And now for a different kind of campaign: giving positive recommendations to Jesus General's Amazon.com review of "Joe" the "Plumber"'s "book".

http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2009/03/amazon-review-joe-plumbers-crayon.html

I guess I should know since I live just one state over, but what is Corzine's problem--other than being held responsible for the economic downturn, which I suppose all governors are taking heat for to one extent or another.

preferred geoghegan, voted for feigenholz, ok with quigly (i actually wanted him to run for cook county board president v. toddler in the dem primary.)
VERY happy fritchen and o'connor lost.
at least now maybe i can make an appoinment with my eye doctor (who cracked the 1,000 vote mark).

Geoghegan got zero coverage in the local media, the Sun Times went for Quigley. It was pretty much all under the radar here in Chicago.

Aside from his intarweb ads, no one even knew he was running as far as the local voter was concerned.

Hey, this is fabulous and it's from the DCCC! It's an automated Republican Apology Machine! ReRushlickin' pols can generate their "I'm Sorry, Rush" grovelation this way. Great:

http://www.dccc.org/content/sorry

I don't know if the email routine actually sends a message to Rush, but try it!

* Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley won the Democratic primary in Illinois' 5th yesterday, as part of the special election to fill the seat left vacant by Rahm Emanuel. Quigley is considered the overwhelming favorite in the special general election, scheduled for April 7. Netroots favorite Tom Geoghegan came in a disappointing seventh in the multi-candidate primary.

Turnout was positively shitty, no matter who you liked for the seat. There are 850 registered voters in my precinct. I was the 50th person to cast a ballot when I went into vote at 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Pathetic.

That said, I think Quigley will be good. He's no Geoghegan, but he's leaps & bounds better than everything else that was on the ballot. He's smart, he's feisty, he's green, and I think he'll be a good voice for progressives.

Re: New Jersey: isn't it New Jersey who always polls really badly for Dems, but then they win anyway? Or is that only in presidential elections?

J.C. Watts is making a comeback? Hmmm . . . can anyone say "Palin/Watts '12?" It would be the ultimate attempt by the GOP to say, "See? We're not sexist AND we're not racist!" Such a ploy would be completely in keeping with the GOP's recent maneuvers. And the country would laugh, and overwhelmingly re-elect Obama.

Hey, it could happen!

Watts had to make a comeback. How could he not, when the GOP has been invoking his name for the last six months as proof of their party's love of the black man? They trot him out proudly without a hint of embarrassment that the guy last held office in, what, 2002, and that the Congressional Black Caucus has contained exactly 0 members ever since.

"Netroots favorite Tom Geoghegan ..."

Actually it was only the 'Netroots' who weren't paying attention or didn't really care. Geoghegan's embarrassing return is a reminder that you actually have to look at what you have on the ground before making a decision on who to endorse.

As anyone from the district can tell you, Quigley is a great choice.

Corzine's problem is that he floats big ideas with harsh consequences for tough problems, but then doesn't do it. Thus the tough problems continue, which makes him unpopular. And the harsh measures alienate the people they are targeted at. Throw in that many times the "solution" Corzine comes up with targets traditional Democratic constituencies for no good reason, and he is at 31%. His latest thing is a proposal to furlough State workers to save a few million in a billion dollar budget hole. All this does is piss off a huge block of Democrats. What Republicans are left in the State will never vote for him anyway. And on top of it, it does nothing to fix the budget hole for next year (annoying Independents). Just another gimmick in a long line of gimmicks by both parties.

The Democrats have won just about everything in NJ over the past 10 years. But there are big, long running, problems and the incumbents don't seem able to address them. Corzine might be able to squeak out re-election on culture war issues, but NJ Democrats have to fix the property tax problem or they will be replaced. Ironic, since they originally turned the tide on the Republicans because they were unwilling to take on the property tax issue.

Shorter rant: Corzine has been doing Clintonian triangulation. But it is a majority Dem state (so he positioned himself right of center is a center left state), so all he has done is piss off Dems and get nothing done.

Democrats need to pay attention to state and local races. That's how the repubs intend to regain lost territory and then the national arena.

It would be interesting to see how far Watts would get in OK. I know Dems who voted for McCain simply because they would never ever vote for a black man for president. Maybe governor is different. It would be nice if a Dem could hold on there because the lege has gone totally republican, which means we'll be having a lot of far, far rightwingnut legislation coming out of it.

How about that wonderful Clare McCaskell today talking about earmarks.

I worked for a summer in OK about the time that Watts had retired from Congress. It was widely believed in OK that the reason was linked to the actual treatment that he got from other Congressional Republicans contrasted with the way they flattered him in public. Back in those days the GOP had no more regard for minorities than they do now.

Being governor would not have that problem because he would be calling the shots. Besides, Oklahomans relate to him more as a person than an African-American. I doubt that he would really be interested in going back to the federal level any time soon.

It's about time for "Americans United for Change" to organize and start contacting all the 'timid' conservative Democrats and tell them to stick with the program and stop listening to the Republican talking points.

I don't understand why there is no grass roots network that can urge the voters to contact their own representatives, when they are not doing the right thing.

I'd send a message to mine, if need be. Nelson, Conrad, Landrieu, etc... They need to be called, e-mailed, and faxed...