Campaign Blog: News & Updates

» WaPo: Rep. Tom Lantos Dies at Age 80

One of my favorites for his foreign policy views ...

Rep. Tom Lantos, 80, a California Democrat whose experience during the Holocaust shaped his concern for human rights and his staunch view in favor of U.S. military intervention abroad, died early this morning, a spokeswoman told the Associated Press. He had esophageal cancer and died at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

Lantos, born in Budapest to Hungarian Jews, served 14 terms in the House of Representatives. He is the only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress. His district included southwest San Francisco and much of San Mateo County, where he was known for supporting the socially liberal agenda of his constituents. Last year, he announced he would not seek reelection because of his cancer treatment.

Lantos was a powerful figure on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he had been the senior Democratic member since 2001 and its chairman since 2007.

What bloggers do with new toys ...

Obviously, not terribly helpful for the Presidential campaigns traipsing about town for primary votes. But still interesting visuals. This is pretty much the end of me doing these maps with a combination of mouse and canvass report. Next step is to automate the data portion of this and get the whole state painted in one stroke of the digital brush.

For matter of consideration, the precincts are painted blue or red based on the following criteria:
1) Moody-Willett outcome.
2) For Harris County, whether the precinct was won by a State Rep. candidate.

There's bound to be some hiccups in there. You don't edit 2-3,000 shapefile polygons by hand without a few slipups.

Discuss among yourselves.

Dwight blogs on some interesting uses of Google's new MyMaps feature. It's one of the niftier things that Google has added to their mapping function ever since they released it on API. In experimenting with both Google's new MyMaps and their previously existing API, here's two results looking for a little input/feedback:

» HD137 in Red/Blue
The shading is reflective of the percentage won by either Scott Hochberg or Sylvia Spivey. Originally, I'd set the shading to match the winning percentage. But the shading was a bit too opaque and made it difficult to read the map. So I bumped it down to 50% of the winning percentage. Only problem is that it mutes the differences in margin rather substantially. So it's difficult to identify areas of strength more readily.

» Early Voting locations on MelissaNoriega.com
My first foray into the world of Google Maps API. The coding is a bit problematic, but since there's a pretty good field of how-to resources out there now, it's a bit easier to learn. I'd wanted to do something like this back in 2006, but didn't have the time to dive into the programming of it. Again ... much easier to pick up nowadays.

There's two nice features incorporated into this one: the directions - which you can't run through the API, but you can send a location over to Google Maps; and the enlarged info box option. The latter lets you put practically anything into the map ... even RSS feeds. It's essentially reading from an HTML page. There's nothing that says you couldn't, for instance, map every sporting event at it's location and give live scores via RSS feeds. Could come in handy for High School football - or any other sport of interest.

In experimenting with some map ideas for polling locations on E-day, there's a bit of an issue with there being hundreds of pushpins to deal with. Visually, there's got to be a way to break it into smaller chunks or go to the map zoomed in for more detail. But that's the next experiment.

I'm interested in hearing/reading/seeing any feedback on ways to incorporate the maps for political/informational use. I think a lot of what we get out of this right now is rather limited in terms of anything new that it brings to politics or current events. The folks at ChicagoCrime.org have been at the forefront of using the API for informational purposes. But at the end of the day, any use of the maps should be such that it makes things easier for people to do something other than look up the information. We're not there yet, I don't think. But it'll take a good deal of experiments before we arrive at that point.

No, I'm not drinking away my sorrows over Tom Suozzi's loss up in New York ... I'm still here. Just swamped. For now, here's some darn good blogging to check out since I'm not able to contribute much today:

• Political Wire picks up the results and runs through them. Coupla surprises, of course. Linc ekes out a win in Rhode Island. I suspect he'll get a temporary bump in the polls that might give us Dems reason to be downcast on gaining that seat. But I also think it'll be close come November and our odds there have to be fairly decent. The NYT reporting on the Empire State races make it seem as if Suozzi is content with the outcome and no apparent bitterness is there. I hope that's the case - Suozzi deserves a shot at something big in that state and I hope that I can eventually support him without any conflicting vibe. The race up in New Hampshire had an upset after all. Minor storyline, really. But the DCCC annointed candidate lost. Peter Sullivan picked up 5% despite dropping out of the race. In all, a second-tier pickup opportunity drops off the map for Dems. Just as well, we've got one or two seats like that here in Texas that, I'm sure, would love to be added as a replacement.

