The field narrows:
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who pitched himself to Democratic voters as a campaign finance reformer who could win in red states, is ending his bid for the party’s presidential nomination.
“While there were many obstacles we could not have anticipated when entering this race, it has become clear that in this moment, I won’t be able to break through to the top tier of this still-crowded field,” Bullock said in a statement. “I leave this race filled with gratitude and optimism, inspired and energized by the good people I’ve had the privilege of meeting over the course of the campaign.”
Bullock, 53, entered the race in May, arguing that a group heavy on Washington experience needed an outsider from a “Trump state.” He rejected entreaties from national Democrats to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Steve Daines, telling reporters that he had no interest in the job.
You know who else could use an outsider from a Trump state? The Senate.
Omnes Omnibus
Who?
Betty Cracker
I saw on Twitter that Joe Sestak dropped out too. I had no idea he was running.
Joe Falco
@Omnes Omnibus:
Who’s on first.
laura
So many white men so willing to take their egos out for a walk. So many white men unwilling to do the hard work of retaking the senate, or any office other than the top spot. So much unearned entitled unhelpful white male privilege.
So. Over. It.
SFAW
Not that I’m cynical or anything, but it occurs to me that he “ran” for President because he thought he could just spout his talking points, such as they were, and not have to defend/justify himself nor do any of the heavy lifting required to make a credible run, and could always go back to his comfortable job as governor. But when confronted/presented with a situation where he might be able to pull it off, but would require some hard work and hard campaigning … [insert “shrug” emoji here]
ETA: Or what laura said.
Leto
I’m at a point where if candidate speaks about being “an outside voice/outsider”, or that we need Trumpov supporters, that’s an automatic disqualifier.
@Betty Cracker: I think he was literally going door to door in an attempt to meet everyone in Iowa. I guess he got tired, did us all a favor, and took Bullock with him.
Just Chuck
And everyone outside Montana went “Sandra Bullock was running?”
Omnes Omnibus
@Joe Falco: I don’t know.
Eural Joiner
@laura: HEY! As a white man I…completely agree with you. It’s damn frustrating. Uuuugh.
randy khan
This still leaves time for him to reconsider running for Senate, and I sure hope he does.
Patricia Kayden
Mike in NC
As The Clash once sang: “Never mind the bullocks”
Miss Bianca
@laura: I couldn’t agree more. At least Hickenlooper saw the light and is running for Senate in CO. He’ll get shit for it too – already has, in state Dem circles – but if he becomes the candidate, I expect him to beat Cory Gardner like a rented mule. And high time, too. Can’t believe we traded a Udall for that smarmy, greazy POS.
germy
Miss Bianca
@SFAW: I believe he’s term-limited as governor, same situation as Hick’s in CO.
@germy: Fuck, for once I’m agreeing with Erik Loomis??!
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
Udall made the mistake of speaking truth about abortion rights in an uncool way.
laura
@Mike in NC: Uh, Mike, hate to pull your coattails but you’ve bolloxed the band:
https://youtu.be/2Ah1JM9mf60
Hoodie
@laura: “Bollocks out” would be an entertaining post title, though.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Plus, the Cool Kids out here in Colorado didn’t find him “charismatic” enough, or something. He’s a quiet guy who focuses on the work.
That’s why I spit every time I hear someone reference “charisma” as one of those must-have characteristics. Charisma does not equal character, except in rare instances like Obama. Talk about lightning in a bottle.
Omnes Omnibus
@laura: Since no one actually sang that line, I assume that he was doing it intentionally.
tobie
In other news: Tulsi is one poll shy of qualifying for the December debates. Thus far two of the candidates I supported have dropped out (Beto and Inslee) and the next two on my list (Booker and Klobuchar) likely will not make it past the Iowa caucus. I think the DNC’s qualifying process is totally fucked up: cheap commercial polls with high margins of error and small sample sizes arbitrarily picked by a committee for no apparent reason and a cable news and print media commentariat that act more like publicists than discerning analysts. (Cf. the Buttigieg phenomenon.) This will likely be my last year as a Democrat. I’m not even sure I’ll stay registered as a Dem through to the Maryland primary.
