Archive for category That's Odd

If You’re a Candidate Don’t Do this!

Mar 10

Posted by Parched in In the states, That's Odd | No Comments

This is simple.  If you’re running for office it’s generally a good idea not to associate your campaign, or your vision for leading, with former elected officials who have been kicked out of office by voters.  When we say kicked out we don’t mean lose an election – no we mean kicked out ala California’s Gray Davis.  Remember him?  You know, he was recalled by the voters in 2003 – only the 2nd governor in the history of the U.S. to be recalled – for mismanagement of a few major things in California.

Well, it looks like Nevada Democrat Lieutenant Governor candidate Bob Goodman didn’t get the memo, because former Governor Davis figures prominently on the Nevada Democrat’s campaign website.

Bob and Gray

Promise, we’re not doctoring pictures or making this up.  Read from Goodman’s own website:

During one of California’s most beautiful seasons, in the midst of spectacular scenery, SATDA’s Chairman, Mr. Robert Goodman, again met with Former Governor Gray Davis to follow-up on projects initiated during their meeting last month as well as review several additional ones.

Robert Goodman and SATDA were proud to host the Former Governor and his wife in China and escort them to the APEC meeting in Qingdao. During this trip where the Vice-Governor of the Shangdong province, Mr. Sun Shoupu, received the Former Governor and SATDA’s Chairman, solid ties were developed between SATDA and Mr. Davis that we continue to develop and strengthen.

During their July meeting in California, the two leaders discussed several new initiatives and trends that SATDA has been responsible for developing. Mr. Davis praised the work we continue to do to promote Sino-US trade, and the repeated successes we are reaping in expanding trade and investment between China and the USA for our members. He continued, “SME’s in both China and America need to increase their understanding of each other so they can develop the trust and cooperation needed to produce win-win situations.” Mr. Davis also worked with SATDA’s Chairman, Mr. Goodman, on several obstacles that continue to be issues in expanding trade and investment and discussed the feasibility of implementing certain suggested solutions.

We wouldn’t post if it weren’t true.  Does heralding the great respect for former Governor Davis speak to prospective Lt. Governor Goodman’s management style in government.  Does Nevada need to be another California?  That’s probably a question Goodman’s fellow candidates Paul Murad, Robert Randazzo, and Jessica Sferrazza ought to be asking, no?

And on the Republican side there’s only one candidate – the favorite to win out right in November – Lt. Governor Brian Krolicki.

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Who Says You Can’t Run for 2 Offices At Once?

Mar 10

Posted by Parched in In the states, That's Odd | No Comments

Seemingly nobody that Pennsylvania Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate Steve Urban talks to.  You see Urban is one of 9 Republicans who are competing to be the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor.  Steve Urban is currently a County Commissioner in lovely Luzerne County, PA – which is about 120 miles north of Philadelphia.  It’s great that he wants to serve his fellow citizens of the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania this way, but what’s really interesting is that he’s developed a fall back plan should the whole 9-way GOP primary not work out for him.

Doubling His Fun?

What’s the fall back plan you ask?  Why it’s easy really.  While Mr. Urban was dropping off his petitions to run for Lt.  Governor, he also dropped off his petitions to run for State Senate in the 14th district.  The 14th is an open Democrat seat that has no other Republican candidates and 3 Democrat candidates all seeking to fill Raphael Musto’s seat serving the great people of the greater Wyoming Valley.

Urban said he will simultaneously campaign for both seats.

“The lieutenant governor works very closely with the Senate, and the issues are very similar,” Urban said.

He does not believe any Republicans are running for the 14th Senatorial District, so he would be running unopposed in the May 18 primary. Urban said he doesn’t believe any of the other Republican lieutenant governor candidates have “statewide name recognition.”

“I think it will be a more regionalized race,” Urban said. “The governor and lieutenant governor run independently, and I believe the people of the commonwealth ought to have a choice,” he said.

