Once again, it’s Sunday Puzzle, and once again the theme is Candidates Worth Supporting.
Let’s start with a comment from Elizabeth Warren:
Before jumping into the race against Scott Brown, I talked with Patty Murray, a senior member of the U.S. Senate, about whether I should run. I started listing the reasons I might not be good enough for the job.
After a few minutes, Patty cut me off: “Oh, please.” Then she told me that women always think of reasons they aren’t good enough. Men never ask if they’re good enough to hold public office, Patty said. They just ask if they can raise enough money to win.
Most of you probably already know at least a little about Patty Murray. She has been a senator for Washington since being elected to the office in 1992. That was 30 years ago, so she’s been there for a while. She has done a good job, is well-liked, and has a good chance of being re-elected.
But her opponent this time is Tiffany Smiley. And while Tiffany Smiley does not appear to be related to George Smiley, she does appear to share some of his skill at presenting a false appearance and manipulating what people think. In recent weeks she has scrubbed her website of content expressing her doubt that Joe Biden was elected president and has tried to present herself as a supporter of women’s rights instead of as a strong opponent of legal abortion.
And Smiley’s efforts appear to be succeeding; recent polls show that Tiffany Smiley is now almost tied with Patty Murray, and an upset is certainly possible if we don’t pay attention to this race and support Patty Murray in as many ways as we can.
In contrast, most of you probably don’t know much if anything about Jason Martin (apart from the fact that he and Patty Murray were featured together in last week’s Sunday Puzzle).
For Martin, the path to the governor’s office will be an uphill one. Tennessee has not elected a Democratic governor since Phil Bredesen in the 2006 election. In 2018, Democrat Karl Dean lost to Lee by 21 points. Republicans also control both of Tennessee’s U.S. Senate seats, most of its congressional seats, and both chambers of the General Assembly.
The current governor of Tennessee is Bill Lee, a Republican. Lee isn’t quite as bad as Greg Abbott or Ron DeSantis, but he’s bad and needs to be replaced. Unfortunately he probably won’t be this time unless things change drastically between now and November.
Jason Martin is the Democratic candidate running against Bill Lee. Jason Martin is good on the issues, but he has very little chance of winning this election. That’s because the Democratic party has largely written off the state of Tennessee and repeatedly fails to support or actively campaign for candidates.
Too many key Democrats have decided that most of Tennessee is hopelessly Republican and not worth fighting for because Democrats can’t win here, and in the process have made that a self-fulfilling prophecy. Which is why Tennessee, which was a pretty solidly Democratic state in the 20th century, has become a pretty solidly Republican state this century.
In order to win Tennessee back, Democrats need to become visible across Tennessee again. Democrats need to be out there talking to people about the issues and getting the word out about the Democratic candidates. The more that people see and hear the Democratic candidates, the more people who will begin voting for Democratic candidates again and the more possible it will be to bring Tennessee back into the Democratic fold.
Which is why it’s important to spotlight Jason Martin, to make people aware there is a Democrat running for governor in Tennessee, to help people see that the policies Democrats propose for Tennessee are better than the policies Tennessee is currently suffering under, and to help people see that good Democrats exist and are willing to talk to them. That probably won’t be enough to help Jason Martin win the governorship this time, but it will help us move closer to the day when Democrats can take back the governorship and take back Tennessee’s 2 senate seats.
If you’d like to learn more about Patty Murray and Jason Martin, here are links to their campaign websites:
(I’ll post these links again in a comment if I’m able to, but there are thunderstorms in the forecast here from noon until midnight and there’s a good chance the power will get knocked out, so I likely will need to unplug my computer and be offline when this posts. But if I can’t read, rec, and reply to comments today I’ll check in as soon as the storms are over and power is on and will read, rec, and reply then. So please don’t be shy about posting comments, and know that they will be read.)
I see the serval is licking its lips at the thought of seeing a new puzzle soon!
But before we get to today’s puzzle, perhaps it would be good to look at the answers to last week’s puzzle.
These puzzles are JulieCrostics. In these puzzles, the clue answers are entered into rows. Each word in a row has all the letters of the previous word, plus one new letter. The add-on letters make columns which spell out the answer to the puzzle.
Here are the clues to last week’s puzzle:
1. visualize
2. flow slowly through small holes
3. general purpose vehicles
4. sugar cube additive
5. boys
6. greens
7. Fleming
8. Fey
9. blemish
10. trolleys and Polestars
11. cat doctors
12. things which win elections
13. cut through
14. Great White and Milky
15. signs of sleepiness
16. [a picture of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]
17. state of deep unconsciousness
18. mark used to separate items
19. often comes before a period
20. refs
21. [a picture of a family of pumas]
22. Tolstoy
23. part
24. Flynn
25. kind of tree
26. hasty
27. garbage
28. some people
29. average
30. where you can find an independent King
31. Bragg and Willis
32. Doris, Dorothy, and Felicia
33. Annie's dog
And here is the answer grid:
see P seep J Jeeps
LSD A lads A salad
Ian T Tina S stain
EVs T vets O votes
saw Y ways N yawns
AOC M coma M comma
PMS U umps A pumas
Leo R role R Errol
ash R rash T trash
men A amen I Maine
DAs Y Days N Sandy
Clue 7 referred to Ian Fleming and clue 8 referred to Tina Fey. Clue 10 gave examples of electric vehicles (EVs). Clue 16 provided a picture of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and clue 21 provided a picture of pumas. Clue 24 referred to actor Errol Flynn. Clue 30 referred to the state Angus King represents in the senate, Maine. Clue 31 referred to Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis, a pair of district attorneys (DAs). Clue 32 referred to 3 people with the last name Day: Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day, actress (and creator of the web series The Guild) Felicia Day, and actress Doris Day. And clue 33 referred to Little Orphan Annie’s dog Sandy.
As you can see in the first row of answers, SEEP has all the letters of SEE plus a P, and JEEPS has all the added letters of SEEP plus a J. So the add-on letters for that row are a P and a J. The first add-on letters column, read top to bottom, spells PATTYMURRAY (i.e. Patty Murray) and the second add-on letters column spells JASONMARTIN (i.e. Jason Martin).
All right, time for today’s puzzle. Here are your clues:
1. owed
2. name Paul McCartney substituted for Jules
3. assess
4. pig home
5. back of the neck
6. expression of high praise
7. commercials
8. Crenshaw and Quayle
9. musical groups
10. scrap of cloth
11. extreme anger
12. enthusiastic
13. unrefined rock
14. pulled apart
15. collection of objects, often valuable ones
16. tear apart
17. journey
18. look below:
19. say what isn't so
20. citrus fruit
21. look happy
22. acorn
23. a group which works together
24. one of five
25. choose
26. scheme
27. planet or cartoon dog
28. which person?
29. long loud cry
30. entire
31. i
32. facial feature
33. comfort, combat, and danger
Have fun!
[As I said higher up the page, there’s a strong chance I won’t be able to be online when this puzzle posts due to lots of thunderstorms in the forecast here which may knock out the power. But I will check in to read, rec, and reply to comments as soon as it’s safe to do so — likely tomorrow morning if not sooner.]
And now, a few words from Poll Cat: