AZ 2: Eric Descheenie, also a member of the Navajo nation, and former member of the Arizona House of Representatives, is running for the Democratic nod as well..
If he wants, Walz could schedule both of those MN Senate special elections on the same day, once he knows for certain Mitchell has resigned on Aug. 4th.
Plus in the MN House is the upcoming special to fill slain Melissa Hortman's seat (Aug 12th primary, Sept 16th general).
Lots of special elections in MN this summer and fall, but no flips likely.
Somewhat of a tangent, but it is crazy to me how different each state deals with vacancies and special elections. Do you know there are already special elections scheduled for next year, with Alabama having some in January, and a bunch of states like Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota and West Virginia holding Senate special elections in November?
I understand many states don't even hold special elections, they just allow replacements to be appointed to uphold the same partisan balance. That kind of thing doesn't really happen in Canada, except on the local level, like in Toronto they will appoint a councillor if there are only a few months left until the next municipal election. By-elections usually have to be held in a reasonable timeframe.
Unless it's recently changed, Kansas doesn't have true special elections. The party committee of the district selects until the next general election, which would be Nov 2026 (which will technically be a special election for this seat as all state Senators are elected during the presidential year).
Fateh is part of that 34-33 state Senate majority. I don't think his district was swingy like some of the more R leaning suburban ones like Heather Gustafson is.
As I understand it, there are plenty of fringe groups within the DSA. Apparently it’s not exactly a cohesive organization, even though the national DSA tried to enforce "correct thinking" about that forbidden topic on AOC – and on the DSA in New York.
I’m aware the DSA isn’t cohesive. There’s a communist caucus last I checked, a libertarian socialist caucus, etc. There are also members who don’t agree with the rigidity of the org sometimes - I remember when the International Committee of the DSA congratulated Nicolas Maduro’s “win” and people on what was then left Twitter were quite pissed (I remember one person asking why they were putting all this effort into helping them when they pull shit like this), etc.
My theory is that a group to the DSA’s left (or just some random unhinged person) was responsible for the graffiti though. I don’t typically associate the DSA with stunts like this, for instance.
What I don’t understand is why support an organization that can’t get its shit together? The DSA makes the Democratic Party seem like a cohesive, well-oiled and well-run organization!
The DSA is kind of a big tent of the left in the way the Dems are a big tent of the opposition. This is both good and bad, though I don’t really like the DSA so I can’t comment further.
Not accusing anyone of anything, just trying to see if Fateh DSA was the same DSA as was discussed in a previous thread related to AOC, because it seemed like previously there was some commentary about multiple political groups called DSA. In my world, DSA is Distinguished Service Award.
GA-Gov: I wanted to check to see if this Michael Thurmond is related to another Michael Thurmond, who was one of the last statewide (non-federal) elected Democrats in Georgia (served as Labor Commissioner from 1999–2011); it's the same guy! He's 72, idk about his ability to aggressively campaign statewide.
Yep, 2006 was the last statewide election where Democrats won (Thurmond, Thurbert Baker for AG, and Tommy Irvin for agriculture commissioner).
I don't think immediately counting out everyone who runs for office in their early 70s is merited. Tbh, I'd say it's probably ageist. If there's evidence we've seen that he's diminished or when we do see such evidence during the campaign, then fine on my end. Would say the same for a low stamina campaign from a younger candidate too. Without that, just saying "he's 72" is a bit off base to me. Especially for a role with a built in successor, though it would mean we'd need to win the separate LG election too. It's not quite the same thing as older House electeds especially.
To be clear, I said "I don't know about his ability to aggressively campaign" not "I am categorically ruling out supporting him because of his age", so make sure you're reacting to what was actually said and not something you invented in your head.
And you're doing the same thing. He also last ran a statewide campaign 20 years ago, for a below-the-line office, not sure how that qualifies as "solely based on his age". You're not reacting to what I said, you're reacting to what you want me to have said.
Slight correction: he did run statewide in 2010, just not for reelection; he ran for Senate against Johnny Isakson, losing 58-39. Considering it was 2010 no reason to hold that against him.
The sentence you wrote does not in any way indicate at "Oh, Thurmond hasn't mounted a statewide campaign in 15-20yrs. Does he know the dynamics of the voters of his state and campaign tactics that have drastically changed since his last race?" You said "He's 72." If you wanted to say something else and clarify that, fine. But you're trying to pretend you wrote something different and we're reacting to what you meant to say (I suppose), than what you quite literally, actually did write.
Minnesota Legislature: While DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell will resign, GOP Sen. Bruce Anderson passed away this week, meaning that the DFL will maintain it's one-seat majority in the chamber.
The MN legislature isn't in session until next Feb. 2026. The special elections will be long concluded by then, so hopefully no impact. (and no likely flips)
Also, MN Senator John Hoffman, who took NINE bullets, just got out of the ICU. (How the hell does one survive being shot NINE times? Man...)
He'll hopefully be ready to return to work by Feb.
"The MN legislature isn't in session until next Feb. 2026."
