Archive for October 20th, 2010
WISCONSIN GROUND REPORT
Dear HillBuzz,
I live about 40 miles north of Madison, WI. I am a housewife and mom to two children. I discovered your blog through a link to your lovely letter to President Bush awhile ago. I haven’t been reading blogs that long. I used to just use the internet for basic information like recipes and movie times. I usually lurk. I saw your request for information from all fifty states, and thought I’d tell you guys about Wisconsin’s campaigns.
It’s not so much what I’m hearing as it is what I’m not hearing. Hardly anyone is talking politics. Which is a huge departure from the ’08 election. I live in an itty bitty rural town that was covered in Obama signs in ’08. My husband works in Madison and nobody is taking politics at all in the office. Which is very different from ’08 when everyone was sing the praises of Obama. My husband and one other person were McCain voters. They took a lot of heat right after Obama’s election. Now nobody is saying anything about there even being an election coming up.
I hear a lot of very nice things being said about Ron Johnson, our candidate for Senate. The people I talk to have gone from voting against Russ Feingold to voting for Ron Johnson. Everyone here thinks Tammy Baldwin is a lock yet again, but nobody seems to be campaigning for her. She isn’t as popular as she usually is. Chad Lee is running against her. He is a business owner and Tammy Baldwin seems to be ignoring him and hoping he goes away. Most people around here seem to be voting against Tammy Baldwin rather than for Chad Lee. Both Senator Feingold and Rep. Baldwin are running on their votes that differed with their party. She’s voted with the Democrats 97 percent of the time so she bring up her vote against the Iraq war, and Feingold’s campaign literature I got yesterday is touting his vote against NAFTA. Russ Feingold actually tried to say in a debate that he is the original tea partier because of his NAFTA vote.
In the Governor’s race we have the mayor of Milwaukee Tom Barrett (D) running against Scott Walker (R). Walker is ahead by 9 points. I know he is popular here because Milwaukee has a bad reputation around Madison. I’m not sure why, but I’ve only lived here for 4 years. A lady at the Piggly Wiggly in town said that “Barrett hasn’t earned a promotion”, when I asked her about the race for Governor. She had volunteered to canvass for Obama, so I was curious about her Walker button. Most people around here are not happy with our current Governor Jim Doyle and they see Barrett as a third term for Doyle.
I have seen four houses with signs for Democrat candidates, and about fifteen houses with Republican candidate signs. One of the yards that had signs up had three signs for various Democrats and a Walker for Governor sign which was an odd sight. I also heard on Charlie Sykes’ morning radio show that Rebecca Kleefisch had gotten more primary votes for Lt. Governor than Mayor Barrett got for Governor. I’ve been called twice by pollsters. One of which asked a lot of questions that were probably used to peg me as a right wing extremist. His very first question was “Do you think Barack Obama has done a good job so far in his presidency?” To which I laughed and said “Absolutely not.” In addition to the candidate questions they also asked about my religious beliefs, what my church teaches about social issues, gun rights, gun ownership, abortion issues and same sex marriage. That pollster also asked who I would support for President in 2012 from a list of very white bread and mayo guys and Sara Palin. The other poll was strictly about Wisconsin’s current race, and sounded a lot like the script I read while participating in a little mischief the other day.
Thank you for all your hard work guys. I love your site and read it daily. God Bless.
Jennifer
MICHIGAN GROUND REPORT
Dear Hillbuzz,
My neighbor’s a life-long Democrat but I’d call him a progressive. He’s run or worked for numerous federal & state election campaigns in several states over the years, not currently. If there’d been a real 2008 MI Dem primary I’m sure Hillbuzz and his paths would have crossed at some campaign event. He’s active behind the scenes in Dem circles giving me an ear to the ground about Dems that I don’t get from Hillbuzz.
The last few months he’s been quiet about politics. He stopped with Obama praise quite a while ago. Ditto with Pelosi and her gang. After helping Gov. Granholm get elected he’s now so negative about her job performance I doubt whether he’d do it again if she could’ve run. Then there’s his disappointment w/local Dem party leaders who he thinks are arrogant and so disorganized they couldn’t come up with a strong candidate in this little red part of our blue state.
