US Senate

Political Note #225   Gary Peters MI US Senate

2020               General Election Gary Peters https://petersformichigan.com/ is running for a second term. I had thought I might start by explaining he was unusual among the men in the US Senate. His family had no pretensions to leadership. He did not demonstrate the aspirations that lead a high schooler to attend Harvard or Yale or Stanford or Chicago. He’s not as unusual as I thought. Of the Democratic men in the US Senate, half did not go to schools like Harvard or Yale or Stanford or Chicago. Or have other marks of being or striving to be members of the elite.…

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Political Note #222   Jeanne Shaheen   NH US Senator

2020               General Election Steady as she goes. Jeanne Shaheen https://jeanneshaheen.org/ is running for her third term as Senator from New Hampshire. New Hampshire is a conservative state. A Republican state. Pundits think it leans Republican, by a point or two. Jeanne Shaheen is one of two Democrats to win two terms as a Senator from New Hampshire. With Doug Jones of Alabama, Jeanne Shaheen is the other Democratic Senator up for election in 2020 from a state that leans Republican. New Hampshire doesn’t lean Republican quite as far Alabama does. Jeanne Shaheen’s dad managed a shoe factory. There’s a good…

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Political Note #217 Jaime Harrison SC US Senate

2020               General Election At the end of the rainbow A pot of gold. Jaime Harrison https://jaimeharrison.com is a prize. An improbable prize. Too good to be true. Too good to ignore. Worth searching for a path to victory. Worth searching for the resources to fund that path. Child of a single teenage mother. Raised by grandparents. In Orangeburg, South Caronlina. Not far from the state capitol. 13,000 people. 75% African American. Two Historically Black Colleges – South Carolina State and Claflin University give it an academic tone. Jaime Harrison went to the local high school. The first in his…

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Political Note #189 Doug Jones AL US Senate

You might think the Civil Rights Movement was over by 1992. Not in Alabama. Five months after taking office as US Attorney, Doug Jon. s received national attention when a bomb exploded at a Birmingham women’s health clinic, killing a police officer and maiming a nurse. As US Attorney, he coordinated the task force (the FBI, local police, and other law enforcement) that led to Eric Rudolf’s capture and guilty plea to several bombings. The Birmingham bombing, the Atlanta Olympic bombing, and others. Specially authorized to act in state court, US Attorney Doug Jones was the successful prosecutor of the remaining perpetrator who could be brought to trial for the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Four young black girls had been killed. Jones brought the Ku Klux Klansman back to Alabama from Texas, tried him, and convicted him for killing those four girls.

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070818 Political Note #140 Jenny Wilson UT Senator

Jenny Wilson was press secretary for Democrat Les Aucoin from Oregon. She was chief of staff for Democrat Bill Orton from Utah. She is a Councilwoman in Salt Lake County. She has been elected twice to an at-large seat on the County Council. One third of the people in Utah live in Salt Lake County where she received a majority of the vote twice.

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Political Note #120 Mike Espy MS US Senate

Mike Espy was the first African-American Congressman from Mississippi since reconstruction. He was Secretary of Agriculture in the Clinton administration. He is practicing law now. In Mississippi. He resembles many of the Democrats running for Congress in Republican districts. He is a moderate Democrat. As a Member of Congress, he got NRA support. As a Member of Congress, he was not controversial. He was on the Agriculture Committee. He was a member of Bill Clinton's moderate Democratic Leadership Council. Mike Espy was successful in attracting a substantial portion of the white vote in his district.

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Political Note #115 Tina Smith MN US Senate

Tina Smith has been involved in Minnesota politics for a long time. She came to Minnesota from Arizona to take a marketing job at General Mills. She later worked on her own as a marketing consultant. She also worked for the Planned Parenthood office serving Minnesota and the Dakotas. She worked as chief of staff for mayors and governors, ran political campaigns for governors. Now she is running for the US Senate, seeking to get elected on her own.

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Political Note #100 Bob Menendez NJ US Senate

Bob Menendez is back. He originally entered politics fighting corruption in Union, New Jersey. He has returned to his position as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. is vulnerable. Federal prosecutors have just dropped plans for a second corruption trial after the first one ended with a hung jury. Dropping the second corruption trial does not guarantee that Bob Menendezwill have an easy time being reelected. Some people claim there is fire where there is smoke.

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Political Note #91 Phil Bredesen TN US Senate

Phil Bredesen was a popular two term governor of Tennessee. Before that, he was a successful mayor of Nashville. Before that, he became a millionaire selling the insurance company he created. Before the insurance company, he had a career that included some mysterious classified work and work in London for an international pharmaceutical company. He brings a lot to the Senate race.

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