Dem
51
GOP
49
There has been a fair bit of news out of the Senate in the last 24 hours or so. We'll start with the good (for the Democrats), since that's listed first in the headline. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has seen the writing on the wall, and announced yesterday that he will not enter the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in New Jersey, scheduled for June 4.
Menendez made a point of keeping open the option of running as an independent if he is "exonerated" over the summer. First, he's not going to be exonerated. Second, New Jersey Democrats are clearly not interested in having him represent them anymore. So, if he does mount a bid, he's not going to get many votes; surely not enough to deny the Democratic nominee in blue, blue New Jersey. In fact, this kinda sounds like "bargaining" to us; once he moves on to the depression stage and deals with that, then he'll be at "acceptance" and will stop fooling himself that he might win another term.
And now the bad news. Over in blue, blue Maryland, a new poll from The Washington Post/University of Maryland says the leading candidate in the U.S. Senate race is... former governor Larry Hogan (R). In head-to-head matchups against the two likeliest Democrats, he wins by double digits. Specifically, up against David Trone, Hogan comes out on top, 49%-37%, and up against Angela Alsobrooks, Hogan wins 50% to 36%.
There is, however, one fly in the ointment for Hogan. Despite these numbers, 55% of respondents want the Democrats to control the Senate while only 35% want the Republicans in charge. Needless to say, electing a Republican is not a good way to help give control to the Democrats. So, maybe the vast majority of the undecideds are undecided between Trone and Alsobrooks.
And finally the ugly news. At a time when Senate Democrats are hoping to put their judge-approval process into overdrive, the ever-inscrutable Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has announced that he will not vote to approve any judge who cannot get at least one Republican vote.
Who knows what is going on here. Manchin says it's a matter of principle, and that he's putting his belief in bipartisanship into action in some small way. If so, it is stupid. First, the difference between "one Republican vote" and "zero Republican votes" is largely meaningless; the former scenario is not ACTUALLY bipartisan. Further, he's supposed to be casting his votes based on HIS assessment of the candidate, not what his colleagues think. Also, he somehow did not discover this principle until his last 8 months (or so) in office. Where was it during his first couple of decades?
The alternative explanation here is that Manchin is keeping open the possibility of running for office again, and this is a way to send a message to West Virginia voters. It could be an independent run for his U.S. Senate seat, or maybe he'd like to be governor again. The state only prohibits someone from serving more than two consecutive terms, so Manchin would once again be eligible for the office. Only he knows what the plan is. (Z)