Their names won't be on the ballot, but no one will have more impact on the Nov. 3 judicial election than former Luzerne County president judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. Their arrest on racketeering charges in a still-unspooling federal corruption probe has, fairly or unfairly, framed the race for four seats on the county bench.
In any other year, incumbent judges Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. and Thomas F. Burke Jr. would cruise to easy victories for their second 10-year terms. Now they face the toughest campaigns of their careers.
Judges running in unopposed, yes/no retention races typically concentrate on generalities about fairness, legal expertise and experience. But Olszewski and Burke face hard and detailed questions about their relationships with Conahan and Ciavarella and what they knew, or why they didn't know, about the two former president judges' alleged "kids-for-cash" scheme.
A federal grand jury alleged that Conahan and Ciavarella illegally pocketed $2.8 million for directing county contracts and juvenile detainees to two for-profit detention centers.
The Republican Party's campaign theme -- that the corruption scandal is a symptom of longtime one-party Democratic rule in the county - could resonate with independents and disaffected Democrats. Conahan, Ciavarella and the five other elected officials charged in the probe are registered Democrats.
Neither Olszewski nor Burke has been implicated in the federal probe, which has led to charges against more than a dozen people inside and outside of the courthouse since January. But voters outraged by the scandal and frustrated that Ciavarella and Conahan remain free awaiting trial nine months after their arrest, might choose to make an example of Olszewski and Burke.
In the May primaries for two open seats on the bench, the only incumbent in the race, Joseph J. Musto, who was appointed as an interim judge after Conahan's retirement in 2008, finished fourth out of field of 17 and failed to secure either party's nomination.
Voter turnout may prove to be pivotal on Nov. 3. Only the most committed voters make it to the polls in municipal elections, which lack the drawing power of presidential or gubernatorial races. Those voters tend to have strong party identification, which in Luzerne County tends to help Democrats, who hold a 2-1 registration edge. A typically light municipal election turnout -- 29 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the last similar election in 2005 -- would probably help Olszewski, a registered Democrat.
It could also help Burke, a Republican with a history for attracting Democratic votes. Burke captured second place in the 1999 Democratic primary, beating two registered Democrats in a four-way race for nomination to two open seats on the bench. Olszewski was the top vote-getter in that primary.
But 2009 is not 1999 or 2005. Public anger over the kids-for-cash scandal and the broader federal corruption probe could drive up voter turnout and draw angry independent voters looking to punish anyone associated with the county bench.
How a larger turnout would impact the other judicial contest -- a three-way race for two open seats on the bench - is more complicated to predict. All three candidates -- Republican nominee Richard Hughes, Democratic nominee Tina Polachek Gartley and Democrat William Amesbury, who has both parties' nominations -- have painted themselves as reformers.
The Republican Party's campaign theme -- that the corruption scandal is a symptom of longtime one-party Democratic rule in the county - could resonate with independents and disaffected Democrats. Conahan, Ciavarella and the five other elected officials charged in the probe are registered Democrats.
One of the open seats being contested on Nov. 3 now belongs to President Judge Chester B. Muroski, who was selected by his colleagues to replace Ciavarella as top judge in February, but must resign at the end of the year, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. The newly constituted court will elect a new president judge to a five-year term in January.
No matter what the outcome on Nov. 3, voters will have several other opportunities in the coming years to remake the 10-member county bench, which has two current vacancies. The governor has yet to name a short-term replacement for Ciavarella, who resigned in March, pending an open race for that seat in 2011 or 2012. The seat formerly held by Ann Lokuta, who is fighting her removal from the bench by the state Court of Judicial Discipline for her allegedly abusive treatment toward court staffers and attorneys, remains empty because of her appeal. Even if she were to regain her seat, Lokuta would face a retention election in 2011.
Judge Hugh Mundy will reach retirement age next year, leaving another seat up for grabs. Judge Joseph M. Augello faces a retention election in 2011.
And still hanging over the county bench is the ongoing probe by federal investigators. A federal grand jury has subpoenaed records connected to auto insurance cases, which have been the subject of rumored judge-shopping and case fixing. An aide to Judge Michael T. Toole testified before a federal grand jury earlier this year amid reports that Toole's finances are being examined.
The only certainty is that this election will not end the turnover, and the turmoil, on the court.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2009 00:00 ||
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In documents filed this week in Alaska's long-running political corruption investigation, the government's lead witness said he had given thousands of dollars in gifts to "United States Representative A" -- who could only be Republican Rep. Don Young.
Bill Allen, a former oil services company executive, said he paid $10,000 to $15,000 a year from 1993 to 2006 out of VECO Corp.'s funds for the representative's annual fundraiser in Alaska. The lawmaker, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, did not list any such payments on financial disclosure forms.
In a statement of stipulated facts that included a "confession of additional criminal activity," Allen said his co-defendant in the case, former VECO Vice President Rick Smith, had purchased a $1,000 set of golf clubs with Allen's credit card and given them to the congressman.
Testimony and evidence provided by Allen, who is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday on his 2007 guilty pleas to conspiracy, bribery and tax charges, has helped convict several Alaska state legislators and former Gov. Frank Murkowski's chief of staff on corruption charges stemming from influence VECO wielded over pending legislation on oil taxes and other matters affecting the industry.