I asked him who’d be the new MI governor. Rick Snyder (R) or Virge Benero (D)? He said it’d be Snyder but then added “I haven’t decided whether I’m going to hold my nose and vote for Snyder or hold my nose and vote for Benero”. I couldn’t believe it. A Dem progressive seriously considering Snyder. Seems he’s worried about the economy and jobs because he’s seen reports its going to get a lot worse in the next few years. There’s also some state seats he might vote R where he personally knows the candidates whom he calls fiscal moderates. For him social issues are on the back burner till 2012 or beyond.
Aunt Bobbie in MI
MISSISSIPPI GROUND REPORT
Dear HillBuzz,
I live in Northern Mississippi, but work across the state line in Tennessee in an extremely liberal setting. I have to listen to co-workers who think that Obama is the best president ever, that he’s not being tough enough with his opponents (!), and who would gladly take on Obama’s vocal opponents in a verbal or a physical manner should it come to that.
The signs for Charlotte Bergmann (R) and Steve Cohen (D) are about even on my ride home, but Cohen has an advantage with the urban population that mainly makes up that district. That’s a long story in and of itself.
Where I live is a different matter. North Mississippi is staunchly Republican. For example, the Republican ballot is the one that everyone runs on for school board or county elections. You don’t claim to be a Democrat unless you are a new transplant from another state or a teacher. This is why it was such a shame when Travis Childers took our Congressional seat two years ago. Childers wouldn’t have won if the Republicans from the Northeast hadn’t been put out that their candidate didn’t win the primary (it was a candidate from Northwest Mississippi). They all stayed home or voted for the “Blue Dog” Democrat. Look what that got us.
Our Congressman is an utter joke. He is/was good friends with a few guys who were assisting Dickie Scruggs and his son Zach in their efforts to bribe a local judge during the Hurricane Katrina litigation. (The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office took care of that.) He’s spent hundreds of dollars sending literature on what he has done in Congress to keep his name in front of us all!
Childers is campaigning hard around here (as he has been since he was elected). I think that I read that he even had Bill Clinton swing through the district the other day. He’s been trying to distance himself from Pelosi since … well, probably the day after his vote for her for Speaker of the House. There are some Childers signs near the highways and I saw one drunk pair of students at a college football game that had his campaign buttons on. No bumper stickers for Childers, but I think I’ve seen one or two for Nunnelee.
I haven’t heard as much from the Republican candidate recently (who has been in the state legislature), but I have seen yard signs in our neighborhood and the surroundings. There were a lot of people who worked hard to get him nominated via the primary though (three way race between him, Angela McGlowan, and a guy named Henry who seemed like a decent fellow too). He’s got a record and name recognition… and the fact that the Democrats are having to spend money here is a good thing.
So wish us luck in righting this wrong. We’re awfully sorry about Travis, but I can assure you that I didn’t vote for the old phony and have been trying to keep his feet to the fire the best that I can. He knows how precarious his position is and he’s been tacking as far away from Pelosi, et al as possible.
Best wishes from one of your Mississippi fans.
SOUTH CAROLINA GROUND REPORT
Bill in SC
NEW YORK STATE GROUND REPORT
Dear HillBuzz,
I was active in Tea Party a year and more ago; less so now, doing more campaign stuff– but believe me there was a swell of folks and still are, folks totally fed up with an overbearing govt. The social issues were and still are a wedge issue so we have had to look at what unites us: desire for constitutional govt and lower taxes, and the whole ball of wax. We even took it to the local level and were able to stop a 30 cent cell phone tax that the local legislature was trying to pass on to us, even tho it is a tax we here pay already to Albany for 911 services. They were too lazy to force Albany to send it down to us so they thought they could stick us with it — twice. Anyway, we tried to use the tea party principle to affect local issues and I still believe that is a real boon of the movement. It can and will give strength to activism on the local level.
I still see stupid Obama ’08 stickers shamelessly stuck on cars driven by brain dead morons. Believe me, if I were an illegal alien with a beat up truck and no insurance, i would ram them big time, but that is a side issue.
What I find here is that a lot of conservatives are used to voting D; it is a family thing, even tho D is more like C for commie now. They just have a thing against Republicans; perceptions given by media, whatever. There is just a strong Democrat tradition which is difficult to deal with, but we are making a difference. In some instances it means trying to simply support conservatives at all levels despite parties. NY is a weird place. I feel re-education on the parties is really necessary. Esp. since the head of the Independent party is a hack who has never filed the necessary legal paperwork for being the head of the party–yet wields power for the whole Independent party as her personal cudgel.
