Rematch, sure. The results will be the same, that's my money.
Posted on 09/24/2007 4:46:26 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Next year's U.S. Senate race is looking like it could be a rematch between longtime Democratic incumbent Carl Levin and Republican Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski.
Raczkowski spoke briefly Saturday at a Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference luncheon, the usual biennial kickoff for the following year's elections. He didn't commit while he was on the island to running, but says he has set up an exploratory committee and is considering challenging Levin a second time.
Another Republican, state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk of Kalamazoo, told The Associated Press by telephone Sunday that he's also considering the race. He said he has received encouragement from party leaders and from supporters who got to know him during his six-month bid for governor in 2005. Hoogendyk withdrew without challenging Dick DeVos for the 2006 GOP nomination and is serving his last two-term in the state House.
Raczkowski, 38, said his military service overseas since his unsuccessful 2002 run against Levin have given him a different outlook than when he took on Levin while still a state representative from Farmington Hills. Now a businessman and major in the U.S. Army Reserves, he said he has lost six friends in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He now considers himself less a Republican and more an advocate for U.S. soldiers and those hurt by Michigan's troubled economy
(Excerpt) Read more at mlive.com ...
What the hell is that supposed to mean ? It sounds like he has gone RINO.
Sure, it’s a long shot. But lightning does strike sometimes, and Michigan is in an anti-establishment mood. So who knows?
I wouldn’t read that much into it. The state has soured on Bush as well as Granholm, and Rocky is trying to tap into the independent, anti-establishment mood there.
After 30 years, we need a first tier candidate to take out Levin. Only Terri Lynn Land or Candice Miller should be running (and Land was the highest vote-getter in MI last November, she could run without jeopardizing her office). Raczkowski only got 38% of the vote in ‘02, the worst showing of any challenger to Levin.
You’re right about that, but Land and Miller have ruled out running. We can’t force them to run at gunpoint.
Hey, y’know, that’s fine. We’ll know who to blame when we slip down a bunch of seats next year in the Senate. Perhaps if the threat of an enlarged rodent majority directing our nation’s future isn’t enough to call up our best and highest vote-getters to run for the offices they need to be running for, maybe they need to get out of politics altogether. I’m serious. I’m sick of these people that win and park themselves in a single job for perpetuity and weasel out of moving up when they’re called upon, damn the needs of the party and the country.
I was worried it sounded more like he went Walter Jones, Jimmy Duncan, or Ron Paul on us with respect to Iraq. 3 RINO weasels that need to be disposed of.
That’s so true. Especially when they have little to risk by running, like Terri Land, Mike Huckabee, and Mike Rounds. Though Rounds may run if Tim Johnson retires.
Dang, I was hoping Miller would run. Maybe we could get rino Joe Schwarz to run instead(just kidding, don’t throw rotten eggs)
What the hell is the use of having a farm team when they won’t leave the damn bush leagues ? All the time, money, and exposure, and for what ? We’re left with second and third-tier candidates with no resources to tackle overfunded dinosaurs. A Miller or Land challenge is as good as a Shaheen in NH. As I said, it’s like we don’t want to win back our majority. No guts, no glory. And in Rocky’s case, he may have the guts, but with no bucks, there’s no Buck Rogers.
The GOP leadership is full of Rockefeller types who want to be the minority.
But the problem with Rounds is that in refusing to run against Johnson (again, with nothing to risk in doing so) and leaving a third-tier nobody to do the job that won’t be gotten done, waiting on Johnson to retire means he’ll face Steff Herseth-Sandlin, who received substantially more votes than he did last year (230k vs. Rounds’s 207k). Based upon that, she’d have a much easier time with beating Rounds.
Schwarz may run for his old job — as a rodent.
Good, then he can lose again.
Based on that. But word in South Dakota is that Herseth-Sandlin wants to follow her father into the Governorship in 2010, which means that if Johnson retires, she might pull a Rounds and not run. And I’m betting that figures into Mike Rounds’ plans. Also, perhaps Rounds is afraid of being blamed if Johnson’s health declines on the campaign trail.
Rematch, sure. The results will be the same, that's my money.
Her father didn’t make it. Lars Herseth lost 48-52% to the late George Mickelson, the son of another Governor, in 1986. The Dems last elected a Governor in SD in 1974 (and haven’t sent a new Dem since 1970). Steff’s grandfather, Ralph, narrowly won in the disastrous (for the GOP) 1958 elections on his 2nd try (and that, only by 51-49%, but was beaten in 1960 and by an even wider margin in 1962).
Steff may actually be at a disadvantage running for Governor, since her bailiwick is federal issues, as she has never held any state legislative office, and the state clearly prefers Republicans to hold the top job. Of course, she could make the argument to break a continuous one-party control of the job, so I’d still probably give her a slight edge over her likeliest opponent, Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard. Of course, if Hillary is President in 2010 or Daugaard is the sitting Governor (if Rounds becomes Senator when Johnson dies or retires), then the edge goes to Daugaard.
Bingo.
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