Even if he wasn't a great foil for her, Cloobeck is giving Porter something incredibly valuable in a crowded primary (or pseudo primary top two like here). Attention.
People will vote for the candidates they have on their mind. If Porter ends up having a real shot at making the top two, it's going to require her to get coverage and attention. He's handing that to her on a silver platter. At least for a single news cycle.
Overjoyed to see the Rhodes scholars and Islanders elected Stefano Famigletti in a landslide! But what happened in Delaware? Did Alonna Berry run a tepid campaign; low turnout; an unusually-strong GOP opponent?
Cloobeck sounds like a less intelligent and more vile version of Glenn Beck – if that’s even possible.
I'm trying to figure out what, beyond his riches, makes him notable. Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_J._Cloobeck, "Stephen J. Cloobeck (born October 26, 1961) is an American businessman and the founder, former chairman and chief executive officer of the timeshare company Diamond Resorts." Are people impressed that he owned a timeshare company?
Delaware has always been a pro business state. It's a major reason why Biden was never as left wing as many Democrats wanted him to be. Not to mention why for the longest time centrist Democrats were so successful here (I'm right now visiting my family in Wilmington.).
If anything Cloobeck owning a timeshare company should work against him. That is a shady industry that uses pressure sales tactics to convince people to get into timeshares and then makes it very hard for people to get out when they realize what a bad deal the timeshares are.
Meanwhile he is using Greedy Old Party talking points saying that only private business experience is valuable while diminishing teaching and legislative experience for a government position. Cloobeck sounds like he is really running as a center-right independent, not a Democrat, but we have seen in the top-two primary era (since 2012 in CA) that it is still helpful to have a party label rather than run as an NPP (no party preference ) candidate. There have been no NPP candidates elected to statewide office or even in the runoffs since then.
Looks like Cloobeck is trying to be this year's winner of the Meg Whitman/Al Checchi award for setting their own money on fire in a CA-Gov race. Neither Meg nor Al was elected to anything in Sacramento. Neither will Mr. Cloobeck (but he will serve as a punching bag for Katie Porter, for what it's worth...)
He sounds a lot more like a Republican than a Democrat by this behavior. Is he a DINO?
⬆️"Are people impressed that he owned a timeshare company?"
Not me! IMO timeshares are a huge rip-off. You have to pay annual (or maybe quarterly) maintenance fees, which might start out reasonable, but timeshare "owners" have no recourse when the fees jump up - the seconadry market for timeshares is a joke. Supposedly you can trade your weeks for a week at other timeshares within their network, but I've heard from friends who were sold timeshares that you have to book very early for desireable properties.
Sussex County is hands down THE most Trump Party friendly of the three counties in the First State. The race did garner some attention with Democrats with my fellow (American University) Eagle Sarah McBride campaigning there. I doubt it was due to a lack of effort on our part.
My guess is the local GOP candidate was strong (outran Trump by a decent amount in 24) and the district is more willing to elect republicans at the local level.
Politics are dirty lately but while I'm not in California, I definitely wouldn't vote foe a guy who sounds like trump's mini-me as much as Cloochok does no matter if he tried to buy the seat or not.
Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee announced on Wednesday that she would run for governor, less than a year after winning another term in the Senate.
I wish TN was more purple than it is. Nashville and Memphis are VERY blue spots, and the former is a fast-growing city. Too bad it's not an Atlanta or Chicago situation where almost half the population lives in the main city.
While Republicans will more than likely win statewide races in places like Tennessee, it's important also to seize circumstances like these while they benefit us, especially as the minority party. With Trump and the GOP's waning popularity and ever increasing disapproval this is a ripe opportunity for Democratic candidates to increase their name recognition and the brand of the party in places like Tennessee. Even in losses we have seen how this increases both local and national visibility in places like Texas with Beto, Julian Castro and Allred and even ruby red states like South Carolina where Jaime Harrison got elevated as high as DNC chair. Grassroots mobilization take effort and skill, but with the right circumstances, especially in an environment like this, they are ripe to grow.
At least governor's nominees to fill a vacant seat are only good until the next even-year election - not for the rest of the term of the departing Senator.