Urban said he has not decided what he will do if he wins Republican nominations to both seats.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” said Urban.

So there you have it – you can run for two offices at once. Wonder if this trend will spread to other parts of this great democratic experiment?

Think we’re making this up – read the full story right here.

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Tea Party: Candidates walking the line in search of new voters

Feb 22

Posted by Parched in In the states, That's Odd | No Comments

Is Texas Republican governor primary candidate Debra Medina continuing to tread outside the Republican primary main stream with these latest comments at a Texas Tea Party rally this weekend on who’s to blame for Joe Stack’s flying a single engine plane into the Austin IRS building?  Is she appealing to new voters who she’ll need to make the GOP runoff, or is she talking herself onto an island?

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Dem AG Says Dem AG Candidate Not Qualified

Feb 3

Posted by Parched in In the states, Rising Stars, That's Odd | No Comments

A quick follow up on the saga of whether or not Connecticut Democrat Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz is qualified to seek the office of attorney general – an office for which she is actively campaigning.  The current occupant of the office, Democrat Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is running for United States Senate, with Chris Dodd out of the way he can finally do something, has essentially stopped Bysiewicz’s candidacy in its tracks.

During a news conference in his office, Blumenthal said Bysiewicz, who recently dropped a bid to run for governor and, instead, run for attorney general, does not have enough years as a practicing attorney.

Blumenthal said Bysiewicz, of Middletown, has not accumulated 10 years in the legal profession. In a formal opinion, Blumenthal said that the requirement for “active practice” means more than retaining a law license.

“Active means something more than being a member of the bar,” Blumenthal told reporters.

The Connecticut Post has the full story. You can imagine that Democrat former legislator George Jepsen and current Democrat State Representative Cameron Staples are gleefully pushing this story around Connecticut. And, a story like this makes for a better February day for Republican State Senator Andrew Roraback, Republican former prosecutor John Pavia, and GOP State Representative Arthur O’Neill – who are all reportedly mulling or exploring the race.

Susan Bysiewicz might be toast.

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Candidates and their wardrobes

Jan 28

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Is it right, regardless of what state law says, for a candidate to use campaign funds to pay for clothes for candidates?  We heard about this is in 2008 – and it’s popping up again, this time in Texas.  If you’re a candidate, what would you do?

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Living on Tulsa Time

Oct 15

Posted by Parched in In the states, That's Odd | No Comments

When it comes to politics this year all you hear about in ‘09 are the state races going on in Virginia and New Jersey.  Not that those state races are sleepy by any stretch – you’ve got two really good contests for governor in both states, a slew of fiercely competitive state legislative contests, and a couple down ballot statewide races.

What most people don’t realized (if they realize there are actually state elections going on this year) is there are municipal elections going on as well in 2009.  What is turning into one of the most interesting municipal races of the year is the Tulsa, Oklahoma mayors race between Republican Dewey Bartlett and Democrat Tom Adelson.  Adelson is a Democratic state senator with what appears to be…well let’s say an inability to read the political environment and understand when it’s best to just shut your mouth.  You can listen to this radio interview he gave recently to make your own determination.
KRMG Interview with Tulsa Democratic mayoral candidate Tom Adelson 9/25/09 by talkradiojoe

At the time of the interview, the election was over a month away, and Adelson himself had become the primary source  of opposition research for future attack ads by his opponent.  Politics attacks by ones opponent can usually be knocked down to some degree – raising questions about their credibility – unless there’s a smoking gun, or a picture of somebody on a boat (let’s call the boat Monkey Business) with a woman who’s not his wife.  Well, that’s what Tom Adelson provided for his opponent Dewey Bartlett – the old smoking gun.

Dewey Bartlett for Tulsa Mayor Radio Ad with KRMG Audio by talkradiojoe
It just leaves you speechless doesn’t it?  You can read and hear more on this race from KRMG.