His testimony also helped lead to the conviction of powerful Republican Sen. Ted Stevens on unreported gift-giving charges. Stevens' conviction was voided in April after the Justice Department admitted serious prosecutorial misconduct. By that time the veteran senator already had lost his bid for reelection.
Young, 76, has never been directly identified by federal officials as a target of the probe, and he consistently has refused to publicly answer questions about it. His spokeswoman, Meredith Kenny, on Friday declined to comment, and Young's lawyer did not return a phone call.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2009 00:00 ||
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In a crowded ballroom next to a bankrupt casino, what remains of the Detroit property market was being picked over by speculators and mostly discarded.
After five hours of calling out a drumbeat of "no bid" for properties listed in an auction book as thick as a city phone directory, the energy of the county auctioneer began to flag.
"OK," he said. "We only have 300 more pages to go."
There was tired laughter from investors ready to roll the dice on a city that has become a symbol of the collapse of the U.S. auto industry, pressures on the industrial middle-class and intractable problems for the urban poor.
On the auction block in Detroit: almost 9,000 homes and lots in various states of abandonment and decay from the tidy owner-occupied to the burned-out shell claimed by squatters. Taken together, the properties seized by tax collectors for arrears and put up for sale last week represented an area the size of New York's Central Park. Total vacant land in Detroit now occupies an area almost the size of Boston, according to a Detroit Free Press estimate. Thanks for all the hard work Mr. Coleman ...
The tax foreclosure auction by Wayne County authorities also stood as one of the most ambitious one-stop attempts to sell off urban property since the real-estate market collapse.
Despite a minimum bid of $500, less than a fifth of the Detroit land was sold after four days. The county had no estimate of how much was raised by the auction, a second attempt to sell property that had failed to find buyers for the full amount of back taxes in September.
The unsold parcels add to an expanding ghost town within the once-vibrant town known worldwide as the Motor City. Critics say the poor showing at the auction underscores the limits of using a market-based system to clean up property tax problems. They say the system has enriched a few but failed to deliver a way for Detroit to staunch its dwindling population and could worsen the vacancy crisis. Or one could say that Detroit is so far gone that no one wants it. Might be better to bulldoze the city and rebuild anew.
One proposed alternative would have officials take control of the tax foreclosure process through a land bank program of the kind being used to revitalize the nearby city of Flint. To the extent that one could say that Flint is 'revitalizing'.
The stakes in the debate are rising. The number of Detroit properties in tax foreclosure has more than tripled since 2007 and seems certain to rise further. The lots for sale last week represented arrears from only 2006, well before the worst of the downturn for U.S. automakers. Keep in mind that this is a city where property values and home sales were in the gutter a decade ago thanks to 40 years of mismanagement, corruption, fraud and racial baiting on all sides. So if it's only gotten worse in the last year it's done so on a thoroughly rotten base.
"We have to keep in mind that GM and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy this year," said Terrance Keith, chief deputy treasurer of Wayne County. "Some people are going to be totally tapped out next year."
Detroit, already stuck with a $300 million budget deficit, is responsible in the meantime for cutting the weeds and responding to fire calls for thousands more abandoned lots.
Many potential homeowners that Detroit desperately needs said they felt penalized by the auction process. They mostly found themselves outbid by deeper-pocketed investors from California and New York who were in a race to claim the auction book's relatively few livable properties. That's how an auction works. Good intentions and proper attitude matter less than the ability to put cash down at the gavel.
Dozens of potential bidders, mostly local residents, were turned away on the first day of the auction by deputies after they failed to meet the morning deadline for registration.
Ross Wallace, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, turned in his check for $500 and waited on the auction floor in full dress uniform for a chance to buy a Detroit house on the cheap. Wallace, 27, said he did not want to leave his fiancee and two children with a mortgage before shipping out to Iraq later this year.
"I still have student loans and I'm trying to be responsible. I don't want to leave debt," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The coming grand show (read nationwide) writ small: Local gummint sez your lot is worth X (assessment) You can't sell it for a fraction of X and you can't pay the taxes on X. Gummint gets seizes the property, which is now really worth less than squat. They offer to sell it for a stupidly large amount of "back taxes" (an imaginary number) or to the highest bidder. Turns out there are no bidders, or none high enough on bad drugs, to bid. On to the "land bank" where the worthless property is touted as "potentially valuable." Please donna busta you gut laughin...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/26/2009 0:17 Comments ||
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#2
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM/PKPOLITICS > MARKET WATCH > DEATH OF THE "SOUL OF CAPITALISM": TWENTY REASON WHY CAPITALISM IS DEATH/AMER HAS LOST ITS SOUL AND [US, Western Nation-Econ-Society] COLLAPSE IS INEVITABLE.
Gaaawd, its too early after lunch to remember News' long titles.
#3
Capitalism works just fine. It's the "modifications" that the DemoPublican Party (see The Third Wave has made over the years that have gotten us to the brink...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/26/2009 1:24 Comments ||
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#4
Oops, open paren error... (see The Third Wave)
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/26/2009 1:26 Comments ||
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#5
detroit shows that labor unions plus racial politics can not only destroy govt honesty but can also destroy entire cities
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/26/2009 5:07 Comments ||
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#7
.. and intractable problems for the urban poor.
Adding substance to the adage - the more you subsidize something, the more you get. Remember the scene just days ago where people in Detroit were lined up for 'free' money?
