We have a fair number of Illinois peeps on Balloon Juice, so I have questions for you guys about Illinois. I am only hearing about GA and TX, and both are critical races. What’s happening in Michigan and other states? Does Big Gretch have any serious contenders? Surely some other states have interesting races for governor, and others might have questions about those?
I haven’t had time to be following what’s happening in the run-up to the primaries in Illinois. Does Pritzker have any serious challengers? I really did not like Pritzker when he was running last time, but I voted for him because, well, Democrat, but damn, he has ever done a stellar job as governor, so I’m not looking to change anything up.
All I know at this point is that I keep seeing ads for a man who is running for Illinois governor on the Republican side. I don’t even know his name, but he is the angriest candidate I have ever seen – his face twists up with hate when he talks, and he has a very threatening message. Surely Republicans – who appear to think that every black man (or boy) is an angry, scary black man – would not vote for this black man who truly is visibly angry, filled with hate, and who has a threatening message. Right?
I think he even comes right out in the ad and says that he will the Democrats’ worst nightmare.
Someone please tell me that this person doesn’t stand a chance, or at least tell me he is not the front-runner. I feel sick inside at even the thought of him as our governor in Illinois.
Open thread.
One More Angel for the Michigan Group – ‘Wooo, Let’s Do It!’
Ken
If it helps, remember that the Crazification Factor was coined after an Illinois statewide race in which the Republican candidate was black, and got 27% of the vote. And he was running against a black Democrat.
Joe from Lowell
Massachusetts Republicans are gearing up to nominate a Trumpie instead of the bowls of oatmeal they’ve been winning the governor’s office with since the early 90s. This should give the Democrats a solid chance. I hope.
Princess
I think Pritzker is one of the best governors in the country, maybe the best. While other governors were going on TV, he was quietly keeping us safe. And he actually kept his promise to govern in a progressive way. He was not my choice either, but: I was wrong.
I think he’s a shoe-in. I hope I’m not wrong about that.
Served
You’re probably describing the good Christian Darren Bailey, who is a horrific Trumpist acolyte who led the anti-mask, anti-vax mobs across the state.
Not sure how the R polling is going, but Ken Griffin (our conservative billionaire kingmaker) has chosen an entire slate of candidates for all statewide constitutional offices. His pick for governor is Richard Irvin, the current mayor of Aurora. He is black and the mayor of a “blue city” so it’s a fairly cynical play. Griffin is pumping money into the campaign, so I’m shocked you aren’t seeing ads for him. I’ve seen quite a few and I rarely watch broadcast TV anymore!
We are very lucky that Pritzker has turned out to be one of the good billionaire politicians, at least policy-wise. His political instincts fail him at times, but he is very good at the job. He even won over a lot of the dreaded online left! They call it being “Pritzker-pilled”
WaterGirl
@Ken: That was one crazy race! Between him and the guy who was physically abusive to his famous actress wife, that was one wild ride. That race did have a pretty good ending, though, as I recall. :-)
RevRick
Water Girl, he may win the nomination, but not the election. You can bet on it.
BTW, with my son’s assistance, I plan on making 3 or 4 social media posts attacking the GOP as fascists who don’t care a whit about the people.
BGinCHI
Ken Griffin funding Aurora’s mayor (Irvin), and Darren Bailey, downstate Yahoo, and then a bunch of other shitheads. The ILGOP is thankfully a mess, but because everything outside the collar counties, with the exception of Metro East, Champ/Urb, and a very few others, is Trump Country, there’s always the danger of another Rauner (spits, spits again).
Pritzker has been a very pleasant surprise, with excellently competent governing, so probably something terrible will happen so IL can get back to sucking.
WaterGirl
@Princess: I have barely had to think about Pritzker since he was elected, other than to think “wow!” each time he did something great. So nice to not have to worry about what was happening in Illinois government while the world was on fire.
BGinCHI
@Served: You said it better than I did. Totally agree.
BGinCHI
@Princess: Totally agree. Spot on.
WaterGirl
@Served:
That’s the thing. I have Tivo so I never watch TV in real time, and I fast forward through the ads. But this guy is so bad it actually got me to stop and see what that was. Shudder.
Mike Dixon
Richard Irvin – he’s the current mayor of Aurora, and one of about 8 Republicans who have declared.
The little polling I’ve seen indicates that the Democrat – whoever that turns out be- will likely win. Beverly Miles, a nurse from Chicago is primarying Pritzker, but strikes me as a long shot.
Also, Mancow says he’s running as an independent:
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/erich-mancow-muller-announces-run-for-illinois-governor-report
mrmoshpotato
Just checked Wikipedia about the Illinois 2022 governor’s race.
