Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everybody saw this coming.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

This blog will pay for itself.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Even a miracle needs a hand

Even a miracle needs a hand

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I’ve always liked the idea of giving to longshot races. First of all, the amount of money a longshot Senator might raise is could be 1/50 of what the fan favorites are taking in, and you never know when a family-values conservative Republican incumbent is going to get caught with his pants off or a couple of wetsuits on. I bet that chance is more than one-in-fifty. But they can still win if they’re running essentially unopposed.

Here’s three longshot Democratic Senatorial candidates that Liz Warren is promoting.

Merav Ben-David, Wyoming Senate

Goal ThermometerHous

Marquita Bradshaw, Tennessee Senate

Goal Thermometer

Abby Broyles, Oklahoma Senate

Goal Thermometer

Also, here’s some incumbents that could use our help: Doug Jones, who may be making this race closer than we thought, and Peter DeFazio in OR-4 whom a reader warns me may get hurt by not having students vote because of COVID.

Doug Jones, Alabama Senate (incumbent)

Goal Thermometer

Peter DeFazio (OR-4, incumbent)

Goal Thermometer

Reader Interactions

31Comments

  4. 4.

    Benw

    Twas the night before the election, when all through the Juice

    Not a poster was posting, not even clicking a mouse

    The pet pics were listed on the sidebar with care

    In hopes that internet traffic soon would be there

  7. 7.

    Yutsano

    @Benw:

    Twas the night before the election, when all through the Juice Juice House

    Or Change a mouse to the moose in the second line. We’ll make this work people!

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    An extended writeup on Ben-David at ScienceMag:

    […]

    Despite such numbers, Ben-David is optimistic. “Navigating hostile terrain has always been my day job,” she says. And colleagues admire her tenacity. “Her resolve is inspirational,” says Henry Harlow, a zoologist and director of National Park Service Research Center at the University of Wyoming.

    To woo voters, Ben-David is leaning into her differences with Lummis. Whereas Lummis’s campaign has decried “attacks from the environmental left” that threaten the state’s major industries and “market opportunities at home,” Ben-David advocates “futureproofing” the state’s economy, which is facing its biggest downturn since 2005. Ben-David is calling for greater investment in infrastructure, education, and job transitioning programs. Such efforts, she says, will not only “rescue Wyoming” from crippling recent job losses, but “reimagine and rebuild it.”

    She also supports federal investments in alternative energy and wildlife protection, and stiffer regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. “This is about preserving our way of life,” she says. “Mother Nature is not going to wait anymore.” Wyoming residents, Ben-David believes, are now seeing both the economic and ecological the impacts of climate change, such as shorter, warmer winters (limiting the ski seasons) and drier, hotter summers (extending the fire seasons). “People are seeing in their own backyards that we are not immune” to global warming, she says.

    […]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  13. 13.

    A Ghost to Most

    I’ve heard the word “miracle” enough, thanks. See also “hero”, “patriot”, and “conservatism”.

  15. 15.

    Nicole

    (I will clarify that I don’t think it’s the best of the specials themselves; I think that’s a throwdown between Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,  but it’s the best of the original songs, probably because it’s one of the few that sound like it took longer than 5 minutes to compose.)

  17. 17.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Nicole:

    BEST ORIGINAL SONG FROM THE RANKIN-BASS HOLIDAY SPECIALS.  GO ON, FIGHT ME. 

    ^^Them’s fightin’ words.

    (I don’t have a wombat in this dance-off.  I’m just noting.)

  19. 19.

    Benw

    Got two postcards reminding me to vote from the local town democrats, and a full size mailer with all the early voting info from the NYSDC.

    The Dems want people to VOTE

  21. 21.

    Mj_Oregon

    Thanks for putting Peter DeFazio on the list.  His opponent is a tough one this year and a seat we thought was safely Democrat has now moved all the way over to Leans Democrat.  There’s a metric buttload of out of state money pouring into the Skarlatos campaign.  I’d really hate to see my district, which includes Eugene and Corvallis, elect someone who said in the state voter guide that his previous government experience was “National Guard sniper.”

    Please donate!!!  I did last night!

  22. 22.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Mj_Oregon: I’ll second this. Pete is my Congress Critter too. He’s been a good rep, and built significant seniority in the caucus. This race is a closer one than his last few. Would really suck for him to lose.

  23. 23.