Husted (OH) who was appointed to J.D. Vance's Senate seat is up for reelction in 2026. Both Rafael Warnock (GA) and Mark Kelly (AZ) were elected for partial terms to replace the appointed Senators in those states and then had to run again in 2 years.
If Blackburn wins TN-Gov and Tommy Tatertown wins AL-Gov will the average intelligence of the US House of Lords (and Ladies) go up with two of its dimmer bulbs leaving the body?
Hopefully we'll get strong candidates for down ballot offices as well. There are eight of them in the Peach State, plus the five Public Service Commissioners.
Cloobeck has tried and failed multiple times to become a thing in both CA and NV and this goes not seem like a more fruitful environment for him than previous attempts to put it mildly
FL-27: Poll commissioned by a Democratic firm shows Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar trailing potential candidate Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, as well as Trump and DeSantis at 51% unfavorable in the district.
But I recall that she doesn't speak decent Spanish. So do you feel like her appearance got her elected once and then her lack of Spanish-speaking ability helped her lose subsequently?
I think it was more a lack of Dem campaigning (and ground game) that year. Even Biden (who is the furthest thing from Latino) carried that district at the same time she was losing. Any Dem incumbent should have been able to win a district that Biden was winning at the same time.
Does anyone else wonder what it would be like to have thoughtful, kind, helpful, respectful people running for office who truly wanted to serve, help, and support the people, the state, and the country.
No, its my fault. I took it literally and thought that you're suggesting that he has changed after being in office for all these years unlike AOC who is relatively new.
There are currently seven Republicans and two Democrats in the Indiana Congressional delegation. Republicans are desperate if they are planning on going after the two Democratic seats. Indiana is already gerrymandered to hell, but perhaps a lower level of hell still exists?
Are the Republicans using AI in their redistricting attempts to get the maximum Republican voters in each district?
If the Republicans are going to pursue redistricting by increments in every state that they control in order to try to hold onto their majority in the House, then Democratic governors and legislature need to play hardball.
⬆️There are currently seven Republicans and two Democrats in the Indiana Congressional delegation....Are the Republicans using AI in their redistricting attempts to get the maximum Republican voters in each district?
Yeah, but extreme gerrymandering can backfire. I posted a link to an interesting article about the risks of extreme gerrymandering a couple of weeks ago when the TX gerrymander first started garnering attention:
In IN-07 (which is basically Indianapolis), the Democrats won by over 39 points, which I think would be hard to overcome. This district borders IN-04 (R+33.9) , IN-05 (R+18.6) and IN-06 (R+32.2), but I expect the exurbs of Indianapolis in these 3 districts are more Democratic-leaning than much of the rest of the district, which would tend to hamper gerrymandering IN-07.
In IN-01 (a district including Gary, IN), the Democrats won comfortably by 8.5 points. The 2 districts that border IN-01 are IN-02 (R+28.1) and IN-04 (R+33.9), but Gary (presumably where the Democrats are are located) is near the NW corner of the state quite a distance from the borders with both IN-02 and IN-04.
The remaining 3 congressional districts don't touch either of the 2 Democratic districts - IN-03 (R+23.6), IN-08 (R+38.5) and IN-09 (R+31.7)
I'm in NC and the GOP (at the time super-majority) successfully gerrymandered the state from 7 - 7 to 10 - 4 in their favor. There was only 1 competitive seat, which fortunately the Democrat, Don Davis, won. But after redistricting, it was going to be either 11 - 3 or 10 - 4. There was no way to get it to 12 - 2, although I am sure they tried their best.
"Shouldn’t be controversial to say this is happening because the British center-left has accepted transphobia the way American popularists want to. Instead of marginalizing the most virulent bigotry, triangulation created a permission structure for normies to hate trans people."
This transgender opinion shift in the UK is insane as compared in these polls. I think it is true that "Give transphobes an inch, they take a mile." (and still not be satisfied) I was someone who thought that trans woman athletes should be nationally banned but now I believe that it should be left upto local control. UK TERFs got a brand to apologize yesterday because a transgender employee dared to ask a mother and her daughter, customers at the outlet, what they needed. I think another reason why the British kind of transphobia hasn't won in the left yet in America, Canada and Australia is because of strong two party negative polarization.
