It’s deeply bizarre to care about Balderson winning in Ohio when there will be a rematch in a few weeks. It’s so close that he will probably lose in November anyway.
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Opinions, art, debate
It’s deeply bizarre to care about Balderson winning in Ohio when there will be a rematch in a few weeks. It’s so close that he will probably lose in November anyway.
Clarissa's Blog 
I only cared a little bit because a win would’ve gotten Dems in Ohio excited and more likely to volunteer and vote.
I don’t think O’Connor will win in November. It really doesn’t matter though; there’s way more winnable seats we can focus on. And while O’Connor is fine he isn’t some prize gem that Congress is missing it on.
I hope another suburban loss makes people think twice about going all in on the “educated suburbanites” strategy.
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As long as the Congress is in our hands, I don’t even care as much who’s there. I mean, I care but I want a big, decisive win in November. We are long overdue.
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Same. There’s a few candidates who I care about and feel attached to, but ultimately no individual congressman has much of an effect on the body as a whole (unless they’re in leadership.) We just need butts in seats. And there are a ton of seats that are more winnable than OH-12. Heck, there’s even Ohio seats that are more winnable (OH-1 and OH-14 come to mind.)
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And we need new leadership, too. I have nothing against Pelosi but she needs to go.
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Agreed, both on not hating her and thinking we need someone new. She’s done good things for us in the past, but she’s been our leader for quite a while and she’s 78. I’m happy my congressional candidate has pledged to vote for someone else.
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I don’t think O’Connor will win in November. It really doesn’t matter though; there’s way more winnable seats we can focus on. And while O’Connor is fine he isn’t some prize gem that Congress is missing it on.
I hope another suburban loss makes people think twice about going all in on the “educated suburbanites” strategy.
See I don’t know the area or the race. There’s a dude running for Congress in West Virginia running as a Democrat who voted for Trump in 2016 [“I believed him about corruption and jobs! I voted for Sanders in the primary”], but it’s either that guy or the Republican. He’ll probably lose even though he is leading right now. I don’t know the area so…
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There’s not reason to think he’ll “probably lose.” The Democratic governor won that district in 2016 (although he has since switched parties like the turncoat he is), and Ojeda is popular in the area. He’s already managed to win one district that went heavily for Trump, why not another? Cook rates this as a tossup and I think that’s accurate.
I’m familiar with Appalachia, and Appalachians are notorious ticket splitters who don’t have much party loyalty. This is true of both West Virginia and southwest Ohio. However, these areas are getting redder because they feel alienated by the national party.
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*southeast
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Did you notice that all three of the candidates enthusiastically endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders in Michigan and Kansas lost?
Maybe this new, inspiring “Democratic Socialism” that everyone is so energized about isn’t going to save the Democrats, after all. 🙂
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I haven’t been following the endorsements but they are both from New York. They are not going to be relevant in Kansas without a whole lot of work and learning.
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Tlaib won in Michigan, unfortunately.
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Shenanigans!
Kris Kobach won’t recuse himself from a recount in governor’s race. No law requires it. (via Kansas City Star)
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Wednesday that he has no plans to recuse himself from a recount process in the race for governor because any counting of ballots would take place at the county level.
“The recount thing is done on a county level, so the secretary of state does not actually participate directly in the recount,” Kobach said at a campaign event in Topeka after initial results showed him winning by fewer than 200 votes.
“The secretary of state’s office merely serves as a coordinating entity overseeing it all but not actually counting the votes,” Kobach said, contending that his role puts him at arm’s length from the actual recount.
No law requires Kobach to recuse himself, but legal and political experts said that he should do so to maintain trust in the election.
Republican legislative leaders said Wednesday morning that a recount is almost certain and could possibly take weeks….
Kobach, the state’s top election official, led Gov. Jeff Colyer in the Republican primary by a mere 191 votes Wednesday morning after each of the state’s 105 counties had posted election returns after technical difficulties in Johnson County delayed results on election night.
Colyer has the right to request that Kobach’s office initiate a recount if he remains trailing after counties tabulate provisional ballots and mail-in ballots postmarked by the deadline…
Kansas attorneys who work in the election field say no law requires him to recuse himself from that process but that legal and political ethics should guide him to do so if a recount takes place.
“I would have to believe that in a situation like this, the secretary would be well advised to remove any appearance of impropriety,” said Mark Johnson, a partner at the Kansas City law firm Dentons who has experience in election law.
Told hours later that Kobach would not recuse himself, Johnson replied, “It’s his privilege. I’m not sure it’s the best appearance.” Johnson served on the legal team that defeated Kobach in federal court earlier this year in a case that overturned a Kansas voting restriction.
Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat, said that Colyer’s campaign would have no legal recourse to force Kobach to recuse himself…
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Also:
Colyer has the right to request that Kobach’s office initiate a recount if he remains trailing after counties tabulate provisional ballots and mail-in ballots postmarked by the deadline.
He would also have to file a bond with Kobach’s office to cover the cost of a recount at a price set by Kobach. If a candidate wins following a recount, no action would be taken on the bond.
So much honesty! So much recusal!
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For context:Kris Kobach voter fraud claims (Wikipedia)
NYT:
Back in Kansas, Mr. Kobach ran for secretary of state in 2010 warning of widespread voter fraud and efforts to corrupt the electoral process. He won.
Mr. Kobach quickly transformed what had been a low-profile state office into a political force, drafting a voter I.D. bill that became law and persuading legislators to give him prosecutorial powers for voting crimes. Though he identified a handful of instances of illegal voting, Mr. Kobach failed to prove his theory that large numbers of noncitizens were infiltrating elections. Election experts agree that voter fraud is extremely rare.
Mr. Kobach also defended a provision in the bill that required people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, which a federal district judge struck down in June. The judge, Julie A. Robinson, rejected Mr. Kobach’s claim that the small number of voter fraud cases he had found were the “tip of the iceberg.”“The court draws the more obvious conclusion that there is no iceberg; only an icicle, largely created by confusion and administrative error,” she wrote.
Judge Robinson also found Mr. Kobach in contempt of court and ordered him to take legal education classes…
Mr. Kobach’s declarations of widespread voter fraud resonated with President Trump, who has claimed without evidence that he won the popular vote in the 2016 election. (He lost to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes, according to the certified results of the Federal Election Commission.)
Mr. Trump passed over Mr. Kobach for cabinet jobs, but made him the vice chairman of a voter fraud commission that was later disbanded without finding proof of election rigging.
Last year, Mr. Kobach announced that he was running for governor of Kansas. He has embraced the president’s style and policies on the campaign trail, drawing headlines for riding in a Jeep with a replica machine gun in local parades and for campaigning alongside Donald Trump Jr.
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