GaryK
Barbara
One less person who will be sending me e-mail “updates” begging for money. Now if only Sestak would drop out.
Barbara
@tobie: Sometimes you learn the wrong lessons by trying to fight the last war. This is one of those times. I do think the DNC is in a hard spot with so many candidates. It has to adopt some kind of criteria.
germy
@Barbara:
He was so under the radar that most us didn’t even notice when he quit.
Sterling
@laura: People have asked Stacey Abrams to run for the very vulnerable senate seat Isakson is vacating. She refused and will instead lead voter protection efforts in GA and other states in which she has absolutely zero power (like, good luck with that). Why is she not receiving the same kind of heat people are sending Bullock’s way?
This isn’t about privilege. It’s about politicians evaluating individual races and judging which race is right for them.
Omnes Omnibus
@tobie: Special elections, off-year elections, mid-terms – Dems are winning. They put up an extremely diverse and talented pool of people as presidential candidates. And you want to take your ball and go home because your favorite is going to get the nomination? Okay.
tobie
@Barbara: Criteria are good when they are transparent and set standards for quality control. That is not what the DNC did. They kept on changing what polls would count as qualifying and what cut-off dates they would use for no apparent reason. And as for quality controls: they were happy to accept polls with 6-7% margins of error, though any pollster would tell you they’re a joke. This process has been a clusterfuck. I’m walking with my feet.
tobie
@Omnes Omnibus: And I’ve volunteered for everyone of those, so I don’t need a lecture from you.
Roger Moore
@Sterling:
People cut Abrams slack because they perceive her as working for the good of the team rather than her ego. Voter protection is absolutely critical if we’re going to have any hope of long-term success, and it’s an area where getting more high-profile Democrats involved is an absolute positive. That’s completely different from adding one more random candidate to an already overfull Presidential field.
evap
@Sterling: Part of it is, I think, that Stacey does not want to be a senator while she very much did want to be governor. Another part is that her chances of winning a senate race in Georgia are extremely small and she really can do more good working on turnout and fighting against the voter suppression tactics that are rampant in Georgia (and elsewhere).
Freemark
@Sterling: Probably because fighting for voting protection may actually be more important than running for the US Senate.
geg6
@Mike in NC:
Except that was the Sex Pistols. Otherwise, spot on.
PenandKey
@Just Chuck: “And everyone outside Montana went “Sandra Bullock was running?”
Oh, good, it wasn’t just me who had that thought. But seriously, I can’t be bothered to keep track of all the candidates who are under the top 5 at this point. They have no chance of winning and, as far as I’m concerned, that makes them about as memorable as a Christmas season temp worker at a big box store. And, for those who haven’t worked in such a store or know people who have, that’s pretty much at the level of “if you’re still here in a month I’ll learn your name”.
schrodingers_cat
Taking occasional breaks from following the day to day going-ons about cray cray American politics to delve into the even more cray cray Indian politics helps me retain my sanity.
Ohio Mom
I have a cousin who lives in Montana so I know a little about the state. Bullock was term-limited out of the governorship.
i actually really liked Inselee. I knew he never had a chance to get the nomination but he’s a good guy, I think he’d be electable (he’s straight out of central casting, I.e., seasoned, older white guy), and of course, climate change. Oh well.
Also, where were all these people four years ago? In retrospect, I’m getting increasingly irritated at Hillary for insisting on claiming her turn,
Miss Bianca
@Sterling: Also, I just wandered over to LGM and one of the commenters there made the point that Bullock’s family is the one that doesn’t want him on a Senator’s schedule. Which is reasonable enough, I suppose. I just hope another Democrat runs for Senate and that Bullock campaigns hard for him/her.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@evap: I do wish Abrams had run for Senate, but IIRC she has not closed the door on being somebody’s VP pick. There was some unenthusiastic speculation in a thread below that we may have to settle for Biden (an attitude I sometimes share, I can’t pin down my own feelings about our primary). A Biden/Abrams ticket might be interesting.