On the other side of the channel, far right German AfD unironically portrays itself as a protector of transgender people as a part of Western culture against Islam.
I like Chris Gallant's into video. He's right about the traffic control system, too, though most Americans don't know about that. I hope he gets in and gets a chance to move some things along.
Even if he wasn't a great foil for her, Cloobeck is giving Porter something incredibly valuable in a crowded primary (or pseudo primary top two like here). Attention.
People will vote for the candidates they have on their mind. If Porter ends up having a real shot at making the top two, it's going to require her to get coverage and attention. He's handing that to her on a silver platter. At least for a single news cycle.
Do Californians really care where someone was born?
No, and Californians don't care what Cloobeck has to say.
Overjoyed to see the Rhodes scholars and Islanders elected Stefano Famigletti in a landslide! But what happened in Delaware? Did Alonna Berry run a tepid campaign; low turnout; an unusually-strong GOP opponent?
Cloobeck sounds like a less intelligent and more vile version of Glenn Beck – if that’s even possible.
I'm trying to figure out what, beyond his riches, makes him notable. Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_J._Cloobeck, "Stephen J. Cloobeck (born October 26, 1961) is an American businessman and the founder, former chairman and chief executive officer of the timeshare company Diamond Resorts." Are people impressed that he owned a timeshare company?
Delaware has always been a pro business state. It's a major reason why Biden was never as left wing as many Democrats wanted him to be. Not to mention why for the longest time centrist Democrats were so successful here (I'm right now visiting my family in Wilmington.).
Yeah, but he's running in California.
I think James intended to reply to Arctic Stones post, not yours.
If anything Cloobeck owning a timeshare company should work against him. That is a shady industry that uses pressure sales tactics to convince people to get into timeshares and then makes it very hard for people to get out when they realize what a bad deal the timeshares are.
Meanwhile he is using Greedy Old Party talking points saying that only private business experience is valuable while diminishing teaching and legislative experience for a government position. Cloobeck sounds like he is really running as a center-right independent, not a Democrat, but we have seen in the top-two primary era (since 2012 in CA) that it is still helpful to have a party label rather than run as an NPP (no party preference ) candidate. There have been no NPP candidates elected to statewide office or even in the runoffs since then.
Looks like Cloobeck is trying to be this year's winner of the Meg Whitman/Al Checchi award for setting their own money on fire in a CA-Gov race. Neither Meg nor Al was elected to anything in Sacramento. Neither will Mr. Cloobeck (but he will serve as a punching bag for Katie Porter, for what it's worth...)
I hope you are right aboout Cloobeck's chances (or lack thereof) Californians deserve better IMO.
He sounds a lot more like a Republican than a Democrat by this behavior. Is he a DINO?
⬆️"Are people impressed that he owned a timeshare company?"
Not me! IMO timeshares are a huge rip-off. You have to pay annual (or maybe quarterly) maintenance fees, which might start out reasonable, but timeshare "owners" have no recourse when the fees jump up - the seconadry market for timeshares is a joke. Supposedly you can trade your weeks for a week at other timeshares within their network, but I've heard from friends who were sold timeshares that you have to book very early for desireable properties.
Sussex County is hands down THE most Trump Party friendly of the three counties in the First State. The race did garner some attention with Democrats with my fellow (American University) Eagle Sarah McBride campaigning there. I doubt it was due to a lack of effort on our part.
My guess is the local GOP candidate was strong (outran Trump by a decent amount in 24) and the district is more willing to elect republicans at the local level.
Politics are dirty lately but while I'm not in California, I definitely wouldn't vote foe a guy who sounds like trump's mini-me as much as Cloochok does no matter if he tried to buy the seat or not.
Yeah, I wouldn't exactly out too much money on the timeshare guy.
Cloobeck hasn't got a clue...
Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee announced on Wednesday that she would run for governor, less than a year after winning another term in the Senate.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/us/politics/marsha-blackburn-governor-tennessee.html?smid=bsky-nytimes&smtyp=cur
Sigh. She'll win and handpick her successor.
