"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Googlebombs Away!

Fly my pretties! Fly!

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

Responses

while i would not support republicans in most cases, i don't think i can pull the trigger on jack davis this fall in his race against tom reynolds. the whole foley scandal has been, and reynolds' link with it is certainly not something that i would ever support, but looking at this as a position where the person elected would have a voice and be in a position of influence i believe davis would hurt more in the long term. davis is running on a very protectionist platform, and the certain ads he has placed in the wny media almost have a racial undertone to them. the economy and domestic jobs are certainly important issues, but many people fail to see that with free trade and globalization, other economies can also benefit. imposing tariffs and placing trade barriers may keep low-skill american jobs in the country and benefit the US, but the rest of the world loses out china and india the two most populous countries in the world have both grown tremendously in the last decade. they still have poverty problems. these are two countries who have risen up, think about the hundreds of others that are still undeveloped. if any semblance of peaceful coexistance is ever to be achieved these disparities between countries who have, vs. countries who don't have need to disappear. free trade/globalization is not a perfect solution. countries will experience growing pains with workers rights and other such issues, as the US did during its own industrialization. however setting up barriers could cause these developing economies, especially of smaller countries we currently trade with, to collapse. meanwhile, americans would not be paying wal-mart prices for everything (which is not necessarily a bad thing) but if you think about adoption of technology and technological advances, it has always been preceeded by drops in consumer costs leading to faster adoption.

I think the whole topic of globalization is actually a lot more complex than "free trade" vs. "protectionism." I mean, that's what passes for a debate, but really the task for the 21st century seems to be building economic networks that cycle money through communities more before they're removed to be taken as corporate profits or redistributed into other regions.

Anyway, I don't know much about NY-26 or Davis or Reynolds. My only argument for pulling the lever there would be that the balance of power in the house might hinge on just a few seats, and I think that on the macro level wresting control of at least one branch of govt from the GOP is an important thing.

But then, I don't have to be represented by the guy, so it's an easy thing for me to say. Thanks for the perspective, Jason.

Again on the macro level... before the whole Foley thing got out, no one in heck thought Jack Davis would have a chance. I mean, Tom Reynolds is a highly-placed part of the GOP machine; he was assumed to be relatively untouchable.

That's a big reason why the Davis campaign (I've now looked at his website) seems a bit weird. Like a crochety old man, that stuff.

The upshot is that he's old, and not an especially great candidate. Could be ripe for a primary challenge in '08...

Especially if you're in Virginia.

josh your observation that reynolds is a powerhouse is indeed correct, but if you look back at the previous election that allowed him to continue letting him serve, davis actually did surprisingly well against him. a huge reason is the fact that the wny economy is still heavily dependent on the manufacturing sector. many people around here are very worried about the shift of these jobs to other states, and overseas. davis' platform has been to perserve the status quo and keep manufacturing viable here, so he has had a surprising (perhaps not so surprising for area residents) amount of support. also would like to point out that he has his own interests to look after as well, he owns a large manufacturing company in the area. prior to running in the last cycle against reynolds he was a supporter and contributor to reynolds' previous campaigns and a GOP supporter. i'm not saying people can't change their minds about things or view thing from a different perspective, but as always, there are other factors in play.

and yes, i agree with your point that globalization is about more than just the issues of protectionism and free trade. there should be some moral standard that profits cannot always be made at the expense of everything else. i think many corporations think on the micro-scale concerned only with their profits. the long term macro-scale of sustainablity is just as if not more important. however in theory globalization without corporations and people taking advantage of each other should work to bring about a rise in the level of living standards for most. the hard part is implemention in a fair way.

the michael steele commercials for the us senate seat for maryland are terrible and most of the strategy of course by ben cardin is of course to link steele as a pure loyalist of bush/the bush admin's policies as he does most simply here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Sjm_QfNAh8M

but the more interesting race this upcoming term will be whether incumbent robert ehrlich who is up against martin o'malley. ehrlich's run ads lately posing as a "moderate" where "most people are." this from the same person who was sued by the baltimore sun for prohibiting state employees for talking to two reporters in particular.

Pages