Also, I think having already won statewide in MT twice, Bullock may have a better shot than Abrams at winning the race in question
Kent
How would you change it?
Miss Bianca
@Ohio Mom:
Are we back to blaming Hillary for everything? Seriously? What does this even mean, “insisting on claiming her turn”? Is Hillary responsible for the DNC’s decisions? How about ragging on Bernie for “insisting it was HIS turn, really, not the broad’s”, and then belly-aching to the point where we now have this cluster of fuck-up, just so the DNC can escape the “rigged” smear again?
Marcopolo
@Sterling:If Abrams is successful it is likely GA trends blue in the next election or two–it’s on the cusp atm. And her group Fair Fight 2020 is doing work outside of GA as well. I’ll cut her some slack for that. If Bullock wants to go back to MT and put some serious mojo behind an effort to register/engage with Dem leaning voters in MT then that would be lovely. In the meantime, he is term limited, he is popular in MT, and he could take one for the team and make a strong run for the MT senate seat. And honestly, if he won that seat it is much much more likely the D’s win control of the Senate and you know who is going to have a lot of power/influence if that happens? Someone like Steve Bullock who will be a moderate Dems whose vote is needed to pass any kind of progressive legislation. He would have all kinds of leverage in that position.
Omnes Omnibus
@tobie: Not lecturing. Do what you want. But since you chose to post your comment, don’t be surprised if people have responses. That was mine.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
As I was reading the front page I figured someone would ask.
Do I get points for thinking it might be you?
catclub
@tobie: Somebody else said to wait until some votes are cast. In a big field there is often a leader of the week.
Chyron HR
@Sterling:
Yes, why AREN’T people mocking Abrams for her quixotic presidential campaign? It’s a real fuckin’ mystery, I tell you what.
germy
Kent
Are she and Bullock the best possible candidates from GA and MT? I don’t know those states so I have no idea. But I have a hard time believing that even in those red states we are that lacking in political talent. Especially GA which is a large and diverse state with a wide variety of Dems in elected office. MT is much smaller (population wise) and has only one congressman (a Republican) so smaller bench unless you dive down to the mayors and state legislators.
But there is something of a problem with what to do with rising political talent in red states. It’s hard to know where to go for folks like Beto and Abrams and Buttigieg for that matter. Statewide races are a brutal uphill battle.
J R in WV
@tobie:
Because the other party is so much better, then!
Right!
Moran.
Ruckus
@laura:
I’m an old white male and I fully agree.
Old white farts, take your egos, your gigantic overgrown, overblown, overused egos and stuff them where the sun didn’t used to shine. You aren’t all that and a bag of cheese no matter how much you want to be or think you are.
Get the fuck over yourselves, everyone else is.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: Sure, but that and $4.50 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Marcopolo
Really? If I recall, HRC also claimed her turn in 2008 and we wound up with a guy named Obama as the nominee & President.
As we have seen this year, anyone (literally anyone!), can seemingly run for President at the drop of the hat. If some D politician was scared off by Clinton in 2016 then that is on them. Yes, she had a lot of backing that time as well but if I remember, some guy from Vermont gave her a good run for the nomination (caveat, I did not support anyone in the 2016 primary).
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: That bitch.
Ohio Mom
@tobie #21
One of the things about entering oldster-hood (I’ll be joining the Medicare ranks in March) is that I already went through my “I don’t know if I can stand to stay a Democrat a second longer ” stage.
It was so many years ago, I don’t even remember what I was angry about. I have a vague memory of being Green Party-curious but realized the one real choice is the Drmocratic Party.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: IKR? Let’s hate her! Oh, wait…
Kay
My youngest is a Bernista and might want to run as a Bernie delegate. I’m encouraging him to do it. It’s fun but nerve wracking because it’s a caucus in OH. A weird caucus with complicated rules. If I help him I won’t have time to run as a Warren delegate, but I think I have a hard to beat opponent anyway so might have lost and I’ve already been a delegate. The trick in a GOP district (like mine and his) is you literally bring your own voters. Collect them. You don’t need that many, but I think I can get him some. It would be fun to have a brand new voter delegate, no matter the candidate.
