Part three of my continuing series on the five congressional campaigns with undecided outcomes--Georgia Senate, Minnesota Senate, California 4th, Louisiana 4th, and Ohio 15th--can be found in the extended entry. There are important updates on all five campaigns.
These numbers are a little bit different than the ones you might be seeing at most election results sites. The reason is that I am allocating the Alaska Senate race, Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, and Virginia's 5th congressional district all to Democrats. I don't consider the ongoing counting or runoffs in those districts to have any realistic chance to change the outcome.
The two remaining Senate seats in my chart are Georgia (December 2nd run-off) and Minnesota (recount starts next week). The three remaining House seats are the California 4th (still counting 35,000 provisional and absentee ballots), the Louisiana 4th (December 6th run-off) and the Ohio 15th (still counting 27,000 provisional ballots, pending lawsuit) I discuss the current state of each of those campaigns in the extended entry.
With the Alaska Senate campaign turning heavily in favor of Democrat Mark Begich, in the extended entry I provide a run-down of the five closest campaigns that have still not been called, who is likely to win each campaign, and what it means for the overall balance of power. All of that, plus election forecasting notes can be found in the extended entry.
In the last couple days, there have been several posts across the blogosphere citing what various candidates running for Congress have said on FISA and retroactive immunity for the telecoms. But so far, it's been all over the map. I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.
First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill. They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.
Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.
One of my favorite candidates for Congress Charlie Brown has just posted a diary on kos stating his opposition to the current FISA bill in the Senate: http://www.dailykos.com/story/...
He has personal experience with FISA and could be an authority on the issue if he makes it to Congress.
I flew missions that monitored electronic communications around the world-often with Soviet MIGs flying off my wing and hoping I'd make a wrong turn. Our standing order was "if you even suspect you are collecting data on an American citizen, you are to cease immediately, flag the tape, and bring it to a supervisor." We knew failure to comply would yield serious consequences-the kind that can end your career, or worse, land you in jail.
Some red meat.
But this debate isn't just about security; it's about accountability. As an officer who was both involved in these programs and held personally accountable for my actions in the name of defending America, I have a problem with giving a few well-connected, well-healed companies who knowingly usurp the law a free pass.
Even in a very red, R+10 district, our candidates are speaking out on telcom immunity. We should be proud. I look forward to the incoming Congress. We actually might finally make some real progress on critical issues.
We should support candidates who take bold positions on important issues.
The first round votes have been counted and we are down to the final five!
Thousands and thousands of people cast first round votes in "Serve with the General" - the contest that will send General Wes Clark to one lucky Congressional District to participate in a community service project. The race to get into the final round was extremely close!
Now it is time to pick from the final five districts: Washington's 8th (Darcy Burner), California's 4th (Charlie Brown), North Carolina's 10th (Daniel Johnson), Colorado's 4th (Betsy Markey), or Minnesota's 3rd (Ashwin Madia).
Click here to cast your final round vote!
(Every district starts back at zero votes for the final round, so make sure you cast a final round vote.)
You get to decide where Democrats will roll up their sleeves at a community service event with General Clark this summer.
So cast your vote today! The final round of voting ends this Friday, June 6th, at 12:00 midnight eastern time.
Thank you for your participation and for putting your Democratic values into action. Spread the word!
Democrats Work and WesPAC have launched a contest to determine which Congressional district General Wes Clark is going to visit this summer.
This won't be an ordinary visit. General Clark will travel to one Congressional district where a Democratic challenger is fighting to change the direction of our country to work side-by-side with area Democrats to make a positive impact through community service. We want you to tell us where we should put our values into action.
You can cast your vote here: http://democratswork.org/index.php?page=display&id;=140
So as we've established by now, Darrell Issa thinks very little of 9/11 rescue workers and would prefer that the federal government not concern itself with their welfare. Cause according to him, 9/11 is not and presumably was not a national issue. We've also established that he has no qualms about throwing federal money around on local pork as long as it benefits him directly. So the next logical question for me is "oh hey, are there any familiar names that don't mind taking Darrell Issa's money?" As you may or may not know, Darrell Issa is filthy rich. So he's spread a lot of money around on Republicans and conservative causes. So as it turns out, there are quite a lot of Republicans currently running around the Capitol funded in part by Darrell Issa (partial list):
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