Here’s a state-level election mailer that somehow found its way into my mailbox this week, even though I am not in the contested district:
Yeah, fuck OFF, Augie, with your fancy-pants legal practice and insufferably smug Northeastern attitude! Cockroach Acres don’t need your high-flying, vacation-home-having Yankee superiority!
Florida is a bug-infested paradise for shadowy PACs, and it can be difficult to determine the agenda of the folks behind mailers such as the one above. But a couple of minutes of online sleuthing reveals that this mailer is almost certainly from an organization supporting one of the other Democrats in that race.
In Florida, we had our presidential primary on March 15, but voting day for the other primary contests is in a couple of weeks. That’s why I’m encouraged by polling that shows “Lil’” Marco Rubio within the margin of error against Patrick Murphy, the Democrat who is likely to win the upcoming primary.
Murphy hasn’t even consolidated the Democratic vote yet, and he’s already pulling even with Lil’ Marco, who may get screwed by Trump TWICE. That would be a beautiful thing.
What’s happening in your local races? Open thread!
Trollhattan
I like the cut of Augie’s jib! (Do corporate jets have jibs? Experts disagree.) Betty, I’m reposting this Florida Men at Trump Rally pic from below, for your viewing enjoyment. Loud and proud, as they say.
Jibeaux
Hoping that Trump pulls every Republican in NC down with his huuuge anchor. The R’s are apparently resigned to this but hope to keep Burr. Burr is a useless senator but somehow seems more resilient than others, inexplicably.
Iowa Old Lady
The thing about that mailer that really offends me is that it’s ugly.
Trollhattan
@Iowa Old Lady:
Looks like something you’d get offering.a “free dinner at Cheesecake Factory and retirement investment seminar”
Also, too, if eight homes why just five bullet points? What about the missing three?!?
Jibeaux
@Iowa Old Lady: somehow reminiscent of ’90s Web design.
Feebog
I agree with you about Patrick Murphy. Once the primary is over and most of the party unites behind him, he should gain a few points. I say a few because his opponent, Alan Grayson, usually polls only a few points less than he does. I don’t know much about Florida politics, but I do know that Murphy is a former Republican and pretty moderate. Still, he is going to vote with the Dems on most issues, and we need every seat we can get. Besides, Murphy took out the odious Alan West, so he can’t be all bad.
SiubhanDuinne
@Iowa Old Lady:
Hideous in every possible respect.
J.
Aren’t most people who live in Florida originally from someplace else… like the Northeast or Midwest? Also, the person who did the graphic for the flyer clearly doesn’t know where Connecticut is. (The red lines go to Vermont.)
dmsilev
@Jibeaux: Needs more Blink tag.
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: It is truly hideous. I could whip up something far better using Word, FFS, and I am no designer.
SiubhanDuinne
@J.:
Except for the ones that go to Virginia and New Mexico.
Jibeaux
@dmsilev: hard to pull off in a mailer, but I feel like it’s implied.
Seriously, there are like 5 fonts on that thing.
dedc79
Not a fan of John Podhoretz by any stretch, but his twitter feed has been hilarious of late
Neabinorb
Rokita lost the scramble to succeed Pence in the governor’s race, and he has some challengers for”his” house race. But I fear that he will be back in Congress next year. This district is red.
This is my first post on Balloon Juice! I’ve been enjoying your company for a long time. John, you are such a good man. Mr. Levenson, your books are very fine. I like the politics of this crowd!
The Dangerman
Don’t know much about soccer/football (extremely casual watcher), but looked like Sweden got screwed out of a goal around the 115 minute mark. Thoughts?
In the basketball world, the end was a case of “ball don’t lie” if my view above was correct.
raven
@The Dangerman: An official made a bad call, it happened more than once in that game.
Matt McIrvin
Our county sheriff is retiring, and about a billion people seem to be running to replace him, almost none of whom I know anything about aside from their names on yard signs. In Massachusetts, where there are no unincorporated areas outside of towns, a sheriff’s biggest job is running the prison system.