Kent
@Miss Bianca: Right. Why aren’t we pissed at Obama for taking Bullock’s “turn?”
Clinton did the SAME DAMN THING as every other serious political candidate since George Washington which is line up as much endorsements and support as you can and then campaign like mad.
Weird how Clinton is the only one in history who ever got criticized for it.
schrodingers_cat
OT: I was watching the first legislative session of the Maharashtra Assembly where the Speaker, leader of the majority party (Chief Minister), Leader of the Opposition ( also a cabinet position) are voted and sworn in. People were speaking in Marathi and quoting poetry and actually being funny.
ETA: Husband kitteh thinks I am a huge nerd for watching the session.
ETA2: I am still smiling at the egg on the face of BJP’s duo (Modi and Shah) in Delhi and their representative in Maharashtra, the ex Chief Minister Devendra Phadnavis.
Steve in the ATL
@Kent: Georgia has -zero- Democrats in statewide offices. Zero.
burnspbesq
@Miss Bianca:
Trust me, you’ll survive.
germy
Kay
One nice thing about Democrats is they LOVE young voters. Maybe both political parties do, but around here it’s like “welcome!” in an almost desperate way :)
That’s what it’s like for new Democrats in GOP districts and areas. We’re not AT ALL choosy. There’s like zero discussion of whether one is a “real” Democrat. We’re just thrilled someone likes us or doesn’t actively hate us :)
Patricia Kayden
@randy khan: Yep because if we don’t flip the Senate, McConnell still controls the judiciary.
Kent
How many members of Congress which is the most common stepping stone to the Senate? Four? I don’t know GA so I don’t know if any of them have the chops for a Senate race. John Lewis might have but he’s about 20 years too old. What about Mayors? Like I said, I don’t know GA. But it is depressing if there is only one good choice for a Dem senate campaign in a state of 10.5 million people.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I don’t drink coffee.
I’ve tried it. I didn’t like it and it didn’t like me, so we are even.
And even if I did drink it, from all I’ve heard I’d probably hate Starbucks coffee. So I save my $4.50 a day for better uses. What those are I have no idea but still, not being out that $4.50 gives me a warmer feeling than the coffee would.
PenandKey
@Kay: Many of us grew up in strongly GOP areas. While (to young people) my mid-thirties grey headed self may not seem young, but if there’s one experience we share between us it’s that growing up liberal in a heavily conservative area is a lonely thing even in the internet era.
tobie
@J R in WV: Have you heard of “no party affiliation”? Maryland’s a closed primary state, which I actually agree with as a policy, so No Party Affiliation means not participating in the primary. Get bent out of shape over the wrong thing, J R in WV.
Marcopolo
I’ve been following this elections stuff since McGovern, who I was sure was going to cream Nixon in the general. I’m slightly more knowledgeable about things now almost fifty years later. In that time I honestly cannot remember any D presidential candidate I supported wholeheartedly in the primaries becoming the nominee (I was particularly pissed at Dean getting bushwhacked by Kerry & Gephardt in 2004). But at no time have I ever thought to myself, “fuck it all, I am done with this party.” Because what is the god damned alternative? At least in ’72 there were still a few liberal R’s but they totally died out during the Reagan years.
Anyways, I am with OO on this statement.
Elizabelle
@J R in WV: No calling tobie a Moran.
She sounds frustrated, and blowing off some steam. And yeah, fuck Wilmer for sticking us with 101 candidates so the system is not “rigged.”**
** Which it was not in 2016 either, contrary to what Wilmer’s most passionate and least personable <strike>followers</strike> fools will tell you.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Actually that’s the reception I got from my town’s Democratic committee too. And 2/3 of our registered voters are Ds.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: Well, that’s alright then.
Kent
@tobie: In a presidential and winner-take all system like ours, all the political compromise and coalition building takes place within the party. That’s how you get Joe Manchin, Bernie Sanders, and AOC all in the same party. It’s the only way to build a legislative majority.
