82 Comments

I early voted by absentee ballot, and where I could, voted for a Democrat. In Maine that means Janet Mills and Jarden Golden (although I picked Tiffany Bond as first choice in our ranked-choice voting). The old Republican warhorses, Paul LePage and Bruce Poliquin are running for their old jobs back and I don't think they're going to win-because Mills led Maine through a pandemic without a huge loss of life, with a huge rainy day fund intact, and having given every Mainer a $850.00 check as a way of saying "We've got this!"

Republicans are hoping that women don't vote, but if any woman sees the powerful ad that Eric Swalwell ran on his Twitter account she's gonna vote against any Republican in office or running for it.

You want to watch it? Here's the link. It'll knock one for a loop-it's that powerful. The right wing is upset because it depicts exactly what will happen if the GOP has their way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQT2SJSdwyE

Expand full comment

That is one powerful ad! Congratulations to Stalwell. It should play nationwide.

Expand full comment

The DNC should be spending tens of millions or even a hundred million to get it all over on social media right now. dammit

Expand full comment

Looks like they borrowed some creatives from the Lincoln Project. Few others punch that powerfully.

Expand full comment

Love the ad, but the comment section has been overrun by trolls.

Expand full comment

I didn't look at the comments in U-Tube, but I can just imagine what they are.

Expand full comment

They're trollish incels playing a pity party of one-upmanship. It's quite pathetic.

Expand full comment

Thank you for that link. I just posted it on my FB page.

Expand full comment

Shared link to my Facebook page

Expand full comment

Wow. Terrific ad. Definitely should play nationwide. xoxoxo

Expand full comment

Thank you for the link. Incredibly powerful.

Expand full comment

Thank You. Chilling in its truth. Posted.

Expand full comment

Wow....

Expand full comment

Lordy, I do love this ad! Spells it right out and I DARE any Repubbie to dispute it.

I plan to vote on Nov. 8 and will put Poliquin as low as I can put him in the RCV ballot. Poliquin is a slimewad; his ads that claim "my heart is breaking" for Maine seniors.....that's a thigh-slapper of a lie. It didn't seem to bother him much when he took all that money from Big Pharma and voted against letting Medicare negotiate for drug prices. Golden is not a dyed-in-the-wool Dem, but he's far, far better than Poliquin...and, it must be said, Golden has done a fairly good job representing the interests of CD#2, full of deep red R's as it is. We are currently being inundated with Republican ads about the Dems turning 87,000 IRS agents loose to prey on the middle class. Utterly ridiculous, but you know some people who will eat it up. Sigh. |

As for blustering, bloviating, vulgar-language-emitting LePage, I wish he'd pack his suitcase and take his now skinnier arse* back to Floriduh, where he belongs. *Skinnier because of his gastric bypass surgery--on the Maine taxpayer's dime (state paid insurance) all the while refusing to expand Medicaid and denying over 70,000 Mainers a chance for decent healthcare in a state where access and cost is prohibitive for poor rural folks.

Expand full comment

Ah, another Mainah! Agree with everything-especially LePig (which I call him) because he failed to get a job with Donnie Dumb Ass he hightailed it back to Maine to beg for his old job back.

The best thing that ever happened was the day Janet Mills became Governor, she signed the decree opening up MaineCare to all of those who weren't allowed on it, even when we had voted it in.

She's made good on her promises and LePig is just mad that she's done her job and he's not working.

The Republicans are mad about those IRS agents because it means they're going to have to report their taxes and god only know how much money they've been hiding.

Expand full comment

You bet voting is already at a high peak here in Georgia. My local library had run out of parking spaces for two days!!!

Expand full comment

Wonderful!!!

Expand full comment

My mail in ballot arrived last Thursday. It is mailed and on its way to be counted. One more vote for Beto and all the other Dems on the ballot!