It's been estimated that over 7 trillion dollars has been spent since Lydon Johnson's War on Poverty was launched in the 60s to address poverty in America. It's been as effective as the TARP and Obama Stim Package in solving their respective declared problems which is minimal to none. Human free will undermines the best laid plans of the 'best and brightest'. Punishing the productive and rewarding the non-productive doesn't work well in the end for the majority.
#8
P2K, during the Congressional debates on welfare reform in the early '90s, one of the Demo congress critters complained that welfare needs to be expanded not reduced. His reasoning? The poor had expanded from 9% in 1964 to 20% in 1994(?)! The poor shlub never realized he was making the argument for the reduction!
#9
..The 'back taxes' shtick is actually an acknowledgement that there is no more money to be extorted from the locals or the state (the other 95% of the state of Michigan literally HATES Detroit, and whatever you do don't bring the matter up with someone from the UP), and that the local government is SO toxic that not even the Feds are going to bail them out.
Detroit is like a junkie who hasn't quite hit bottom yet, except their drug of choice is money. And like a junkie, they will do anything to keep the drugs going.
And never, ever forget what a junkie will do when they're backed into a corner.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/26/2009 10:19 Comments ||
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#10
Might be better to bulldoze the city and rebuild anew return it to agricultural usage.
#11
Detroit's a natural choke-point on the Lakes. It has some potential as a port. In the distant future, when the remnants of the current wreck subside into picturesque ruins.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/26/2009 14:07 Comments ||
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#12
"Wallace, 27, said he did not want to leave his fiancee and two children with a mortgage before shipping out to Iraq later this year. 'I still have student loans and I'm trying to be responsible.'"
Responsible? By leaving them in Detroit?
Are you insane?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/26/2009 19:21 Comments ||
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#13
Responsible, for Detroit, Barbara.
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2009 19:24 Comments ||
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#14
I saw where Detroit is encouraging the film industry to come to Detroit to make films.
I guess they must need some war scenes or post-apocalyptic scenes.
President Obama told an audience at a Democratic Party fundraiser Wednesday night that Republicans often do what theyre told, but GOP voters dont think their legislators listen enough to them.
Just 15% of Republicans who plan to vote in 2012 state primaries say the partys representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing Republican values.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 73% think Republicans in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters from throughout the nation. Twelve percent (12%) are undecided.
These numbers are basically unchanged from a survey in late April.
Republican women are nearly twice as likely as men to say their representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing GOP values. Younger voters tend to be less critical than their elders.
Thirty-one percent (31%) of likely GOP primary voters rate economic issues as the priority in determining how they will vote, followed by 25% who see national security issues that way. Fiscal issues are most important for 15%, while 12% cite domestic issues and seven percent (7%) cultural issues.
Nationally, 29% of Republican voters say former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is their pick to represent the GOP in the 2012 presidential campaign, while 24% prefer former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and 18% like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
These numbers reflect an improvement for Huckabee since July when the three candidates were virtually even. Huckabees gain appears to be Palins loss as Romneys support has barely changed.
If the choice for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 comes down to a choice between Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, Huckabee has a slight edge among likely GOP voters.
In the eyes of the political Left, Palin is perhaps Americas most visible national Republican, but she loses handily in face-to-face march-ups with Huckabee and Romney.
Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Republican voters have a favorable opinion of the partys national chairman, Michael Steele, while 27% regard him very unfavorably. However, 35% dont know what they think of Steele.
The GOP advantage over Democrats increased from two points to five in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. Forty-two percent (42%) would vote for their districts Republican congressional candidate while 37% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.
#2
Huckabee versus Romney versus Palin . . . I wonder if that result reflects name recognition, and a little bit of the relentless pounding Sarah has taken from the left and the press (but I repeat myself). Gov. Huckabee is a good and decent man, but he's no conservative; Gov. Romney is a good and decent man and would make a perfectly acceptable president, but I think a lot of people will have issues with his support for the now-bankrupt Taxachusetts Public Option. I happen to be a Palin fan, but I wonder if she knows what she's doing strategically with respect to resigning and going off to start a PAC; it's either the path to an epic win or an epic fail, I can't tell which.
Anyway, it's all too early.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/26/2009 14:05 Comments ||
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#3
The NRC and the NRCC have made a fatal error in backing the fat feminist RINO Dede Scozzafava (sp?) instead of Doug Hoffman. That may be the straw the breaks the elephant's back.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/26/2009 14:35 Comments ||
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#4
If Hoffman wins it (latest poll has Dede fading fast), they'll welcome him into the caucus with open arms, and suddenly the GOP will be amazingly conservative-friendly.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/26/2009 16:22 Comments ||
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#5
Yup. We don't want to gut the RNC, we want them to see the errors of their ways.
And if they don't, then gut them ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/26/2009 16:32 Comments ||
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#6
The GOP left me a long time ago. Maybe when they go back to their governmental conservative roots I'll give 'em another chance.
Until then, I will support local guys/gals I like and give them money. Screw the RNC.
#8
They appear to be incapable of really leraning, only temporarily aping the grass roots until they think we are placated. Not going to happen this time.
Gut the RNC, NRCC and NRSC like a trout. Quickly, and get that crap-filled junk out in a hurry, so we can rebuild it, clean.
Or else, they lose us, forever.
