The Senate Majority PAC "is launching a $5 million statewide television ad blitz starting Saturday through Election Day” to support Adam Hamilton in the Kansas senate race. And, per AdImpact, the Republican Senate Leadership Fund has booked over $10 million in ads through Election Day to support Roger Marshall. https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/10/09/congress/dems-push-into-kansas-01114520
Good to see us continuing to lead. In a blue year, I have trouble believing we will lose in MN, light blue as it is. Still, (1) the Senate and AG races are technically still within the M/E; and (2) It’s a bit late to survey RV’s.
They're a gigantic online panel pollster. Tens of thousands of email addresses they can hit up in all 50 states whenever. There's an ease and consistency to that, but I think the quality and credibility is substantially lower than traditional pollsters that have to get out there and find people every time they want to do a poll.
It just occurred to me that I haven't heard from Morning Consult in ages. Good to see they're still around. They're a pretty consistent and solid pollster.
Theo Von can be that way but his process allows guests to be more open and honest.
The significance of this though is that he along with Joe Rogan endorsed Trump back in 2024 so Mamdani interviewing on Von's podcast gives him wider exposure than just NYC. Both however have been critical of Trump and his administration since then.
Yeah, he sounds much more nearly leftist than rightist as the host(?) of that interview. Dunno about allowing guests to be more honest: what I heard was a lot of tangents.
A key part of the interview was when Mamdani talked about the NYC budget and how much a mess it was in it being managed. He pointed out this is where NYC city government needs to be more responsive to the needs of residents.
Personally, I think they're comedians cosplaying as journalists, having guests on whom they're far, far out of their depth for. Theo Von, but Rogan especially in my view, have done material damage to the state of discourse and politics in this country. I've seen them platform, and get completely rolled by incredibly dangerous individuals like Peter Thiel, who they essentially allow to dissert for two hours with little to no fact checking and pushback. Incredibly dangerous and damaging. With that said, they have audiences in the millions, and savvy operators will know to make an appearance to reach just the kind of dudebros that comprise their audience. In that sense, Mamdani is, as usual on point. But make no mistake, these are the guys that are at the near top of the list of culpability in the infotainment ecosystem, when it comes to blame for getting Trump reelected, and for letting essentially an alternate reality be peddled through mass media without any rigor or fact checking.
The Elephant Graveyard videos on YouTube are by far my favorite social and political critique of these clowns.
Terry Gross is great! I used to watch her radio show on NPR regularly during the days of the Bush Administration and the Iraq War. 88.5 FM was my go to station for everything back in the 2000’s news wise.
It would be great if Zohran Mamdani were interviewed by Gross. She did interview Mamdani’s mother, director Mira Nair, earlier this year.
"A very, very detailed estimate on how every demographic is voting for 2026, for @TheArgumentMag — for both registered voters and the likely electorate.
Showing double digit snapbacks towards Democrats by under 30s and Hispanic voters, as well as similar movement by other groups which leaned much more heavily towards trump in 24. These are the voters candidates like Talarico and El-Sayed will need.
Elizabeth, LA: Chris Paul, who was recently charged with the 2005 and 2006 rapes of two 13-year-old girls, is uncontested for the sheriff's position of this small town in Allen Parish.
The outgoing sheriff arrested Paul after he turned himself in in September. His former opponent, who dropped out, wanted to keep a security job rather than continue a run.
Under Louisiana law, Paul is set to become sheriff, because he's not a convicted felon.
Deplorable and sad. This is why candidate recruitment everywhere is essential, and not only in swing districts. Scandals like this could break out at any time, and abominable individuals such as this one could end up getting re-elected if action isn't taken.
I'm not sure though Elizabeth as a town would have enough choices for candidate recruitment unless the Democratic Party would get lucky.
Elizabeth had 532 residents per the 2010 Census, followed by 417 in the 2020 Census. If population was substantially higher, there would have been greater pools of potential choices of candidates to run. The town just keeps on shrinking in population.
I don’t believe it necessarily needs to be a Dem. I wish more people would run for office in general. I blame the campaign finance situation for why so few people want to run — money can steamroll anyone who tries. AOC got lucky, and the Bloc had substantial financial support from PACs affiliated with a geopolitical cause we cannot discuss here. Look at all the candidates who didn’t win this year — I can imagine it discourages a lot of future candidates. This is why we need publicly funded elections, among other reforms.
Maybe it's the Canadian in me, but I feel like any sort of law enforcement/judicial office like sheriff, judge, police commissioner, or prosecutor should not be elected but rather appointed, or at the very least be a non-partisan election.