I wish TN was more purple than it is. Nashville and Memphis are VERY blue spots, and the former is a fast-growing city. Too bad it's not an Atlanta or Chicago situation where almost half the population lives in the main city.
Congressman John Rose also is running, so she may have a tough fight in the primary.
I have a suspicion that her successor will be Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, who is better known as former WWE wrestler Kane.
And I thought Tuberville was bad.
Sadly it doesn't help that #1. Memphis is dying and #2. the Volunteer State has like the Sunshine State become a haven for hardcore right wingers.
While Republicans will more than likely win statewide races in places like Tennessee, it's important also to seize circumstances like these while they benefit us, especially as the minority party. With Trump and the GOP's waning popularity and ever increasing disapproval this is a ripe opportunity for Democratic candidates to increase their name recognition and the brand of the party in places like Tennessee. Even in losses we have seen how this increases both local and national visibility in places like Texas with Beto, Julian Castro and Allred and even ruby red states like South Carolina where Jaime Harrison got elevated as high as DNC chair. Grassroots mobilization take effort and skill, but with the right circumstances, especially in an environment like this, they are ripe to grow.
Harrison's campaign was a huge waste of money, wasn't it?
Somehow that got him promoted to DNC chair. I guess at the very least it improved grassroots and visibility for Democrats in South Carolina.
To what end?
⬆️"Sigh. She'll win and handpick her successor."
At least governor's nominees to fill a vacant seat are only good until the next even-year election - not for the rest of the term of the departing Senator.
Husted (OH) who was appointed to J.D. Vance's Senate seat is up for reelction in 2026. Both Rafael Warnock (GA) and Mark Kelly (AZ) were elected for partial terms to replace the appointed Senators in those states and then had to run again in 2 years.
Those ads run in a year where she had no actual competition proved the speculation right.
If Blackburn wins TN-Gov and Tommy Tatertown wins AL-Gov will the average intelligence of the US House of Lords (and Ladies) go up with two of its dimmer bulbs leaving the body?
Mike Thurmond in for Georgia Governor
Hopefully we'll get strong candidates for down ballot offices as well. There are eight of them in the Peach State, plus the five Public Service Commissioners.
Cloobeck has tried and failed multiple times to become a thing in both CA and NV and this goes not seem like a more fruitful environment for him than previous attempts to put it mildly
FL-27: Poll commissioned by a Democratic firm shows Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar trailing potential candidate Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, as well as Trump and DeSantis at 51% unfavorable in the district.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/750168-poll-daniella-levine-cava-poses-strong-threat-to-maria-elvira-salazar-in-cd-27/
Yeah she totally phoned it in in 2020. Even Biden won that district.
Thanks for all that excellent context, but what do you mean about Shalala? She's Lebanese-American.
But I recall that she doesn't speak decent Spanish. So do you feel like her appearance got her elected once and then her lack of Spanish-speaking ability helped her lose subsequently?
I think it was more a lack of Dem campaigning (and ground game) that year. Even Biden (who is the furthest thing from Latino) carried that district at the same time she was losing. Any Dem incumbent should have been able to win a district that Biden was winning at the same time.
Having someone who can speak Spanish is a must in this district.
Does anyone else wonder what it would be like to have thoughtful, kind, helpful, respectful people running for office who truly wanted to serve, help, and support the people, the state, and the country.
The boorish, abrasive Steve Cloobeck is the antithesis of that.
I do, but even more so I think about what it would be like if we had an electorate who overwhelmingly wanted those things as well.
There are some people like that. I always felt Jerry Nadler was, and AOC is, for example.
I'm not suggesting he's dead. You never talk this way? Is that a New York thing?
No, its my fault. I took it literally and thought that you're suggesting that he has changed after being in office for all these years unlike AOC who is relatively new.
Oh, no, no such implication was intended.
We don’t need another billionaire running things!!!
well, you won't have this fool running California!!
Bad billionaires you mean, Pritzker is good.