Army veteran Beverly Miles is running against Pritzker in the primary, but I wouldn’t consider her to be a formidable opponent. (Hadn’t heard of her until now, but then, I don’t watch live TV, so no political circus for me.)
A handful of Rethuglicans are still in the race.
That’s just sad.
tom
In Michigan, there are something like 10 republicans vying to be the R candidate for governor. It’s the normal assortment of lunatics, whackos, and nuts, with a couple of only semi-crazy candidates thrown in. One is a Black candidate, James Craig, the former Detroit police chief. All of them are busy tearing each other apart, much to despair of republican consultants and the delight of Democrats.
Even though the Michigan legislature is majority republican due to gerrymandering, the statewide offices (Gov, AG, SoS, both US senators) are solidly Dem. I expect Gov. Whitmer to be OK.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@BGinCHI:
I thought Rauner had moved to Florida? I recall some fuckery around early vaccines going to whatever glorified subdivision he currently claims residency in
WaterGirl
@Joe from Lowell: That’s good to hear.
WaterGirl
@RevRick: Not sure you are part of the Social Media Initiative? Does your son have experience making videos?
At the very least, please send those posts my way once you have them done.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: I never said his name once when he was our governor. I couldn’t bear to even say his name. Spit is right.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike Dixon: Good lord, is he still with us?
by making children mumble a prayer? what a weird little man
mrmoshpotato
@Princess:
Wanna fight us on this, California? ?
Yes and yes.
Not my primary choice either, and I didn’t like running a billionaire against a billionaire, but when he won the primary…
Geminid
@WaterGirl: You have a good battle between Republian Representatives in a district next to yours. Rodney Davis and Mary Miller are fighting it out for the 15th Congressional District nomination.
It’s Main Street versus Crazy Lane: Davis has the county chairmen behind him, and Miller was endorsed by some orange windbag from Florida.
Sure Lurkalot
I listen to the Professional Left Podcast from time to time and the hosts (Driftglass and BlueGal) talk a lot about local politics. They really like Pritzker after similar concerns about his wealth and loyalties.
Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, is only a mere multi-millionaire, and he’s reasonably popular. Colorado is running 4th or 5th in economic growth depending on who’s counting which I guess helps (but has also produced an overheated housing market spiraling away from any semblance of affordability except for the already well-housed and PE funds).
FWIW, I’d take Pritzker over Polis…he doesn’t have the libertarian baggage and was much more pro-active in COVID mitigations.
mrmoshpotato
@Served:
Hooray for actually having a state budget! (Fuck you, Rauner!)
mrmoshpotato
@BGinCHI:
That’s the spirit! LOL!
Ken
“You can choose any school. As long as it’s Baptist.”
Served
@BGinCHI: I will say that as part of that political instinct weakness, his biggest weakness has been navigating the (unwieldy and belligerent) administrative state.
DCFS is still a horrific nightmare for children and case workers after Rauner gutted funding, but Pritzker’s team has dragged their feet and still doesn’t have a plan for the agency. This is the one area where I am genuinely disappointed to the point of anger.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
Ain’t that the truth!
BGinCHI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: What I wish for him I won’t write here.
dnfree
Republicans can become governor in Illinois, but they have to be moderate Republicans. These days the moderates don’t usually win the Republican primary.
In 2014, Republican multimillionaire Rauner won the election, defeating the incumbent progressive Democrat, Quinn, who was not effective as Governor, in my opinion. Pritzker defeated Rauner in 2018.
Illinois demonstrates what can go wrong with the current method of running primary elections. There may be 6 or 7 candidates in the primary, so someone who got 25% or less of the votes can become the general election candidate.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: This has been on my car for several cycles now. I loathe that man.
BGinCHI
@Sure Lurkalot: They’re great, and, of course, everyone in IL should read Capitol Fax.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike Dixon:
(Disgusted Obama shrugging gif)
jackmac
J.B. Pritzker has done a superb job as governor. He’s not only navigated COVID-19 challenges but has also helped restore fiscal balance and sanity to state government. That performance gives him a formidable case for reelection. The best argument Republicans make are summarized on lawn signs that read “Pritzker Sucks” sprinkled well outside the Chicago area. That’s all they’ve got.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: That’s too bad. :-)
BGinCHI
@Served: Yes indeed.
Cap Fax has been excellent on this coverage (Rich Miller).
jackmac
@BGinCHI: Capitol Fax is a daily Must Read!
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The bastard claimed he was going to fuck off to Italy if he lost re-election.
mrmoshpotato
@BGinCHI:
Write it elsewhere and link it!