Mary G
Watching Darrell Issa sweat is fun. He came out in favor of the GOP being more gay-friendly and gave an interview to a publication he assumed was friendly. The reporter started listing all his anti-LGBT votes. The military voters don’t care for him. He has already done more campaign events this cycle than in all the prior one combined. Applegate is up to $1 million in his campaign chest and Issa is down to $3.8 million. They are making an ad of an interview Darrell gave after the RNC touting Trump and dissing Ted Cruz.
scav
And here I was with the vision of FL being chock-a-block with the retired debris of chillier east-coast states. Clearly, they must be self-hating debris of chillier states. Will the same area man persuaded by this missive of elegance go out and screech at Trump rallies? Clearly, I’m out of my depth here.
Trollhattan
@Mary G:
Count me as the dog watching
the catIssa heading towards the drier labeled “Cat fud” chanting “oh please.”Cat48
@Trollhattan:
Those Trump,masks are creepy. Ewwww
Trollhattan
@Cat48:
Agree–viewed in isolation they look like some kind of anti-trump protest, not esteemed supporters. His rallies must be profoundly weird.
Ceci n'est pas mon nym
Of my local races, I’m probably most interested/anxious about the Senate race between Katie McGinty (D) and the odious Pat Toomey. Here’s a recent aggregate of polls which mostly show a slight edge for McGinty
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/senate/pa/pennsylvania_senate_toomey_vs_mcginty-5074.html
so that’s reassuring. On the one hand, it’s closer than I’d prefer to see. On the other hand, it’s only August. On the gripping hand, ahead is ahead.
Ceci n'est pas mon nym
Of my local races, I’m probably most interested/anxious about the Senate race between Katie McGinty (D) and the odious Pat Toomey. Here’s a recent aggregate of polls which mostly show a slight edge for McGinty, so that’s reassuring. On the one hand, it’s closer than I’d prefer to see. On the other hand, it’s only August. On the gripping hand, ahead is ahead.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Betty Cracker: Isn’t it supposed to remind readers of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”? That’s the vibe I’m getting. The horribleness is intentional.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
MattF
The only statewide election in MD is the Senate race– the D candidate is Van Hollen, my (to be ex-) congressperson. I have no idea about the identity of the R candidate. Pretty much every State or County incumbent on my ballot is D, so there won’t be a lot of new choices there. There was a big jump in property tax this year, mostly because of an adverse legal decision about out-of-state taxes. There wasn’t much the County could do about it, but the anti-tax forces are making an issue of it nonetheless.
There’s also going to be a term-limit proposal for the County Council. Tempting- I’m tired of seeing the same names all the time– but I’ll probably vote against.
Trollhattan
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
You just triggered a thought: Trump’s campaign is “Lifestyles of the Reich and Famous.”
PigDog
I don’t get local races this year because I live in a politically backassward state with off-year state elections. So no riding on HRC coat-tails, all will be forgotten and in a year and we’ll be stuck with out horrendously gerrymandered legislature.
Gin & Tonic
You know, us Northeastern attitude people don’t like Florida much, either, so the feeling is mutual.
bobbo
“Northeastern Attitude” is nice and vague so that everyone can project their own particular most hated minority onto it.
Uncle Cosmo
@MattF: Baltimore City resident here. Van Hollen is a shoo-in & the legislature has gerrymandered the crap out of the congressional districts so the 7D/1R split will probably prevail. (I’m in MD-07, Elijah Cummings’ district; talk about safe.) No serious challenges to the Dems for City offices. Our GOP Governor has already bailed on Der Drumpf so not much threat to the bluishness of the Old Line State. With PA and VA looking good for Hillary the closest “battleground states” are OH and NC. I may be doing a lot of calling from home.
Trollhattan
Hope Solo charm offensive now fully deployed.
Chyron HR
@Trollhattan:
FUCK, YOU GUYS, CAN YOU WAIT UNTIL THE NEW STAR WARS IS OUT BEFORE SPOILING IT?
J R in WV
@Matt McIrvin:
In Kentucky the county Jailor (sic) is an elective office, and very competitive, too. They get a set amount of funding to feed each prisoner and can (try to) keep the excess, if they don’t need it all to feed the crew.
Get elected…
PROFIT!
Imagine that diet! Beans and corn mush, 3 x daily; salt is an extra you buy yourself. The signs driving around are hysterical.