Why not bring the legislature into session long before then? Surely there are challenges to be met, stuff that needs to be done? And why in the world do the legislators need a summer-, autumn- and winter-vacation that lasts all the way until February?? Is there is semi-rational explanation for this?
Other than pass a budget, there's not typically enough stuff for a legislature to do in the states to require being in session year-long, and if something does arise, that's what special sessions are for.
Honestly imo the main reason to make legislatures year-round is less a policy argument as it would be a personnel argument; part-time legislatures are dominated by independently wealthy folks and/or retirees, which are less likely to be representative of the populace. With full-time legislatures (that pay like full time as well), more types of people could be involved.
Almost all the legislators in Minnesota have jobs, from MDs & lawyers to farmers & teachers.
The teachers all teach during the fall term, and take a leave for the session.
It is expected that Gov Walz will call a special session after all the elections to deal with budget items after the Department of Management looks at the Big Ugly Bill.
That’s fine, and maybe I’m naïve, but isn’t it possible for the lawmakers to get together for well-planned weekend legislative sessions, if and when circumstances demand it?
Another Dem is running for KS Gov, State Sen. Ethan Carson. Like State Sen. Cindy Holscher who is also running, he’s from Johnson County. Neither State Senate district is very competitive anymore, although they used to elect republicans. Laura Kelly was elected twice from a close district before she became governor.
Kansas state Senators have the luxury of being able to run for state executive offices freely because all of the state offices are elected in midterms and all state Senators are elected during the presidential year.
I saw something pop up on Facebook indicating New Castle town board member Jeremy Saland is running as a Democrat. I live in New Castle, and at least two people I know locally aren’t thrilled - apparently he’s quite vocal (to a detrimental extent) about a certain geopolitical conflict we aren’t allowed to discuss. Either way, that makes 8 now.
I wish Pete Harckham would jump in. He seems like a good campaigner. I think I know who would end up replacing him in the Senate and I wouldn't want that person in the position, but it's a hit I'd take to remove Lawler. These folks from the southern edge of the district aren't the strongest candidates.
Maybe I'm being insanely cautious but I'd rather not say. I think it's vaguely possible that they could figure out who I am from what I've posted here.
Harckham has been a wonderful State Senator. I volunteered on his 2018 campaign when I was 17/18 - first campaign I ever volunteered on. Great guy, I wish he’d run too.
Congressman Seth Moulton, a Democrat who grew up in Marblehead and lives in Salem, has a primary challenger for the 6th District next year. Software engineer and Midleton resident Beth Andres-Beck, who identifies as “agender,” announced their run for office Thursday morning.
“I believe America is worth fighting for,” said Andres-Beck. “This is a moment of rapid change, from AI to climate to the rule of law. Shaping our future will require leaders with courage, creativity and the ability to understand the technology they are regulating.”
[...]
“I’m agender, trans, queer and proudly Unitarian-Universalist,” Andres-Beck writes on their website. “I sing tenor in my church choir, mentor young people and serve on multiple town committees. I’ve built a life rooted in mutual aid, public service and showing up for the people around me.”
Beth Anders-Beck (they/them) would be the first agender, first gender nonbinary, first transgender nonbinary, and second transgender Member of Congress if nominated and elected, not to mention the first Member of Congress to prefer pronouns other than the standard masculine or feminine pronouns.
I have little sympathy for Moulton after his trans comments and after he tried to prevent Pelosi from being made speaker in 2018. I welcome challengers to Moulton.
Moulton has benefited a lot from beating a corrupt dem in a primary during a republican wave year. Without him we very reasonably could have lost the seat, but none of the powers that be were concerned by that.
That combo has done a lot to help him. If not for the fact that it has been over a decade I think criticism would still be bouncing off him.
Not at chance, especially considering Kevin Lincoln lost the House race to Rep. Josh Harder by nearly 4% percentage points. Already into 2023, year 3 of being in office as Mayor of Stockton, he ran for the House as opposed to simply focusing on his full term as Mayor. This coming with the fact that Trump last year won the presidential race.
I’d imagine Lincoln will lose to Harder even more in 2026 knowing how Stockton residents know what his real agenda was the whole time: Just simply advancing his political career at light speed.
I don’t know how much more Lincoln would lose by but I can’t imagine he’s going to improve the margins.
Complicating problems even more is that Stockton’s new Mayor, Christina Fugazzi, is a Democrat. She just got elected last year and is already being a proactive Mayor, far different from Lincoln. If she endorses Josh Harder and campaigns for him, that will complicate things even more for Lincoln.
Stockton isn’t just another city. It still is recovering from the subprime mortgage disaster and needs a Mayor and leadership in the City Council to continue to improve the city’s economy. It’s clear Lincoln was not committed to the job.
It's shaping up as a better year for Dems in California in 2026 than it was last year. I expect Harder to win by a larger margin than before. I'd worry more for Valadao and Kim, if I worried for Republicans, which I don't.
I hope someone will primary her. It's not that she's 88: she's impaired. DC needs voting representation, but at least they could do with a non-voting rep who is fully compos mentis.