We have a couple outstanding conservatives running in the State elections like Frank Sparaco who will have a real backbone if he gets to Albany; he has displayed conservative resolve throughout his tenure on local legislature and is Navy vet and small businessman. We also have a conservative running for CD 17, a former Afghan vet, former Fed marshal, family man. The Pubbie runnning is a closet lib whose big issue seems to be Puerto Rican statehood along with insulting women and calling constituents “racist” who disagree with him. So the Dem in CD-17 is safe here, unfortunately.
I dont know how many election cycles it will take, but NY is in such huge trouble on the state level it is almost overshadowing the national elections. I can send more on the ground here—-we do have several excellent groups: Hudson Valley Patriots, Orange COunty Tea Party, and we do have a branch of Americans for Prosperity here in NY giving activist training, etc..Oct 23. That same day we also have a huge rally in Rockland at Rte 59/Middletown Rd in Nanuet. 4 Corners, 4 Issues–1)No Mosque at 0, 2) jobs/economy 3)REPEAL Deathcare 4)Support AZ and our borders, 10:30AM-12:30pm They are doing the same thing on Oct 30. White Plains Tea Party across the river is all fired up gathering people for their rally from not only their county, but New Jersey, and upstate. Very active movement there and on Long Island, Conservative Society for Action which has demonstrated and annoyed Tim Bishop and Upchuck Schumer numerous times, and overwhelmed MoveOn.org everytime. So this is my report. I dont know if it is helpful.
Thanks guys,
MG
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Dear HillBuzz,
TEXAS GROUND REPORT
Dear HillBuzz,
On a more interesting note back in August the King Street Patriots http://www.kingstreetpatriots.org/ and True the Vote http://www.truethevote.org/uncovered massive voter fraud in Houston. The majority of fraudulent voter registrations being in House Rep Sheila Jackson Lee’s district. They found 20,000 questionable voter applications. Three days after this fraud came to light there was a massive fire at the warehouse that housed all of Harris counties voting machines. Things that make you say hmmmmmm http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/us/politics/11voting.html
Take care and thanks for all Hillbuzz does!!!
Shelli in Texas
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Dear Hillbuzz,
I’m in TX-14. It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Ron Paul will easily win again. The interesting race, though, is TX-22. Not because Pete Olson won’t also easily win again, but because his Democratic opponent, Kesha Rogers, is a black woman who thinks Obama should be impeached under the 25th Amendment because he is having a mental breakdown and is incapable of discharging the duties of the office. (Not exaggerating – that’s what her campaign website says.) I’ve several times driven by her supporters standing on a corner waving signs that say “IMPEACH OBAMA” and “25th AMENDMENT” and “GLASS-STEAGALL ACT” and such. But don’t get your hopes up too far – she’s attacking his policies from the left.
I have a couple of interesting general observations: One, no one (well, except Kesha Rogers) is stating their party affiliation on campaign signs. It isn’t uncommon for Democratic candidates to not mention their party on their signs, since this is a pretty heavily Republican area; but the Republicans aren’t stating their party affiliation either. My guess, which is based on nothing but my gut instinct, is that no one wants to mention their party because they’re afraid of backlash against both parties. Texas, despite its reputation as a deep-red state, is heavily infested with RINOs (e.g., Cornyn), and very few politicians here are popular among conservatives.
Two, this is a NASA area. Johnson Space Center is the home of manned spaceflight, and the Vision for Space Exploration and accompanying severe budget cuts have pretty much destroyed manned spaceflight in America. The interesting thing is that many people blame Obama specifically for that. There’s a lot of resentment against him tied to that issue.
I’ll go vote early sometime in the next few days. Will let you know if anything interesting transpires.
Oh, I drove by my local city hall (which is also the early voting polling place) last night and saw a huge orange and red sign among the campaign signs that said, “Stop Obama – Vote the R.” The R is ginormous. The same sign is also posted outside a few businesses.
Love your site! Thanks for all you do!