Cameron
@dnfree: If they used approval voting, results would be a lot better.
Jon W
I’m less sanguine than Tom about Michigan. Statewide offices here are solid Dem b/c almost all of them were filled in the 2018 wave election, but in 2020 Gary Peters won re-election to the Senate by only 49.9 – 48.2. The Republican party has endorsed Trumpers for AG and SoS this year; their gubernatorial nomination is wide open.
Served
@BGinCHI: Cap Fax is absolutely essential! Rich and Block Club Chicago are my go-to state and local news sites.
dyspeptic
Add me to the list of people surprised and delighted by Pritzker. With Madigan gone I am feeling hopeful about state government for the first time in a long time. If the asshats threatening to leave the state would follow through…
Sadly my work with the Red Cross is still coordinated through a building called the Rauner Center
Betty Cracker
Here’s a pretty good campaign pitch on Twitter:
Fried and Crist are mixing it up a bit. Our primary isn’t held until AUGUST, so I hope they pace themselves.
JohnPM
I think Pritzker has it in the bag. He was not my choice in the primary, but he has done a great job and I will enthusiastically vote for him this time.
I have seen a few commercials for Richard Irvin, the current mayor of Aurora and a Republican candidate. His faux tough guy act has passed its sell-by date. According to the 2021 election results, he won mayor of Aurora with 6,795 votes out of 12,296. Aurora has a population of 180,000, so that means 3.8% of Aurora voted for him. I don’t see him as a threat.
So far there has only been one poll of the Republican primary. In October 2011, Daren Bailey (anti-mask anti-vax Trumper from down state) was chosen by 33% of likely primary voters. 49% were undecided.
Elizabelle
NY Times. I wonder how much $10K/day seems to TFG.
Judge Holds Trump in Contempt Over Documents in New York A.G.’s Inquiry
HinTN
@dnfree: Just came from early voting in my dead red (used to be progressive) county and I was surprised at how few were on either side of the ballot. There’s a boatload of candidates running but they’ve clearly decided to try for that plurality in the general. Optimistically, could that mean that the bloom may be off that the R rose here? Nah, probably not…
Edit, fixed spelling errors
Joe from Lowell
@WaterGirl:
“That’s good to hear.”
I…hope so?
Because it might also mean people vote for the R candidate like they usually do, as a check on the state Democratic Party and its total control on everything else, but we get a fascist instead of a Ritt Momney.
Geminid
@Cameron: Have you checked out the new election system in Alaska? Candidates for Senate and House will compete in a open, “jungle” primary in August. The top four finishers move in to a ranked-choice runoff in November. With the death of Don Young their one House seat has 20 candidates.
Senator Murkowski appears to be cruising to reelection; the system is favorable to her. The system was passed as a referendum item in 2020 and this year will be the first time it is used.
BGinCHI
@Served: SAME
BGinCHI
@Elizabelle: Hey, Elizabelle! Next week’s Medium Cool is based on a suggestion of yours! Tune in……
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I read an op-ed a while back (can’t remember where) that argued that open primaries and ranked choice voting is our best bet to neutralize extremists. The person who wrote it (can’t remember who) was both-sidesing the parties when only one of the two has been taken over by extremists. That narrows it down; the author was probably a Republican.
RAM
I keep trying to figure out what happened to Richard Irvin. The guy’s not stupid and seems to have done a good job as mayor of Aurora. I’ve chatted with him a few times in the past , and until he started running those horrible commercials on TV he seemed like a normal person with a decent family. Been watching the local political scene for about 40 years now, and this is the strangest thing I’ve seen in a LONG time.
Kay
new text messages. Lots of GOP members of congress involved with the coup attempt:
Geminid
@WaterGirl: There is another Rep on Rep primary contest this year in Illinois. Unfortunately it pits two good Democrats, Marie Newman and Sean Casten, against each other. Casten flipped a red Chicagoland seat in 2018. Newman knocked out Lipinski the Younger in the June, 2020 primary and won his safe seat that November.
Elizabelle
@BGinCHI: Fabulous! Thank you!
BGinCHI
@RAM: What happened to him is the ILGOP electorate.
Matt McIrvin
@Joe from Lowell: I hate to say it, but the Democrats’ best strategic move to get the governorship is probably to nominate a man–it hardly matters who it is. Massachusetts politics is sexist as fuck.
tom
@Jon W: true, but Peters is a less-than-dynamic candidate.
Kent
The Oregon governor’s race is going to be interesting this year. I grew up in OR so am pretty tuned in to the politics even though I now live across the river in WA so vote in WA.
