I got off to a very slow blogging start today, and didn't get around to mentioning that it's Election Day, with significant Senate primaries in North Carolina (D), Indiana (R), and Ohio (D). Yet another chance to celebrate that great American invention, the direct primary...and with staggered primaries, lots of fun in the weeks to come for patriots and political junkies.
By the way, if we do have any experts in North Carolina politics reading, the one thing I've never really understood is why the Democrats were so desperate to find an alternative to Secretary of State Elaine Marshall? I guess if she wins tonight we'll see how good a candidate she'll turn out to be, but national Dems were very open about wanting to beat her, and I never saw an explanation.
Beyond that, I'd like to say that a loss in Indiana by former Republican Senator Dan Coats would be an indication that Republicans may have a lot of difficulty nominating their strongest candidates this year, but I'm not all that convinced that Coats is all that great of a candidate. Again, we'll see what happens if he wins.
At any rate -- happy Election Day, everyone!
Inability to raise money for Marshall... What the DSCC saw as poor numbers... Etc.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteCan you elaborate on that "etc."? I mean, she is a statewide elected official. She didn't raise much money so far apparently, but then again she had the national party against her. It just seems to me that there must be a story, and whatever it is doesn't seem to be reported in the national press, unless I've missed it -- lots of stories about how they wanted a better candidate, but nothing about why she was weak.
Marshall is seen as too liberal to have a chance in North Carolina. She is the DFA candidate. Plus, a woman. Cunningham is seen as having a "better" bio or "personal story" that might appeal to NCers.
ReplyDeleteShe ran in a Democratic Senate primary campaign in 2002 and lost to Erskine Bowles. I think she is/was just seen as a generally uninspiring candidate. Secretary of State is a state-wide office, but its basically an invisible position. Presumably she has some political skill to win this office, but we've got a number of Council of State positions with some pretty uninspiring pols. Cunningham is young, attractive, and got that whole military veteran thing going for him. I strongly suspect Marshall would make a much better Senator, but I think they decided the party has a much better chance of winning the race with Cunningham.
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