I will never forget when, one day in 1981, a knock was heard at my door… and there stood Mo Udall… I about fainted. It was August and hot outside so I ushered him in and gave him some ice water and we sat and talked politics for 10-15 minutes. That began a snail mail correspondence (email didn’t yet exist) that lasted up to a year prior to his passing.
What a way to ask for my vote!
Farley followed in that very tradition and that’s how I have come to be acquainted with him.
I know what you mean, but I console myself with this - majority with blue dogs is better than no majority, especially with less filibuster options, and it’s possible to persuade moderate dems to become more liberal.
My question is considering John McCain’s health, should the Dems be prepared for two senate races in Arizona?
Back in the day, his district used to be “Not Phoenix,” so he used to fly himself around the state to do constituent work. I don’t know how the hell he managed it either. Incredibly nice guy and political hero of mine. His brother Stewart wasn’t half bad himself, although waaaay before my time. I believe Mo took Stew’s seat when -JFK- appointed him Secretary of the Interior. So it’s been a fair bit of time.
I don’t disagree, except that the batshit crazy contingent has been around a lot longer than you suggest.
I don’t think that’s an apples to apples comparison. Justice was a republican who switched to dem because he had no chance of winning as a republican, and he was only a dem for 2 years. I don’t see much in his record to indicate that he actually supported any liberal policies whatsoever.
Yes, definitely. If McCain leaves office, either voluntarily or on his shield, the Gov appoints a replacement to serve until the next general election. So if it happens in the next year or so, there would be contested election for it in 2018 at the same time as Flake. If McCain stays in past the 2018 general election, his seat would be contested in 2020, if he leaves before then. If he lasts past 2020, the normal election for the seat is in 2022.
I first visited Az when my grandpa retired to Scottsdale is 1955. I moved to Tucson in 1968 for college at the U of A and just stayed. 50 years next year.
They’ve definitely been around forever. Arizona was fertile Bircher territory forever. But if you look back prior to Jane Hull, it was pretty well all business Republicans running for Governor. From Jan Brewer on, it’s been idealogues and kooks.
One way or another Kelli Ward wants to go to DC as a senator and has no qualms about walking over McCain’s live body to get there. She pretty much said so as quoted at AZcentral.com a couple days ago.
I have no respect for John McCain at all, and never have, but Kelli Ward couldn’t beat him for election if they ran it a million times. She’ll have to take her crack at Flake or hope McCain dies, and even that is iffy. I think even when he dies, he would beat her.
It might be the California chauvinist in me, and maybe Tim Ryan is a good guy who could do good things, but he hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of defeating Pelosi as Democratic leader whether it be Majority or Minority. What Pelosi brings and is almost completely overlooked is money and buckets of it and spreads it around to candidates and the races they’re running, and a record $40M in 2016. She’s from a big affluent City with lots of important friends and can help get people elected locally and nationally because of her fundraising ability. Don’t think Mr. Ryan from Howland OH can do the same.
She isn’t Janet Napolitano who was the current Arizona Attorney General running in an open seat. She is an unknown running against a sitting Senator where the office is more about National Politics then local.
I like Gov. Napolitano and voted for her in 2006 for re-election because she was an effective Governor, but I wouldn’t have voted for her for Senator.
All McCain has to do to get elected is wake up. Ward is willing to camp on Ducey’s door step and bug him until he appoints her should McCain step aside.
Not only that, she the best minority leader I’ve ever seen. She’s worked miracles from a position of no power whatsoever. Unlike the Senate, where the minority can, in theory, gum things up, Paraphrasing 19th century Speaker of the House Thomas Reed, the right of the minority is to draw its salaries, and its function is to make a quorum.
Oh man… that’s cold.
I would actually LOVE to see her come back and run. Because of all of her accomplishments, I assumed she was in her 70s. She’s -59- years old! She could come back and win McCain’s seat and run for President in 2024 and still only be 67. The biggest holdup is that she’s currently not a resident of Arizona, as she is President of the University of California system. But she could definitely move back.
Different candidates, different year, different kind of election, different voters.
So sure, not an easy win for the Dems, also but far from a fargone conclusion that they lose.
There’s a whole lot of territory in between.
Amen, two snaps, and 1,000 likes. Purity politics got us President Pissy Pants. We need asses in seats right now, and you cannot pay me to look like I might someday pretend to give a fuck how pure those asses are or aren’t. We are fighting for our democracy right now, for our very existence. We don’t have time for navel gazing and hand wringing over whether our soldiers are carrying big enough pompoms.
Really? That’s awesome. She could certainly still run.