Expand full comment

What I wouldn't do to be rid of the evil trolka that heads the gubmint in this state where I live (for now): A-Butt, Puketrick and Poxton.

What I will do is vote, and as I always do, on Election Day (my democratic ritual).

Expand full comment

and bring a friend or two.

Expand full comment

When I was a Cub Scout in Nyack, NY, my troop visited the police station. ALL of us were given badges and became honorary policemen. We were about ten years old and understood then that it was simply ceremonial. Walker was an adult when his was “issued.” What a moron!

Expand full comment

that label as well applies to his voting public.

Expand full comment

How do racist Trumpsters justify a Walker vote?

Expand full comment

I have zero trouble ocming up with some plausible explanations. First, keep in mind that most Trumpsters (and probably a large share of the general population) have no idea what an effective U.S. senator can do for their state. So competence is way, way down their priority list for candidates. So (1) they're voting for Walker because he has an R after his name, (2) they're votimg for Walker because he fits their stereotype of the Black entertainer who isn't expected to be especially smart, and (3) they're voting against Rev. Warnock because he blows their stereotype to smithereens, and that goes double for the self-professing Christians among them.

Expand full comment

BTW, I lived in Atlanta 1980 to 2008, now surviving in DeSantistan. In a zip code trashed by Hurricane Ian.

Expand full comment

Quite simply, too smart in a state with MTG!

Expand full comment

Let us all hope these Georgia turnout numbers are reflected in all states because voters have finally reached the realization as to what is really at stake. We voted as soon as we received our mail in votes and hope that All Texans vote in a new governor and his team in. This state desperately needs a governor like Beto and haven’t had one since Ann Richards was defeated by Dubya years ago.

Expand full comment

Ann and Molly Ivins gave Texas true class!

Expand full comment

Amen to that! How I miss reading Ivins take on Texas politics. She would have SKEWERED Abbott, Patrick and Paxton.

Expand full comment

Sometimes I listen to the "Who Let the Dogs Out?" CD that came out during the Dubya administration and imagine what she'd make of the current lot, and 1/6, and all the rest of it.

Expand full comment

For sure!!!

Expand full comment

Gotta hope and pray the Dems finally carry a shithole state! It would a heartbreak for me to witness Stacey lose to that lyin’ SOB again.

Expand full comment

Yes, we can always hope! We can vote too.

There was a time when the idea of a football player being on a ballot for senator would have been unthinkable. How times have changed.

Expand full comment

yes.

in this country b.c of social media the ignorant, the ill-informed, the willfully duped, and the lazy critical reasoners have found their motley tribe and all shout loudly, with harsh invectives, of their being outcast from good society, bonding them in bilious brotherhood.

sad.

and most unfortunate for us. we cannot outshout them. we have to ignore them, shun them, and focus on the rational fence-sitters to step away from the rabid crowd.

but it's sometimes puerilely satisfying to call them morons and losers.

Expand full comment

Do that on FB...30 days in jail!

Expand full comment

Since ignoramos TFG won the presidency, every dumb-as-a-post Repugnant thinks “I can run for office and win even though I know nothing about how the government functions.”

Expand full comment

Let's not forget Rep. Jack Kemp, much as we may wish to. Or Michigan Wolverines star Gerald Ford. And be glad that OJ isn't on any ballots.

Expand full comment

If you're willing to include other sports, a lot of us respected Dollar Bill Bradley as a Knicks starter and as a Senator. Another Yalie, Mets star Ron Darling, might not be a bad senator either. But he's from Hawaii, so could have birth certificate vulnerability.

Expand full comment

Bradley was also a Rhodes scholar, right? Had some pretty good ideas, too.

Expand full comment

It's been a long time, but the Rhodes sounds right. I think it delayed his Knicks debut. Yeah, Bradley's exit from politics was a shame. He was always thinking, something unusual among pols now.

Expand full comment

Or, a coach like Tuberville, amazing!