Hey Steele (you wimpy kissass for agreeing that the Rep Convention looked like an SS rally), Pete Sessions (responsible for sending Scuzzyfavor 6 figures of support which was used to ATTACK HOFFMAN instead of the Dem opponent!) and Sen Corynyn (fail by endorsing RINO Crist in a primary), how about all you guys ask the Whigs how they are doing -- they failed like you did, failed to have any discernible principles.
Start going back to conservative valuesfree enterprise, free markets, limited government, low taxes, the sanctity and dignity of life, protecting the family, individual responsibility, and a strong national defense. Truly believe that are best for America.
The best way to defend our individual freedoms and liberty is to not just to articulate those values, but to apply them consistently.
All the GOP in general needs to do is to get back to the above -- and (To steal a paragraph from the Republican Conservative Caucus) make everyone accountable like this:
We are committed first to God, then to family, then to country, then to conservatism, and only then to our political party. Consequently, although we are proud Republicans, we will not hesitate to hold everyone in account based on not only words, but also deeds, including ourselves, when we fail to adhere to founding principles.
That's the only way to rescue the GOP. Otherwise it will continue to self destruct as a party with no principles, one that stands for anything and falls to everything.
When software firm MobilVox wanted to break into the lucrative world of defense contracting, it pursued an unmistakable strategy: It expanded operations from its Northern Virginia base in Rep. James P. Moran's congressional district to the southwestern Pennsylvania district of Rep. John P. Murtha.
Working with two of the most powerful members of a House subcommittee that controls Pentagon spending, the company also hired lobbying firms that employed former top aides of both the Democratic lawmakers and Mr. Murtha's brother. Company executives and their lobbyists donated thousands of dollars to the two congressmen.
Soon, money flowed the other way.
Between 2003 and 2009, Mr. Murtha and Mr. Moran helped delliver $12 million to MobilVox in earmarks - money that is set aside by lawmakers for pet projects in the government's annual spending bills. The latest House defense spending bill introduced and pushed through by Mr. Murtha includes an additional $2 million earmark for MobilVox requested by Mr. Moran. The bill is currently pending in conference committee.
MobilVox, the two lawmakers and the lobbyists hired by the company insist they followed all congressional rules and campaign fundraising laws, and that all earmark decisions were made on their merit. None has been accused of any wrongdoing.
But MobilVox's success fits a pattern of doing business in Washington that ethics watchdogs deride as a "pay-to-play" system - one that became infamous during Republican years and continues to operate under a Democratic leadership that had promised to change a "culture of corruption" in Washington.
Mr. Moran's and Mr. Murtha's relationship with MobilVox "raises red flags. It is not subtle. It looks bad," said Joel Hefley, a retired Republican congressman from Colorado who chaired the House ethics committee when that panel admonished then-Majority leader Tom DeLay for ethical lapses earlier this decade.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Why is it that Dante's Inferno comes to mind when I think of Murtha?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/26/2009 10:30 Comments ||
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Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) on Sunday backed state Sen. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) to replace him in the House of Representatives after he steps down in January.
Wexler resigned just over two weeks ago to head the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation, a Washington think-tank.
"I want to especially thank Congressman Robert Wexler, who has done such an extraordinary job representing the people of the 19th Congressional District over the last thirteen years,' Deutch said in a release. "Every day in Congress, he fights for the seniors and families of Palm Beach and Broward Counties. His support and commitment to Israel is one that I will passionately continue. His commitment to the people is a model for how I want to serve in Congress."
Deutch also received the backing of Florida Democratic Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Alcee Hastings and Ron Klein, all of whom represent South Florida.
Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) has yet to set a date for the special election to replace Wexler. Former Broward County Commissioner Ben Graber is the only other Democratic candidate to officially announce. Businessman Ed Lynch (R) is the only Republican running in the heavily Democratic district.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Deutch-bag:)
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/26/2009 14:36 Comments ||
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#2
Somewhere along the line his family lost an S. It bothers me every time I see his name -- thank goodness I don't live in his district!
Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch brought up a claim he said "some people" have made that President Barack Obama is waiting until after this year's gubernatorial election in New Jersey and Virginia before making a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan, adding that those people were "hyper-critical" and that "he hoped that's not the case."
"Some people have even been, I think, hyper-critical in suggesting that he's waiting until after the election because they have some tough governorships up for election" Hatch said In an appearance on CNN's State of the Union with John King, "I hope that's not the case."
Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said he knows Hatch didn't say he believes that, but called it "outrageous ... that partisans in this country would say that the President of the United States" is delaying the decision on troops for political reasons.
On ABC's "This Week" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to frame the Virginia governor's race - where polls show Republican Bob McDonnell firmly in the lead - as a referendum on the Democratic majority in Congress.
Calling the race a "test case," McConnell said the race showed Democratic approach was losing support from the American people.
"I think this is clearly not working" for Democrats, McConnell said, noting that Virginia Democratic gubernatorial contender Creigh Deeds had complained about the environment in Washington.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"outrageous ... that partisans in this country would say that the President of the United States" is delaying the decision on troops for political reasons.
But... he is. And the Media is, once again, giving him cover by not mentioning how long he's been sitting on it while our troops are dying.
#5
When it comes to Afghanistan, Obama is working very hard on his golf game.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/26/2009 10:27 Comments ||
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#6
Hey, Sherwood!
