Anything interesting going on politically in your neck of the woods? Congress, governor, local government? It might be of interest to others around the country or world. Post about it.

I live in Arizona's 3rd Congressional District, and this guy seeking the Democratic nomination for Congress seems to be right up my alley politically. I might have to pay him a visit.


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/31/9557/32028

AZ-03: Dem challenger raising big cash
by kos
Tue Jul 31, 2007 at 06:55:07 AM PDT

We picked up two House seats in Arizona last year to go from a 6-2 Republican delegation, to a 4-4 tied one. And with Rick Renzi's (AZ-01) continued ethical problems, we already have a solid chance at picking up that one. Now, thanks to Democratic challenger Bob Lord's stellar fundraising, we look to have another strong pickup opportunity in the state.



Lord is essentially calling himself a Libertarian Democrat. He's socially liberal, but as a tax lawyer, he's promising to clean up the tax code to make it more business friendly. He's not an anti-immigrant zealot, unlike just about the entire Arizona Republican delegation except for Sens. Kyl and McCain (who are now persona non grata in many GOP circles).

AZ-03 is Republican, but not overwhelmingly so, with a Cook Partisan Rating of R+6. That means that the district voted six points more Republican than the nation at large in 2004. In other words, while Bush won nationally by three points, he won this district by nine points (or roughly 54-45; I don't have my National Journal Almanac here in Chicago to look up the actual numbers). That's the same as Mitchell's new Democratic seat in AZ-05, which makes this quote by incumbent Shadegg's campaign bizarre:



Hubris. Let's hope they keep it up.

AZ-08, where Giffords picked up a seat for the Democrats last cycle, is R+4, only slightly less Republican than the 3rd and 5th.

Arizona is increasingly friendly territory for Democrats as the whole Mountain West region continues to trend slowly Democratic. The blinder Republicans are to those trends, the easier it will be for us to sneak up on them and take them out.


Race tracker wiki: AZ-03

There's a Boise mayoral election here in November. Looks to be a snoozer so far, especially compared to the last one.

Are you in the Idaho district with the crazy Republican, or the one with the REALLY crazy Republican?

Simpson's not that crazy--just usually a strict partisan voter. *yawn*

The guy who lost to the real crazy one by a fairly slim margin (not my district) plans to run against him again in 2008.

The funny thing about Idaho's congressional districts is that the split goes right in the middle of the Treasure Valley, hence some grumblings by eastern and northern Idahoans calling the state "Adaho".

I've actually done quite a bit of thinking about how Idaho's districts are drawn (if you believe that).

There seem to me to be two theories on how to draw up congressional districts.

1) Start in the population centers and go outwards. This is pretty much inevitable in most states that have a major city of 500,000 or more. Good examples of this would be New York or Illinois or California.

2) Split the population centers with more rural areas. This tends to be the case in places that have only one major metro area, that the state decides ought to be represented more equally in more than one or two districts. This is how they've done things in Arizona, where there is really only one district that is completely urban, with five other districts that have their fingers in the Phoenix metro area, but are largely rural. Tucson is also split between two districts. This is how Idaho has been split as well, on a smaller scale.


The method number two, it would seem to me, is more likely to result in (and result from) Republican dominance in the state. For example, if Idaho's two districts were 1) greater Boise, and 2) the rest of rural Idaho, then the odds of there being one Democratic district and one Republican district would be much higher than by splitting the one major city in half and having rural Republican dominance of both districts. You say that people think Ada County has too much influence, but I think it's just the opposite. Maybe you wouldn't end up with two congressmen from the same metro area, but you might have one who really represented the values of teh city, and one the country, instead of two representing the rural voters.

Now maybe, if Boise were to grow in the way that it's projected over the next ten years, this GOP districting plan could end up backfiring, as it appears to be doing in Arizona now. Both Tucson districts are now represented by Democrats (largely because the large Mexican-American populations there do NOT like the GOP anti-immigration policies). In Phoenix, a Democrat won a district encompassing many of the eastern suburbs (long considered prime GOP base), and there is a second district of similar composition (mine above) that could go the same way under the right circumstances. The 1st district, which includes liberal Flagstaff and Sedona, but also some heavily conservative areas like Prescott and Casa Grande, is slowly tipping left as more Californians retire to the rural areas of the state.

Arizona also has one of the craziest drawn districts I've ever seen, and one that appears to scream "gerrymandering". The second district has a stretch that is literally 50 feet wide for MANY miles along the bottom of the Grand Canyon that helps connect two parts of the district!!!

Well, you're chiefly focusing on a national level, but most of the Adaho grumblings come from the state legislature level. The Treasure Valley (really both Ada and Canyon Counties) keep growing far more than the rest of the state, and thus more House and Senate seats (both are determined by population here) swing towards the Boise metro area, something that the outsiders haven't been used to.

Of course, this works both ways sometimes. I've mentioned before the idiotic part of the Idaho Constitution that requires a two-thirds majority of the voters within a local gov't if that local gov't wants to go into multi-year debt. What's even worse is that in some (all?) cases, the state legislature has to give permission to even ALLOW the expenditure to go to a two-year vote! This happened twice this year, where the Legislature allowed the vote for a community college in the Treasure Valley, but denied a vote to set up funding for future mass transit.

As far as your plan to split between Boise and non-Boise (which I like), you still have northern and eastern Idaho together, which are not only different regions from Boise but from each other.



