Some Good Electoral News
This entry was posted on 5/4/2008 3:07 PM and is filed under 2008 Election,All Posts.
Obama Wins Guam!
OK, so it was by merely seven votes. Yeah. But hey, a win is a win!
Better electoral news? Yesterday, Democrats in Louisiana won a special election in a congressional seat that has remained solidly Republican the last 33 years. Beyond the obvious benefit of a House pickup, and how it might predict Democratic congressional gains in November, this victory also illuminated the failure of the GOP to hurt Democrats down the ballot by tying them to Barack Obama.
With all precincts reporting, State Rep. Donald J. Cazayoux Jr. had 49 percent of the vote to Woody Jenkins's 46 percent, overcoming a barrage of ads from GOP committees that tried to paint Cazayoux as an ally of Obama, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, and of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
With a poorly funded candidate in Jenkins, the National Republican Congressional Committee and conservative groups poured about $1 million into an advertising campaign that in the final weeks focused on linking Cazayoux to Obama and Pelosi. The ads accused Cazayoux of supporting Obama's "big government scheme" on health care and his "radical agenda" on other issues.
GOP strategists considered the Cazayoux-Jenkins race a test run of the emerging strategy to pin Obama to many House Democratic candidates, thinking that his liberal voting record and recent controversies involving statements by his former pastor make him a drag on down-ballot Democrats.
Indiana good news? After a week of steadily rising Clinton leads in the various polls, the latest Zogby has Obama up by 2.
Last, but not least: Tom Hanks has endorsed Barack Obama! He offered an amusing, impassioned home video to announce his support.