What's outrageous is that your little pencil necked chicken shit narcissist of a so-called leader can't stop wetting his pants over making a decision that W would have made in a New York minute.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/26/2009 14:39 Comments ||
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#7
"'I hope' Obama not delaying troop decision to help Corzine and Deeds"
He is.
And it won't.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/26/2009 19:23 Comments ||
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Bruce Josten, chief lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said on Fox News Sunday that that Barack Obama had backtracked on his campaign promise to change the tone in Washington when the White House upped its criticism of the Chamber.
There's a surprise.
"I don't know where the name-calling came from," Josten said.
President Obama's mouth, presumably.
"We're not going to play the game of name-calling back-and-forth," Josten said in the interview.
No, indeed. May I suggest you continue matching name calling with devastating facts -- so much more effective, I've always thought.
Noting that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel would soon be addressing the group, Josten suggested that both sides were trying to move on from the rift.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2009 00:00 ||
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The Democrats' decade-long push into Virginia - a national bragging point they were moving into the once-solid Republican South - may be coming to an end.
Polls suggest the Republicans could win the governor's office on Nov. 3 for the first time in more than a decade. One of only two statewide races this year - the other is the governor's race in New Jersey - the Virginia contest is being watched as a referendum not only on the Democrats' appeal in the region, but also on the party's agenda next door in Washington.
President Barack Obama will campaign in the state on Tuesday to help boost fellow Democrat Creigh Deeds, a state senator from rural western Virginia. In a troubling sign for the Democrats, however, White House aides speaking on background already have started taking shots at Deeds as a poor candidate, lest pundits blame Obama for his defeat.
Whether Virginia's and New Jersey's gubernatorial elections are the first signs of ratification of the previous year's presidential election or early warnings of a popular backlash is a perennial question.
Virginia has a 30-year tradition of voting in governor's races against the party that holds the White House, so a turn this time against the Democrats might be discounted as routine.
The Old Dominion, however, also has emerged in recent years as a national bellwether, and if Deeds loses, that could signal problems for the Democrats nationally in next year's mid-term congressional elections. Obama won the state in 2008 with 52.6 percent of the popular vote, the closest state to his national average of 52.9 percent.
"Virginia is the new Peoria," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato, referring to the Illinois city once used as a sociological test lab because it so closely reflected the average American community
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2009 00:00 ||
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The National Republican Congressional Committee remains committed to embattled GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava in the upstate New York House special election, even as many of the party's top names throw their support to Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman. This is why the NRCC doesn't deserve to recapture the House in 2010 ... And likely won't...
Two party officials tell POLITICO that the NRCC will continue to air TV ads propping up Scozzafava in the days leading up to the Nov. 3 contest and plans to keep up a near relentless barrage of press releases slamming Hoffman. Brilliant. When the Dems capture the seat the NRCC can then try to figure out how to pick up the pieces and win in 2010. Only Hoffman won't be their man, Dede will slink away, and they'll have no one to run against a now incumbent Dhimmicrat.
Scozzafava, a state assemblywoman who supports gay marriage, abortion rights and has a close relationship with leading labor officials in her region, has been the target of sustained criticism from conservatives who claim she is too liberal for them to support her candidacy.
Hoffman, an accounting executive, is attracting an ever-growing group of conservative backers, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) have also endorsed the third-party candidate.
Public and private polls have shown Hoffman gaining on Scozzafava but both trail the Democratic nominee, attorney Bill Owens.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"but both trail the Democratic nominee, attorney Bill Owens"
And what would their combined total be? If only one of them were running, would the Republican candidate be ahead? I still believe that Hoffman, how much I like him notwithstanding, is splitting the Republican vote and allowing the Democrats an easy win.
#2
if Hoffman dropped out, and Dede won, he would still be throwing the seat to a Democrat... but Dede would do more damage than a non DIABLO as it would give the rest of the donks cover when she votes along with them to enact Soci@list nirvana
Posted by: abu do you love ||
10/26/2009 2:47 Comments ||
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#3
I still believe that Hoffman, how much I like him notwithstanding the local gang o' idiots running the District 23 Republican Party and their enablers in the NRCC who still don't get it, are splitting the Republican vote and allowing the Democrats an easy win.
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/26/2009 7:56 Comments ||
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#5
The NRCC has no desire to run 'conservative'. They just want a piece of the pie that they concede in total to the Donks. Running another Donk against a Donk is not a choice because they vote the same on issues. The only issues the NRCC is interested in is perks they get in Congress from the ruling party.
#7
Conservatives and Republicans are showing stupid again.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/26/2009 10:23 Comments ||
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#8
Just sent back two RNC pools/fund raisers with notes about Dede, Crist and the rest of the Rinos with no money. I sent the original envelopes too because I think it costs them more.
#9
Crosspatch, its not Hoffman that's splitting the Republican vote you nitwit, its Scozzafava that's splitting it - she's in LAST place. Give up the political asskissing.
#10
Richard, why should I donate money to the RNCC when they spend it on someone who is pro-union, pro-cardcheck, pro-tax (100+ votes to raise them as a state legislator), pro-spending (backed Porkulus), pro-abortion (Margaret Sanger award winner), and backed by ACORN groups, Daily Kos and other left wing special interests? Why shoudl I support someone that will repeatedly vote with Pelosi regardless of party label? All that in a district that has been conservative and republican for over a CENTURY!
Explain that one to me - how is it "stupid" of me to with hold my support for someone that epitomizes all the things I oppose?
The GOP is NOT going to recapture the house - they keep thinking the way to win is to abandon core principles of small government, strong defense, limited spending and lower taxes.
As long as they do that, THEY WILL LOSE.
The GOP is self destructing, so don't blame ME and those like me for the idiocy of the Beltway-Manhattan cocktail party elite power-mongering morons at the top of the party.
Maybe its time for the GOP to disappear like the Whig party did -- it now stands for nothing except power for its own upper crust, no philosophical soul anymore. Its is now a Zombie and deserves to die.
We have been trying from the inside for years now to overcome that idiot George W Bush and his "big government" Rockefeller gobshites. The only thing Bush got right was the war and tax cuts. Everything else he was a walking disaster, I wish they HAD impeached him. Perhaps its now time to let them fall and go elsewhere.
Sorry, but we cannot continue a guerrilla war from inside the GOP forever. We're getting tired, and some of us are getting old and ill.
#12
What OldSpook said, with that some are young and pissed off. Seems like every time I consider registering R they do something like this; good to see Tiahrt on the page.
#13
NY23 is a shot across the bow for the RNC in 2010. If you do not listen to your conservative base, now, you might not elect anybody next year.
On top of that, Palin appears to set the agenda, with Pawlenty just following.
Those two factors must set panic amongst the Trunk elite; hence the effort to support the RINO in NY23. The only way to snuff out the Palin brushfire is to elect a Democrat, there-by rendering the Palinites and Tea Parties neutered and dispirited.
Forget Iowa, 2012 is being fought in the Adirondacks.
#14
I said this yesterday on another NY-23 thread, but probably too late for anyone to respond - hope it's okay if I repeat...
This is the perfect time and place for Sarah to fire a really large-bore shot across the R(INO)NC "leadership's" bow. I'm not talking about just a Hoffman endorsement via her MySpace page - I'm talking about hopping on a plane to Albany, showing up in the district, speaking at campaign events, working the phones and knocking on doors during the day, and bunking in with local families at night.
If she did this, there's a good chance that both the real Dem and the DIABLO would get absolutely plowed under on election day. Sure, not a hell of a lot of near-term impact on the House floor, but if it worked, Sarah could firmly establish her ability to work around the MSM's hostility and move the needle for conservative candidates. The Trunk leadership could then ignore her only at the risk of becoming a permanent minority.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
10/26/2009 21:32 Comments ||
Top||
A series of upsets and close calls in big-city elections is producing the first group of politicians to fall victim to voters' economic frustrations: America's mayors.
While political observers are focused on the outcome of the Nov. 3 gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey for early insights into the 2010 midterms, it's in City Hall where the most ominous trend is emerging.
Some incumbent mayors have already lost their races. Others have held on to win--or are likely to win next week--with greatly diminished margins from their previous re-election bids. Either way, local incumbents are bleeding badly after being buffeted by the pressures of high unemployment, low tax revenues and a volatile, impatient electorate.
What percentage of embattled mayors are Democrats versus Republicans vs. Other?
Can't tell from the article, can you ...
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, a second-term incumbent and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, was defeated for re-election in an August primary by two candidates with thin political resumes. On October 6, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez fell short in his bid for a third consecutive term, putting the city's top office in Republican hands for the first time in a quarter-century.
Even for mayors who have survived re-election campaigns, the results haven't been pretty. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who beat an incumbent by 18 points to win the seat in 2005, won a second term earlier this year with just 56 percent of the vote despite facing no significant opposition.
In two more elections coming up next month, high-profile mayors are expected to prevail, though by considerably smaller margins than they've been accustomed to winning. Boston's Tom Menino, who barely cracked 50 percent in a September primary election, is drawing support from just 52 percent of likely voters in his bid for a fifth term. New York City's Michael Bloomberg, too, attracted just 52 percent of votes in a recent poll.
In 2005, Menino won by a 35-point landslide while Bloomberg won by close to 20 points.
"People are lashing out, have less patience with the elected officials closest to them," said Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, the longest-serving mayor in city history and a former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "That kind of angst materializes either in walking away from the system or in deciding that whoever is up for election must have played some role, somehow, in some way, in the international financial crisis."
Abramson, who is running for lieutenant governor of Kentucky in 2011, doesn't have to face the voters this year. But for other mayors, the national environment represents a more immediate threat.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hey, if it were me, I'd have them all replaced. Getting institutionalized is really destructive for elected officials.
#3
Fact is most urban areas are Democrat blue and are unlikely to replace the Democrat with a Republican. So the replacements are coming from other liberals, either other Democrats or Greens or something.
#4
On October 6, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez fell short in his bid for a third consecutive term, putting the city's top office in Republican hands for the first time in a quarter-century.
Given the Peter Principle, Marty was a competent mayor. Not perfect and with tendencies to expand the city bureaucracy and push small things that just ratcheted up the annoyance factors. However, the city charter said two consecutive terms. He judge shopped to find someone, outside the city, to kill that provision. That upset a lot of people who'd otherwise have voted for him if he took a term off and then returned to run again. Instead he alienated too many with that little game.
#5
In some cities the mayor has practically no power so it doesn't matter what party he is. The power in many cities is in the city council. Those are the most interesting races to me.
#6
The Republicans could throw a monkey wrench into Obama's base by suggesting that the federal government should impose a non-partisan "charter government" on Chicago. The Daley machine would freak out.