No to age limits. it's a blunt instrument that arbitrarily prevents adult citizens from receiving the benefits of citizenship. Chronological age is not equivalent to functional age. If a person is incompetent at any age for any reason, they should be voted out. The test should be incompetence itself, not age, wealth, educational attainment, or some other freighted attribute.
This was back before we could win supermajorities in the CA legislature, but the 2012 map was actually better for us than what would have normally been an incumbent protection map.
In the old days, Dems protected Republicans, but Republicans didn't protect Dems. Dems are not as good at cut-throat politics as Republicans are. The removal of the gerrymander made the state more progressive than the Democratic gerrymanders ever did. It's in our interests to make our democracy as democratic as possible. It's also right, of course.
Hey, I had a bit of inspiration. If CA goes forward with an amendment this year to allow re-redistricting, they should include voter ID as a provision to sweeten the pot. Of course, it will be lenient on what kind of IDs are suitable.
Historically, adding things believed to be "sweeteners" to ballot initiatives has made them tougher to pass. It makes the initiative more complicated to understand and voters often just vote No when they don't understand an initiative.
Also, certain interest groups end up unexpectedly opposing it because what's a "sweetener" to conservatives is anathema to another group. I have no doubt the ACLU would oppose any ballot initiatives that involve any voter ID laws.
Also, from a political strategy perspective, why muddle the messaging? The refrain needs to be that this ballot initiative is about two things: fairness and opposing Trump. Republicans are pushing unfair maps that will harm our democracy, and we need to stand up to Trump and fight back. That's it. That's the message. Trying to add Voter ID into the mix (which is inherently unfair, in my opinion) makes that messaging unnecessarily complicated.
The Majority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates has introduced a resolution to redraw the districts "upon any other US state adopting a new congressional district map outside the regular decennial census period"
That’s the first mention I’ve seen of Missouri redrawing its congressional map too. You could probably eliminate both the Kansas City and St Louis seats by cracking them.
The MD map that was struck down by a judge (which wasn't appealed as part of a bipartisan deal that avoided a redraw of the state legislative map) drew MD-01 as a swing district. Andy Harris might well have held on in it in 2022-24 but would be in trouble for 2026.
Any redraw should also make MD-06 more Democratic. In the current map it's a little too close for my liking, though it's held up well so far.
are we heading towards a stasis where maps are completely redrawn every two years in every state? This kind of feels untenable. I get Trump is an accelerationist on every anti-democratic impulse in American politics but surely elected officials will get tired of this.
Officials will never let being tired of something stop them. Especially republicans when it comes to holding onto power. Democrats have been deeply reluctant to do it but as we're seeing, pushed far enough they will actually respond.
Ideally this would push congress to be willing to institute a ban on gerrymandering. Still risks even with that (legislation can be repealed) but it'd help a lot. I'm not holding my breath.
What more could we do in WA in any case? We already have everything but the two eastern WA seats, and one of the seats we do hold (MGP's, of course) we only have very tenuously, due to one of many GOP "candidate quality" fumbles.
I guess a district combining Spokane, Yakima, and the Tri-Cities could be drawn, but would still include a lot of rural territory making it a tossup at best.
ME has their gerrymandering rules built into the state constitution. It needs a 2/3 majority to pass. There's no practical pathway to improving things there.
Ozzy Osbourne, an icon of metal and hard rock music, dies at 76. Osbourne had numerous successful albums and singles, both solo and with Black Sabbath.
Osbourne, along with his wife Sharon and their children Kelly and Jack, starred in The Osbournes in the early-to-mid 2000s on MTV.
y'all may be interested to hear this...somehow I've gotten myself on the Verasight poll "pool," and last week I answered a survey on politics apparently commissioned by G. Elliott Morris. I'm proud to say that I'm one of the 36 percent of folk who are not at all likely to support Elon Musk's (White) America Party. Link to the full poll here: https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/new-poll-dems-lead-house-generic
I've gotten several texts asking me to participate in online opinion polls, but somehow, I can't get my arms around the idea. (Of course, I also always get fundraising texts, which I always reply "stop" to.)
36% said "not at all likely", with 18% saying "not too likely", for a total of 54% unfavourable. Only 25% were favourable to the idea of an Elon-formed third party, with 7% very likely to support it and 18% somewhat likely. That leaves about 21% who don't know.
An independent or third party concept (which could of course mean anything not labelled Republican or Democratic) polled much better than a specifically Musk centered one.
I don’t understand. What makes Musk’s America Party white?
Musk himself has for sure been aloof and insensitive to race issues as his management as CEO of Tesla has shown. I don’t know though what his real intentions of America Party are other than to go after Trump.
I am well aware of Musk’s racism. I am not familiar with the America Party he is founding. There are little overall details about it since Musk started it other than he wants to go after Trump. Don’t forget that prior to Trump running again in 2024 Musk was selectively supporting Democrats (even while this was about Tesla’s profitability).
FYI, I know about Elon Musk’s racism going back years with Tesla (it’s been well documented by employees). I didn’t need to know about his history growing up in South Africa.
