Murphy's Lead Continues to Grow in NY-20     Permalink

As of the close of business on Friday, Democrat Scott Murphy was leading Republican Jim Tedisco by 273 votes in the NY-20 race to replace now-senator Kirsten Gillibrand. However, there are still over 1700 contested ballots yet to be counted. Observers who have looked at the distribution of contested ballots expect expect Murphy to pick up votes from them because (1) Tedisco did most of the challenging (and he was unlikely to challenge a ballot he thought was for him) and (2) the majority of the ballots come from counties Murphy won. Barring a very unexpected development, Murphy is going to win this one. At that point, Tedisco has a choice: go to court and try to get a judge to reverse the results or concede graciously and begin preparing for a rematch in 2010.

Normally, special elections like this one don't get a lot of national publicity, but Republicans focused a lot of attention on this race and were prepared to trumpet it as the party's revival. But if the leader of the Republican Party in the state Assembly, who has been active in politics for 30 years and is well known in the district, can't beat someone who just moved there and who has never before run for public office (in a a district with 70,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats no less) then the revival may have to wait a bit yet.

Burris Raised $845 in the First Quarter     Permalink

Disgraced Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) has not yet announced whether he is running for election in 2010 but numbers speak louder than words. In the first quarter of 2009, Burris raised a mighty $845 (not $845,000, but $845). One of his likely primary opponents, state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D), raised $1.1 million. Illinois is an expensive state to run in. If this keeps up alll year, Burris is going to end the year with $3000 and Giannoulias is going to end up with $4 million. In that case, Giannouias' only problem will be that other well-known Democrats might enter the primary as well. At this point, it is hard to imagine any circumstances in which Burris wins the 2010 nomination, let alone the election.

Palin's Choice for Attorney General Rejected by the Alaska Legislature     Permalink

As a rule, Alaska state politics do not get a lot of national attention, but with everyone expecting Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) to run for President in 2012, small events up there get magnified. Palin's appointee for Attorney General, Wayne Ross, was rejected by the state legislature 35 to 23, the first such rejection in the (short) history of the state. The rejection was especially painful because the Republicans control the legislature so the defeat was not foisted on her by Democrats trying to damage her 2012 run, but by her own party.

Ross, a well-known figure in Alaska politics and a current director of the National Rifle Association, has made some controversial remarks in the past, including calling gays "degenerates" and saying it is all right for a man to rape his wife. If she runs for President in 2012, Palin's primary opponents are going to bring this up over and over, saying that she is a terrible judge of people and would make horrible appointments as President.

Also about Palin, Jeremy Mayer, a professor and author, wrote an interesting piece comparing Palin to Jesse Jackson, a perennial presidential candidate in the 1980s. Mayer says that Palin, like Jackson, is wildly popular with a segment of her own party, but would be completely unelectable in a general election.

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