ALABAMA: Jeff Sessions is up for reelection and should easily win as the Democrats will likely field just token opposition. PREDICTION: Safe Republican MISSISSIPPI: In neighboring Mississippi, Republican incumbent Thad Cochran is also up for reelection. As of this writing, he has not indicated whether he will run again. Given his age, he will most likely seek retirement. At least, that is what the Mississippi | Read More »
RHODE ISLAND: There are several interesting Senate races in the east this year, but Rhode Island is not one of them. Democratic incumbent Jack Reed should win easily. In reality, Sheldon Whitehouse was the weaker of the state’s two Senators entering their reelection efforts and he handily won in 2012. If Whitehouse could win as easily in 2012, then Reed’s chances are even greater in | Read More »
One of the biggest fights in the Senate is reform of its own rules regarding the filibuster. This writer has written entries on Senatorial reform in the past, some of which has decried the use of holds and filibusters by both parties. However, a sober analysis of the entire issue clearly illustrates that the filibuster serves a very important purpose, namely guarding against the “tyranny | Read More »
Suffice to say, for the second consecutive cycle, the Republicans blew gaining control of the Senate and deposing Harry Reid as Majority Leader and, thus, setting the legislative agenda in the upper chamber of Congress. Although the GOP gained a seat out of Nebraska, that was a foregone conclusion. Unfortunately, the Republican Party lost key races in Wisconsin and North Dakota and failed to defend | Read More »
On Election Day, as I was following the returns from around the country on Politico (I was following all the races, not just President), somewhere on the lower part of their list of articles was one entitled, “The Real Winner: More Gridlock.” This was published before any votes had been tallied and was the consensus of political “experts.” This was based on an assumption that | Read More »
In terms of Presidential politics, the only thing California is good for as regards the Republican Party is fundraising. Simply, there is no way Romney is winning this state in 2012. The Senate race will feature well-funded Democratic incumbent Dianne Feinstein against Republican new-comer Elizabeth Emken. Feinstein has raised over $7 million compared to Emken’s $189,000 and she started with a $3 million head start. | Read More »
In one night, while everyone’s eyes were focused on the outcome of the primary in Michigan, the GOP was delivered a potential one-two punch in their efforts to win the Senate. The first blow was the announced retirement of Olympia Snowe from her seat in Maine after her current term. Her announcement that she would not seek reelection came as a surprise and out of | Read More »
Thirteen months out with no primaries, caucuses, or conventions or even set candidates and it would appear that, assuming the Republicans don’t shoot themselves in their feet in certain states, the Senate will fall to Republican control. Of course, it will not be filibuster-proof unless this is a repudiation of Democrats and Obama so deep that it essentially destroys the party for years. It will | Read More »
Goodwin Liu is Obama’s nominee to fill a created seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A cloture vote is scheduled for today. There are actually two issues here- whether judicial nominees should be filibustered, and the second issue is Liu himself. Lets take the filibuster question first. Thinking back to the Bush Administration, the filibuster was a common tactic used against | Read More »
The 2012 Senate races will present a unique opportunity for Republicans to take the upper chamber and, assuming Obama was to win the Presidency- not a given if one looks at his numbers, make life for Obama even more difficult. This is a very real possibility especially if the trends we saw in the 2010 midterms follow through into 2012. Again, although a lot | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}