Governor Races

[TGHusker]

I didn't see a thread on Governor races and I didn't want those races to get mixed up wt congressional and the 2024 presidential race  SOOO here is a thread for it. 

 

 

To start off, we can see the GOP (read Trump) play book already being revealed.   The cult members will follow the same path their leader took.  Shout Fraud, Rigged, Unfair, Stolen every opportunity they can.  They want to cast doubt on the validity of every election.  They want to keep the anger stirred up.  What happens in these local races also helps to boaster the argument/lies of the 2020 election and the lies forth coming for the 2024 presidential election.  As a result, they cast doubt and undermine the authority and the respectability of our national institutions.  This is in fact a slow coup.  By slowly eroding the respect of our institutions they are in fact undermining the legitimacy of our government and its authority.  Call it death by a 1000 small cuts, but in the end it is still death. That is what Trump and his cult members want - death to our present system - replaced by their authoritarian rule.  

 

Here, Kari Lake, the Trump endorsed candidate for AZ Governor is already crying foul well before the actual vote is taken.   By doing so, just as Trump did prior to the 2020 election, she is questioning the legitimacy of the election, the election system/process and of the local election boards that oversee it.

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/arizonas-maga-candidate-for-guv-alleges-fraud-days-before-vote

Quote

Donald Trump lackey and Republican candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake claims she is “detecting some stealing” in the upcoming election—a week before the actual vote. The Arizona Republic reports that Lake made allegations of fraud at least four times in a speech to the right-wing North Valley Constitutional Republicans this week. “I’m telling you right now, anybody trying to steal this, first of all, we’re already detecting some stealing going on, but you guys know I’m a fighter, right?” she was quoted telling the conservative crowd. “We’re not gonna let them steal an election,” she said. The comments by the former Fox 10 news anchor, which echo the election fraud claims made by Trump ahead of the 2020 election, were not backed up by any evidence whatsoever, and they come as the race between Lake and her main opponent, Karrin Taylor Robson, has tightened. Robson called Lake’s comments “dangerous” and described the fraud claims as a “calculated narrative” that lays the framework for Lake to dispute election results if she loses.

 

[TGHusker]

I was disappointed that in the Maryland GOP Governor race primary last week, the trump endorsed nut job beat the Hogan endorsed sensible candidate.  While that means that in Maryland the Dem candidate should win in a landslide, it doesn't bode well in GOP states.  If the trump back candidates win over centralist or center right candidates, then we'll see a big lurch to the right.   In Oklahoma we have Gov Stitt, trump backed governor, in a race against the former Superintendent of Schools, Joy Hofmeister - who changed her party affiliation from GOP to Dem.   This should be interesting to watch.  She was a center to center left GOPer when she ran for SOS.  She saw enough craziness in the governors office to make the run against Stitt as a Dem.   

[BigRedBuster]

1 minute ago, TGHusker said:

I was disappointed that in the Maryland GOP Governor race primary last week, the trump endorsed nut job beat the Hogan endorsed sensible candidate.  While that means that in Maryland the Dem candidate should win in a landslide, it doesn't bode well in GOP states.  If the trump back candidates win over centralist or center right candidates, then we'll see a big lurch to the right.   In Oklahoma we have Gov Stitt, trump backed governor, in a race against the former Superintendent of Schools, Joy Hofmeister - who changed her party affiliation from GOP to Dem.   This should be interesting to watch.  She was a center to center left GOPer when she ran for SOS.  She saw enough craziness in the governors office to make the run against Stitt as a Dem.   

Was Maryland one that the Dems put a bunch of money behind the Trump whacko to get him the nomination to be easier to beat?

[TGHusker]

33 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Was Maryland one that the Dems put a bunch of money behind the Trump whacko to get him the nomination to be easier to beat?

I think it was.

[Scarlet]

37 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Was Maryland one that the Dems put a bunch of money behind the Trump whacko to get him the nomination to be easier to beat?

This tactic is one of the most aggravating things I've ever heard about.  Our democracy is literally under siege from the Trumpist/Fascists and the Democrat strategists find it prudent to try to primary any moderate Republican?  I just can't wrap my head around it.  

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

10 minutes ago, Scarlet said:

This tactic is one of the most aggravating things I've ever heard about.  Our democracy is literally under siege from the Trumpist/Fascists and the Democrat strategists find it prudent to try to primary any moderate Republican?  I just can't wrap my head around it.  

 

 

I’m extremely frustrated by it. Here, Hogan (who I respect) has endorsed a candidate that is way better than the Trump piece of s#!t. But, we don’t have a chance to have an election between two reasonable candidates because of maybe the crap the Dems pulled. 
 

Proof that the Dems are better than repugs right now….but not by much. If they cared, they would want two good candidates running and don’t even give the Trumpists a chance. 

[Scarlet]

3 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

I’m extremely frustrated by it. Here, Hogan (who I respect) has endorsed a candidate that is way better than the Trump piece of s#!t. But, we don’t have a chance to have an election between two reasonable candidates because of maybe the crap the Dems pulled. 
 

Proof that the Dems are better than repugs right now….but not by much. If they cared, they would want two good candidates running and don’t even give the Trumpists a chance. 

Same with Peter Meijer.  

[BigRedBuster]

53 minutes ago, Scarlet said:

Same with Peter Meijer.  

The problem is, now the Repugs are going to pump a ton of money into these elections giving these pieces of shot a real chance.  

[TGHusker]

More on the Maryland GOP primary

https://www.thebulwark.com/maryland-gop-throws-it-all-away/

 

 

Quote

 

Back in April, I introduced readers to Dan Cox, a far-right kook and Maryland state legislator running for governor. The Democratic Governors Association had a few weeks earlier run a poll suggesting that Cox would defeat Kelly Schulz, the hand-picked successor of moderate Republican governor Larry Hogan, by 8 points.