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CNN Just Got it Wrong

Sep 11

Posted by Parched in DC, That's Odd | No Comments

And they won’t be apologizing. Watch as they spin and try to say it’s somebody else’s fault on T.V.  here and down below.  Via Politico:

Gibbs said he wouldn’t second-guess Coast Guard leadership for holding a Potomac River exercise on the morning of the 9/11 commemoration. But he took a shot at CNN, which initially didn’t know the maneuvers in the Potomac were an exercise and erroneously reported that gunshots were fired – something the homeland security department said didn’t occur.

“Let’s understand that best I can tell there was reporting based on listening to a police scanner that was not verified, and then it was on television and now we’ve raced back to find out that it’s a training exercise. So I think it appears as if a lot of this might have been avoided,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs told reporters that the Coast Guard was holding a news conference to explain the exercise. “Hopefully CNN will go,” Gibbs quipped. “My only caution would be that before we report things like this, checking would be good.”

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Increasing the Level of the Snark

Jul 30

Posted by Parched in Governor, That's Odd | No Comments

Hmmm…there appears to be some friction between the Virginia Democrat blog community and the Democratic Governors Association.  From Virginia’s own Not Larry Sabato:

Hot Tubbing Creigh to the Governor’s Mansion

Does it seem like the Democratic Governor’s Association has gotten quiet since the primary?  Anyone else wondering where they have been?

Well now we have an answer.  Their Executive Director Nathan Daschle is busy leaving blog comments at 6:53 on a weeknight while he is according to his own words: “Sitting in my hot tub in DC”.

Nathan, why don’t you Hot Tub after 9 p.m. and drive across the bridge to the Deeds office and help them phonebank from 7-9 at night if you have nothing else to do?  kthxbai.

The post has generated just a handful of comments from loyal NLS readers.

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Jon Corzine jumps the shark

Jul 10

Posted by Parched in Governor, That's Odd | 1 Comment

This has to speak for itself.  From PolitickerNJ:

Randal Pinkett, who went to work for Donald Trump after winning Season 4 of The Apprentice, is receiving serious consideration to become the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor, according to Democrats connected to Gov. Jon Corzine.   Corzine has been actively searching for an African American running mate.

Pinkett, a 38-year-old Rhodes Scholar who runs a Newark-based management, technology and policy consulting firm, joins State Senators Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) as the leading contenders to run with Corzine in November.  The Franklin Township resident is a graduate of Rutgers University and received a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He worked for General Electric, AT&T Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies before launching his own company and working for Trump’s Atlantic City casino.

UPDATE 1:  From the Ashbury Park Press:

An announcement that Corzine has selected Pinkett to run for lieutenant governor on the party ticket was expected to coincide with the visit of President Barack Obama to New Jersey Thursday, according to the source, who asked not to be identified.

UPDATE 2: GOP Christie leads Dem Corzine by 12 pts.

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Waiting to see what happens

Jul 8

Posted by Parched in Governor, That's Odd | No Comments

Republicans are holding back on proffering any invites for soon to be former Governor Sarah Palin to come to New Jersey and Virginia to campaign, while Democrats are following the same course for President Obama in those states.  The reason is simple – Republicans want to see the other shoe fall on the Palin resignation story (and probably how big and stinky it is) before they voluntarily hitch themselves to her cart.  And it’s a similar case for Democrats and the President.

While his personal numbers are reportedly high, his policies (s…t…i…m…u…l…) appear to be on the way to be being panned – so nobody wants to be linked to those horrible policies coming out of DC that will follow POTUS in his motorcade when he comes to town.  It’s not like you see Nancy Pelosi actively campaigning in Virginia or New Jersey these day is it?

Strategy for now…watch…wait…see.

UPDATE:  In New Jersey, where President Obama is headed next week to stump for Democrat Governor Jon Corzine, a new poll is out showing 79% of likely voters say their opinion of the President has nothing to do with who they support for Governor – be it Jon Corzine or Republican Chris Christie.

In Texas, Republican Governor Rick Perry says that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is “committed to campaigning” for his re-election.

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