Discussion for article #228058
What the Republican is arguing is Udall is part of America’s political elite and is a member of a family dynasty. That is a perfectly fair observation. It implies Udall doesn’t really want to do anything to shake things up in Washington and gets by only because of his connections. In this case Udall’s political family ties include Republicans as well as Democrats.
Outrage might be the appropriate way for Udall to respond. He has to muddy Gardner’s message.
There are a lot of political dynasties in the US. On both sides.
Speaking of dynasties, maybe Gardener should stick with tractors.
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Mr. Personhood slime cory is trying to put some blood in the water…he will surprised to find out this just puts more of his blood in the campaign waters!
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Gardner should not have mentioned his father. That is playing below the belt.
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So, Gardner also criticizes the most powerful dynasty in America, the Bush family? Fat chance.
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Both sides have political dynasties, but that doesn’t mean everyone likes them. Political families might be popular in Washington, but out in the country political dynasties are tolerated at best. The dominance of a political dynasty in a state generally hides a weak party structure.
Well git on home boy, them tractors don’t sell themselves!
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Hey Udall instead of using weak language as your retort how about
bringing some real heat but then again Udall is the guy who is letting Gardner aka Rep
Personhood bill get away with flipping on contraceptives. I don’t hold out much hope. Democrats can’t and are unwilling to play
hardball.
The Bush dynasty, for example
Actually, a great ad about Gardner the flip-flopper has been running for the last week or so. It briefly shows Gardner saying he’d like the pill to be over-the-counter. Then the image flip-flops over to Washington and cites in detail his continued sponsorship of the Federal Personhood bill, even citing the HR number, so people can look it up. A local NBC reporter asked Gardner about this specifically and Gardner vaguely said “they’re different.” The reporter shot back: not according to Personhood sponsors!
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Does your poll-tracker include the discredited Marist poll, which asked people to self-report their party affiliation in the last election? Other polls use actual affiliation from voter records. As people are in a sour mood for all kinds of reasons, that seems to have resulted in a misleadingly high “independent” component and, in turn, the lead of Gardner over Udall. Please try the Poll tracker without that outlier. The race is neck-and-neck.
I suppose that the very fact that this so-called political dynasty is not in one State - would make anyone thing - HUH? Morris ( the dad) was in Arizona and the family (Udall) came from Utah: Salt Lake to Provo. Yep, I’m a distant relative - so I guess that makes me a part of a dynasty…who knew? 
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Sorry, I miss the “unfairness” of Gardner’s ad; it’s decidedly political. The answer is about Gardner’s “Personhood” bill and to point out that once a tractor salesman, always one.
I disagree. What evidence do you have to support this opinion?
The Udalls have done more for the west than anyone, Mark needs to play that as it lays.
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I would imagine Gardner would concede the Udalls have done a lot for the west. He would ask, what has Mark done beyond collect a paycheck? That is the point of the ad. It really is a fair ad. I thought faux outrage was the stock and trade of Fox News not the commenters on TPM.
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The Gardner sink is shipping.
Say hello to another Dem Senate.
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The Udall family sort of came from Utah. They were actually sent as Mormon colonists to the St. Johns area in Eastern Arizona. The Udall family has been in Arizona since before 1900. It’s actually way more than even documented in the TV spot. The Udall / Lee political dynasty is immense. It’s an old Mormon polygamous family from the 1800s that has not only Mark Udall, Tom Udall and Mike Lee in the Senate, former Oregon Republican Senator Gordon Smith is a cousin, Mark’s father Morris Udall was a beloved Congressman from Arizona, and Tom’s father Stuart Udall was the Congressman in that seat before Morris and left it to become Interior Secretary under John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. In addition, Nick Udall, Stewart and Morris’s cousin, was Mayor of Phoenix and Gordon Smith’s brother is a Federal Judge. It’s a -really- prominent family.
Edited to add even more Udalls…
Levi Udall, father of Morris and Stuart, also served as Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme court and John Udall, Nick’s father, also served as Mayor of Phoenix.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udall_familyUdall Family Political Tree
“Shake things up in the Senate” should be commonly understood to be “reflexively vote a right-wing agenda.” Gardner isn’t going “shake” anything up - he’ll be dancing at the of McConnell’s strings. No one takes him seriously.
It’s a mystery to me how Gardner is even in this race. His ads are comical, playing clumsily on the “aw shucks, I’m just a country boy” shtick, twisting Udall’s defense of reproductive rights as “extreme” and posing with wincing pretension in front of a wind farm. The guy’s a complete boob.
But I guess you can never underestimate the downward pull of a low-popularity president. For now I’ll stick by my prediction of Udall by 1.2%, and that the race will get WAY nastier between now and Nov.