• Kuff notes that the DMN endorses a Democrat for statewide office: William Moody for Supreme Court Justice. I gotta say, I'm surprised. I figure Chris Bell will pick up a few endorsements here and there (or maybe a lot, for all I know). But to see any of the other candidates picked is a pleasant surprise.

• Phil Martin has the goods on one of those rising stars in TXDem circles - Juan Garcia. Sure looks a lot better than the news his opponent has been making lately. No wonder our GOP blogger buddies are crossing their fingers that voters are too stupid to figure out which electeds have been naughty and which ones have been nice.

Anything significant that I missed? Lemme know.

UPDATE: Oh, it's not blogging, but it's good stuff in the email inbox. Tomorrow afternoon, Pennsylvania Senate candidate Bob Casey is giving one of those big policy wonk speeches at Catholic University's Law School. The speech is entitled "Restoring America's Moral Compass: Leadership and the Common Good" and allegedly, we'll be able to watch online over at the school's site - 2pm Texas time tomorrow.

From the email:

Casey's speech will include a discussion of the Congressman Lincoln Davis' Pregnant Women Support Act. This bill will be introduced in the coming weeks in the U.S. House of Representatives.

ODDBALL THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: I notice this link prior to an otherwise great lunch meeting today to discuss another blog project. Makes ya wonder is all I'm saying.

'Wash Post' Hires Key White House Speechwriter/Aide

Actually, a good addition here. Gerson will undoubtably catch grief for being too soon out of the Bush White House to offer much independent thought on Bush policy. But Gerson's among the best writers out there, period and his brand of conservatism ought to make for an interesting read.

After racking my brain all weekend for another writing project, I'm pretty much out of words to come up for any type of poetic effort in remembrance of 9/11. A part of me would love nothing more than to go back to that fleeting second that seems to get shorter and shorter with each passing year and savor what little moment we had as a nation where we knew what it meant to be in this grand experiment together, with some sense of unity in purpose. A part of me would love nothing more than a dimly flickering lightbulb to suddenly burst into a bright beam atop the man we call President in regards to engaging this war more adequately and purposefully. To those we lost (whether we knew them or not), we owe it to them to continue freedom's journey as its exemplar and guarantor ... however clumsily we may accomplish that.

No, lacking any ability to come up with something better than that, I'm just going to riff on Thomas Barnett, who I rank as among the sane leading lights on how exactly to chart that very journey:

Connect to what you know and believe today.

The world is not a more dangerous place five years later, but it is a more committed one.

The Long War is not a declaration made but a struggle engaged.

There are almost unlimited ways by which Americans can aid one another and the world in this fight.

For me, that means a few moments of appreciation with friends, cohorts, and fellow believers - appreciating the normal life and all the hard work that goes into making it just so very normal.

Somewhat less than pithy thoughts on an otherwise somber day:

Why is it that so-called conservatives are generally tough on crime, to the point of suggesting that anyone concerned about a loss of liberties must be secretly committing said crime; but when one camera is placed in a stop light, you get the idea this is one stop shy of the apocalypse?

Why is it that so-called conservatives believe government incapable of helping America during a massive hurricane; but give it all the credit in the world for protecting us against terrorism?

And why is it that those same folks believe a liberal media clouds the minds of others; yet they themselves cannot possibly be clouded by think tanks on Wal Mart's tab?

It's truly a fascinating fairy-tale world they've created.

Open University: AMPED UP - Cass Sunstein

Sound familiar?

