By the end of an election cycle, my head is stuffed with the names of dozens of excellent Democratic candidates and their opponents, states and districts jostling in my brain even as I try to figure out how much money I can squeeze out for another donation on ActBlue, and cheer (or boo) the latest polls depending on the race in question.
This far out, though, with the bulk of the primaries before us and the elections over half a year away, the new candidates haven't impinged as much on my consciousness. Part of this is that I do live in Massachusetts, which is mostly Democratic real estate, though after January not nearly as much as it has been. But there isn't a lot of competition against incumbents around here, so the action tends to be in other states.
That's why the introduction of a new group of good Democratic contenders being introduced via the Daily Kos Orange to Blue 2010 ActBlue page has my excitement levels rising. We've had three new candidates in two days, and more are on the way.
One of the by-products of having been a tag librarian is that you learn names. You learn how to spell them (and how people tend to misspell them), and when these names are of congressional candidates, you quickly memorize district numbers, states, opponents, the works.
So thanks to Orange to Blue, I have some new names, and good information about the candidates.
Ann McLane Kuster was actually a name I knew before, since she's running in New Hampshire, just north of Massachusetts. I can't see her district from my house, but 30 minutes by car will take me there. Paul Hodes is the incumbent—I supported him in 2006, when he first won the district, and again in 2008—but he's now running for Senate. While he's unopposed in the upcoming primary, Ann is not, and though she has two opponents, the main one is Katrina Swett, who is (at best) a centrist who supports people like Joe Lieberman even after he's bolted the party.
Let's keep a good Democrat in this seat. The primary is a long way off—September 14—so we have a long road ahead. (I had Ann on the ActBlue page I created at the end of March when doing a matching funds diary; now that she's made Orange to Blue, it would be unnecessary duplication going forward, I think.)
Jack Conway is running for the senate seat currently held by the odious Jim Bunning, who helped stop the extension of unemployment benefits earlier this year. He's so bad even the Republicans wanted him gone, though it looks like their candidate's going to be Rand Paul, who they also hate. (The other senator is the even more odious Mitch McConnell, featured in the Recommended Diaries today for lying. There's a Top Comments about him tonight from that diary, too.)
Conway's the Kentucky Attorney General, and he's running against Dan Mongiardo, who barely lost to Bunning in 2004 and became Lieutenant Governor in 2007, but whose positions are notably more conservative than Conway's. Conway's definitely superior to Dr. Mongiardo, who would have voted against health reform, and is proudly anti-progress and anti-gay, among other major problems. The Kentucky primary is May 18, so we have little more than a month left. (And don't worry about that picture of Conway kissing a horse that was in that diary: he was kissing the horse's nose, not [like Bunning or McConnell\ do] the horse's ass.)
Manan Trivedi is running for the House seat currently held by Jim Gerlach, the Republican who barely beat out Lois Murphy in 2004 and 2006, and who viewed his chances in 2010 as slim enough that he tried to get into the Governor's race, only no one wanted him so he slunk back to PA-06. It's past time to hand him a ticket home.
First, though, Trivedi needs to get past Doug Pike, a millionaire who (based on the above diary) is an odd duck, and not what we lefty bluish orange types would want to see in the House when we have a good egg like Trivedi. The Pennsylvania primary is the same day as Kentucky's, May 18, so we need to get cracking here, too.
While she isn't on Orange to Blue (and I hope she'll be there very soon), Jennifer Brunner is running for senate in Ohio. She's a Kossack; you can read her diaries here. Diarist anastasia p has been writing about her here. She's been a fantastic Secretary of State since winning in 2006, and made sure that the state counted all ballots and provided paper trails and equal access to voting. After Blackwell, she was a breath of fresh air, and withstood attacks from the right when she made sure recounts were accurate and fair. You can donate to Jennifer here. She'll be so much better than Lee Fisher it's a slam-dunk. Her primary's even sooner: May 4. I think early voting may already have begun, so don't delay if you're thinking about supporting her.
This being tax day, you now know what kind of refund you'll be getting. If it's substantial, please consider allocating what you can toward one or more of the candidates above. Or to Bill Halter, who's running for senate against Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas, and is another name I'm committing to memory. (His primary, like those for Conway and Trivedi, is on May 18.) At least for this cycle, but I hope he wins and makes a more permanent home as one of our good senators.
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A few people discovered the Top Comments mailbox, but not very many; maybe it was taxes again. We need submissions even more than the USPS needs bucks (okay, probably not, but we do need nominations), and we always greatly appreciate all those people who take the time to send along their favorites in advance of the 9:30pm Eastern Time deadline. The address of our mailbox for top comments submissions remains:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
(change " AT " to "@" and " DOT " to ".")
Anyone can send great comments to our address. Be sure to include the direct link to a comment—the URL—which is available from that comment's date/time; we need that to find your choice. Please always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly. I say again: both link and username are important; someone today forgot both. If you send a writeup with the link, we are able to include that, too, though we reserve the right to edit if necessary; should you only provide the link, then you have to take whatever writeup we create...and we can be excessively extremely creative. Today, I was creative for myself alone.
From JanF:
Meteor Blades left this excellent comment about pragmatists and purists in NCrissieB's Thursday Morning Feature diary.