Preparations for Manmohan Singhs visit to Washington on November 24 have begun on a negative signal to the Obama administration with a decision by the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) to host former President George W. Bush for dinner at Singhs residence at the end of this month.
Bush is visiting New Delhi on October 30 and 31 at the invitation of an Indian newspaper and will speak at a conference organised in New Delhi on October 31 on America Re-engaging with the World: Challenges, Opportunities and Risks.
Arguably stung by the PMOs insensitivity in ostentatiously receiving the bete noir of the Democratic establishment here just over three weeks before Singhs arrival at the White House, the Obama administration announced yesterday that US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will make her first trip to Islamabad.
Clinton, a long-time friend of India, has tried her best to prevent a return to hyphenated Indo-Pakistan relations under the Obama administration and had refused to include Pakistan in the 229,528km that she has flown in her nine months in office.
Despite the strategic importance of Pakistan in the Afghan conundrum that is confronting President Barack Obama, Clinton has so far left it to her minions to deal with the broad leadership in Islamabad.
But that will change with her first trip, which was significantly announced at a briefing by Richard Holbrooke, Obamas special envoy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose prickly equations with New Delhi are well publicised here.
On the record, of course, no one in the Obama administration will say anything negative about the Bush trip to India because civility in political discourse is valued in the US. Nor will they suggest a Bush-India link in Clintons sudden decision to travel to Islamabad soon.
A source close to Clinton, however, said she recalled being kept hanging in her Senate office in 2001 while Sonia Gandhi repeatedly changed plans to meet her. The Indian embassy here had advised the Congress president that the Bush administration would not look favourably on a meeting with the former First Lady-turned-Democratic Senator from New York.
Instructions have gone out from the state department to the US embassy in New Delhi to extend all the courtesies that are due to a former American head of state and the ambassador in New Delhi, Timothy Roemer, will be correct, but not effusive in dealing with Bush.
But in private conversations, officials of the Obama administration, especially Democratic political appointees, make no secret of their sense of hurt over New Delhis decision.
This sense of hurt is shared by liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill, where enthusiasm about the Prime Ministers visit was palpable until it became widely known here that the man whom many of them consider to be a war criminal is being needlessly feted in New Delhi at this time.
We are rolling out the red carpet for your Prime Minister, pointed out one Obama administration official. Singhs is the first state visit to be organised by the Obama administration. And what do you do? Invite the man who triggered the end of my countrys superpower status and brought shame to America worldwide.
Said a Congressional aide: In New Delhi people have been complaining for nine months, quite mistakenly, that Obama has downgraded the relationship with India. You have complaints about Obamas nuclear policy, his climate policy and his trade policy.
So the President decides to organise a grand show of bonhomie with your Prime Minister in the White House. Instead of making the most of this opportunity by both sides, your response is to slap us in the face by inviting the one man who is responsible for most of the problems on Obamas shoulders.
The wide-ranging sense of betrayal in hosting Bush little over three weeks before Singh travels to Washington is partly the result of a feeling here perhaps mistaken that it was the PMO which organised the invitation to Bush to visit New Delhi.
Some Americans insist that the US embassy in New Delhi had sent cables earlier, reporting government feelers to think tanks and non-government institutions to invite Bush to give a lecture in India as an excuse for the UPA government to thank him for what he did for Indo-US relations.
Sources who have seen these cables said such feelers began after Bush made his first trip outside North America in April to attend the Boao Forum in China, which is similar to the conference the former President will address in New Delhi on October 31.
In March, Bush made a feeble attempt to enter the lucrative lecture circuit by making a test trip to Calgary, Canada, where 1,500 people paid $400 per person to hear the former President. But protesters outnumbered listeners, media were kept out of the hall and the trip was deemed a disaster.
The only other known overseas trip made by Bush since relinquishing office was to South Korea in August to speak at an economic forum organised by the Federation of Korean Industries. But in this case, Korean industries had been working with him to overcome Republican opposition in the US Congress to the ratification of a Korea-US free trade agreement.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/26/2009 16:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
W. Bush is heralded in India like Nixon was in China, for the same reason. For decades, Washington blew off India as unimportant, and W. Bush was the only one who saw its power and importance, which was derided at the time by both political parties.
W. Bush's timing in opening India was also top drawer, as they had a great combination of an effective, pro-business president, and a brilliant foreign minister.
#2
no one in the Obama administration will say anything negative about the Bush trip to India because civility in political discourse is valued in the US.
Wow. This guy has not been paying very much attention to the Obama administration.
Instructions have gone out from the state department to the US embassy in New Delhi to extend all the courtesies that are due to a former American head of state and the ambassador in New Delhi, Timothy Roemer, will be correct, but not effusive in dealing with Bush.
But in private conversations, officials of the Obama administration, especially Democratic political appointees, make no secret of their sense of hurt over New Delhis decision.
This sense of hurt is shared by liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill, where enthusiasm about the Prime Ministers visit was palpable until it became widely known here that the man whom many of them consider to be a war criminal is being needlessly feted in New Delhi at this time.
These little twits need to go back to Beverly Hills High until they grow up.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
10/26/2009 16:51 Comments ||
Top||
#3
More such slights will be coming from allies that Bush treated as equals and Obama treats as children.
#4
Singh's is the first state visit to be organised by the Obama administration. And what do you do? Invite the man who triggered the end of my country's superpower status and brought shame to America worldwide.
