Monday’s political round-up

October 22, 2007

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* Rep. Bobby Jindal (R) won Louisiana’s gubernatorial election on Saturday, easily cruising past a wide-open field. In his second run for the office, Jindal garnered 54% of the vote, enough to avoid a run-off, and well ahead of his closest competitor, Democrat Walter Boasso, who had 18%. Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants, will be the nation’s youngest sitting governor (he’s 36), and is Louisiana’s first non-white governor since Reconstruction.

* Chris Dodd, hoping for a strong showing in Iowa, is moving into the Hawkeye State with his family for the next few months. According to an LAT report, “The Dodd family has rented a house in Des Moines for the duration to be closer to the prairie campaign scene… His wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, is moving to the Midwest too, along with their two daughters, 6-year-old Grace and 2-year-old Christina. They’ve even enrolled Grace in kindergarten.”

* Barack Obama unveiled his latest campaign commercial, called “Conventional,” which will begin airing in New Hampshire today. In the spot, his third, Obama tells a small roomful of people, “We are a beacon of light around the world. At least that’s what we can be again. That’s what we should be again. When we break out of the conventional thinking and we start reaching out to friend and foe alike, then I am absolutely confident that we can restore America’s leadership in the world. We’re going to lead with our values and our ideals by deed and by example. I want to go before the world and say America’s back. America is back.”

* Speaking of new ads, Bill Richardson unveiled a new spot today, called “Only One,” emphasizing the governor’s work as a diplomat. The ad features Kathy Daliberti, wife of former hostage Dave Daliberti, saying, “He’s the only one that was willing to, to leave his family, his wife behind, travel to a dangerous section of the world, for two men he didn’t even know.”

* AP: “Republican Party leaders on Monday recommended punishing five states for shifting their nomination contests earlier, moving to strip New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan and Wyoming of half their delegates.” Said Mike Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, “It’s very important that our party uphold and enforce the rules that we unanimously voted into place at the Republican National Convention in 2004.”

* In Michigan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Lt. Gov. John Cherry have announced that they will endorse Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

* Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) announced late last week that he will run for re-election next year, despite a brain aneurysm that kept Johnson from serving for much of the year. “After months of rehabilitation and recovery, more than a month on the job in Washington and after my recent trips back to South Dakota it is clear, to my family, my doctors, and me that I am able to do the hard work required of a United States Senator,” Johnson said in a statement. “I have said before that I wanted to take this second chance at life and focus even harder on being the best advocate I can for the people of South Dakota. Today I am asking South Dakotans to give me the chance to give back to them by announcing that I will run for reelection in 2008.”

* And Mike Gravel fans will be disappointed to learn that the former senator is not welcome at next week’s Democratic debate in Philadelphia: NBC News, sponsor of the two-hour debate along with the Democratic National Committee, said the former Alaska senator did not meet fundraising and polling requirements for the forum, which will be broadcast on MSNBC.” Gravel had $17,000 on hand as of the end of the third quarter.

good luck chris dodd!

  • The Dodd family has rented a house in Des Moines for the duration to be closer to the prairie campaign scene

    Sigh. Sorry to rant, but this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Des Moines is hardly “prairie.” The metro statistical area is about a half-million people. There are buildings more than 2 stories tall. DSM is second only to Hartford, Conn. in insurance headquarters. It has the 5th rated arts festival in the country, and the best endowed opera (per capita) in the country. It is (albeit little known) an architectural gem with buildings by Pei, Meyer, Sariinen, Chipperfield and Van de Rohe, as well as numerous disciples of Wright and Sullivan, and some stunning art deco style buildings, and a significant amount of public sculture includingseveral by Oldenburg. And there is not a cornstalk or wheat field for miles from the central city (except for those in the decorative plot at Meredith Publishing, which, along with August Home, is also headquartered in Des Moines).

  • ***New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan and Wyoming***

    Now have more reason than ever before to break from the culture of corruption that has been the foundation upon which stands the house of neoconservativism. I am especially hopeful that the good citizens of South Carolina will take this opportunity to reject the outright lie of the GOP—that they are the party of smaller, less-intrusive government—when that party takes upon itself to deny those citizens their Constitutionally-Guaranteed Right to Free Expression….

  • and its gotten much larger lately, too, JKap. makes it look even less like a prairie! although since it was my first job and i grew up near it, i think i left it out due to repression of certain memories 🙂

  • “He’s the only one that was willing to, to leave his family, his wife behind, travel to a dangerous section of the world, for two men he didn’t even know.”

    “Governor Richardson, Larry Craig on line one… He’d like in on that project.”

  • I am so baffled that so many have heedlessly replicated the racial booboo of the AP. Jindal in an “Indian-American” but Indians from the Asian subcontinent are Caucasian (look it up). It would more accurate to say he is the first non-Anglo white elected, but not the first non-white elected. Unless his tan skin counts as non-white, in which case Arabs, Greeks, and others of a darker hue all belong to another racial group, of which I am ignorant…would that be just the Non-white race?