In a parliamentary system like in Israel you get a bunch of purist parties and then all the compromise and coalition building happens after the fact in the process of government formation without input from voters. You essentially end up in the same place with enough compromise and deals cut to get to 51%. The only real difference is whether the coalition building happens within the party or between parties.
It is extremely rare anywhere in the world to have a ideologically pure party that also earns a legislative majority. At least in an open democracy. Putin’s Russia and China don’t count
A lot of American lefties wish they could vote for politically pure left-wing parties in some sort of proportional representation system. Even if that were possible, we’d still end up back at the same spot with the small lefty parties having to join compromise coalitions with centrist parties to achieve any governing objectives.
tobie
@Kent: Transparent criteria would be a start. Here are just some things the DNC could mandate: minimum required margin of error; minimum sample size; allowable mix of online, live call and robocall polls; question framing (do we name all candidates or just some?); demographic requirements; weekday vs weekend calls; what measure (if any) do we want to include for enthusiasm (a new criterion used this year); Dem only or open pool; etc.
Good polls are really expensive. No organization will put out that kind of money unless they’re required to do so. Right now we’re letting cheap polls dictate the process and drive the news. That’s not good for democracy in my opinion.
Kay
@PenandKey:
My oldest son really hated it- left for college and never comes back- but this kid is more easy going.
I want him to get a sense of how hard it is to actually operate in such an ideologically diverse coalition, because he’s an “internet liberal”, right? He thinks it’s just a matter of being STRONG or whatever and it’s harder than that. I want him to see the real thing- a roomful of real live pain in the ass Democrats who all think they’re “the base” – and they are! They ALL are. He’s smart. He’ll get it.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
We had the funniest thing with a sheriff’s deputy who switched to D. Okay, I brought him in and I recognize he’s not really a Democrat but you know I’m LOATHE to lose anyone so I was like “ok, he’s sort of a Democrat. If you squint”
For all I know he’s voting for Trump. BIG tent. No tent at all.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
We had the funniest thing with a sheriff’s deputy who switched to D. Okay, I brought him in and I recognize he’s not really a Democrat but you know I’m LOATHE to lose anyone so I was like “ok, he’s sort of a Democrat. If you squint”
For all I know he’s voting for Trump. BIG tent. No tent at all.
Kent
@tobie: Do you honestly think that better polling would have elevated any of the bottom tier candidates? 538 and the other poll aggregators basically all show the same trend lines. There are no polls that show any of the 1% ers who are left out leaping into the picture. Nor any polls that show any of the top candidates dropping out. Maybe Gabbard might have gotten flushed out one or two debates earlier. But that doesn’t affect the trajectory of the campaign in any way that I can detect.
The main frustration among many here is that Harris, Booker, or Klobuchar haven’t caught fire. But they’ve been to all the debates and better polling wouldn’t have dropped them out.
I just don’t see where the DNC paying for a bunch of its own expensive polls would have changed anything.
It is what it is.
Joe Falco
@Kent: For Georgia, you have two mayors running for David Perdue’s seat (one is a former mayor) and two also-rans (one that ran for lieutenant governor and the other ran to fill a House seat in a special election in 2017). Joe Lieberman’s son is running for the other Senate seat where there will be special election there in 2020. Georgia has some state representatives and plenty of former nominees so the pickings for veteran lawmakers to run are slim.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay:
Our town D meetings are fun, there is good food and gin and tonics.
tobie
I find it funny that everyone assumes I’m some newbie to the voting process and too young or naive or stupid to realize that voting requires compromises. Geez. I’ve spent most of my adult life voting in the general for candidates I didn’t support in the primary. Paul Tsongas, Bill Bradley, and Howard Dean come to mind. 2004 was actually the exception as I came to like John Kerry in the course of the primary. It hasn’t happened this year. I’m not growing fonder of any of the candidates as this primary progresses and that means we either have a lackluster group of candidates or the process sucks. Or, alternatively: I’m out of step with the party. I’m waiting to see if any of the remaining candidates speak to me on my 3 big issues (immigration, climate change, and defense of democracy).