Dangers in every approach, I suppose. It just feels like the partisan election route intensifies the politicization of the offices, and increases the possibility of corruption through campaign finances or lobbying.
Even if we’re not talking about Democrats here, the question with these small towns like Elizabeth has more to do with the choices residents have. I’m not sure there’s an easy answer here. Certainly there can be others who rise to the occasion but with this town bleeding residents when it can’t afford to do so, it becomes harder.
Elizabeth as a town though I can just sense is deep, deep red. A small population of less than 400 residents nowadays with roughly 89% white residents in LA means it may be too institutionalized to even change.
But towns also have no real hierarchy government wise.
Bit of a silly question, but while looking at a list of former members of congress, I saw that no member had a last name that began with X. Not a massive shock considering how few last names do, but have there been are they any prominent candidates for congress with such a last name? Are there even any notable politicians with a last name that begins with X?
What was then CA-21 could have made alphabetic history in 2012 by electing Blong Xiong (D), who then served on the Fresno city council, but he lost the all-party primary to John Hernandez, who then lost the general to David Valadao.
There is a former U.S. Representative whose first name begins with the letter X. He is future CA-Gov Xavier Becerra. X-man might not be the most exciting candidate; recently L.A. Times columnist Gustavo Arellano called him the "Chicano Ned Flanders". Becerra is still the better candidate for gobernador. I know people whose cats and dogs have been U.S. citizens longer than CAGOP nominee Steve Hilton, a former UK Tory political consultant...
The guys of BNL were so young in that video, and so was I when I saw them tour for that album. Saw BNL again this summer with my 19 yr old and her friend. They were fantastic and the "kids" are ready to see them again. The Chappel Roan covers didn't hurt. And they have new stuff.
But if you prefer a younger, less poppy, not yet known band that still includes a stand up bass, try Channel Bluff.
WV-SD-1: Del. Nick Fluharty, the Democratic nominee against state Sen. Laura Chapman, has received the endorsement of the state Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber of Commerce only endorsed 2 Democratic legislative candidates in the entire state in 2024. Trump won the 1st, based in Wheeling and the Northern Panhandle, by over 20 points.
IMHO, this is a key example of a low profile legislative race to follow for a major shift.
Going to the community centre up the street this afternoon to vote early in the Toronto municipal election. Voting for current incumbent and former NDP MP Olivia Chow, who is in a close race with the candidate for the centre-right, Brad Bradford. A third major candidate, former Conservative MP and cabinet minister Chris Alexander, dropped out a few days ago but his name will still be on the ballot.
Completely missed this from back in June, but apparently Reilly Neill, who lost the Democratic primary for Senate to Bankhead, seems to support Alme over Bankhead and Bodnar. Yesterday, Bankhead put out a Washington Post op-ed about how she refuses to bow to reality. Republican plants working overtime, I guess.
Kansas Sen. It’s really in play. Really!
The Senate Majority PAC "is launching a $5 million statewide television ad blitz starting Saturday through Election Day” to support Adam Hamilton in the Kansas senate race. And, per AdImpact, the Republican Senate Leadership Fund has booked over $10 million in ads through Election Day to support Roger Marshall. https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/10/09/congress/dems-push-into-kansas-01114520
I'm gonna be skeptical on some of these for 20 some more days. Let's see if it translates into results.
MN Poll:
Gov: Klobuchar 48%; Demuth 39%.
Sen: Flanagan 45%; Tafoya 41%.
AG: Ellison 43%; Schutz 39%.
(Daily Agenda Poll conducted by Morning Consult; 1,000 RV’s, taken 10/2-10/7; M/E ±3.1%) https://www.thedailyagenda.com/p/morning-take-the-daily-agenda-poll
Good to see us continuing to lead. In a blue year, I have trouble believing we will lose in MN, light blue as it is. Still, (1) the Senate and AG races are technically still within the M/E; and (2) It’s a bit late to survey RV’s.
On one hand, the undecides skew rural, but on the other, they skew young and female. I imagine Flanagan wins by about 10 points.
Isn’t Morning Consult a pretty mediocre pollster anyway?
They're a gigantic online panel pollster. Tens of thousands of email addresses they can hit up in all 50 states whenever. There's an ease and consistency to that, but I think the quality and credibility is substantially lower than traditional pollsters that have to get out there and find people every time they want to do a poll.
It just occurred to me that I haven't heard from Morning Consult in ages. Good to see they're still around. They're a pretty consistent and solid pollster.
"Isn't Morning Consult a pretty mediocre pollster anyway?" - the comment directly above this one
The duality of man.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani just had an interview with Theo Von.
