Posted on 10/03/2007 2:21:19 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
Just breaking on CNN. Domenici is supposed to announce his retirement tomorrow.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I think Pearce may be too old to go for it. Although I have my problems with him, Gary Johnson may be a far more viable choice.
I don’t think Udall wished to challenge Domenici as long as he remained in office, but once open he’d be a fool not to pursue it.
A good man sad to see him leave.
Gary Johnson hasn’t won an election in 10 years. Isn’t he yesterday’s news?
No more so than Gilmore in VA. I don’t see why he isn’t viable. He’s never lost an election.
IIRC, Kennedy's VP, Lyndon Johnson, did just that in Texas. When Kennedy won the presidency, Johnson resigned the Senate seat he had won. The law in Texas allowed him to run for both offices at the same time.
All the RINO’s are packing up and leaving it seems. So, Basically they screw up the majority then tuck tail and leave. Typical.
Well, I’ll cry no tears for them and instead of bemoaning a RINO’s loss maybe..just maybe...conservatives ought to start apreciating we have a chance to elect actual conservatives as we’ve wanted to do for years. Or, were conservatives all talk, enjoying whining about these people and having no heart to do the work to get a real conservative elected?
Gary Johnson would bea good choice to win back some disgruntled Western/Mountain Libertarians. As for Wilson and Pearce, the only way for them to win the Senate would be for a Green Party candidate to get over 5% of the vote. Green Party candidates enabled Heather Wilson to hold over to her seat.
Uggghhh, well great. If Udall or Richardson get in, here’s yet another seat we have to seriously contest.
I count eight seats as either very vulnerable or relatively vulnerable: VA, NH, CO, NM, ME, MN, OR, NE (that last one assumes Kerrey’s entrance into NE-Sen, which is still in a definite remains-to-be-seen state). Oh yeah, and the DSCC is far outraising the NRSC. I think I’m getting a headache.
I know people view Senators like Warner, Domenici, and Hagel as RINOs, but they voted with us much more often than they voted against us. And if in ‘09 we have Sens. Mark Warner, Tom Udall, and Bob Kerrey, I think some around here will miss having the former three around.
Additionally, I think Kerrey may not enter anymore. With Johanns entering the race and the Hsu scandal hanging over Kerrey, I think its no longer 50/50 that he may enter and is probably 60/40 against.
Saying all that, assuming Alaska remains safe, we have seven vulnerable seats. If Iraq continues to improve and we can at least push the issue somewhat to the side, I think Gordon Smith, Susan Collins and Norm Coleman will win.
That leaves VA, NH, NM and CO as the tossups. We will be hard pressed to win in NH or VA. Although people are counting us out in Colorado, I think we can still win there. As far as New Mexico, I have no idea until we see who the candidates will be. Either way, we are looking at losses somewhere between -1 to -7. The only way I can see Republicans taking back the Senate is if there is a huge anti-Hillary tide. But it is important if we don’t reclaim the Senate to keep the Democrat majority slim. If we can win the Presidency and a Supreme Court vacancy appears, having 48 Republicans instead of 41 (at worst) will make a huge difference in who we can get confirmed. Getting 2 Democrat votes (Lieberman and Nelson as most likely) is a lot different than having to get 8-9.
Yeah, mine too. I don't know what kind of chance he would have with the 'average' Albuquerque or Las Cruces voter though. And of course he wouldn't have a chance in the Santa Fe, Taos and Las Vegas (NM) areas.
I could live with Gary Johnson as a second pick... It would be interesting if nothing else. I'd really have to hold my nose to vote for Heather, since she has turned left all too often the last couple of years. (I'm not in her Congressional district, but nonetheless, we have been sending her money for years..... until last year when she really 'teed' me off)
After supporting Pete with votes and $$ for the last 35 years, I won't miss him. If he had retired 2 years ago it wouldn't have been too soon, given his stance on 'amnesty' and a couple of other things..... Although I don't like the likely effect this will have on the balance of the Senate.
For those who are saying Pearce is too old: Nonsense; He is a hard working guy only slightly past his prime of life. But even if he were old and decrepit.... Who else any better do we have in the wings?
Steve would be perfect for at least one term, and give us time to start grooming someone else for the job.
(Which is another thing that really makes me angry at Pete: He COULD have announced this a year ago so we could have started making plans and 'building a lineup'.
Well according to CNN this morning the retirement is for health reasons, early stages of Alzheimers. I can’t blame him for pulling the plug under those circumstances, and I can only imagine what he and his family will be going through in the coming years.
Why not? LIEberman did.
“Well according to CNN this morning the retirement is for health reasons, early stages of Alzheimers.”
Yes, on Joe Scarborough’s early morning show, they too said it was for health reasons, called it brain disease, which is just another way of saying Alzheimer’s.
Pearce? How about him?
“Bingaman was 39”
Now there’s a name that makes me vomit every time I hear it........
Secondly, I think it's possible that the amnesty bill furor and disapproval of his stance was possibly surprising to him. Has he ever been been gone against in such a manner?
Also, I think his power in the Senate is on the wane for various reasons, and he sees that as a continuing trend given the uphill battle to regain the majority.
It was noted also that he is battling illness...I wish he had resigned earlier, but he has been a good advocate for New Mexico for a long time.
TNCMAXQ I don’t think Domenici would have been all that vulnerable, he would have had a tough campaign ahead of him and I don’t think his health is up to it. The problem is that it will not be just one seat but could be as much as three seats. The scenario we are looking at is that both Republican Congressman Steve Pierce and Congresswoman Heather Wilson will run against each other in a primary for the Senate, which would mean that they would have to vacate their current congressional seats. It is plausible that a Democrat would replace Wilson as her district is heavily registered dems and Pierce could be replaced by a conservative dem. The other thing that could happen is because Richardson has not been able to crawl out to the cellar in the President race he could switch and run for Senate. Given that his house of cards as Gov. has not imploded yet and he remains fairly popular he would be difficult to beat in a statewide race.
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