So how excited are you

About your State and local races? Yall should have Representatives running? Some of us have Senate races as well. So, who is excited about them? Who is not so much? Is there anyone here who is considering crossing parties down ticket? If so, why? How are your down ticket competitions looking?

Here in Oregon we have a couple going. I am very interested in our Senate race. I really want to give Gordon the boot. I voted for Novick, but I am perfectly happy with Merkley, and will be making sure I encourage people to learn more about him.

pretty sure Mark Udall (D) will be an easy win. So we will have 1 1/2 Democratic Senators from Colorado. Salazar is not much of a democrat and wimpy, a follower vs a leader.

But there was a part of me hoping that Elway would run so that I could donate money to whoever was opposite him. There is a man who I hold in a totally irrational hate.

That should be fun to watch.

good things.

Is he any relation to John Warner?

We're trading Sen. Warner (R-VA) for Sen. Warner (D-VA).

I'm supporting the middle aged white lady policy wonk over the younger black dude--go figure! There's no real polling here so I'm really concerned. Kevin Johnson is a basketball star who apparently has had affairs with underage girls and sits squarely in the pocket of developers. His ascendancy will be a disaster for the city.

Doris Matsui, my congresswoman, is someone I generally admire. But she won't change her pledge to Hillary even though we voted overwhelmingly for Obama. I'm watching her closely now.

Otherwise, we just have a few shitty ballot measures coming up, as far as I'm aware of now.

mayoral candidate? I hate it when there is no real polling. regular polls are sucky enough as is, when there is nothing, its hard to know whether you are gaining any ground at all.

She's okay. The city has really come up in the world under her administration. It's mostly the work of people (artists, gallery owners, restaurateurs, club owners, hipsters, etc.) but at least the government isn't doing a lot to stop them.

Yeah, I'm not familiar with his opponent, but I'm sure you're picking the right person. lol

I was willing to give him a shot but he just kept looking worse and worse.

The gubernatorial race here in WA promises to be a nasty one, though, and I'm dreading it. Hopefully more voters will have a clear-cut idea of who they want to lead this state, but Dino Rossi will run a nasty campaign to be sure. Christine Gregoire has gained in popularity here since she took office. I am thinking she'll probably win re-election by more than 400 votes this time. lol

Also added that I recently signed a petition to get an our "death with dignity" initiative on the ballot. I hope we got enough signatures!!

How confidant are yall feeling on Gregoire? I remember getting a few earfuls on that last time round from friends up across the border.

from the last election, and there is a strong conservative voice here in WA in spite of the deep blue blood that courses through Seattle. I've never seen a race so close as the one in 2004, and she was highly unpopular when she took office. I think this was caused in most part to the sour taste people had in their mouths over the previous governor, Gary Locke, having woefully damaged the state with drastic Republican-esque budget cuts.

But over the last 4 years, that has changed. She's also helped by the fact that Dino Rossi dragged the election process through the courts for months after she took office, long after people were ready to move on. She is popular with state legislators on both sides of the aisle and has a decent approval rating of around 54%, I believe.

So I think her chances are quite good for her re-election.

The same old Dems will win again no doubt.

How do you think Gregoire will do? I think her chances are good.

My district is totally, totally blue. So other than Arnold, who's acting decent as of late, I'm cool.

I'll be getting involved as soon as the nominee is officially named. I'm exhausted due to Sen. Clinton. She does that to people. :(

about a... 0. Neither of my Senators is up for re-election and the pathetic pukes here can't even come up with a sacrificial lamb to run against my freshman rep. My puke governor will win because both a dem and a progressive party candidate are running. My local reps to the Statehouse are safe.

Which governor is that?

Merkely has a decent chance at unseating Gordon Smith, the bastard.

It was an ugly primary though.

You know how Republicans have lost three seats in the house by running against Obama, and losing?

Well, Merkely ran some negative ads against Novick, his dem primary competitor, using some unflattering things Novick had to say against Obama.

Weird.

That was a little weird to me. I did not care for that Ad at all. I wouldn't have thought anyone here would have needed to run negative ads this time around, definitely not in the primary.

I was surprised that Merkley got it, given all the polling I had seen went against him, and most of it lined up otherwise with the actual results in the aftermath comparison.