This is probably the most real I’ve seen Mamdani in an interview. He’s blunt and not hiding things about NYC’s challenges.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ5V3pk6PEA&pp=ygUXWm9ocmFuIG1hbWRhbmkgdGhlbyB2b24%3D&ra=m
He’s just the best. Well-spoken, caring, charming, funny. A true man of the people. Mamdani is cool too
Not a great interviewer, very rambling, but I like and appreciate Mayor Mamdani.
Theo Von can be that way but his process allows guests to be more open and honest.
The significance of this though is that he along with Joe Rogan endorsed Trump back in 2024 so Mamdani interviewing on Von's podcast gives him wider exposure than just NYC. Both however have been critical of Trump and his administration since then.
Yeah, he sounds much more nearly leftist than rightist as the host(?) of that interview. Dunno about allowing guests to be more honest: what I heard was a lot of tangents.
A key part of the interview was when Mamdani talked about the NYC budget and how much a mess it was in it being managed. He pointed out this is where NYC city government needs to be more responsive to the needs of residents.
Von’s political are incoherent and slopulist imo rather than left or right. I do prefer him to Rogan as an interviewer though
True although I’ve observed Von to be anti-corporate on certain occasions.
Personally, I think they're comedians cosplaying as journalists, having guests on whom they're far, far out of their depth for. Theo Von, but Rogan especially in my view, have done material damage to the state of discourse and politics in this country. I've seen them platform, and get completely rolled by incredibly dangerous individuals like Peter Thiel, who they essentially allow to dissert for two hours with little to no fact checking and pushback. Incredibly dangerous and damaging. With that said, they have audiences in the millions, and savvy operators will know to make an appearance to reach just the kind of dudebros that comprise their audience. In that sense, Mamdani is, as usual on point. But make no mistake, these are the guys that are at the near top of the list of culpability in the infotainment ecosystem, when it comes to blame for getting Trump reelected, and for letting essentially an alternate reality be peddled through mass media without any rigor or fact checking.
The Elephant Graveyard videos on YouTube are by far my favorite social and political critique of these clowns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewvRS3NwIlQ&t=1792s
I think Teri Gross sets the interviewer standard. And doesn't need Youtube. Fwiw
Agreed, great interviewer.
Terry Gross is great! I used to watch her radio show on NPR regularly during the days of the Bush Administration and the Iraq War. 88.5 FM was my go to station for everything back in the 2000’s news wise.
It would be great if Zohran Mamdani were interviewed by Gross. She did interview Mamdani’s mother, director Mira Nair, earlier this year.
A very interesting post by Lakshya Jain regarding potential voter realignment:
https://x.com/lxeagle17/status/2108569059327639886
"A very, very detailed estimate on how every demographic is voting for 2026, for @TheArgumentMag — for both registered voters and the likely electorate.
Hispanics: D+8 -> D+26
Young voters: D+10 -> D+33 (!)
RVs: D+6.6
LVs: D+9.1
https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-maga-realignment-realigns"
Showing double digit snapbacks towards Democrats by under 30s and Hispanic voters, as well as similar movement by other groups which leaned much more heavily towards trump in 24. These are the voters candidates like Talarico and El-Sayed will need.
https://www.newsweek.com/child-rape-suspect-set-to-become-chief-of-police-in-louisiana-12511922
Elizabeth, LA: Chris Paul, who was recently charged with the 2005 and 2006 rapes of two 13-year-old girls, is uncontested for the sheriff's position of this small town in Allen Parish.
The outgoing sheriff arrested Paul after he turned himself in in September. His former opponent, who dropped out, wanted to keep a security job rather than continue a run.
Under Louisiana law, Paul is set to become sheriff, because he's not a convicted felon.
Deplorable and sad. This is why candidate recruitment everywhere is essential, and not only in swing districts. Scandals like this could break out at any time, and abominable individuals such as this one could end up getting re-elected if action isn't taken.
I'm not sure though Elizabeth as a town would have enough choices for candidate recruitment unless the Democratic Party would get lucky.
Elizabeth had 532 residents per the 2010 Census, followed by 417 in the 2020 Census. If population was substantially higher, there would have been greater pools of potential choices of candidates to run. The town just keeps on shrinking in population.
I don’t believe it necessarily needs to be a Dem. I wish more people would run for office in general. I blame the campaign finance situation for why so few people want to run — money can steamroll anyone who tries. AOC got lucky, and the Bloc had substantial financial support from PACs affiliated with a geopolitical cause we cannot discuss here. Look at all the candidates who didn’t win this year — I can imagine it discourages a lot of future candidates. This is why we need publicly funded elections, among other reforms.
Maybe it's the Canadian in me, but I feel like any sort of law enforcement/judicial office like sheriff, judge, police commissioner, or prosecutor should not be elected but rather appointed, or at the very least be a non-partisan election.