A few years ago, I was involved in some studies that uncovered a funny fact: When Republican-appointed judges sit on three-judge panels with other Republican appointees, they show unusually conservative voting patterns. So too, Democratic-appointed judges on three-judge panels show especially liberal voting patterns when sitting with fellow Democratic appointees. In short, like-minded judges show a pattern if "ideological amplification."

The presence of even one Republican appointee often makes Democratic appointees much more moderate. Republican appointees often become much more moderate when even a single Democratic appointee is there.

We now know that ideological amplification is pervasive on federal courts--that it can be found in numerous areas, including sex discrimination, affirmative action, campaign finance law, disability discrimination, environmental law, labor law, and voting rights.

It turns out that ideological amplification occurs in many domains. It helps to explain "political correctness" on college campuses--and within the Bush administration. In a recent study, we find that liberals in Colorado, after talking to one another, move significantly to the left on affirmative action, global warming, and civil unions for same-sex couples. On those same three issues, conservatives, after talking to each other, move significantly to the right.

It's unclear whether anything can be done about ideological amplification. But it's entirely clear that when private organizations and governments blunder, ideological amplification is often the culprit.

Kuff blogs it, so I don't have to. But Nick Lampson will not be putting his name on the Special Election ballot for what will essentially be a two-to-three week term.

Smart move, I say. It's a pointless election that doesn't really do him any benefit - or the district for that matter. Gov. Perry could have called a Special Election for September (IIRC). But, of course, the whole world had to be sucked into Tom DeLay's little egocentric melodrama. Not sure, but I believe that may well represent the first and only time the terms "little" and "ego" have ever been used in conjunction with Tom DeLay's name.

Anyways, the next step is Sheltie's ... I've said it before, but I don't think it's really in her interest to enter the Special either. That said, there's plenty of room available for her at the front counter of Macy's selling skin cream. Or so I hear.

Too busy to blog, really. So here's a feeble effort to keep from losing too much ground in the relentless 24/7 bloggercycle of news:

• Commenter RWB asks, re: Sheila Dracula-Rodriguez:
  

  Will her appearing on the special election ballot help her or hurt her? It may act as an aide memoire for voters writing her in. But frankly, it makes the Palm Beach butterfly ballot incident seem straightforward in comparison. They couldn;t have found a "Joe Smith" to run?

  I tend to agree that this kills her write-in chances. If I still go with my high-ceiling estimate of the potential vote share to be gotten from Sheltie's campaign (40%), what happens when people look at that special election page thinking "Oh, this is where I vote for her!" I think that ceiling drops to about 30%. Of course, that was all contingent upon the rumors of RNCC millions being true, which seem to be far from certain right about now. If Sheltie's only running on Bob Perry's dime and there's no multi-million dollar campaign to educate folks on write-in dialing on the eSlates, then that ceiling drops considerably. To the point that I'd have to optimistically(?) peg it at about 20%. And without the millions, a 25% dropoff from that just makes her candidacy a joke. Well ... moreso than the pink suits previously made it.

  There's another angle here worth discussing. I've seen a few bloggers (pro reporters, also) refer to the winner as holding the seat for a few months. Let's walk through the math, shall we? If there's 4 or more candidates (minimum one from each side) in the hunt, I think a December runoff is inevitable. That puts an election in the first week or so of December. This isn't a two-month term ... this is a two-week term. And since there's likely to be no session during this period (barring another brain dead woman getting the attention of Randall Terry!). So, essentially, this "special" election will be to see who gets to have their picture taken at a meaningless swearing in ceremony.

  That alone will eliminate anyone from running an expensive campaign for this race. It might also be enough to sway either or both the Sheltie and Nick Lampson from jumping into it. For Nick, this is a meaningless race with no upside. He's already got seniority due to his 4 terms in office before. Having one more day in office isn't going to matter squat to him. For the Sheltie, it would mean that she would have to resign her City Council seat. Is she really willing to do that for the sake of playing along with the GOP to discredit a Nick Lampson win any way possible? I don't put it past her, but I'm somewhat doubtful. I mean, once Nick Lampson is sworn in for the full term, she'd have to go back to selling Neutrogena to 16 year olds till the next cycle got into full gear.

