Political Note #226 Cynthia Axne IA CD 03
Lucky Thirteen Cynthia Axne's https://cindyaxneforcongress.com win in 2018 was the thirteenth closest Democratic Congressional victory of the year. She won by 7,709 votes. Not much
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.…
Political Note #224 Abigail Spanberger VA CD 07
Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Look at the Daily Bits. Who is vanden Heuvel? What is persistence? 2020 General Election Almost a year ago, I wrote a note urging people to support Abigail Spanberger https://abigailspanberger.com/ for election. A few months before the 2018 election. Democrats targeted a lot of seats. Could they take back the House? Democrats flipped 40 Republican seats in 2018. They now control of the House of Representatives. There are seats to defend. Abigail Spanberger’s is one of them. In 2018, her victory was among the narrowest, 12th narrowest. She won by 6,784 votes. This…
Political Note #223 Gil Cisneros CA CD 29 – Lucky Man
Gil Cisneros https://cisnerosforcongress.com/ ran for Congress because he was lucky. In 2010, he won the lottery -- $266 million. In 2018, he won his election – by 6,711 votes. Eleventh closest winner among the Democrats who flipped Republican seats. Lucky again.
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…
Political Note #221 Mark Kelly AZ US Senate An apolitical politician
Mark Kelly is the Democratic candidate for the US Senate from Arizona in 2020. He has a great background for an apolitical politician.
Political Note #218 Roy Cooper North Carolina Governor
Roy Cooper was elected Governor of North Carolina in 2016. After sixteen years as attorney general. A Morehouse Scholar at the University of North Carolina. His election as Governor reflected his strengths and a changing North Carolina.
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…
Political Note #210 The Congressional Can Can for President
Members of Congress are rarely serious candidates for president. Of the Members of Congress with aspirations, only former Member of Congress Beto O’Rourke registers on the presidential seismographs. Take a look at him and the others – at my best effort at attempting to understand what kind of managers they are and might be.
Political Note #207 Washington Senators
Even the most powerful Senators have fewer employees than a big city mayor or a Cabinet Member. Senators actual work with other people is rarely visible. Senators don’t implement policy, don’t manage a lot of employees. Nevertheless, everything they do involves managing other people.