I worry the risk with that is that a far right government could appoint someone truly insane to a position.
Dangers in every approach, I suppose. It just feels like the partisan election route intensifies the politicization of the offices, and increases the possibility of corruption through campaign finances or lobbying.
That’s ideal.
I understand your perspective.
Even if we’re not talking about Democrats here, the question with these small towns like Elizabeth has more to do with the choices residents have. I’m not sure there’s an easy answer here. Certainly there can be others who rise to the occasion but with this town bleeding residents when it can’t afford to do so, it becomes harder.
Elizabeth as a town though I can just sense is deep, deep red. A small population of less than 400 residents nowadays with roughly 89% white residents in LA means it may be too institutionalized to even change.
But towns also have no real hierarchy government wise.
Should be noted that Elizabeth is a tiny town that has been losing residents. It's also overwhelmingly white, close to 90%.
Only in towns like this one would this crap happen. Big cities though, never.
Bit of a silly question, but while looking at a list of former members of congress, I saw that no member had a last name that began with X. Not a massive shock considering how few last names do, but have there been are they any prominent candidates for congress with such a last name? Are there even any notable politicians with a last name that begins with X?
Michigan state Rep. Mai Xiong and Minnesota state Rep. Jay Xiong are the only ones I could find.
Oh, and Yee Xiong is the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin state Treasurer. All Midwesterners - interesting.
Looked them up and all are Hmong, and most Hmong Americans are in the Midwest, so that checks out.
If Mai Vang wins in November she’ll be the first Hmong-American member of Congress
Xiong is also a Chinese surname (meaning bear)
What was then CA-21 could have made alphabetic history in 2012 by electing Blong Xiong (D), who then served on the Fresno city council, but he lost the all-party primary to John Hernandez, who then lost the general to David Valadao.
There is a former U.S. Representative whose first name begins with the letter X. He is future CA-Gov Xavier Becerra. X-man might not be the most exciting candidate; recently L.A. Times columnist Gustavo Arellano called him the "Chicano Ned Flanders". Becerra is still the better candidate for gobernador. I know people whose cats and dogs have been U.S. citizens longer than CAGOP nominee Steve Hilton, a former UK Tory political consultant...
The "Chicano Ned Flanders", hahahah
Funny about Hilton. The Republicans hate immigrants - except when they're white right-wingers.
The guys of BNL were so young in that video, and so was I when I saw them tour for that album. Saw BNL again this summer with my 19 yr old and her friend. They were fantastic and the "kids" are ready to see them again. The Chappel Roan covers didn't hurt. And they have new stuff.
But if you prefer a younger, less poppy, not yet known band that still includes a stand up bass, try Channel Bluff.
https://www.weirtondailytimes.com/news/local-news/2026/10/fluharty-gets-endorsement-from-w-va-chamber-pac/
WV-SD-1: Del. Nick Fluharty, the Democratic nominee against state Sen. Laura Chapman, has received the endorsement of the state Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber of Commerce only endorsed 2 Democratic legislative candidates in the entire state in 2024. Trump won the 1st, based in Wheeling and the Northern Panhandle, by over 20 points.
IMHO, this is a key example of a low profile legislative race to follow for a major shift.
Going to the community centre up the street this afternoon to vote early in the Toronto municipal election. Voting for current incumbent and former NDP MP Olivia Chow, who is in a close race with the candidate for the centre-right, Brad Bradford. A third major candidate, former Conservative MP and cabinet minister Chris Alexander, dropped out a few days ago but his name will still be on the ballot.
Incredibly disappointed Geddy Lee endorsed Bradford. I'm seeing Rush in November and hate how conservative he is. I wish Neil was still alive.
I have to put on blinders for both politics and personal conduct, if I am to even attempt to enjoy classic rock of the 70s and 80s.
Fair, with some exceptions of course.
Was Alexander running to Bradford’s right?
I will be honest, I was not paying enough attention to him to notice. I feel like both of them were trying to assume the mantle of John Tory stand-in.
Fair enough. Hard to run as anything but in a Toronto context
https://www.montanarightnow.com/elections/former-democratic-senate-candidate-reilly-neill-makes-post-of-support-for-kurt-alme/article_7f7ee281-f016-4c99-ba2b-b27f7f5eb311.html
Completely missed this from back in June, but apparently Reilly Neill, who lost the Democratic primary for Senate to Bankhead, seems to support Alme over Bankhead and Bodnar. Yesterday, Bankhead put out a Washington Post op-ed about how she refuses to bow to reality. Republican plants working overtime, I guess.