  • I have been largely undecided about supporting anyone in the primaries, however, I am now donating to Chris Dodd – he is the only candidate I have heard state publicly that the first thing he would do is “restore the Constitution”.

    Tell your friends – we need more of this brand of leadership and less triangulating!

  • Zeitgeist @ 2:

    Sure, but the operative word is “closer” not “prairie”. And Des Moines is still “closer” to the prairie campaign scene than say… anywhere else.

  • I wonder how much time will elapse after Jindal’s inauguration as Governor of Louisiana before the drum beats start for Sen. Vitter’s resignation? Will the ascension of a Republican governor remind the Christianists about their issues with prostitution and law breaking? Or has too much time passed already?

  • Looks like the White House “strategy” of ignoring warnings about Katrina, doing nothing to speed evacuation, then doing nothing serious about reconstruction and nothing serious to resettle thousands of refugees – most of them likely Democratic voters – is finally paying dividends in the form of GOP statewide victories in Louisiana.

    Yah don’t think it was a deliberate strategy to cement Republican control of a swing state, rather than a very fortunate set of coincidences, do you? Naah. Couldn’t be. Could it? Naah.

  • Say no to censorship!! Please allow Mike Gravel to speak at the upcoming debate….whether or not you agree with him or not, this should not be o.k. with you!! Protest by e-mailing/calling MSNBC and The DNC….donate to Mike Gravel’s campaign on the 30th of October to make a statement!!

  • Um, RST, there have to be some standards otherwise you could have 20 candidates competing for limited time such that no one gets any meaningful speech. This is not censorship, it is a pragmatic reality. Gravel is an asterisk in every poll, has no money, and does not even appear to be trying to meaningfully compete in any way other than debates. He was in the early debates, he had time to catch fire. He didn’t. I really just dont find anything problematic about it.

  • Zeitgeist, how can anyone compete when they are given unfair time? When they are not asked the same important questions as the frontrunners? When the media has devoted thousands of hours to the frontrunners outside of the debates, but barely a few minutes to anyone else?

    Of course you don’t have an unlimited number of candidates, but you do give all of the qualified candidates a fair chance. Frankly, Gravel is more qualified than either Hillary or Obama. He has served more time in the Senate than either. He is the only of the three that has served in the military (intelligence). He was also elected and served in state government. Fought and won a supreme court case regarding the balance of powers and government secrecy. Released the Pentagon papers. Ended the draft.

    What have Hillary or Obama done that holds a candle to that? How are either of them even qualified to be President? Do you really believe that they will take hundreds of millions of dollars from interest groups and corporations without some kind of quid pro quo?

  • Shawn,

    you do give all of the qualified candidates a fair chance.

    But qualified in what way? And what is fair? Huckabee, who is doing well in Iowa, was on stage but got virtually no attention in last night’s Republican debate. Is that fair? In many of these debates with 8 candidates, each candidate gets a total of less than 10 minutes – is that a “fair chance” for any of them?

    Our system of choosing nominees is far from perfect. Gravel on the D side and Ron Paul on the R side may have been given short shrift right out of the gate because they were not long-forseen establishment candidates with existing war chests, etc. Is that fair? No. Is that how campaigns have worked since at least 1960? Yes. Did Gravel and Paul know that? Yes.

    And fair or not, whatever the reasons, as we get within 90 days of the caucuses and first primaries, the real focus needs to turn to those who are viable – because those are the real choices people will be making in January. Before anyone even goes there, I agree that “viability” is arbitrary and what is viable to Fox News may not be viable in my book and vice versa. But by anyone’s measure, it is simply impossible – not just improbable, impossible – in this world to anyone operating in reality for Gravel to win. He has $17,000 in the bank – not even enough to buy one flight of TV to show off those great credentials you listed. If there is truly no way he can win — and there is simply no measure whether polling or contributions to show any real mass support – and indeed he can barely travel enough or send enough mail or run spots to impact the debate, he takes time from those who can win.

    Voters need more than 10 minutes per candidate at this point. Realistically, it is Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson and Dodd (Biden leads Dodd in some Iowa polls, but Dodd has better fundraising, which will be key in the last 90 days). If cutting debates down to those 4 or 5 doubles the time each is presenting views to the public, that is more valuable than an all-inclusive but down-to-just-soundbites forum.

    I wont go into the entire mechanics tonight, but to get a delegate from any precinct in the Iowa caucuses, the rules require that at least 15% of those in attendance support a candidate. “Candidate preference groups” of under 15% of those in attendance and qualified to caucus are considered “non-viable” and have to “realign” or form a “noncommitted” delegate group. Given that in less than 90 days a candidate will need 15% to be eligible for any delegates, it would seem abundantly fair to start limiting debates to those with at least 1/3rd of that: 5%. Can anyone tell me a candidate who has gone from 5% or less to winning a caucus or primary within a 90 day period?

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