W. T. F ?!??!!!
Do these Obama morons actually believe that?
If Bush "triggered the end of my country's superpower status", its only in his role of getting Obama re-elected with the "I hate Bush" vote. Obama is the one detroying our superpower status, daily by surrendering damn near any time he is confronted, selling out the free peoples in Ira, dithering over Afghanistan while our soldiers die there undersupported, gettign completely ripped by Russia in giving up BMD for *nothing* in return, etc.
Obama has made the US a joke, and these turds want to blame it on Bush?
By God, I almost wish the Almighty Himself would wipe DC and these vermin from the face of the planet.
#5
What's the big deal? They're just gonna chat about the times they hung out with the Dalai Lama, the occasional times they could tell China to go piss up a rope, that kind of thing. Obama couldn't add anything to that conversation, anyway.
#11
FTA: "In March, Bush made a feeble attempt to enter the lucrative lecture circuit by making a test trip to Calgary, Canada, where 1,500 people paid $400 per person to hear the former President. But protesters outnumbered listeners, media were kept out of the hall and the trip was deemed a disaster."
Funny, this is the first I've heard that his talk was a "disaster". I guess there are new criteria for the term.
#14
ION BAMMER-AND-DUBYA, MEMRI [10/23]> US BORN IMAM ANWAR AL-AWAKI ON THE STATE OF THE JIHAD EIGHT YEARS AFTER 9-11. THE USA CANNOT AND WILL NOT WIN - THERE IS NO ROLLING BACK [stopping[ THE WORLDWIDE JIHAD. IFF AMERICA COULD NOT DEFEAT THE MUJAHEDDEN WHEN IT GAVE ITS PRESIDENT [POTUS Dubya] UNLIMITED SUPPORT, HOW CAN IT WIN WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA ON A SHORT LEASH, [and] HOW CAN IT WIN WITH A RECESSION - IFF NOT A DEPRESSION - AT HAND???
D *** NG IT, once again its too early in the AM for long titles.
ARTIC = The Worldwide = Universal Jihad, including numbers of new Mujahedden + new pro-Muslim/Islamist enclaves, etc. continues to grow and proliferate around the World. IOW, ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME AFORE THE DECADENT INFIDEL CRUSADER ZIONIST US-WEST GOES DOWN.
#15
And then comes WMF > RUSSIAN MEDIAS: THE WORLD WILL BECOME CHINESE AS FUTURE SUPERPOWER CHINA MODERNIZES BUT FAILS TO BECOME WHOLLY WESTERNIZED/FUTURE SUPERPOWER CHINA WILL ASSIMILATE THE WORLD, NOT VICE VERSA.
China may revert back to CONFUCIANISM and forms of CHIN BUDDHISM albeit partially modified.
versus
CHIN MIL FORUM POSTER > YEAR 2020-2050 > ENTIRE STRUCTURE OF EAST ASIA as known since the end of WW2 + post-Cold War WILL CHANGE.
SUPPORT YOUR [post]OWG-NWO GLOBAL SHAOLIN.
OOOOOOO, you just know Radical Islam + their GLOBAL JIHAD will have something to say about OWG CHIN + GLOBAL CONFUCIANISM-SHAOLIN. ETC.
OUTSTANDING 2020-2100 21st CENTURY FOR POPCORN FUTURES.
#16
OOOOOOPPPPPSIES, forgot WMF > STALINIST RUSSIA DEMANDED THE SOVEREIGN BREAKUP OF CHIN MONGOLIA IN RETURN FOR SOVIET ASSISTANCE AGZ JAPAN'S INVASION OF CHINA [Chiang-Kai Shek angry at Stalin's demand, but was mil too weak agz Japan].
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Their names won't be on the ballot, but no one will have more impact on the Nov. 3 judicial election than former Luzerne County president judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. Their arrest on racketeering charges in a still-unspooling federal corruption probe has, fairly or unfairly, framed the race for four seats on the county bench.
In documents filed this week in Alaska's long-running political corruption investigation, the government's lead witness said he had given thousands of dollars in gifts to "United States Representative A" -- who could only be Republican Rep. Don Young.
In a crowded ballroom next to a bankrupt casino, what remains of the Detroit property market was being picked over by speculators and mostly discarded.
President Obama told an audience at a Democratic Party fundraiser Wednesday night that Republicans often do what theyre told, but GOP voters dont think their legislators listen enough to them. 
When software firm MobilVox wanted to break into the lucrative world of defense contracting, it pursued an unmistakable strategy: It expanded operations from its Northern Virginia base in Rep. James P. Moran's congressional district to the southwestern Pennsylvania district of Rep. John P. Murtha.
Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch brought up a claim he said "some people" have made that President Barack Obama is waiting until after this year's gubernatorial election in New Jersey and Virginia before making a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan, adding that those people were "hyper-critical" and that "he hoped that's not the case."
Bruce Josten, chief lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said on Fox News Sunday that that Barack Obama had backtracked on his campaign promise to change the tone in Washington when the White House upped its criticism of the Chamber. 
The Democrats' decade-long push into Virginia - a national bragging point they were moving into the once-solid Republican South - may be coming to an end.
While political observers are focused on the outcome of the Nov. 3 gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey for early insights into the 2010 midterms, it's in City Hall where the most ominous trend is emerging. 
