Be-Elected

BE-ELECTED
by Chad Rubel

The MSM Beltway pundits love putting huge stakes on individual Congressional races. You can already hear the cries: "What will the results of NY-20 prove about feedback to Obama's economic program?"

Probably not a whole lot. NY-20 is the 20th Congressional District in New York, the seat needing to be filled when Kirsten Gillibrand went to the U.S. Senate.

In today's election, the major party candidates are Scott Murphy (D) and Jim Tedisco (R). Libertarian candidate Eric Sundwall was on the ballot, but he was challenged by Republicans and is endorsing Murphy.

Tedisco is experienced while Murphy is the fresh face. As we have found out, Gillibrand is more of a moderate Democrat, so don't expect too much progressive talk in the campaign. Murphy is a Harvard-educated venture capitalist who says he'll join the moderate Blue Dog Democrats if elected.

Gillibrand is definitely taking sides in the race, producing robocalls for Murphy.

Symbolically, both the Democrats and the Republicans will try to paint this race in the best light for them, depending on who wins. The 5th Congressional District race in Illinois isn't likely to be as close, with Mike Quigley (D) the likely new representative. So this might be the Republicans' best chance for a long time.

BE-ELECTED
by Chad Rubel

You may not be thinking about how the AIG scandal may bear out on the 2010 election. But trust me, the Republicans already are.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) is either a) the wrong person at the wrong time, b) the poster child for the Republicans to bash, c) guilty of a few things, or d) perhaps a combination of a few of those and others.

The latest blow for Dodd was admitting that was involved in key legislative changes that allowed the controversial AIG bonuses to go through. He had previously denied this was true.

Glenn Greenwald provides substantial evidence that Dodd has become the scapegoat for the Obama Administration, specifically Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and that Dodd was talked out of changes by the Treasury Department.

BE-ELECTED
by Chad Rubel

The election of Barack Obama was supposed to prove that people wanted to be more involved in elections and turnout would improve. In the 5th Congressional District in Illinois, there needs to be a mulligan.

About 1 in 6 registered voters grabbed a ballot despite the most wide-open race for a Congressional seat in the area in 50 years. We had 12 Democrats, 6 Republicans, and 5 Greens on the ballot yesterday in the primary to replace Rahm Emanuel in Congress.

Cook County Board member Mike Quigley took the Democratic Party primary with 22% of those who voted in that party primary.

With 99% of the vote, Republican Rosanna Pulido has a 135-vote lead, and has been declared the winner. Matthew Reichel has a slim 11-vote lead over Deb Gordils for the Green Party. The three winners battle in the general election on April 7, and that winner will be sworn in shortly after (and may still get to Congress before Al Franken).

Quigley was seen as the most likely agent for change among the major candidates; he has been one of the standouts on the county board fighting against layers of waste. Of the major three candidates, all with some name recognition going into the race, Quigley ran the least divisive campaign.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTEST

Though author and comedian Al Franken declared victory in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race Jan. 6, he had to sit back and watch his future colleagues get sworn in without him that day. The canvassing board that gave Franken the 225 votes lead he deemed necessary to proclaim victory was challenged by the man who held the seat before Franken, Norm Coleman. As the soon-to-be former senator's lawsuit contesting the canvassing board's decision enters its fourth week, Minnesotans are finally losing their legendary patience. "When will it end?" they ask.

Well, rather than leave the Land of 10,000 Lakes answerless, we thought we'd turn to our readers. It's pretty clear that Franken will become Minnesota's next junior senator. But when he will be sworn in is another matter entirely.

Attn: Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV): Want to know why it can be good to keep your word?

The latest Roland Burris saga (D-IL) -- potential perjury charges -- could have been avoided if the Democratic Senate leadership had stuck to its guns and not seated a senator until Rod Blagojevich was impeached.

Illinois would have been without a senator for approximately 23 days more than in the current reality, but a legitimate, untainted person could have been serving in that seat, picked by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn.