  So who does get into a CD22 Special? No clue. None whatsoever. I'm booked solid, though. So don't look at me.

• Case v Akaka tonight. Sadly, I neglected to get Honolulu affiliates on my cable package, so I'm SOL. I'm otherwise occupied tonight as it is, so I'll have to wait for the YouTube version of events. Of course, you all know who I'm pulling for.

• And even though I'm pulling for the other side to hold onto a Dem Senate seat in Minnesota, even I've got to admit that Mark Kennedy's ads are amazingly well done. From executing a line item veto of his daughter's allowance budget to his "Crossing Party Line" ad, they're pretty slick. I hope Amy Klobuchar is keeping up.

• Ciro Rodriguez drops out of CD23 for lack of money in the oddball cycle that that race represents. I've never written anything to give an indication that my politics were anywhere close to Ciro's and they aren't. But seeing someone who's given a quarter century of his life to his community, from the school board to Congress, deserves a little applause for his own willingness to serve. This might possibly be Ciro's fond farewell from politics. Dunno. But if nothing else is said about him, let it at least be that he cared enough about his community to find a way to help.

  For now, that race hinges on Al Uresti or Lukin Gilliland for the Dem side. There seems to be a certain amount of fondness for Gilliland that I'm puzzled by. This district is primarily a southside San Antonio district (nearly 60% of the vote comes from Bexar county, about 60% of the VAP is Hispanic). Color me skeptical, but don't we risk losing middle-to-low income Hispanic voters in this district if it's Bonilla v Gilliland in December? Or is it just that the mere mention of a candidate writing his own check that makes people fawn over them a bit too easily?

• That's about all I can think of for now. Work awaits. As does Labor Day. Reminds me, why is it that so many of my Republican friends view MLK Day as a "black" holiday, yet they actively participate in Labor Day with no hint of irony whatsoever as to its origins?

PinkDome - August 29, 2006 - Bill Hammond Can't Spell His Candidate's Name

PinkDome gives another ominous sign about Sheila Dracula-Rodriguez's potential for problems in being dialed into office. Granted, Hammond's version might actually end up being counted for the Sheltie, but what I want to know is whether or not the all-important write-in votes for Count Chocula will be awarded her way.

Interesting numbers from the Gov race here in TX ...

Perry - 34.8
Bell - 23.1
Kinky - 22.7
OTG - 9.6

Tag that toe, grandkids ... the Grandma looks awfully dead from here. About the only question remaining is how high Chris Bell climbs from here on out.

In the lesser states ...
NV-Gov ... Democrat eking out a lead by a few points (Pickup)
AR-Gov ... Democrat looking like a shoe-in (Pickup)
CO-Gov ... Democrat sailing smoothly (Pickup)
MN-Gov ... Dem by three (Pickup)
NY-Gov ... are you kidding me? (Pickup)
MD-Gov ... Dem sailing for now (Pickup)
MA-Gov ... Spitzer-esque lead evolving (Pickup)
OH-Gov ... Strickland by 8 (Pickup)

Of these, I have to put the MD & MN races as the toughest. MA looks incredibly good for now, but Bay State Dems have a way of shooting off both feet once the primary is settled. With a three-way primary that looks to be a virtual dead heat, that could very well happen all over again. In MN & MD, we're still tasked with offing an incumbent. Both incumbents in question are solid campaigners who will start to look better at some point in the campaign.