Mike E
Pat McCrory has got to go… Roy Cooper has run a good race here at the “start” but I expect the AG to mix it up with the Gov if he really wants to unseat the incumbent
Mudge
Seems that Augie must have made his money winning lawsuits against small businesses with his northeastern attitude. One can assume they are northeastern small businesses with attitude, or perhaps laid back loser Florida businesses.
rikyrah
Even though he has tried to distance himself from Ferret Head, one of my proudest moments will be to vote against that piece of garbage Kirk. Can’t wait for Duckworth to become my Senator.
rikyrah
@Feebog:
Please tell me that the Democrats completely dumped Grayson when that mess came out about him.
burnspbesq
@Trollhattan:
Tactless and sour-grapey, but spot-on.
Shana
@PigDog: Virginia or New Jersey? I’m in VA and my congressperson is Gerry Connolly (D) who’s running unopposed this year. All my efforts going to Hillary, for whom I just volunteered to coordinate meal donations at our local office along with another good woman as well as coordinating “Facilities” which seems to mean cleaning up, making sure there’s enough water for canvassers, etc. Luckily it’s relatively close to my house.
PigDog
@Shana:
Virginia – CD-8 here.
Also, too: today is the 10th Macacaversary. Jim Webb might have gone weird recently, but he saved America from the specter of a George Allen presidency.
germy
So Paul Ryan will be facing a Democratic challenger in November. Does his challenger have a chance, or is Ryan safe where he is?
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
I’m thinking a 7 yr old could whip up something better with a box of crayons and a sheet of ruled notebook paper. In 5-10 minutes.
Shana
@PigDog: I saw that yesterday over at Blue Virginia. Is it an urban legend or did Sidharth – the Webb tracker who was called “Macaca” by Allen write an essay for his grad school application that started out “I am Macaca”? Anyone know?
Feebog
@rikyrah:
A couple of progressive organizations dropped their endorsements after the abuse allegations. Personally I don’t know if there is anything to the allegations or not. His ex-wife is just as bat-shit crazy as he is, so who knows. What decided me was the hedge fund crap. Don’t be calling yourself a champion of the people and then managing a couple hedge funds on the side.
Feebog
@germy:
Ryan’s Democratic challenger was interviewed on MSNBC earlier in the week. Can’t remember which program, but the guy came across as very young, very inexperienced. My first thought was “cannon fodder”.
germy
@Feebog:
Oh well. It would be nice to see Ryan return to the private sector. (where he once was briefly.)
Tom Q
Since I live in NY’s People’s Republic of the Upper West Side, I’ll be as usual just a spectator in the national campaign. We don’t even have a Senator on the ballot to (overwhelmingly) re-elect this year.
There was a brief foofaraw back in June: Jerry Nadler, our rep, was being primary-challenged by some AIPAC-supported guy outraged over Jerry’s support of the Iran deal. There must have been fear of super-low-primary-turnout juju, because I got calls from Barack/Schumer/Biden/the whole gang. As it turned out, Nadler got over 90% of the vote…a feat he’ll likely replicate in November.
Stoic the Vast
@germy: An steal the job of driving the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile from some recent high school grad?
debbie
Kind of stupid marketing not to have Augie’s last name on that side of the mailer. I doubt he’s just a first name on the ballot. But then, we’re talking about Florida.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Shana: The great Google says: “I Am Macaca”.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mom Says I'm Handsome
Here in rapidly-trending-blue Colorado, I am pleased to report that Michael Bennet’s senate seat is safe from up-and-coming-and-going-back-down crazy person Darryl Glenn, and that the odious and useless Mike Coffman (CO-6) has been caught (metaphorically, at least) with his dick in his hand as he can’t answer basic questions about where he stands on Trumpism. That’s a mighty fine bed you made, son — you go back to layin’ down in it.
Also want to extend a shout-out to whoever it was who recommended the “Keepin’ It 1600” podcast. Those guys know what they’re talking about, and it was a treat to hear GOP strategist Mike Murphy crap all over Trump in this week’s installment.
jonas
Up here in NY-22, where outgoing Richard Hanna (R) became the first sitting GOP member of Congress to not only disavow Trump, but offer to campaign for Hillary, we’re looking at a close race between pro-Trump assemblywoman Claudia Tenney and Broome county legislator Kim Myers (whose family owns the Dick’s Sporting Goods chain). Key will be driving turnout in the more urban parts of the district (which stretches from Binghamton north to Utica and up into the southern Adirondacks — a huge swath) to offset the more right wing rural areas. Hopefully Myers and the DCCC plan to hang Trump around Tenney’s neck for the next 3 months.