Another loathsome addition to this line of classics …
- There’s both worry and action concerning the candidacy of disgraced former Governor Eric Greitens for the GOP nomination to the open Missouri Senate seat, as the Missouri Stands United PAC, controlled by former Missouri Senator John Danforth (R), is spending heavily in support of the independent run of John Wood. It’s interesting that Danforth is ignoring the other Republicans in the primary race and is going with Wood. Are the Republicans simply too far-right for the retired Senator? He has no obvious entry in On The Issues, so a graphic representation of his own standing is not available. The Missouri race is rapidly becoming an unexpected bonfire in this Republican stronghold. Personally, I’d like to see Greitens win the nomination and then get his butt kicked by Wood or the Democratic nominee, as that would expose the far-right extremism that has taken hold of the GOP. However, that would not expose the underlying toxic culture of the GOP, and I’m not sure anything would. Processes are hard to expose.
- Arizona Republicans appear to lean far to the right, unlike, say, the Colorado GOP, as young, inexperienced, Trump-endorsed, and Thiel-funded Blake Masters has a big lead in a weekend poll among Republicans. This may be good news for incumbent Senator Kelly (D).
- Speaking of Colorado, an early June poll is now available and shows Senator Bennet (D) leads his GOP challenger, John O’Dea, by 12 points, but 28% of the respondents were undecided.
- Trump remains a popular bit of kitsch for the GOP, as many unendorsed candidates, at all levels of government, are sending out campaign literature referencing the former President, to the extent that Trump’s lawyers are being kept busy calling campaigns and sending out cease & desist letters. Will this continue if he’s indicted? If he looks worse and worse in the televised January 6th Committee hearings? Are these campaigns inadvertently attaching anchors to their candidates’ ankles? So far, I think the lack of good judgment will continue in the MAGA base, and so the misleading advertisements will also continue, even if this article claims small-dollar donations are dropping off, a trend attributed to inflation pressures and exhaustion. They’re probably right.
- When I wasn’t looking New York canceled its GOP primary for the US Senate, leaving pundit Joe Pinion as the survivor for whom everyone else presumably withdrew. His political experience appears scant, consisting of a single failed run for a State Assembly seat a few years back. While the The Buffalo News likes him, I do not think incumbent Senator Schumer (D) need worry about losing this race. And that’s how it starts, sometimes, not worrying.