Truth is, Musk is worse than his father Errol Musk. Both are extreme wealthy but Errol Musk had an anti-apartheid agenda when he was serving in South Africa government. I think I read an article that Musk Sr blamed Elon for a fight he started which originally was reported as Elon falling down the stairs as a teenager. Turns out, per Musk Sr, Elon started the fight and showed no empathy. Never apologized. Musk Sr was the one who showed empathy towards the teenager affected by Musk’s actions.
Openly racist? I would say Musk is more just without empathy and interest in even listening to non-white people unless they happen to benefit him socially and help elevate his status (only if they are wealthy).
I haven’t seen him openly say slurs but on the other hand, traditionally speaking many (not all) of Tesla drivers are Asian. That said, him promoting far fight, fascist kind of politicians in European countries still means racism. If he’s not calling these politicians out, he’s emboldening their agenda. On the other hand, Musk supported Obama back in 2008 and once said the Democratic Party was the “kindness party.” He’s really a strange bird.
As for racists, I don’t think it’s always so back and white with their agenda. Not all racists have this white supremacist agenda like the KKK but hate is still hate.
it's an obscure meme that needs to be made less obscure IMO. Musk tweeted something like "We've tried Blue America and Red America, now it's time for..." so of course a lot of smart aleck internet folk filled it in.
Musk's racism, eugenicism, etc is pretty well documented and although I don't know details about the (White) America Party, I know enough to know that I'm not interested. The most generous spin is that he'll try to recreate Australian Teals: conservatives who care about climate/clean energy.
I remember years ago reading about black employees at Tesla complaining on multiple occasions about racism within the company. This wasn’t Musk himself being cited but who he was associating with. Still racism no matter how it’s spinned.
Honestly, it really doesn’t make a difference to me. Musk remains to be spoiled, privileged asshole who has no real socially conscious views and rebels against just about anything that pushes him back. That’s the root of his racism as opposed to father Musk Sr (who by the way isn’t even a saint but by contrast a better person than Elon).
Anyway, I was just specifically referring to the America Party but am well aware of everything else about Musk.
AZ 2: Eric Descheenie, also a member of the Navajo nation, and former member of the Arizona House of Representatives, is running for the Democratic nod as well..
I was going to mention that. Thanks for getting there first Paleo.
Democrats will retain their one seat majority in the Minnesota state senate after August 4.
MN state Senator Bruce Anderson, a Republican, suddenly passed away today.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/07/21/republican-state-senator-bruce-anderson-has-died
If he wants, Walz could schedule both of those MN Senate special elections on the same day, once he knows for certain Mitchell has resigned on Aug. 4th.
Plus in the MN House is the upcoming special to fill slain Melissa Hortman's seat (Aug 12th primary, Sept 16th general).
Lots of special elections in MN this summer and fall, but no flips likely.
Somewhat of a tangent, but it is crazy to me how different each state deals with vacancies and special elections. Do you know there are already special elections scheduled for next year, with Alabama having some in January, and a bunch of states like Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota and West Virginia holding Senate special elections in November?
I understand many states don't even hold special elections, they just allow replacements to be appointed to uphold the same partisan balance. That kind of thing doesn't really happen in Canada, except on the local level, like in Toronto they will appoint a councillor if there are only a few months left until the next municipal election. By-elections usually have to be held in a reasonable timeframe.
Unless it's recently changed, Kansas doesn't have true special elections. The party committee of the district selects until the next general election, which would be Nov 2026 (which will technically be a special election for this seat as all state Senators are elected during the presidential year).
I think Fateh is going to beat Frey. Fateh helped the MN DFL majority from 2023-2024 push through almost all of their priorities into law.
Frey is a pretty guy but he doesn’t have the track record Fateh has.
I actually didn't know that about Fateh's record. Good to know!
Fateh is part of that 34-33 state Senate majority. I don't think his district was swingy like some of the more R leaning suburban ones like Heather Gustafson is.
Fateh won reelection in 2022 90-9
Not to mention Grant Hauschild & Judy Seeberger, who each won their districts by less than 1000 votes.
Those people had the courage to vote for gin control, along with the rest of the DFL agenda.
Is Fateh part of the DSA that hit the comments here yesterday/last weekend--that vandalized AOCs office?
They are in different states, so
Do we know the DSA vandalized AOC's office, or was it someone fringier? Believe it or not, there are groups that make the DSA look calm.
As I understand it, there are plenty of fringe groups within the DSA. Apparently it’s not exactly a cohesive organization, even though the national DSA tried to enforce "correct thinking" about that forbidden topic on AOC – and on the DSA in New York.
(Let me know if I got any part of that wrong.)
I’m aware the DSA isn’t cohesive. There’s a communist caucus last I checked, a libertarian socialist caucus, etc. There are also members who don’t agree with the rigidity of the org sometimes - I remember when the International Committee of the DSA congratulated Nicolas Maduro’s “win” and people on what was then left Twitter were quite pissed (I remember one person asking why they were putting all this effort into helping them when they pull shit like this), etc.