On the Dem side, Kate Smith is term-limited out and the two top Dems are more or less traditional Dem candidates. Tina Kotek is the long-time speaker of the OR House and openly gay. She is from a highly liberal district in north Portland. I’m not sure how well she will do in the rest of the state, although OR does have closed primaries. Kotek will probably get most of the traditional labor endorsements. Her main opponent is Tobias Reed the current state treasurer and former state representative. He is perhaps a bit more corporate having previously worked for Nike. But otherwise a pretty mainstream Dem as well. One of those two will win the primary. Of course OR went through the entertaining sight of Nick Kristoff trying to run in the primary as a New Yorker and getting spanked by the Supreme Court.
On the GOP side it is the usual shit show of MAGATs. There are 19 candidates on the ballot. Christine Drazan is probably the front runner being the house minority leader. But who the hell knows.
The wildcard is a long-time Conservative Dem legislator from the OR Coast named Betsy Johnson is running as an independent. She is basically the OR version of Manchin except that she is all in for logging rather than coal. She is getting a shitload of out-of-state money which I suspect is mostly GOP money from out of state conservative interests looking to ratfuck the election. She has no chance of winning but the big question is whether she will draw more Dem or GOP votes. I have no idea frankly and I doubt anyone else does either.
This should be an easy win for Democrats except for the wildcard of Betsy Johnson who will get a shitload of money to trash Dems on local TV. So who knows.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Another campaign promise broken!
EriktheRed
I’m in northern IL and I don’t see Gov. Pritzker in trouble at all. In fact, this asshole’s angry performance tells me that he knows this, too.
EriktheRed
@WaterGirl: Can’t prove it, but I’ll bet signing pot legalization into law has helped him, too.
NotMax
“You have my promise that while I’m governor there will never, never, never be a Disneyland in Illinois.”
//
Martin
@Elizabelle: He’ll pay for it with fundraising. It will have no impact.
DFH
I’m in the land of Dan Fogelberg, too. I was leery of Pritzker but he was the Dem nominee.
He’s been great. His conduct when all governors were seeking PPE in the early days of the pandemic was utterly admirable, which is enough for me to vote for him again. But like @WaterGirl said, he’s done so much more, following through on many promises.
The schadenfreude runs deep here, with lickspittle Confederates on TV and radio far too much. We watch YouTube a lot, and endure the :10 ads that Richard Irvin issues. “Dems fear Repubs who look like me and think like us” the ads say, and we respond automatically “no it’s the thinking”.
I’m downstate, in Forgottonia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgottonia) where we went for Obama twice, and then the Brain Prion Disease kicked in badly and now I feel surrounded by robotic morons.
My favorite yard sign is “100% American, 0% Socialist” in front of homes and businesses whose occupation is farming. Oh, I guess you’re going to give up your farm subsidies, Mein Furor? Fucking jackasses.
It will be great when Pritzker kicks their asses.
WaterGirl
@Jon W: I agree – I think Michigan is going to be a big fight.
WaterGirl
We’ve heard from:
Illinois
Massachusetts
Michigan
Colorado
Oregon
Florida
WaterGirl
@JohnPM:
Do you mean Oct 2021?
Also 33 + 49 = 82%
that basically tells me that pretty much all the people who aren’t undecided are for the awful Daren Bailey (anti-mask anti-vax Trumper from down state).
BlueGuitarist
Republican held US Senate Seats:
Pennsylvania: (also D Governor, D Attorney General)
Wisconsin (also D Governor, AG)
North Carolina (also state Supreme Court)
Florida (also R Governor, AG, Secretary of State)
Ohio (also R Governor, AG, Sec State)
Iowa (also R Governor, Sec State, D AG)
Missouri
Democratic US Senate seats at risk
Arizona (also R Governor, Sec State, AG)
Georgia (also R Governor, Sec State, AG)
Nevada (also D Governor, AG)
There are competitive US House seats
Democrats have a chance to flip state legislatures in Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and make some progress In other states.
I’m looking into overlapping opportunities up and down the ballot, places where in addition to the important statewide elections, there are significant US House elections that overlap competitive State Senate and/or State House seats, places where each voter can cast multiple votes for Democrats in swing elections.
WaterGirl
@DFH: Dan Fogelberg fan here.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I used to dislike ranked-choice voting and I still have misgivings. But so many people run for a given office these days I think ranked-choice is a better system than having people win nominations with pluralities of 30% or even less.
Runoffs are the alternative. Henry Cuellar and Jessica Cisneros have a runoff in the Texas 28th CD next month. Runoffs have a bad name because of the extra expense. Also, they are associated with the segregated South. But Jon Ossoff would not have won a Senate seat in Georgia if the Libertarian candidate had not held Perdue a few thousand votes below 50% in November 2020. Likewise, Cuellar would have clinched the Texas 28th nomination already without the requirement of polling 50% plus one vote.