From anotherdemocrat:
The best comment on choice, ever: tardis10 says what I've always wanted to say, only said it better.
From bronte17:
renzo capetti is our very own Wordsmith a la Fred Astaire... words dance on air as they tap with a smile. In jotter's High Impact Diaries yesterday, renzo introduced us to jotterians which led the way for today's finale from renzo.
MKSinSA has a great line about Wall Street darling David Malpass and his run against Kirsten Gillibrand in devtob's diary NY-Sen: Bankster challenges Gillibrand.
From sardonyx (your taxed diarist):
As FogCityJohn points out, the federal TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) program has been capped since 1996 at under $17 billion, and states that receive these unchanging block grants (worth less each year due to inflation) make it harder and harder for very needy families to qualify for the money.
As someone who likes to re-read books, I was glad to belatedly find cfk's Bookflurries: Bookchat: The Need to Re-Read and the Letter A (it was posted after I'd started working on last night's Top Comments diary), and in it this comment on re-reading books by Williston Bartlett.
AuroraDawn writes an excellent comment on abortion and prevention of unwanted pregnancies, especially the final paragraph.
In today's Morning Feature: Window Washing, Part I - What Window? by NCrissieB, Deoliver47 likes the word idealism.
In Verbalpaintball's diary Mitch McConnell is a LIAR. And the media says it, too., azureblue responds to zenox's disquiet on viewing McConnell's face by explaining that's the way a liar looks.
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Finally, we have today's top mojo using my revision of the cskendrick-devised mojo-to-Excel process.
First, Top Mojo excluding Cheers and Jeers, miscellaneous cute animals, search-identifiable tip jars, and first diary comments:
1) Dap? by smellybeast — 201
2) Orwell said it best by billmon — 198
3) The president supports expansion of satellites by FishOutofWater — 172
4) armaggon? sounds like a new synthetic by bubbanomics — 145
5) i was amazed to read the whole article by jlms qkw — 131
6) Yeah!! by peacestpete — 112
7) It Wouldn't Surprise Me in the Least by CityLightsLover — 103
8) Who has time to spell correctly when... by Trix — 93
9) And still to come is the by Edger — 86
10) Professional courtesy by Dallasdoc — 83
11) These diaries rock by The Lighthouse Keeper — 83
12) Dap is... by JeffLieber — 83
13) I honestly believe the CONSTIPATIONAL is by Little Lulu — 82
14) Lincoln introduced hardcore derivatives reform. by I said GOOD DAY sir — 81
15) The NYT's playing dumb by beltane — 77
16) Here's my take. by Rian Fike — 76
17) Don't Muslim terrorists use it a lot. by OIL GUY — 75
18) Thanks as always, you do us proud. by Nena20409 — 74
19) Mars is a Republican stronghold. by stunzeed — 74
20) How are the teabaggers "wealthier"... by Trix — 73
21) Don't kid yourself: It IS Obama per se by billmon — 72
22) They're trying to appeal to those vacuous by kovie — 67
23) Hi there! by smellybeast — 67
24) The government handouts they by beltane — 66
25) Howard Zinn was right by MD patriot — 66
26) *squeeeeee!* by magpie02141 — 66
27) Thank you Rachel Maddow by theKgirls — 65
28) Stress test results for 2011, 2012: by Sandino — 61
29) Unfortunately, not possible. by kat68 — 60
30) these aren't revolutionaries, either. by primarydoc — 60
31) The best part: by MsWings — 60
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Tip Jar by billmon — 494
2) Tip Jar by mdmslle — 492
3) Tip Jar by blackwaterdog — 400
4) Tip Jar by Verbalpaintball — 365
5) Tip Jar by Jill Richardson — 332
6) Tip Jar by I said GOOD DAY sir — 328
7) This story is personel to... by JeffLieber — 323
8) Tip Jar by gjohnsit — 237
9) Tip Jar by Vyan — 223
10) Dap? by smellybeast — 201
11) Orwell said it best by billmon — 198
12) Whitewashing The Past: Isn't it Convenient? by JekyllnHyde — 179
13) The president supports expansion of satellites by FishOutofWater — 172
14) This is not what they marched for. by Big Tex — 156
15) Tip Jar by Robert Naiman — 150
16) armaggon? sounds like a new synthetic by bubbanomics — 145
17) Tips? Flames? by Something the Dog Said — 136
18) i was amazed to read the whole article by jlms qkw — 131
19) Tip Jar by nyceve — 126
20) Yeah!! by peacestpete — 112
21) Scritchie Jar by triciawyse — 109
22) It Wouldn't Surprise Me in the Least by CityLightsLover — 103
23) Who has time to spell correctly when... by Trix — 93
24) And still to come is the by Edger — 86
25) Professional courtesy by Dallasdoc — 83
26) Dap is... by JeffLieber — 83
27) These diaries rock by The Lighthouse Keeper — 83
28) I honestly believe the CONSTIPATIONAL is by Little Lulu — 82
29) It's 10 Pacific on Thursday. Do you know where by SheKos — 81
30) Lincoln introduced hardcore derivatives reform. by I said GOOD DAY sir — 81
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