That surprised me, since Schulz is a typical Hogan Republican, Hogan is quite popular, and Dan Cox is, well, nuts.

There has been a lot of unserious whining about Democrats trying to pick their opponents this election cycle. In this case, some commentators suggested that the DGA poll was bunk—that the Democrats were inflating the numbers for Cox to help build support for him, since he’d be an easier Republican to defeat. But the polling outfit is a reputable one and the poll looked solid.

Well, the results are conclusively in, and as of 2 a.m. Cox is beating Schulz by 16 points, double the gap in the DGA poll. That margin will shrink as mail-in ballots are counted, but the race is over: The AP called the election for Cox around 11 p.m.

About those mail-in ballots: Under Maryland law, they can’t be counted until Thursday. It’s possible that Schulz will perform better in the mail-ins than in the election-day totals. But as of 2 a.m., Schulz is down about 37,000 votes in the election-day totals, which suggests that she would have to win nearly all of the mail-in ballots—of which there were 38,000 received by July 18.

So Maryland Republicans now have Dan Cox as their nominee for governor and the similarly nuts Gordana Schifanelli as their nominee for lieutenant governor. Don’t be surprised if you hear unhappy conservative commentators kvetching about how the Dems’ strategy of spending small change on Cox caused his lead to double. But the reality is that the base wants what the base wants, and Maryland Republicans wanted them some Dan Cox.

Anything can happen in politics, but the safe bet is that whomever Democrats nominate—as of this writing, the race is too close to call, with Wes Moore (a veteran, author, charity CEO, Rhodes Scholar, and host of a show on the Oprah network) leading Tom Perez (the former secretary of labor)—will win in November, given Maryland’s overwhelmingly Democratic voter affiliation numbers. It would take a moderate in the mold of Hogan, as Schulz is, to win the state for the GOP.

A Schulz adviser put it starkly:

 

Quote

 

Aside from a win for Larry Hogan’s own daughter yesterday—she clinched the Republican nomination for state’s attorney in St. Mary’s County—it seems that Larry Hogan Republicanism is all but over. The Maryland GOP will likely have one lonely Trumpy congressman, Andy Harris, whom the Baltimore Sun called an “unrepentant Jan. 6 co-conspirator.” They used to have Roscoe Bartlett, a fascinating, honorable man who now lives off the grid.

A few Maryland Republicans might want to go join him in the wilderness.

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

It will be interesting to see what Larry Hogan does.  I would love for him to run for President.  But, he has been out of the spot light for a long time.  I had actually forgotten about him till recently.  It's as though he wants to be done with politics.

[TGHusker]

4 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

It will be interesting to see what Larry Hogan does.  I would love for him to run for President.  But, he has been out of the spot light for a long time.  I had actually forgotten about him till recently.  It's as though he wants to be done with politics.

Yes he has been quiet and it didn't help that his the guy he backed lost in the primary to the trump nut job. He's been my 1st choice since Kasich won't run.  Maybe 

a Hogan/Cheney ticket or Cheney/Hogan ticket. 

[funhusker]

We can all hope for Hogan, or Kasich, or whoever.

 

It's not going to happen. 

 

The GOP, as we knew it, is done.  Our own proud Republican posters here even admit that the era of Bush, Romney and others are thankfully behind them.  Those f#&% ups out number the rational voters out there voting in GOP primaries and the large chunk of the population that makes a difference in elections just doesn't care.  They'll vote for who their wackadoo buddy tells them to in primaries if they even vote at all.  And once the general election comes around, it's a vote for whatever Republican is up there no matter who they are...

[TGHusker]

4 hours ago, funhusker said:

We can all hope for Hogan, or Kasich, or whoever.

 

It's not going to happen. 

 

The GOP, as we knew it, is done.  Our own proud Republican posters here even admit that the era of Bush, Romney and others are thankfully behind them.  Those f#&% ups out number the rational voters out there voting in GOP primaries and the large chunk of the population that makes a difference in elections just doesn't care.  They'll vote for who their wackadoo buddy tells them to in primaries if they even vote at all.  And once the general election comes around, it's a vote for whatever Republican is up there no matter who they are...

Sadly   I agree with you.   I don't see how/when this party recovers from the low state it is in today.  In fact, it doesn't want to recover.  The only way the GOP recovers is by having several huge defeats at the ballot box.  But that is very unlikely due to all of the election laws and redistricting that red states have done.  They have so institutionalized and entrenched themselves/their culture into the voting process, that I suspect I will be voting for the minority candidate (Indep or Dem) most of the time over the next 20 years. Political change occurs slowly.   I just hope the Dems stay just left of center and don't go crazy left in the meantime.  

[funhusker]

9 hours ago, TGHusker said:

Sadly   I agree with you.   I don't see how/when this party recovers from the low state it is in today.  In fact, it doesn't want to recover.  The only way the GOP recovers is by having several huge defeats at the ballot box.  But that is very unlikely due to all of the election laws and redistricting that red states have done.  They have so institutionalized and entrenched themselves/their culture into the voting process, that I suspect I will be voting for the minority candidate (Indep or Dem) most of the time over the next 20 years. Political change occurs slowly.   I just hope the Dems stay just left of center and don't go crazy left in the meantime.  

You can wait for your dead dog to come back and play fetch all you want.  It won't stop the maggots from dissolving the carcass...

[TGHusker]

20 minutes ago, funhusker said:

You can wait for your dead dog to come back and play fetch all you want.  It won't stop the maggots from dissolving the carcass...

Well stated. And the dead dog ain’t coming back