    Turgidson

    Another candidate for a long-shot race worth chipping in for is CA-01.  Audrey Denney is a really good candidate, and ran in 2018 against Trumpist dolt Doug LaMalfa and held him to a fairly narrow win.  No one is watching this race but I have some hope that with presidential turnout she can spring an upset, especially since California’s MAGAts know Dear Leader won’t win the state and might thus lack motivation to cast their ballots.

  25. 25.

    Ben Cisco

    Alabama, ya’ll:

    Alabama voters have set a state record for casting the most absentee ballots during an election, and there are still three more weeks to go.
    Alabama Secretary of State of John Merrill said that as of Tuesday, 91,000 absentee ballots have been cast ahead of the November 3 general election. The previous record was 89,000, which occurred during the course of an entire election cycle.
    “We still have three weeks left and we have broken the record,” Merrill said.

    My personal observation was that there were too many people at one of the two locations in the country for me to risk going in person – I’ll opt for Election Day at my smaller, suburban precinct.

    Alabama officials predict a record 2.8 million state residents could vote in the presidential election next month. They expect 150,000 or more to vote absentee.

    The numbers could also rise in 11 counties that are allowing in-person absentee voting on Saturdays. Mobile was the first to allow for Saturday absentee voting earlier this month, and other counties have since followed including Jefferson and Lee counties. In Mobile County, the absentee manager’s office is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday and on October 24, for in-person absentee voting.

    Merrill said the decision to allow for absentee, in-person voting on Saturdays is a local one.

    “It’s been left up to the absentee election manager and there is some cooperation with the county commissions,” said Merrill.

    Miracles, indeed.

  27. 27.

    J R in WV

    We donated to Ben-David some time back, I just did another smaller donation. But I hit up the incumbent in Oregon pretty big, we can’t afford to lose seats we’ve already won!!

    I’m pretty proud to see Balloon Juice people kicking in so strongly. Hope it works for us!!

    And thanks to everyone who is helping candidates out in any way!!

  28. 28.

    Leumas

    A brief plea for Broyles who is running against Jim Inhofe (Senator Snowball). She is a good candidate on the issues.  The most recent published poll from September showed a massive 30 point gap, about what you would expect in this Red state.  However, there are reports of an internal Broyles poll showing a 6 point gap, 49-43.  Inhofe has not released a rebuttal poll, and is running constant television commercials.  Odd behavior for an incumbent not worried about reelection.  This is a long shot race not on anyone’s radar.  Broyles will most likely carry the State’s largest county, Oklahoma, but by a modest margin.  The third largest county, Cleveland, is suburban and home to the University of Oklahoma.  This is the type of educated voter that has been fleeing the Republican party this cycle. The second largest county is Tulsa, which is Inhofe’s home base.  The city is purple, but the suburbs are Rock Ribbed Ruby Red Republican, often voting 4-5 to 1 for whatever Republican is on the ballot. Broyles is little known in the Tulsa media market, thus the need for funds.  It is a long shot, probably no more than 5%, but that is much improved from a month ago.  It would take strange things to happen, but…….it is 2020.

  29. 29.

    Mj_Oregon

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:

    DeFazio is the chair of the transportation committee too.  His previous opponent for five election cycles was the weird and wacky Art Robinson, who got way more votes than I ever thought he’d get in the last two elections.  One of DeFazio’s main voting blocs are the students at UO and OSU, neither of which are at full resident capacity due to covid.  That’s what concerns me the most.

    Skarlatos has a real chance at flipping this district because of his notoriety from the Paris train attack in 2015 and the subsequent movie in which he portrayed himself, plus being a local boy.  He styles himself as a Real American Hero and his entry in the state voter guide lists his occupational background as Army National Guard Sniper, Author and Actor.  His politics are right in line with extreme libertarian views and rabid 2nd Amendment support.  It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he’s a member of one of the local militias.

  30. 30.

    There go two miscreants

    In for DeFazio and (thanks to Another Scott’s comment) Ben-David. I have chipped in for all the others previously; will look at the budget a bit more.

  31. 31.

    Jesse

    I took a look at Merav Ben-David’s campaign web site. That’s really impressive! She’s promoting a lot of sensible ideas, including FDR’s Federal Job Guarantee program (never went anywhere, to my knowledge, despite FDR’s immense political skills). Great stuff! Thanks for highlighting her, Doug.

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