Ned Lamont to Run for Governor of Connecticut
Posted by Chris Bowers, Open Left on November 4, 2009 at 7:30 PM.

This just in--Ned Lamont is looking to run for Governor in Connecticut:

NED LAMONT ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE

Norwalk, CT - Ned Lamont, successful businessman, co-founder of the state policy center at Central Connecticut State University, and Democratic nominee for US Senate in 2006, announced that he will be filing papers today with the State Elections Enforcement Commission establishing an Exploratory Committee for statewide office:

"As I have continued to meet with citizens across our state over the last three years, as co-chairman of President Obama's Connecticut campaign and on behalf of health care reform, I have been constantly reminded that Connecticut is not living up to its potential and that too many of our families are being left behind," said Lamont.

"Like businesses, states thrive with strong executive leadership, and they fall behind with weak leadership. As measured by the loss of jobs, young people leaving our state, and the never-ending budget crisis, Connecticut's Chief Executive is simply not getting the job done."

There is no polling on Lamont in this campaign. Republian Governor Jodi Rell is able to run for another term, and was popular as of February. However, that could easily change in the current, anti-incumbent climate.

A couple other Democrats have announced they are running, as well.

There are not many progressive Democratic Governors.  Lamont's entry into this campaign could change that.

Iowa Wingnut Steve King Lauds Lobbyists as American Heros for Bussing in Health Reform Protesters
Posted by Lee Fang, Think Progress on November 4, 2009 at 2:46 PM.

On Thursday, the lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks — which were instrumental in orchestrating dozens of anti-Obama tea parties and town hall disruptions — are planning an anti-health reform rally at the steps of the Capitol. Republican leadership, like Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), have endorsed the rally. But two of the most rabidly right-wing members of Congress, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) are amongst the most aggressive promoters of the rally, with the help of talk radio and Fox News.

FreedomWorks has launched a website called “DontKillGrandma.com” listing recommended tactics for activists to engage in while protesting health reform. For the Thursday rally, FreedomWorks says activists should engage in a “simultaneous chant of ‘Kill the Bill.’” FreedomWorks is funded by corporate money and is led by Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader and until recently lobbyist from DLA Piper.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is busing people to the rally. AFP is led by astroturf lobbyist Tim Phillips and is bankrolled by gas and oil baron David Koch, the world’s 9th richest person and the financier of dozens of conservative think-tanks, publications, and politicians. Like they did for the April tea parties, AFP has commissioned at least 10 buses from Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina to bring protesters — free of charge — to DC for the rally.

During a speech last night, King thanked the lobbyists for bringing in buses from “state after state after state.”

[Ed: Watch it in the window to your right.]

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Joe Lieberman In a Thong? New "Strip Joe" Game Allows You to See the Awful Truth
Posted by Adele Stan, AlterNet on November 4, 2009 at 12:45 PM.

Have you had enough of Sen. Joe Lieberman, and his on-again, off again threat to stop health-care reform legislation from coming to a vote? The folks at Agit-Prop have teamed up with CREDO to give you a way to let off some steam, even as you send a message to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to get tough with the Joester.

Called "Strip Joe," an animated online game allows you to wield a gavel with your cursor at various anatomical parts of the senator from the state of Aetna; wherever you land your gavel on the senator, he loses that piece of clothing. If you like what you see when you win, you can purchase your very own "GOP string" to add to your lingerie chest. (Made in USA!)

These are hijinks with a purpose, though. The game site allows viewers to sign on to a petition to Harry Reid that demands, "If Lieberman joins a GOP filibuster of the health care bill, strip him of his chairmanship." Lieberman chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Now, where did I leave my gavel?

What Tuesday's Election Results Mean for the Bigger Political Picture: Nada
Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet on November 4, 2009 at 10:56 AM.

Partisans spin, and obviously political reporters have an interest in fabricating compelling "national story-lines" during dull off-year elections. So with this first supposed "test" of the Obama administration, the tea-leaf reading -- navel-gazing is probably a better metaphor -- is in high gear this morning. Is the right on the rebound? Has the GOP gotten its groove back? Was it all a referendum on the new president's policies? Oh dear, what is going on?