K in Texas
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PENNSYLVANIA GROUND REPORT
| Dear HillBuzz,
I live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a northern suburb of Philadelphia . This is a centrist area that swings. In 2006, Bucks County elected their first Democratic congressman, Patrick Murphy who won by the skin of his teeth against incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick. Murphy ran as a moderate Dem and currently labels himself a Blue Dog although he is more like Pelosi’s lap dog. If you want to hear a story about political backstabbing, keep reading. In 2006, Bill Clinton came to the area to campaign for Patrick Murphy. In 2007, Murphy endorsed Obama over Hillary and he was one of the first congressmen to back him. While Murphy was endorsing Obama, Hillary won Bucks County by 10 points. The voters around here cross party lines as Ed Rendell was very popular during his own campaign years. Mike Fitzpatrick wants his seat back in congress and is running a very strong campaign against Murphy. He is currently double digits ahead. Everyone I speak to, including Obama supporters are very angry at government and Obama. Not only do I see bumper stickers on cars that are anti-Obama and pro-tea party, but I’ve seen lawn signs with slogans “Fire Pelosi” and “Pray for our Nation”. There is a large Jewish population who are not supporting Joe Sestak because of his anti-Israel sentiment. Bucks County is also home to 4 or 5 large hospitals and smaller medical centers. I have yet to find one doctor or nurse who likes Obamacare or Obama. I’ve been to 3 community festivals in Yardley, Richboro, and Wrightstown where the Republicans and Democrats had tables. All of the energy was with the Republicans. The Democrats looked extremely lost, out of place, and pretty much hopeless. One man running for State Senate on the Democratic ticket was agreeing with us on our criticism of Obama, Pelosi, and Joe Sestak. It was stunning as this was the first time I’ve ever heard a politician openly bad mouthing others within the same party running during the same election cycle. Throughout lower Bucks County 80% of Patrick Murphy’s signs are on public highways or public land where his campaign staff obviously placed them. 75% of Mike Fitzpatricks signs are on front lawns of voters. During the past few months Cook has moved my district, PA-8, from leans Democrat to toss-up, and now it leans Republican. That’s change I can believe in. Devon |
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Dear HillBuzz,
My daughter got married this weekend, and at the wedding reception politics, namely the upcoming Pennsylvania Governor’s race came up. Why? Well nary a celebration, evening out, or concession stand visit during a Stiller or Pens game came be had without the greedy hand of the generational Democratic leadership’s over reach slapping the citizenry in the wallet.
Starting back in January, 2008, a SEVEN PERCENT drink tax (on poured beverages) was enacted in Allegheny County (where Pittsburgh is the County seat). This INSANE tax was the brain child of Allegheny County Executive, Dan Onorato (who is now the Dim–and I do mean dim) candidate for PA Governor.
Let me fully explain the Drink Tax in terms we can all understand. Let’s say an establishment had charged $7.50 for an adult beverage; seven percent of that is .53 cents, so the establishment would have to charge $8.03 for the drink (but who wants to keep track of pennies) so the establishment not only loses business (due to less sales as the consumer’s cost has now up) but also profits (at the rate of .03 per drink served) in order to efficiently cover the tax bill. Only a Democrat could see the ‘logic’ in that equation.
And, per my experience this past Saturday I now know that the tax is called (by parents/couples/people who plan parties) as THE ONORATO TAX. The hospitality business in Allegheny County/Pittsburgh is losing out on events as venues in surrounding counties are being booked years into the future.
That local opinion, in Onorato’s HOME BASE plus some hard hitting ads by his Republican challenger (and front runner in the polls, PA State Attorney General, Tom Corbett) linking Danny O to not only his namesake buzzkill shakedown, but also his failed budgetary controls over (Barky would call this won ‘shovel ready’) a total boondoggle subway tunnel ‘dig’ under the Allegheny River (to the tune of 122 million in budget over runs) to connect a little used subway system to the stadiums on the North Shore have Corbett out ahead.. Corbett’s commercials point out that the dig budget (using Fed, state and local monies and bonds) for the project is more than the cost of the two stadiums combined. COMBINED!!!
Any wonder why, after generations of Democratic leadership, that the Burgh is still the Buckle of the Rust Belt?
And…when Nancy Pee was in the Burgh on Monday (to speak to her base, an astroturf Unionista steelworker assemblage) Danny O was NO WHERE to be found. Odd, huh, that the Democratic candidate for Governor of a supposedly Deomcratic slamdunk state would avoid the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives in ‘his own 3 to 1 registered Democrat backyard.’
PA is turning red (and it not the autumn leaves)…
Signed, Native Yinzer