My theory is that a group to the DSA’s left (or just some random unhinged person) was responsible for the graffiti though. I don’t typically associate the DSA with stunts like this, for instance.
What I don’t understand is why support an organization that can’t get its shit together? The DSA makes the Democratic Party seem like a cohesive, well-oiled and well-run organization!
The DSA is kind of a big tent of the left in the way the Dems are a big tent of the opposition. This is both good and bad, though I don’t really like the DSA so I can’t comment further.
I attended a couple DSA meetings back when I lived in Indianapolis. Sometimes it felt like Stalinists vs Trotskyists.
No-one accused the DSA itself of committing that crime, and if you're directly accusing them, you could be committing libel.
Not accusing anyone of anything, just trying to see if Fateh DSA was the same DSA as was discussed in a previous thread related to AOC, because it seemed like previously there was some commentary about multiple political groups called DSA. In my world, DSA is Distinguished Service Award.
Will Frey come from behind for a third time? Get your popcorn ready...
https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cities/2025/07/20/omar-fateh-minneapolis-dfl-endorsement-mayor
"Frey also finished second at the 2017 and 2021 DFL conventions before winning in Minneapolis' ranked-choice general election."
I think the Davis & Jazz people will end up voting for Frey. Just because of the police issue.
GA-Gov: I wanted to check to see if this Michael Thurmond is related to another Michael Thurmond, who was one of the last statewide (non-federal) elected Democrats in Georgia (served as Labor Commissioner from 1999–2011); it's the same guy! He's 72, idk about his ability to aggressively campaign statewide.
Yep, 2006 was the last statewide election where Democrats won (Thurmond, Thurbert Baker for AG, and Tommy Irvin for agriculture commissioner).
I don't think immediately counting out everyone who runs for office in their early 70s is merited. Tbh, I'd say it's probably ageist. If there's evidence we've seen that he's diminished or when we do see such evidence during the campaign, then fine on my end. Would say the same for a low stamina campaign from a younger candidate too. Without that, just saying "he's 72" is a bit off base to me. Especially for a role with a built in successor, though it would mean we'd need to win the separate LG election too. It's not quite the same thing as older House electeds especially.
To be clear, I said "I don't know about his ability to aggressively campaign" not "I am categorically ruling out supporting him because of his age", so make sure you're reacting to what was actually said and not something you invented in your head.
I felt the same way about your decision to question that solely based on his age.
And you're doing the same thing. He also last ran a statewide campaign 20 years ago, for a below-the-line office, not sure how that qualifies as "solely based on his age". You're not reacting to what I said, you're reacting to what you want me to have said.
Slight correction: he did run statewide in 2010, just not for reelection; he ran for Senate against Johnny Isakson, losing 58-39. Considering it was 2010 no reason to hold that against him.
If two of us reacted the same way, you might consider whether there was something in your phrasing that caused that, but no, we're just wrong...
I do think the world is wide enough for two people to be wrong at the same time, yes.
The sentence you wrote does not in any way indicate at "Oh, Thurmond hasn't mounted a statewide campaign in 15-20yrs. Does he know the dynamics of the voters of his state and campaign tactics that have drastically changed since his last race?" You said "He's 72." If you wanted to say something else and clarify that, fine. But you're trying to pretend you wrote something different and we're reacting to what you meant to say (I suppose), than what you quite literally, actually did write.
Yep, I know exactly what I was reading and reacting to. You were questioning "his ability to aggressively campaign" based solely on his age.
This is incorrect but believe what you want.
Minnesota Legislature: While DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell will resign, GOP Sen. Bruce Anderson passed away this week, meaning that the DFL will maintain it's one-seat majority in the chamber.
The MN legislature isn't in session until next Feb. 2026. The special elections will be long concluded by then, so hopefully no impact. (and no likely flips)
Also, MN Senator John Hoffman, who took NINE bullets, just got out of the ICU. (How the hell does one survive being shot NINE times? Man...)
He'll hopefully be ready to return to work by Feb.
"The MN legislature isn't in session until next Feb. 2026."
Why not bring the legislature into session long before then? Surely there are challenges to be met, stuff that needs to be done? And why in the world do the legislators need a summer-, autumn- and winter-vacation that lasts all the way until February?? Is there is semi-rational explanation for this?
Many state legislatures are part time. Texas legislature only meets one regular session every two years.
And that's one too many.
And MN has a limit of 120 legislative days of the two year term. It also cannot meet in regular sessions after late May.
https://www.leg.mn.gov/leg/faq/faq?subject=12#:~:text=The%20state%20constitution%20limits%20the,in%20May%20of%20any%20year.
Sounds like a crazy limitation, an obvious thing to reform.
It's called a citizen legislature.
Actually, the year round legislative sessions are mostly a thing of the Northeast and California. Most states’ legislatures are part time.
Other than pass a budget, there's not typically enough stuff for a legislature to do in the states to require being in session year-long, and if something does arise, that's what special sessions are for.
Honestly imo the main reason to make legislatures year-round is less a policy argument as it would be a personnel argument; part-time legislatures are dominated by independently wealthy folks and/or retirees, which are less likely to be representative of the populace. With full-time legislatures (that pay like full time as well), more types of people could be involved.