Below, Addie does a nice job following all the bouncing balls of yesterday's races, and I agree with her conclusion that the results signal that the Right is "organizing up a storm."

But I don't live in Jersey, Virginia or some rural NY district on the Canadian border, and I'm not interested in marrying some dude in Maine. So I find no meaning in these races, and there are plenty of good reasons why you shouldn't either (unless, of course, you're from Virginia or want to marry a person of the same sex in Maine -- in NY-23, Owens, a conservative Dem, will vote more or less like the mainline Republican Scozzafava would have had she been elected (he does support health reform, however), and New Jersey politics are so perennially screwed up that George Washington couldn't have governed the state effectively).

Let's look at some of the buzz floating around ...

The "red tide" of falling governorships is a referendum on Obama!

Nonsense. Here's the deal: University of Minnesota political scientist Eric Ostermeier went back and crunched some numbers from previous gubernatorial races in those states. He found that going back to 1989, New Jersey and Virginia have voted the same way in every election, and in every case, it was for the party that didn't control the White House. And over those past two decades, those votes have in no way correlated with various presidents' approval ratings.

Ostermeier:

Democrats swept the 1989, 2001, and 2005 elections in these two states - and were able to do so both when Republican Presidents were popular (George H.W. Bush at 57 percent approval on Election Day in 1989; George W. Bush at 84 percent in 2001) as well as unpopular (Bush at 42 percent approval in 2005).

Republicans, meanwhile, swept the 1993 and 1997 gubernatorial contests in the two states while Bill Clinton was in office - at both unpopular (in 1993, at 48 percent) and popular (in 1997, at 57 percent) periods of his presidency.

According to exit polls, 57 percent of New Jersey voters held a favorable opinion of Obama even as the electorate sent Christie to the Governor's mansion (and it was a less-than-apocalyptic 48 percent in VA). Let's also not forget that Corzine had been unpopular for a long time. Here's a report from April of 2008 -- just a few months into the Democratic presidential primaries -- headlined, "Study Says Corzine Popularity is Sinking", which found that only 38 percent of New Jersey voters approved of the job he was doing at that time.

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What Tuesday's Elections Really Mean
Posted by Adele Stan, AlterNet on November 4, 2009 at 7:47 AM.

While the mainstream media yammer relentlessly about what last night's election results say about President Barack Obama, the real question is what they say about the power of the organized right wing of the Republican Party.

Yes, Obama campaigned vigorously for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who lost narrowly to Republican Chris Christe, and less so for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds, who lost by double digits to Republican Bob McDonnell. But those races turned on local issues more than anything on the Obama agenda.

In New Jersey, mounting property taxes -- a circumstance over which a governor has little control -- combined with high unemployment figures to put the electorate in a sour mood toward the incumbent. Add to that a major corruption scandal in North Jersey that didn't involve Corzine, but emcompassed a prominent member of his administration, added to the ill will.

Virginia's Deeds lost to McDonnell on what should have been a Democratic issue: transportation. Unemployment figures for Virginia are far below those of New Jersey, but in the home state of Thomas Jefferson, just getting to your job can be a source of misery.

But more than anything, the results of these races, taken together with the peculiar special election in the 23rd congressional district of New York State and the vote against same-sex marriage in Maine, offer one resounding warning: the right is getting its act together, organizing up a storm.

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What's Really Behind Conservative Infighting?
Posted by Booman on November 4, 2009 at 6:07 AM.

Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, and Rush Limbaugh are pushing for a purge of moderates from the Republican Party. To be sure, this is about book sales, radio ratings, and fundraising, but it is also about something else. The way to keep the GOP as the Party of No is to threaten every member of their caucuses in Washington with an energetic primary if they work with the Democrats or the Obama administration. It's not a serious way of regaining majorities in Congress. In fact, it's quite detrimental to that effort. But the Republicans don't really care about Congress. They care about the White House. They don't want Obama to succeed. They want him to fight and scrap for every vote, and cause internal strife within the Democratic caucus.

The more Obama has to trim his sails to pass legislation, the more ornery his base becomes at signs of weakness, compromise, and capitulation. If everything he accomplishes is done with no bipartisan support, it keeps the Republican base energized.

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