New York City would have had a runoff in last year’s Mayoral election but for it’s new ranked-choice system. Under the old rules, when Eric Adams failed to clear 40% he would have faced the runner-up in a runoff. Adams got about 33% of first choices and then narrowly beat Ms. Garcia and Ms. Wiley after the next choices were tabulated.
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: That’s exactly the kind of thing we are trying to highlight and publicize as part of Join the Fight and the social media initiative. I hope you’ll join us.
Send me an email if you are at all interested. my nym at balloon-juice.com
NeenerNeener
@Elizabelle: But how are they going to make him pay up?
Soprano2
There isn’t much hope in Missouri unless Greitens gets the nod for the Senate seat, then Democrats have a slight chance to win it. All of our state offices are already Republican except auditor, but she’s not running for re-election so I expect the Republican to win that one, too. Between the open Senate seat and our open House seat in my area, ads between now and August are going to be horrendous as they all try to “out TFG” each other. I already saw one House candidate is promoting a “parent’s bill of rights”, which is something the House absolutely won’t be doing.
I had a discussion with a regular at the bar who is from Illinois. He kept telling me that the downstate people should be able to have more say in how state government is run, since “everything is run from Chicago.” I said “Well, people vote and send reps to the state legislature, that’s their representation.” He said it doesn’t matter, they need to have “more say”, but he could never articulate to me how that would actually work. It was shorthand for “White people should be able to be in charge of Illinois”, but of course he wouldn’t actually say that.
FelonyGovt
Not this Californian. I like Gavin Newsom just fine but he has done some questionable things and enjoys his own press a little too much. But after that stupid failed recall, he has reelection in the bag.
Lapassionara
@Kay: Good grief! Mike Lindell is just bats in the belfry crazy.
The Lodger
@Kent: It’s Kate Brown. Having grown up in the Philly area when the Flyers were in the Stanley Cup rage, I can testify that Kate Smith is someone else
ETA race not rage, but I was tempted to leave it alone.
Soprano2
Totally OT, but he’s my favorite singer/songwriter of all time. I think I have most of his albums, and I saw him twice in concert here. One of those concerts, in 1982, was an acoustic concert that’s probably my all-time favorite rock/pop music concert. I’ve always thought he is way under-appreciated because he wrote “soft” music, but he has a way with a lyric.
DFH
@Soprano2:
Cool! He got pigeon-holed in the 70s singer-songwriter era as “soft rock” but really he was an incredible writer and musician who left us all too soon. He is an all-time favorite of mine too.
WaterGirl
@Soprano2: @DFH:
Nodding in agreement.
delk
Ugh… those fucking Irvin commercials. Black Lives Matter? ALL lives matter. Defund the police? DEFEND the police. And, democrats are scared of people that look like me but think like us. Ugh.
Glad there’s some attack ads running against him.
Mike in NC
Our former GOP governor (Pat McCrory) was a Trumpian failure during his one term, but now is trying to get into the Senate. He’s wearing a fleece vest on TV, like the pinhead they recently elected in Virginia.
Captain C
@Princess:
I have a libertarian friend in Illinois who absolutely hates Pritzker. Said friend lives well doing IT for, as I recall, local government agencies.
trollhattan
The groomiest groomers.
Kent
@The Lodger: Right, of course. Brain far on my part.
WaterGirl
@delk: I only listened to the commercial once, but I think you have parts of it word-for-word. Ugh.
JMS
There is a governor’s race in Pa too but it’s not getting the same attention as the senate race for good reason. Short of a metaphoric comet, Shapiro should win and it’s a good thing too. The legislature is insane and would saddle us with no end of terrible things.
BGinCHI
@DFH: Would love to see someone make the “subsidies aren’t socialism” argument.
Elizabelle
@NeenerNeener: That’s a good question.
Comes down to documents; AG’s office says Trump is holding out; his attorney says they have provided everything after a tedious search.
Sadly, the contempt charge could go away if Trump’s attorney attests to that.
From the FTF NYT:
Hoodie
@Mike in NC: McCrory kind of predated Trump but did overlap. He was a relatively moderate pro-business Republican when he was mayor of Charlotte, but then jumped on the Trump train. He’s getting hit on all sides by the true Trumpers running for the senate nomination, including the godawful Trump-annointed Ted Budd, who is probably the favorite now. Hope that Cherie Beasley can generate the turnout needed to turn this one. Historically, Dems win statewide races in NC when turnout is high, but Trump kind of went against that dynamic. Without him on the ballot, however, I don’t see how any of the clowns on the GOP side spark enthusiasm.