As a Texan, they should never meet
Almost all the legislators in Minnesota have jobs, from MDs & lawyers to farmers & teachers.
The teachers all teach during the fall term, and take a leave for the session.
It is expected that Gov Walz will call a special session after all the elections to deal with budget items after the Department of Management looks at the Big Ugly Bill.
That’s fine, and maybe I’m naïve, but isn’t it possible for the lawmakers to get together for well-planned weekend legislative sessions, if and when circumstances demand it?
A large full time state legislature may not be desirable either. PA has a quite large lower house with 200+ members, each paid a 6 figure salary.
Agreed, that’s an absurd size.
Another Dem is running for KS Gov, State Sen. Ethan Carson. Like State Sen. Cindy Holscher who is also running, he’s from Johnson County. Neither State Senate district is very competitive anymore, although they used to elect republicans. Laura Kelly was elected twice from a close district before she became governor.
Kansas state Senators have the luxury of being able to run for state executive offices freely because all of the state offices are elected in midterms and all state Senators are elected during the presidential year.
NY-17:
I saw something pop up on Facebook indicating New Castle town board member Jeremy Saland is running as a Democrat. I live in New Castle, and at least two people I know locally aren’t thrilled - apparently he’s quite vocal (to a detrimental extent) about a certain geopolitical conflict we aren’t allowed to discuss. Either way, that makes 8 now.
Yeah.
I wish Pete Harckham would jump in. He seems like a good campaigner. I think I know who would end up replacing him in the Senate and I wouldn't want that person in the position, but it's a hit I'd take to remove Lawler. These folks from the southern edge of the district aren't the strongest candidates.
Who is that person?
Maybe I'm being insanely cautious but I'd rather not say. I think it's vaguely possible that they could figure out who I am from what I've posted here.
They could take revenge on you somehow?
Vaguely, remotely possible. Probably an excessive of caution. But even local political figures have a lot of power.
If they run for the Senate seat in a primary, you'll remain silent about your voting preferences?
Harckham has been a wonderful State Senator. I volunteered on his 2018 campaign when I was 17/18 - first campaign I ever volunteered on. Great guy, I wish he’d run too.
MA-6:
Congressman Seth Moulton, a Democrat who grew up in Marblehead and lives in Salem, has a primary challenger for the 6th District next year. Software engineer and Midleton resident Beth Andres-Beck, who identifies as “agender,” announced their run for office Thursday morning.
“I believe America is worth fighting for,” said Andres-Beck. “This is a moment of rapid change, from AI to climate to the rule of law. Shaping our future will require leaders with courage, creativity and the ability to understand the technology they are regulating.”
[...]
“I’m agender, trans, queer and proudly Unitarian-Universalist,” Andres-Beck writes on their website. “I sing tenor in my church choir, mentor young people and serve on multiple town committees. I’ve built a life rooted in mutual aid, public service and showing up for the people around me.”
https://marbleheadcurrent.org/2025/07/17/agender-software-engineer-announces-run-against-moulton/
Beth Anders-Beck (they/them) would be the first agender, first gender nonbinary, first transgender nonbinary, and second transgender Member of Congress if nominated and elected, not to mention the first Member of Congress to prefer pronouns other than the standard masculine or feminine pronouns.
I have little sympathy for Moulton after his trans comments and after he tried to prevent Pelosi from being made speaker in 2018. I welcome challengers to Moulton.
He's never struck me as particularly impressive, and should have drawn a challenger long ago.
Moulton has benefited a lot from beating a corrupt dem in a primary during a republican wave year. Without him we very reasonably could have lost the seat, but none of the powers that be were concerned by that.
That combo has done a lot to help him. If not for the fact that it has been over a decade I think criticism would still be bouncing off him.
CA-9:
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/22/former-stockton-mayor-campaign-to-unseat-josh-harder-00466708
Kevin Lincoln, the former mayor of Stockton, CA, is trying again to unseat Josh Harder.
Question: could he still be a potential threat, even after his last loss?
If he couldn’t win last time don’t see him winning this time.
Esp, without Trump on the ballot bringing out a lot of low intensity casual voters.
Not at chance, especially considering Kevin Lincoln lost the House race to Rep. Josh Harder by nearly 4% percentage points. Already into 2023, year 3 of being in office as Mayor of Stockton, he ran for the House as opposed to simply focusing on his full term as Mayor. This coming with the fact that Trump last year won the presidential race.
I’d imagine Lincoln will lose to Harder even more in 2026 knowing how Stockton residents know what his real agenda was the whole time: Just simply advancing his political career at light speed.
So Lincoln will fall harder this time...
I don’t know how much more Lincoln would lose by but I can’t imagine he’s going to improve the margins.
Complicating problems even more is that Stockton’s new Mayor, Christina Fugazzi, is a Democrat. She just got elected last year and is already being a proactive Mayor, far different from Lincoln. If she endorses Josh Harder and campaigns for him, that will complicate things even more for Lincoln.