Just what we need— another billionaire idiot to tell us how to live. Get out you moron
There are currently seven Republicans and two Democrats in the Indiana Congressional delegation. Republicans are desperate if they are planning on going after the two Democratic seats. Indiana is already gerrymandered to hell, but perhaps a lower level of hell still exists?
Are the Republicans using AI in their redistricting attempts to get the maximum Republican voters in each district?
If the Republicans are going to pursue redistricting by increments in every state that they control in order to try to hold onto their majority in the House, then Democratic governors and legislature need to play hardball.
Agree with all of this 100%!
⬆️Any bigger than a D+3 year, they can’t draw their way to power as it sits.
Extreme gerrymandering can backfire: https://substack.com/@cj277/note/c-133993580
⬆️There are currently seven Republicans and two Democrats in the Indiana Congressional delegation....Are the Republicans using AI in their redistricting attempts to get the maximum Republican voters in each district?
Yeah, but extreme gerrymandering can backfire. I posted a link to an interesting article about the risks of extreme gerrymandering a couple of weeks ago when the TX gerrymander first started garnering attention:
https://substack.com/@cj277/note/c-133993580
Not to mention that gerrymandering usually involves "pack" and "crack" strategies which shouldn't result in a 9 - 0 GOP delegation in IN. Here is a Ballotpedia link to the 2024 IN congressional map: https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_congressional_delegations_from_Indiana#District_map
In IN-07 (which is basically Indianapolis), the Democrats won by over 39 points, which I think would be hard to overcome. This district borders IN-04 (R+33.9) , IN-05 (R+18.6) and IN-06 (R+32.2), but I expect the exurbs of Indianapolis in these 3 districts are more Democratic-leaning than much of the rest of the district, which would tend to hamper gerrymandering IN-07.
In IN-01 (a district including Gary, IN), the Democrats won comfortably by 8.5 points. The 2 districts that border IN-01 are IN-02 (R+28.1) and IN-04 (R+33.9), but Gary (presumably where the Democrats are are located) is near the NW corner of the state quite a distance from the borders with both IN-02 and IN-04.
The remaining 3 congressional districts don't touch either of the 2 Democratic districts - IN-03 (R+23.6), IN-08 (R+38.5) and IN-09 (R+31.7)
I'm in NC and the GOP (at the time super-majority) successfully gerrymandered the state from 7 - 7 to 10 - 4 in their favor. There was only 1 competitive seat, which fortunately the Democrat, Don Davis, won. But after redistricting, it was going to be either 11 - 3 or 10 - 4. There was no way to get it to 12 - 2, although I am sure they tried their best.
"Shouldn’t be controversial to say this is happening because the British center-left has accepted transphobia the way American popularists want to. Instead of marginalizing the most virulent bigotry, triangulation created a permission structure for normies to hate trans people."
https://x.com/ColeSandick/status/1953106603655168302
https://x.com/hecubian_devil/status/1953080160741187588
https://x.com/ArmandDoma/status/1952499633516921333
https://x.com/nikicaga/status/1952156034669396149
This transgender opinion shift in the UK is insane as compared in these polls. I think it is true that "Give transphobes an inch, they take a mile." (and still not be satisfied) I was someone who thought that trans woman athletes should be nationally banned but now I believe that it should be left upto local control. UK TERFs got a brand to apologize yesterday because a transgender employee dared to ask a mother and her daughter, customers at the outlet, what they needed. I think another reason why the British kind of transphobia hasn't won in the left yet in America, Canada and Australia is because of strong two party negative polarization.
https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/PaperDetails/73683
On the other side of the channel, far right German AfD unironically portrays itself as a protector of transgender people as a part of Western culture against Islam.
Personally I think being for trans women competing against women is a loser for the left.
Yeah, it's called a tactical retreat. Sometimes you gotta do it before you lose so much more than this one sub-issue.
I like Chris Gallant's into video. He's right about the traffic control system, too, though most Americans don't know about that. I hope he gets in and gets a chance to move some things along.
Big deal in IL. Very vulnerable R St Rep Amy Grant retiring https://x.com/ChazNuttycombe/status/1953153983767560237
This is the politician you're talking about, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Grant_(politician) 77 is not young.
Baby, baby! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)