Elizabelle
More from a WaPost story.
Would you believe an attestation from this woman??
and
WhatsMyNym
@dnfree:
The great state of Washington had 37 candidates for Governor in it’s 2020 primary. Inslee (D) came out with 50.14%, though he still had to go up against one of the losers.
WaterGirl
@JMS: Your R legislature in PA is evil.
Geminid
This cycle Virginia Republicans are targeting three Democratic Congresswomen: Jennifer Wexton (10th CD), Abigail Spanberger (7th CD), and Elaine Luria (2nd CD). I think Wexton is pretty safe, and the new 7th CD should give Spanberger an advantage. Luria faces a very tough fight in her coastal district.
All three Democrats have easy primaries (if they even have challengers). And all three have put together multimillion dollar war chests. The Republican sides feature two or more hopefuls hacking away at each other.
Elaine Luria will get a lot of exposure as one of the 9 members of the January 6 Commitee. That may not swing a lot of votes, but it will help her fundraising. As Val Demings and others can attest, these high profile proceedings can make stars out of capable but unknown Representatives.
janesays
It’s official – the Twitter board has just accepted that 12 year old asshat’s $44 billion offer to buy the company. Elon Musk owns 100% of the company. Now watch it turn into 4chan.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: I’ve been redistricted out of Abigail Spanberger’s district. Sadly. Will volunteer for her, though. And maybe for Elaine Luria too.
Jennifer Wexton should do just fine. I can see any of these women as a well-qualified US Senator, eventually, and would think Wexton might get first dibs at it.
Although: happy we have Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.
Elizabelle
@janesays: I could not believe that when I saw the stories this morning. Dangerous, very dangerous, with the midterms coming up.
ksmiami
Not to distract, but as a now former Twitter shareholder; it’s official. Musk is buying the platform and taking it private. This event is a profoundly negative chapter in our slouching towards oligarchy / autocracy and unless the massive wealth gaps in America are moderated, I fear for a bleak future for the many. Rant over.
sorry didn’t see comment 95. But yeah. terrible news
WhatsMyNym
@Soprano2: Next time you should tell them that the Chicago population is less than a third of it’s metro area (2.7 million of 9.6 million). The metro area is majority white.
StringOnAStick
@Kent: This is my first major election in Oregon and we got the voter’s guide pamphlet last weekend; holy crap, some of the people running for major offices are complete loonies! And there’s so many of them! Is this typical for Oregon? here’s 13 or so D’s running for Governor and 17 R’s plus a few from the fringe parties. The betty Johnson spoiler effect worries me too.
The guy who was our Congressman, the odious Bentz, is no longer our choice thanks to redistricting; I wonder if he’s regretting the prominent place he gave in his candidate statement to his endorsement from Gym Jordan? Eh, probably not.
Now our town is in a new district that looks slightly blue, with incumbent Schrader the closest to actually being an incumbent. He’s been plastering every advertising source there is, telling us what a good progressive D he is when in reality he is basically a Sinema. Ads telling us how he “has worked to lower drug prices” when he voted against that. All the big money behind his ads are the same people who fund SInema. I hope his D primary opponent wins and I sent her some money.
Kent
@StringOnAStick: I think the total number of primary candidates is unusual. But then I’m not really positive. Usually there are clear frontrunners or incumbents in the primaries so they don’t tend to be very unpredictable.
The Betsy Johnson thing is new though. I don’t recall a major 3rd party or independent candidate like that for any statewide office. But then again, I’ve only come and gone from OR for the past 2 decades so I’m not 100% in touch.
Alison Rose ???
@ksmiami: Cue Trump’s return to the platform in 3, 2,…
Omnes Omnibus
Tony Evers is the best governor in the country. There. I said it.
Alison Rose ???
@Kent: Okay, for a split second I thought you meant Betsey Johnson and I was like WHAT but also AWESOME.
KBS
I’m another IL voter who’s been pleasantly surprised by JB! I’m not sure I’ve ever had a better governnor in any state I’ve lived in. And I’ve got one of the “unseat” stickers on my car too! I just hope we manage to actually elect the Democrat this time.
Gin & Tonic
@Alison Rose ???: Yup, he’ll be back before the end of the week.
WhatsMyNym
@janesays: The Twitter shareholders have to approve it yet. Regulators might have issues. Who are the other backers? They might have their own agendas.
Calouste
@ksmiami: The shareholders still have to vote, and the SEC and the EU still have to approve. And considering that the pedo didn’t report in time that he had taken more than a 5% stake, there might be a few bumps in the road.
