steele and J.D. Scholten, not despite their progressive policies, but because of them.

Pennsylvania was one of the states targeted by Russian hackers in 2016. They helped put an illegitimate "president" into the White House by a handful of votes. In Pennsylvania it was 44,292 votes out of 5,897,174 cast. Kushner's team told the Russians to concentrate on four counties: Erie, Luzerne, Northampton, Lackawanna, Obama country in 2012, all of whom provided Trump with "plausible" wins in 2016. He took the state's 20 electoral votes by beating Hillary 2,970,733 (48.18%) to 2,926,441 (47.46%).

Digby penned the Blue America letter today-- for a candidate that all of us like a lot, Beto O'Rourke-- and we've known Beto longer than almost anyone outside of El Paso, having endorsed him in 2012 when he first ran for Congress and ousted a corrupt conservative incumbent. This time around, Beto had raised an historic $23,332,950 by June 30 (and appears to have brought in over $38 million since then)!

The people love Bernie-- the establishment of both corrupt DC parties fear himI feel like I've written this post every year forever. Bernie is the most popular senator in America and Mitch McConnell is the most despised. Morning Consultant reported the new rankings.

Tough As Texas [above] is a very memorable ad by Houston actor and filmmaker Richard Linklater, best known for directing hit films-- mostly about and set in Texas-- like Slacker, Boyhood, Fast Food Nation, Dazed and Confused as well as Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight. It was released this week by the FireTedCruz PAC and is unrelated to the Beto O'Rourke's campaign. But it will probably do Beto a lot of good nonetheless.

I've been following Dianne Feinstein's sordid-- as in corrupt-- conservative-- as in from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- career ever since she was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, as a close friend of mine, also a member, used to complain about her bitterly.