Stockton isn’t just another city. It still is recovering from the subprime mortgage disaster and needs a Mayor and leadership in the City Council to continue to improve the city’s economy. It’s clear Lincoln was not committed to the job.
I was just making a little joke, but you gave an excellent, substantive reply.
Oh I just realized what your joke was about!
Yeah Lincoln definitely will fall harder facing Josh Harder again.
Your joke was kind. You could have said "die harder."
It's shaping up as a better year for Dems in California in 2026 than it was last year. I expect Harder to win by a larger margin than before. I'd worry more for Valadao and Kim, if I worried for Republicans, which I don't.
Eleanor Holmes Norton "certainly" running again: https://politicalwire.com/2025/07/22/eleanor-holmes-norton-insists-shes-running-again/
I hope someone will primary her. It's not that she's 88: she's impaired. DC needs voting representation, but at least they could do with a non-voting rep who is fully compos mentis.
Yeah she has had a great career it's another sad case of not knowing when to pass the torch.
For the millionth time, term limits and age limits.
No to age limits. it's a blunt instrument that arbitrarily prevents adult citizens from receiving the benefits of citizenship. Chronological age is not equivalent to functional age. If a person is incompetent at any age for any reason, they should be voted out. The test should be incompetence itself, not age, wealth, educational attainment, or some other freighted attribute.
This might be the biggest dummymander potential if Newsom and the CA Dems actually go through with a gerrymander and get voter approval for it.
This was back before we could win supermajorities in the CA legislature, but the 2012 map was actually better for us than what would have normally been an incumbent protection map.
Why?
In the old days, Dems protected Republicans, but Republicans didn't protect Dems. Dems are not as good at cut-throat politics as Republicans are. The removal of the gerrymander made the state more progressive than the Democratic gerrymanders ever did. It's in our interests to make our democracy as democratic as possible. It's also right, of course.
Making the country fascist to make it more democratic is an oxymoron.
Ehh, they'll protect all the incumbents so that won't leave much room besides getting 3-4 republicans.
Hey, I had a bit of inspiration. If CA goes forward with an amendment this year to allow re-redistricting, they should include voter ID as a provision to sweeten the pot. Of course, it will be lenient on what kind of IDs are suitable.
Why? Republicans will be fully opposed so there's no reason to sweeten the deal.
For the voters who will vote on the referendum of course. The lege can pass a referendum to be voted on this year without GOP legislators.
I strongly disagree.
Historically, adding things believed to be "sweeteners" to ballot initiatives has made them tougher to pass. It makes the initiative more complicated to understand and voters often just vote No when they don't understand an initiative.
Also, certain interest groups end up unexpectedly opposing it because what's a "sweetener" to conservatives is anathema to another group. I have no doubt the ACLU would oppose any ballot initiatives that involve any voter ID laws.
Also, from a political strategy perspective, why muddle the messaging? The refrain needs to be that this ballot initiative is about two things: fairness and opposing Trump. Republicans are pushing unfair maps that will harm our democracy, and we need to stand up to Trump and fight back. That's it. That's the message. Trying to add Voter ID into the mix (which is inherently unfair, in my opinion) makes that messaging unnecessarily complicated.
The Majority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates has introduced a resolution to redraw the districts "upon any other US state adopting a new congressional district map outside the regular decennial census period"
https://x.com/DavidMoon2014/status/1947747810973258212
That’s the first mention I’ve seen of Missouri redrawing its congressional map too. You could probably eliminate both the Kansas City and St Louis seats by cracking them.
Yeah, haven’t seen Missouri mentioned before either. They’d probably just do KC. Even Tennessee didn’t crack both Nashville and Memphis.
Obviously, the most they could get is one seat.
Supreme Court never ruled; a lower court struck it down and MD Dems pivoted
https://x.com/kkondik/status/1947795032280281193?s=19
That's limited thinking. Let them take one from West Virginia or Pennsylvania!
The MD map that was struck down by a judge (which wasn't appealed as part of a bipartisan deal that avoided a redraw of the state legislative map) drew MD-01 as a swing district. Andy Harris might well have held on in it in 2022-24 but would be in trouble for 2026.
Any redraw should also make MD-06 more Democratic. In the current map it's a little too close for my liking, though it's held up well so far.
Yeah need more of Montgomery county and less of rural Frederick county in MD-06.
are we heading towards a stasis where maps are completely redrawn every two years in every state? This kind of feels untenable. I get Trump is an accelerationist on every anti-democratic impulse in American politics but surely elected officials will get tired of this.
Officials will never let being tired of something stop them. Especially republicans when it comes to holding onto power. Democrats have been deeply reluctant to do it but as we're seeing, pushed far enough they will actually respond.
Ideally this would push congress to be willing to institute a ban on gerrymandering. Still risks even with that (legislation can be repealed) but it'd help a lot. I'm not holding my breath.
What more could we do in WA in any case? We already have everything but the two eastern WA seats, and one of the seats we do hold (MGP's, of course) we only have very tenuously, due to one of many GOP "candidate quality" fumbles.