State Republicans have called for an investigation into possible perjury charges, and some have asked for his resignation. And it's difficult to disagree with them.

Imagine if you are Bonnie Newman. You think you have a really good shot at being named interim U.S. Senator to replace Judd Gregg. Then the roof caves in.

What was amazing was how much the pundits talked about how getting Gregg out of the seat, even if the seat was filled with a Republican, was good because Gregg would likely win re-election. From the start, that opinion seemed like a smoldering pile of horse apples.

Now that Gregg is back in his Senate seat, and likely prepared to vote NO on the stimulus package, he says he won't even run for re-election.

The idea of picking off a Republican Senator for President Obama's cabinet to give the Democrats 60 senators isn't a new idea. Our own Dave Lindorff wrote about it days before the election.

So when the word spread that President Obama wanted to nominate Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), and the New Hampshire governor is a Democrat, the math became obvious. When Al Franken finally gets seated and the new NH Senator kicks in, the Democrats will be at 60.

But the Republicans have thrown a monkey wrench into the proceedings. There is word that Gregg won't take the position if a Republican isn't named. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell seems really confident. "Whoever is appointed to replace him will caucus with Senate Republicans," McConnell said on "Face the Nation."

How often does a governor get impeached? Not very often. If you guessed Evan Meacham (R-AZ) was the last governor to be thrown out of office, you pay way too much attention to politics.

While impeachment is rare, Oklahoma did it twice in the same decade (1920s).

In the 20th century, there were six impeached governors. Huey Long (LA-1929) was acquitted. William Sulzer (NY-1913), John C. Walton (OK-1923), Henry S. Johnston (OK-1929), and Meacham (AZ-1988) were removed. James E. Ferguson (TX-1917) resigned, but was declared ineligible to hold office.

But Blagojevich set a national record that will likely never be broken. He served 6 years as governor before being impeached.

BE-ELECTED

Amending the U.S. Constitution is supposed to be done when absolutely necessary, not an idle decision to be made hastily.

But we do have a new proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution from Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) to revise the 17th Amendment to take away from governors the power to solely appoint replacements to the U.S. Senate.

"The controversies surrounding some of the recent gubernatorial appointments to vacant Senate seats make it painfully clear that such appointments are an anachronism that must end. In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution gave the citizens of this country the power to finally elect their senators. They should have the same power in the case of unexpected mid term vacancies, so that the Senate is as responsive as possible to the will of the people. I plan to introduce a constitutional amendment this week to require special elections when a Senate seat is vacant, as the Constitution mandates for the House, and as my own state of Wisconsin already requires by statute. As the Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee, I will hold a hearing on this important topic soon."

But is that proposed amendment overkill or just the right kind of move to make?

Since 1913, governors, with certain exceptions, have had the universal power to make replacements to the U.S. Senate. Before the 17th Amendment, senators were not elected, but voted on by state legislatures. So the 17th Amendment was seen as a necessary improvement for democracy.

So we have 96 years of a track record to decide whether the 17th Amendment needs to be updated. But the discussion doesn't involve 96 years of decisions. It only invokes one decision in 2008: Illinois.

Congratulations to Senator-designate Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY), the replacement selected by New York Gov. David Paterson. Gillibrand comes to the Senate from slightly over one term in the U.S. House. But as we saw from her initial press conference, Gillibrand has a lot of ideas on what to do and where to go as a U.S. Senator.

One person who had been considered for the post is Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, and niece of Robert F. Kennedy, who held that seat from 1965 until his assassination in 1968.

Now, the possible nomination of Caroline Kennedy produced a maelstrom of controversy. She was criticized for a lack of experience and for her, um, well, you know, oratory skills.

There was hope for a possible new Sen. Kennedy for the positive reasons she would be considered: someone who is involved in important societal issues, someone who works hard, and quite frankly, someone who didn't need the power of being a U.S. Senator.