CaseyL
Regarding Musk’s purchase of Twitter: A lot of people are moving to something called Counter Social.
I know this because Counter Social’s servers are completely overwhelmed by the new accounts, and people trying to sign up get an Access Denied message. Someone – maybe a company person – has tweeted that the owners are working on the problem.
I haven’t gone over there yet – seems to be. no point until they get a lot more servers online – but am happy to do so. Does anyone here know anything about them
ETA: I did the Google thing, and Counter Social seems to be an app that was developed in response to Twitter being overrun by trolls. Doubt whatever troll-control tools they have will be effective if everyone goes stampeding over there, but it’s good to know they have been trying to fight that.
I am not Jon Snow
@janesays: If that’s the plan Musk might as well take his 40 billion and set it on fire, because people will flee. Using Twitter is at times already like drinking Windex. If becomes even worse because the loons who were banned are let back in, or if they start making me pay a user fee for the privilege of drinking said Windex, I’ll be cancelling my account and moving on. And I doubt I’ll be the only one.
cain
@StringOnAStick: It’s going to be a whacky election season in this state.
This right winger Oregonian I follow on twitter is all happy that some poll (from breitbart of course) saying there is going to be a wave or some shit like that. Given that we have a super majority – I’m not so sure.
Population has exploded here in the metro area, and I suspect it will still trend blue. I’m not sure who is the right person for governor as of yet.
I will tell you that the guy running for District Attorney for Washington County – Brian Decker is awesome – my wife and I met him at her friends place – she was hosting him.
Hell, John Legend himself recommended him on twitter. :-)
Felanius Kootea
@janesays: I was so sad to read that news.
cain
@CaseyL: Never heard of em – but I will enjoy it if twitter hits the skids and his 44 billion dollars goes down the tubes. He still needs people like us – and if it will turn into a right wingers free speech paradise – we’re all gonna leave. I will not be able to stand it that Trump will return. I just.. can’t.
I’ve never heard of contact social? Nothing on google either?
Soprano2
@Gin & Tonic: Once TFG is back on Twitter, all the reporters will run after every Tweet, writing stories about it, and unfortunately he’ll probably start dominating the news again. I’ve enjoyed the past year and three months of that not being the case.
What Musk is going to find out if he lets all the odious people back in that Twitter banned is that everyone else will flee, and pretty soon Twitter will be a ghost town because the trolls don’t like talking to each other, it’s too boring. Surely if he just wanted a platform to puff himself up he could have spent a lot less than $44 billion! He may not care about advertisers, but if Twitter turns into another 8 chan he won’t have any advertisers, either.
CaseyL
@cain: I had the name wrong, it’s Counter Social, not Contact Social. And there is info on Google. A smallish (30K users) social media company that is being hit by a tidal wave right now of people leaving Twitter.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: Your loss was my gain. Greene County was in the 5th but now it will be the Southwest corner of the new 7th.
Are you in the 1st CD now? Randy Wittman’s about as good a Republican as you’re going to find these days. In 2020 he was one of the few Republican Reps to win in a district that Biden carried. I think the 1st is redder now, but the 7th used to be red too. The 1st may get bluer over the next few years just like the 7th did from 2010 to 2018.
gene108
@BGinCHI:
When people work hard, produce the food that feeds the nation and the world, pay their taxes, and positively contribute to society in many other ways, getting some of their money back from the government is just common sense. These people should be given support for being pillars of their communities, and the being the type of hard working Americans that this country’s prosperity is built on.
ksmiami
@Calouste: Eh our regulatory financial bodies are weak as F. And most shareholders now are passive so there won’t be much churn. It’s done and it’s gonna be 4 chan before too long.
WhatsMyNym
@Calouste: I could see the Twitter shareholders recognize a sucker, and hold out for more cash.
cain
@CaseyL:
So funny thing – counter.social is based on software called Mastodon. Except they turned into a centralized service. Otherwise, it is a non-central service. I can tell because the interface is exactly the same as mastodon.
prostratedragon
@WaterGirl: Bruce the Vandal. Practiced my voter’s kiai for 2020 by voting for Pritzker in 2018.
Kent
@Alison Rose ???: Nope, this Betsy Johnson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Johnson
She is basically Manchin in a skirt. Not Sinema. Manchin in that she is totally in the tank for resource industries and has conflicts of interest. As a rural Dem she has made a habit of running against “Portland liberals” and other such bullshit.
cain
@cain: Turns out it is mastodon – and this https://directorblue.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-anti-social-networkwhat-is.html shows how it all started.
I know the guy who created it (he was an employee of my company) and he’s a fairly far left person I gather.
Alison Rose ???
@Gin & Tonic: Glad I stopped using the site years ago. Bleh.
Omnes Omnibus
@janesays: Let’s see if it actually happens.
CaseyL
@cain: Wow – very intriguing. You might want to go upstairs (“This way to the Egress”) where the buy-out is being discussed, and post that link there, too.
Kent
@Omnes Omnibus: Twitter is a crappy platform anyway. I only started using it to follow the Ukraine War and it is good for that sort of thing. But frustrating as hell to follow long threads and the inability to edit posts is ridiculous. Even FB lets you go back and edit stuff you have written.
DFH
@WaterGirl:
:-)
DFH
@BGinCHI:
In person, face to face. Just to see them stutter.
CaseyL
@cain: I just quoted you, with the link, in the thread above this one – hope that was OK!
Betty
@Betty Cracker: It may help keep out extremists, but it isn’t foolproof as evidenced by the recent mayoral election in NYC.
phein63
@WaterGirl: What you said: Relief that we have a governor who takes governing seriously.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kent: You are expecting it to be something it is not.
Felanius Kootea
Oh well – I hadn’t used my fediverse account in over a year (I’m on writing.exchange). Looking forward to following new people in the fediverse.
EriktheRed
@gene108: How is this not socialism?
Captain C
@janesays: Given that Twitter’s never seemed to turn a profit, and still doesn’t seem to have a business model that will allow it to do so, is it possible that this move will, in fact, help ruin Elon Musk?
SixStringFanatic
@Betty Cracker: How, exactly, is she going to get Floridians to stop acting like Floridians?
sab
@Kent: Been on ten years. Never follow comments. I find their whole structure incomprehensible. Lots of posters responding to comments I never saw. I am guessing that Elon Musk won’t make this better either.
Freemark
@BGinCHI: Have to agree. We in PA are just a Republican governor away from being Florida.
Mart
@Soprano2: Gotta love MO AG Schmitt working to kill as many Missourians as possible by spreading Covid – especially in schools; while demanding Biden retain Title 42 immigration restrictions put into place because of Covid. Could be a winning Senate formula here.
Mart
@Alison Rose ???: “Stock tied to Donald Trump’s social media venture falls 13% as Twitter
announces deal with Musk. CNBC” Trump claimed he will not go back to twitter. That should last a week.
Urban Suburbanite
@WhatsMyNym: Loren Culp was a special kind of stupid. He also went all in on protecting on a reserve police officer who had been abusing a teenage girl for much of her life. And that grifting fuckwit is running for Congress.
I think I’ve bitched about Joe Kent before. He’s a fascist ghoul running in Vancouver, who was real tight with Nick Fuentes and his band of sweaty virgins, until he had to get some distance. He’s back to trying to get in their good graces, so I guess he’s sweating some polling numbers.
And Seattle’s new mayor (who was part of a graft-y circle of mediocrities in city government) has managed to both anger and underwhelm. Seattle politics have become dominated by what level you hate seeing homeless people, and Harrell has gone haaaaarrrrrd for sweeps – forcibly clearing people out, tossing a lot of stuff, and maaaaayyyyybe some people get into housing. It’s an expensive way to push some homeless people down a couple blocks. There’s been lots of those – ESPECIALLY because Biden came to visit. He’s also made a big thing of graffiti being bad, so he’s been sure to be in photos painting over graffiti (which gets tagged the next day). It’s not going over well. It may very well have encouraged more people to put up stickers or tags. There’s also the dipshit former employee of one of the local stations who got himself for his glowing endorsement of the Proud Boys, who’s now pestering skate kids in the park for content.
Plus May Day is coming up. And it’s on a weekend!
Mimi Haha
Another Illinoyance here. JB has been such a relief after the last couple of governors. I didn’t have much of a problem voting–I had a bit of a problem with the idea of governor being an entry level position. But he’s done a fabulous job so he’s got my vote again.
Kosh III
@WaterGirl:
Tennessee, the ignored state.
We have a governor and legislature even WORSE than Florida but you’d never know it because the state has been written off by the Democrats for decades and the major media only notices when Senator Marsha Airhead says something ever dumber than usual.
It’s been decades since a D Presidential candidate came here during the general election. No national support(money) from the Party,
Our current GOP governor, Bill Lee is a first class Theocrat pushing his Talibangelist version of God onto schools. Gay bashing is rife with multiple laws every session designed to destroy LGBT+anyone not whitemalehetero.
A leading senator praises Hitler,…crickets.
Very discouraging to know no one gives a frak.