Author Archives: Jim Ellis

It’s Official for Candidates in PA, OR

Two more states now have official 2014 candidates as office seekers in Pennsylvania and Oregon made their political intentions official this week.

Pennsylvania

Gov. Tom Corbett (R) is facing one Republican primary challenger, while six Democrats will battle for their party’s nomination to be decided May 20. The eventual Democrat standard bearer will have a strong chance of unseating Corbett, who continues to post some of the worst job approval ratings in the country.

With businessman Tom Wolf out to an early lead after unleashing a major positive and clever media buy, Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA-13), state Treasurer Rob McCord and three others who comprise the Democratic field are forced to play catch-up.

With no US Senate contest in the Keystone Continue reading >

Sink Sunk in FL-13

In a stunning final special election result from Florida last night, Republican David Jolly, who opponents painted as a Washington lobbyist representing an organization that favors Social Security privatization, upset favored Democratic candidate Alex Sink in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. The campaign’s conclusion carries national implications.

The Affordable Care Act was front and center throughout the contest, with Jolly touting his opposition to the program and Sink relying on a catch phrase of “keeping what’s right [with the healthcare program] and fixing what’s wrong”. Her argument, before a Sunshine State congressional district with the sixth largest segmentation of people (in Florida) over 65 years of age (22.8 percent), apparently fell upon largely disbelieving ears.

Jolly won the race 48.5 – 46.6 percent, with 4.8 percent going to Libertarian Party nominee Lucas Overby. The Republican victory margin was 3,456 votes from a huge total of 183,627 ballots cast.
Continue reading >

Gary Peters’ Boonstra Blunder in the Michigan Senate Race

http://youtu.be/YC2LlVyPPxQ

Things haven’t gone quite to plan for Rep. Gary Peters (D-MI-14) in his bid to succeed retiring Sen. Carl Levin (D).

When the senator announced he wouldn’t be seeking re-election early last year, Rep. Peters immediately jumped into the race and very quickly sewed up consensus party Continue reading >

Wendy Davis’s Potential Problem

While the major news media is covering Sen. John Cornyn’s (R) strong win in Tuesday night’s Texas primary, a different story lies beneath the surface in the Lone Star state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.

State Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Ft. Worth) easily won her party’s nomination for governor attracting 78.4 percent of the vote, but she did lose 25 counties to an opponent, Reynaldo “Ray” Madrigal, who was virtually a candidate in absentia. Though losing 25 of 237 counties is an insignificant number in and of itself, the location of her under-performing entities is what could pose her an additional general election problem.

It is clear that Sen. Davis begins this race as an underdog to Attorney General Greg Abbott, who captured 91.5 percent of the Republican primary vote. Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat to any statewide office since 1990. It hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter carried the state in 1976. Lloyd Bentsen is the last Democratic US senator voted into Continue reading >

Texas Tallies: Cornyn Wins Easily, Hall in Run-off

Senate

The first-in-the-nation primary vote was held yesterday, and few surprises were noted. Sen. John Cornyn (R), facing seven Republican opponents including Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX-36), was successfully renominated capturing 58.7 percent of the vote with just over 90 percent of the vote counted at this writing. Rep. Stockman scored 18.8 percent, and Tea Party favorite Dwyane Stovall posted 10.6 percent.

With Stockman entering late and virtually disappearing on the campaign trail and Stovall raising very little money, what could have become a serious intra-party challenge to the two-term senator fizzled. Now, Cornyn looks forward to romping home in the general election.

For the Democrats, North Texas dentist David Alameel, a former congressional candidate, fell just short of winning the Continue reading >

Beauprez Will Run

Former Rep. Bob Beauprez (R-CO-7) filed papers yesterday to again run for governor in Colorado. He left the House to run unsuccessfully for this position in what evolved into the Democratic landslide year of 2006, and now he attempts a comeback. Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) appears vulnerable against what, heretofore, seemed a weak Republican field. A Beauprez entry will change the flow of the campaign.

In 2002, Beauprez claimed a 121-vote victory in the first ever congressional race in what was then Colorado’s new 7th District, located in the Denver suburbs. The seat was drawn to be marginal and the results certainly proved the design. In his first and only re-election, Beauprez notched a 55 percent win.

After the Beauprez announcement, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him quickly ascend to the top of the Republican primary polls. Considering this development, the Colorado gubernatorial campaign becomes more serious.

Two Ex-Congressmen Returning in Mississippi

Candidate filing closed in Mississippi on Saturday and two former US congressmen, both defeated for re-election in 2010, will return to appear on the federal ballot again this year.

In a move that had been speculated upon for several weeks, former 1st District Rep. Travis Childers, defeated 55-41 percent by current Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R) in 2010, officially entered the US Senate race. Childers won an upset victory in a 2008 1st District (Tupelo; Columbus; Memphis suburbs) special election after then-Rep. Roger Wicker (R) was appointed to the Senate. He was re-elected to a full term six months later, serving a total of two and one-half years in the House.

But former Rep. Gene Taylor’s political comeback is more surprising. The former congressman won a special election back in 1989 after Republican incumbent Larkin Smith died in a plane crash, and then served 21 consecutive years as a Democrat in a deep red conservative district before losing Continue reading >