Ruckus
@tobie:
In a great world that would be wonderful.
This, to the chagrin of all of us, is not a wonderful, perfect world. And if it was, 3/4 of us wouldn’t like it.
Who would pay those companies to run such polls?
Who would fit into and answer those polls?
What language would we use that we could all agree upon that would make those polls work?
Would the responses to those polls be higher or lower?
Those are just off the top of my head. I used to be pretty good at statistics, tutored it in college because my prof said I should. It’s not easy to poll, nor write one, nor administer one, nor get reasonable results, the sampling population is not in any way uniform. It’s easy to count widgets, measure widgets, statistically analyze widgets because they don’t have brains. Now a lot of humans act like they don’t either but they all do and that changes everything.
You may know all this and still be unsatisfied – OK that’s on you.
But reality has a way of smacking people upside the head when you try to run around it and the reality is that political polling is tough because the people being polled do not all fall into rigid measurable groups.
NotMax
LC
@tobie – Can you post some links to this problem with the polls? I thought the DNC had published the list of acceptable polling firms in advance. You may not like the criteria, but there were fixed criteria. Maybe I’m wrong, it certainly sounds like you are arguing that they have been changing rules on the fly.
(I’m not sure how it applies to your point that you don’t like the candidates anyway. Stricter polling criteria that would have eliminated people earlier would just leave you with the frontrunners you don’t like.)
Martin
@Just Chuck: Jim J, not Sandra. Under new Democratic Party rules every 80s sitcom gets a qualifying slot in the December debate.
Kelly
If Bullock wanted the best for the folks Montana and to be a team player, he’d want Jon Tester, 18th in Democratic caucus seniority, to have a better shot at a committee chair.
zhena gogolia
@tobie:
How about FIGHTING FASCISM and domination by Russia? Does that get you excited? Is that important enough for you?
tobie
@LC: There are no criteria for the polls used. Some polling firms have been kicked out of the mix, others added on. First the DNC said no online polling but then YouGov/CBS was accepted which has an online component but YouGov/Econ was not accepted because it had an online component. Thresholds and time frames have changed and been invented on the fly. It’s a mess, and it matters inasmuch as polling is driving the primary news, not reflecting it.
The Moar You Know
True. But governors become future Presidents. Only two Senators have – Kennedy and Obama.
Don’t toss out the state benches trying to scramble for a Senate majority that is extremely unlikely to happen regardless. We’re going to need those state-level folks to permanently fix the mile-deep shithole we’ve dug for ourselves.
The Moar You Know
@tobie: Won’t change much. I dropped the party in 2010 as my political affiliations were possibly going to get dragged into a civil lawsuit. I can still vote in the primaries so NBD.
James E Powell
I don’t get why more people don’t want to run for senate when they have a good chance of winning. Granted, it’s not the White House they’ve been dreaming about since middle school, nor is it the life-long sinecure of the federal appellate courts. And while it lacks the prestige and pizzazz of owning a major sports franchise, it is one of a hundred, a pretty exclusive club. If you try, you can go on TV and bloviate about your favorite ideas and have people act as if the ideas aren’t stupid or insane. From time to time you get to actually do something. I don’t know why it’s not a more popular job.
Miss Bianca
@James E Powell: I’d rather be Senator than President, if I got to pick.
Yutsano
@James E Powell: Bullock is only 53. It’s not like this would be his last opportunity plus going from a Senate seat to President isn’t unheard of. And he shouldn’t sit on it too long but he does have to decide soon if he’s going to jump in and take out Daines.
satby
Fixed that for you. Most of the red state candidates wouldn’t have a good chance of winning. Stacy Abrams specifically said she prefers executive action to crafting legislation, and I suspect she’s not the only one.
Chris Johnson
@tobie:
Nah… fuck that.
Nowhere else to GO. The Democratic Party is where all the good people are at. I particularly like the youngest ones, but I get reminded sometimes about how good the team is.
trnc
What are you looking for on those issues? IE, what is it about, say, Warren’s proposals that you don’t like?