I guess a district combining Spokane, Yakima, and the Tri-Cities could be drawn, but would still include a lot of rural territory making it a tossup at best.
ME has their gerrymandering rules built into the state constitution. It needs a 2/3 majority to pass. There's no practical pathway to improving things there.
You can gerrymander Colorado to have all pretty safe Dem seats it's not that hard. That would be +4 seats for Dems.
RIP to Ozzy Osbourne.
Ozzy Osbourne, an icon of metal and hard rock music, dies at 76. Osbourne had numerous successful albums and singles, both solo and with Black Sabbath.
Osbourne, along with his wife Sharon and their children Kelly and Jack, starred in The Osbournes in the early-to-mid 2000s on MTV.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/22/ozzy-osbourne-black-sabbath-frontman-and-icon-of-british-heavy-metal-dies-aged-76
y'all may be interested to hear this...somehow I've gotten myself on the Verasight poll "pool," and last week I answered a survey on politics apparently commissioned by G. Elliott Morris. I'm proud to say that I'm one of the 36 percent of folk who are not at all likely to support Elon Musk's (White) America Party. Link to the full poll here: https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/new-poll-dems-lead-house-generic
I've gotten several texts asking me to participate in online opinion polls, but somehow, I can't get my arms around the idea. (Of course, I also always get fundraising texts, which I always reply "stop" to.)
you mean that poll found 64% will or might support it?
36% said "not at all likely", with 18% saying "not too likely", for a total of 54% unfavourable. Only 25% were favourable to the idea of an Elon-formed third party, with 7% very likely to support it and 18% somewhat likely. That leaves about 21% who don't know.
An independent or third party concept (which could of course mean anything not labelled Republican or Democratic) polled much better than a specifically Musk centered one.
thanks
I don’t understand. What makes Musk’s America Party white?
Musk himself has for sure been aloof and insensitive to race issues as his management as CEO of Tesla has shown. I don’t know though what his real intentions of America Party are other than to go after Trump.
You haven't noticed how racist he is? How could that escape you? He's even pro-Nazi!
I am well aware of Musk’s racism. I am not familiar with the America Party he is founding. There are little overall details about it since Musk started it other than he wants to go after Trump. Don’t forget that prior to Trump running again in 2024 Musk was selectively supporting Democrats (even while this was about Tesla’s profitability).
FYI, I know about Elon Musk’s racism going back years with Tesla (it’s been well documented by employees). I didn’t need to know about his history growing up in South Africa.
Truth is, Musk is worse than his father Errol Musk. Both are extreme wealthy but Errol Musk had an anti-apartheid agenda when he was serving in South Africa government. I think I read an article that Musk Sr blamed Elon for a fight he started which originally was reported as Elon falling down the stairs as a teenager. Turns out, per Musk Sr, Elon started the fight and showed no empathy. Never apologized. Musk Sr was the one who showed empathy towards the teenager affected by Musk’s actions.
Musk isn’t just racist. He’s an asshole.
Most racists are assholes, right? But since he's a very open racist starting a party, how could it not be racist?
Openly racist? I would say Musk is more just without empathy and interest in even listening to non-white people unless they happen to benefit him socially and help elevate his status (only if they are wealthy).
I haven’t seen him openly say slurs but on the other hand, traditionally speaking many (not all) of Tesla drivers are Asian. That said, him promoting far fight, fascist kind of politicians in European countries still means racism. If he’s not calling these politicians out, he’s emboldening their agenda. On the other hand, Musk supported Obama back in 2008 and once said the Democratic Party was the “kindness party.” He’s really a strange bird.
As for racists, I don’t think it’s always so back and white with their agenda. Not all racists have this white supremacist agenda like the KKK but hate is still hate.
it's an obscure meme that needs to be made less obscure IMO. Musk tweeted something like "We've tried Blue America and Red America, now it's time for..." so of course a lot of smart aleck internet folk filled it in.
Musk's racism, eugenicism, etc is pretty well documented and although I don't know details about the (White) America Party, I know enough to know that I'm not interested. The most generous spin is that he'll try to recreate Australian Teals: conservatives who care about climate/clean energy.
Thanks for the insight.
I remember years ago reading about black employees at Tesla complaining on multiple occasions about racism within the company. This wasn’t Musk himself being cited but who he was associating with. Still racism no matter how it’s spinned.
Honestly, it really doesn’t make a difference to me. Musk remains to be spoiled, privileged asshole who has no real socially conscious views and rebels against just about anything that pushes him back. That’s the root of his racism as opposed to father Musk Sr (who by the way isn’t even a saint but by contrast a better person than Elon).
Anyway, I was just specifically referring to the America Party but am well aware of everything else about Musk.
Former N.C. governor Roy Cooper has ramped up fundraising efforts, fueling speculation of a U.S. Senate run.
https://www.wral.com/story/cooper-ramps-up-fundraising-fueling-speculation-over-possible-us-senate-bid/22093930/
I think he’ll announce it this weekend at the Dems Unity dinner in Raleigh (which is sold out).
Now we’re talking!