Wisconsin Emerges As A Crucial Swing State

January 27, 2012

Obama’s campaign handlers assume Wisconsin will put him over the top, but the Badger State is hardly in the bag.

As Primary Smoke Clears, Election Scene Looks The Same

September 15, 2010

For all the noise and drama about Tea Party upsets and anti-incumbent fervor during the primaries, the outlook for the upcoming congressional elections appears very much the same as it did early this year. Most of the pundits have since come around to the view I expressed here in February that Republicans are likely to win control of the House of Representatives and to make significant gains, though probably not …

Primary Races To Watch Today

June 8, 2010

The most interesting races to watch today are all west of the Mississippi River, as voters in 10 states cast ballots in primary elections while Arkansas Democrats choose their U.S. Senate candidate in a runoff. In that Arkansas runoff, Sen. Blanche Lincoln is fighting for her political life — and possibly for her party’s Senate majority in the next Congress — against a challenger, Secretary of State Bill Halter, who …

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A Mid-Term Election Preview

May 18, 2010

It isn’t exactly Super Tuesday, but after voters in four states go to the polls today, we will have a better idea of which incumbents are in trouble this year, and exactly how much trouble they are in. Only one congressional seat is up for grabs today. Democrat Mark Critz, who was chief of staff to Rep. John Murtha, faces Republican Tim Burns in a bid to complete the remainder …

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GOP Has A Good Shot At Control In House

GOP Has A Good Shot At Control In House February 24, 2010

If my calculations are correct, Republicans have a decent chance of taking control next year in the House of Representatives, reversing the Democratic landslides of 2006 and 2008. This is not a lock. As the party out of power, Republicans stand to benefit from this year’s strong anti-incumbent mood, as well as from continuing Democratic efforts to pass health care and climate-change legislation that is unpopular in much of the …

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Health Care Summit Theatrics

February 19, 2010

The health care “summit” that President Obama proposed for next week will be mainly theatrics, assuming it actually happens. But, probably unintentionally, the White House maneuvering has illuminated the issues at the heart of the dispute. On one side, Obama and congressional Democratic leaders are doing everything in their power to extend health coverage to the roughly 15 percent of Americans who do not have it. This is going to …

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Handicapping This Year’s Senate Races

February 17, 2010

If 2010 were a presidential election year, we would be deep into the primaries by now. There would be front-runners and challengers, and we would have some ideas about how the final election showdown might look. But the big battle this year is for control of Congress. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs in November, along with 36 of the 100 seats in the …

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Talk To Chuck

February 10, 2010

Most of New York’s leading politicians, including Gov. David Paterson and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have come to Wall Street’s defense against President Obama’s attacks on “fat cats” and other populist demons. The notable exception is the state’s senior U.S. senator, Charles Schumer, whose seat on the Senate Banking Committee — and whose past political support of, and from, the financial industry — gave him a front-row seat …

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Winds Of Political Change Blow In Massachusetts

January 19, 2010

Democrats lose races in Massachusetts about as often as the Harlem Globetrotters lose basketball games, which is why today’s special election in that state is so interesting. Some polls last week indicated that Republican candidate Scott Brown, a state senator, has a chance to beat Democratic attorney general Martha Coakley in today’s balloting to fill the U.S. Senate seat held until last year by Edward Kennedy. Coakley had been expected …

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Look, Mom — I’m A Gay Republican Now

December 30, 2009

If being a Democrat can run in families, it runs in mine. My parents were one generation removed from Ellis Island and the Lower East Side. Tammany Hall’s ward heelers helped my grandparents become Americans by telling them how to vote. My father enlisted in the Navy at 16, got married at 20, and joined a lodge (the Knights of Pythias) and a union, both of which were virtual Republican-free …

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