VA-Sen ... Webb now polling ahead (Ripe for the Plucking)
PA-Sen ... Nine-point lead for Casey (Likely Pickup)
OH-Sen ... Brown by nine (Likely Pickup)
RI-Sen ... no poll, but other polling is favorable, even with Chafee as the opponent. (Leans Dem)
MO-Sen ... McCaskill back by 4 points (Tossup)
TN-Sen ... Ford back by a surprisingly close 3 points (Elevated to Tossup)
NV-Sen ... Carter back by under 4 (Elevated to Tossup)
AZ-Sen ... Pederson, same (Elevated to Tossup)
MT-Sen ... not on this list, but other polling is very favorable (Likely Pickup)
Of course, the same poll has Joe up by 10 in Connecticut.

Getting the five needed is still, I think, going to take a bit of a perfect storm. But when you see so many challengers that have been behind by 10 or more points now breathing down the back of incumbents, that storm may very well be gaining strength. I still put Ford and Carter at the bottom of this list in terms of winning. And I think McCaskill's race will go down to the wire (which may well favor us anyway). I think 4 pickups are doable enough. Five is increasingly in sight, it's just a matter of picking which one you expect to be that fifth. More likely, though, I think it's just as likely that we could end up with all 8 races listed above just as much as we could pick up 5.

Finally, one good purpose for a federally-funded space program. Unfortunately, I don't think we're getting our money's worth even with this new "research."

Just the laugh I needed ...

Alternative media like blogs and talk radio must be very frustrating for editorialists in mainstream media who have grown accustomed to having the last word always. But, time and technology march on, whether professional editorialists do or not.

That's Houston's own Kevin Whited offering a high-minded rant about someone not approving his comments as well as those of LST's Matt Bramanti on the weighty topic Diet Coke and Mentos (seriously, I just don't have the comedic chops to make that up!). The "someone" in question - Chron ed. cartoonist Nick Anderson had this to say via email (via Matt Bramanti):

I didn’t approve yours and Kevin’s earlier mentos/diet coke comments because my online dept. asked me to stop approving comments that added nothing of substance.

With today’s blog post about Spangler, it became relevant (barely). He should have posted it under the Spangler entry, but what the hell.

I am amazed that you two have time to worry about things like this.

"Nothing of substance" ... nice!

Actually, I'm still debating whether this qualifies as simply ironic or another low plunge in hypocrisy for Kev ... I seem to recall him banning comments from a certain blogger. Let's hop in the wayback machine and go to that email, shall we?

However, your comments in particular are not welcome on either of my two blogs. Your antagonistic insistence that I don't allow other views is a case in point. This isn't about other views, but about your behavior. There are times when your antagonistic style is off-putting to the point of being rude, and I think it tends to bring out the worst in other commenters. The antagonism in comments is one of several reasons I left another group blog. It's not the sort of blogversation that I hope to generate from posts.

Seriously, somehow in the midst of his lecturing email, he actually used the word "blogversation." I can't make stuff like that up if I tried. What's doubly ironic (or double-dipping) is that my own "offending" post way back when was on something slightly more substantive than Diet Coke and Mentos. Sheesh, is this the blogging equivalent of Lewis Black opening a newspaper and getting his comedy material? Who needs a "Joke of the Day" feed in their RSS reader?

Anyways ... pot, meet kettle; kettle, pot.

*yawn*

ADD-ON: Seriously ... Mentos?!?!?!?

Like I need an excuse to applaud Nicole Kidman?

Kidman condemns Hamas, Hezbollah

NICOLE Kidman has made a public stand against terrorism.

The actress, joined by 84 other high-profile Hollywood stars, directors, studio bosses and media moguls, has taken out a powerfully-worded full page advertisement in today's Los Angeles Times newspaper.

It specifically targets "terrorist organisations" such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.

"We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas," the ad reads.

"If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die.

"We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs."

I'm not big on really giving a rat's behind about what media stars have to say about current events, but in this case it's Nicole Kidman. I can't think of any better exception to make. Apparently, I'm not alone ...

The actors listed included: Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton and William Hurt.

Directors Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Dick Donner and Sam Raimi also signed their names.

Yeah, yeah ... all big important names in Hollywood. But ... Nicole Kidman!!!

Is it really any wonder why she made the headline and Danny DiVito didn't?