It could, but it would take a while. Boise proper is pretty much completely dominated by the Dems now, but the suburbs/Canyon County are still in GOP hands at the moment. If that changes, I'd imagine the districts might change a bit as well. Maybe try to cut Boise, Blaine County (ski resort county where Kerry visited on his campaign ) and Valley County (future ski resort county) in the future? *shrugs*



Do we even want to get started on this state?

Oh, and one other note on Sali--he got lucky in winning an six-way GOP primary with only 26% of the vote. But hey, the GOP could have had this guy instead!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4800948

You think Texas is bad, check out North Carolina or Georgia.

District 12 was sooo obviously carved up by Democrats. That covers every urban center that they could hit outside of the Raleigh-Durham area.

(read "black")

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/23/171558/123

AZ-01: Corrupt Renzi (R) calling it quits
by kos
Thu Aug 23, 2007 at 02:17:38 PM PDT

He apparently wants to spend more time with his defense attorneys.



We almost grabbed this seat last year. We'll take it this one.

Race tracker wiki: AZ-01

Any of you guys live in CA-36?



You've GOT to primary Jane Harman (D) the fuck OUT.

After someone wrote a diary on DailyKos yesterday that basically accused her, Pelosi, and Jay Rockefeller of pushing for telecomm immunity in the new FISA bill because it would grant THEMSELVES immunity for approving the illegal program in the first place when they were in the minority leadership back in 2004, Harmon responded with THIS post on Kos!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/31/10182/509

This has been confirmed by Harman's office to be authentic.

I think this response pretty much sums it up:



The problem with the current Congress is unfortunately NOT the Republicans. You can't expect any more from them. The problem is the old guard Democrats who have become so accustomed to enabling the Republicans from the minority side for the past decade that they don't remember how to LEAD anymore.

It's perhaps more important that the shitty Democrats get dumped than anything else, because a "veto-proof majority" means nothing if there are shithead Democrats IN SAFE DISTRICTS who are afraid to "be seen as too liberal".

Taking out the Republicans will take care of itself, the GOP will see to that.

This thread was designed for people to look at their OWN Congressional districts to figure out what they can do to make Congress a useful governmental body again in 2008. 2006 was the first step, but the House cleaning is FAR from over.

So...where do we rank Sali on the crazy-meter now?

http://www.idahobusiness.net/archive.ht ... ntsSection

A favorite blog on politics

POSTED: 07:50 MST Wednesday, October 31, 2007

by Lora Volkert

One of my favorite Treasure Valley political blogs is the Mountain Goat Report. It’s a liberal blog, but it’s a veritable compendium in terms of tracking some of the more unusual votes by one of Idaho’s congressional representatives, Rep. Bill Sali – particularly the ones where he sides with the minority and is outvoted by about 300 other Congressmen. It’s a little surprising how often Sali bucks the party line and votes against uncontroversial bills with bipartisan support. And it’s a little surprising how many of them are pro-business bills.

Here are a few of the bills he’s voted against in the year that’s passed since his election win:

The Small Business Investment Expansion Act, which would increase venture capital for startup businesses.

The Expanding American Homeownership Act, which would implement a new pricing structure for mortgage guarantees offered by the National Housing Administration.

A bill to extend the Overseas Private Investment Corporation authorities, which helps U.S. businesses invest overseas, allowing U.S. businesses to compete in overseas markets.

A bill to establish a national science and technology scholarship program.

The 21st Century Competitiveness Act, which would invest in research and development and train more math and science teachers.

The Rural Housing and Economic Development Improvement Act, which would support rural housing and economic development activities by state agencies, nonprofits and community development corporations.

The Small Business Lending Improvements Act, which would create an SBA rural outreach lending program for small rural businesses.

The Small Business Fairness in Contracting Act, which would unbundle small government contracts, making it easier for small businesses to compete for them.

The Technology Innovation and Manufacturing Stimulation Act, to appropriate funds for businesses, colleges and universities developing promising but high-risk technologies.

The Sowing the Seeds Through Science and Engineering Research Act, to appropriate funds for research and research infrastructure and support graduate fellowships in science and engineering.

Apparently, our mayoral election is next week. Both candidates have agreed to no mudslinging, so there's been zero TV commercials, and last night the news led off with out the Coach of the Eagles' son can't stay off Heroin. So until my mom mentioned it yesterday, I HAD NO IDEA. I'm expecting a rather dismal turnout. At this point, the only reason I vote is because my ballot box is in a bakery, and it gives me an excuse to buy cookies and buttercake.


Sigh.

Anyone know whats going on with the California propositions coming up? I'm probably going to vote for the electoral college reform one, just to piss off PD. Emminent Domain, probably, unless I hear about a similar measure without the additional caveats. However, the four tribal gaming propositions are rather confusing. The description in the voter's handbook is completely useless. What is it about and why is it a proposition? Why isn't the legislature dealing with these tribal gaming issues?

You better be kidding.

Yeah, Texas is a fucking trainwreck. Half of our legislature literally packed up and left to avoid a redistricting vote.

Maybe if the Repubs had an electoral advantage here, the Dems would spend more time catering to me. New Hampshire and Iowa are worthy of weeks of campaigning, but California just gets a handful of fundraisers? No thank you sir, I want my share of the limelight.

*unconstitutional redistricting vote