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Handicapping 2006

By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2006
Posted on Thu Dec 29, 2005 at 01:41:31 PM EST
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Newsweek has posted an interview with Markos of Daily Kos in which he handicaps the 2006 races. Some tidbits:

  • the hottest race will be in Pennsylvania, between Rick Santorum and Bob Casey Jr.
  • Races in Rhode Island, Ohio, Missouri and Montana are next up.

On whether Dems will win in 2006:

I think Democrats will make gains, but it's 2008 we need to think about. I'm hoping that as we build our machine and repair the Democratic brand, people will start voting for Democrats because they want to vote for Democrats and not just because they want to vote against Republicans.

On bloggers and fundraising:

The bloggers are not a good fund-raising mechanism. We're better as a message machine.

I agree with that. I'd much rather help a politician I like get their message out than ask people to contribute to their campaigns.

My favorite part of the interview is Markos' reference to John McCain as the Joe Lieberman of the Republican party. I've never liked either one.

McCain is definitely running, but I don't think he'll get out of the Republican primaries. He's hated by the GOP. They consider him a traitor on any number of issues. He fought the White House on the torture issue. He's like the Joe Lieberman of their party. We [Democrats] hate Lieberman. Lieberman is going to get a primary challenger for his Senate seat next year if me and a lot of grass-roots groups have our way.

This is great publicity for Markos' and Jeromes' new book, Crashing the Gate. Order yours now if you haven't already.

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    Handicapping 2006 | 5 comments (5 topical)
    Re: Handicapping 2006 (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Dec 29, 2005 at 08:26:11 PM EST
    "Marko's" "your's" Jeralyn, you're one of my favorite bloggers, but I swear I'm going to send you to apostrophe school. Just sayin'.

    Re: Handicapping 2006 (none / 0) (#2)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Dec 29, 2005 at 08:49:06 PM EST
    If that's her only fault I'm about to propose.

    Re: Handicapping 2006 (none / 0) (#3)
    by Peter G on Thu Dec 29, 2005 at 09:06:23 PM EST
    Bob Casey, who is a right-to-lifer, has two progressive opponents in the Democratic Party primary to get by first: Chuck Pennacchio and Alan Sandals. Lots of Pennsylvania Dems have a big problem with voting for someone who wants to represents our state in the Senate and yet is to the right of Arlen Specter on an issue as fundamental as the right to choose.

    Re: Handicapping 2006 (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Dec 29, 2005 at 10:23:10 PM EST
    Patrick, the first was a typo, but I'll cop to the second error. Arianna just wrote an entire blog post on how bloggers and the msm misuse apostrophes, I should know better. I'll fix both. Thank you for catching them. Since I am not a writer by trade, I appreciate the heads-up. Che, thanks for the compliment, it's been a long time since I had one of those. But I can assure you, it's hardly my only fault.

    Re: Handicapping 2006 (none / 0) (#5)
    by Lora on Fri Dec 30, 2005 at 08:24:33 PM EST
    "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." --Attributed to Josef Stalin. If the race is fixed, there is no point in handicapping. Better fix the election system first. It's 2006 - Do you know where your vote is?

    Handicapping 2006 | 5 comments (5 topical)