Expand full comment
Comment removed
October 19, 2022
Comment removed
Expand full comment

The Senate could use more horse sense. And coming from an equestrian family, I've known a few horses that would be far better that the current herd of MAGA wackadoodles.

Expand full comment

Yeah there's the theory that Caligula only meant that Incitatus the horse would do no worse than some of the inattentive, corrupt senators, as I am sure you know!

Expand full comment

I still believe in Roevember washing away the GOP. We'll see.

Expand full comment

yes

oh lordy i hope so.

Expand full comment

🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

Expand full comment

Not just hope but pray, meditate. do a Native American dance... whatever it takes to invoke the higher powers (if you happen to believe in that sort of thing) for the 2022 results to add to the Senate Dem majority and keep the house. For starters....

Expand full comment

well,

i'll beseech the gods be with us and a fair following wind carry us to good harbor,

Expand full comment

Great news! I sent my ballot in last week, voted for all democrats. We need to get rid of DeSantis and Rubio, especially.

Expand full comment

Time to save DeSantistan!!!

Expand full comment

THANK YOU!!! I really am taking comfort from this report. This is how incredible the grassroots groups led by Fair Fight are: I write postcards for Field Team 6. Today, I went online and the GA postcards have me writing to "unregistered likely Democrats in Georgia, urging them to register by 11/7 to enable them to vote in a probable run-off election on 12/6". Have your readers seen this intensity of organizing in any other state? xo

Expand full comment

that's great work.

we need to spread that word further.

do other states have certain dates to meet for particular reasons?

Expand full comment

Voting in Massachusetts is easy. Early voting has already started, and I have my mail-in ballot already filled out except for one remaining name I need for a write-in. Abortion protections are already in place here, and I hope that doesn't lower turnout among women. However, Maura Healy, our putative next governor, and the first elected woman to hold the position, looks like she's a shoo-in for governor. I hope that brings out the women's vote. She's running against a hard-bitten Trumper, and his tally will give us a better idea of how much misogyny is lurking in the Bay State.

Expand full comment

My ballot will arrive today. Excited to not vote for Mike Lee ugh. And really any other candidate with an R by their name. I have hope but it’s a red state. And that makes it a large hill to climb.

Expand full comment

I'd vote for Mullin if I lived anywhere close, but he sounds like he has aspirations to be a Manchinema-like spoiler.

Expand full comment

I guess at this stage, it’s the lesser of two evils. I can only hope for an upset. Cheers.

Expand full comment

Good news too a few minutes ago if I understood correctly on the Trump crimes: Judge orders Eastman emails released. Proves Trump knew voting numbers were good but signed false evidence/claims with the courts so is guilty of defrauding the United States - absolute grounds for indictment now by DOJ in addition to obstruction of Justice, Conspiracy involved because several people in on it. I'm sure Lucian will uncover the details for us.

Expand full comment

It will all be about turnout, because we have the numbers to prevail - we just have to get them to the polls, to the mailboxes, or to the ballot depositories, whatever it takes.

Expand full comment

and we have to win by a solud margin to defeat any gop cheating.

Expand full comment

That is great news! So glad there's a high turnout. Thank you for the numbers.

And yes, Walker used the badge to his advantage--as if "Look what I have," maybe knowing even then he could raise money on it. Pathetic, really, like a kid with a toy. But what the Republican base likes is bathos--a la Trump and his "I'm not as smart" personal choice. I must be the last person to learn Walker isn't even from Georgia and that local Repubs didn't want him. But the Boss prevailed, and there he is, Candidate Walker, puppet-in-waiting.

Expand full comment

All you have to remember in contrast to Walker is when Elvis Presley got a 'honorary' badge from Nixon-he was given a specially-made Bureau of Narcotics badge.

He died of a drug overdose, I do recall. Sitting on his toilet.

Expand full comment

I thought it was Lenny Bruce who died on his toilet.

Expand full comment

From an article:

"His girlfriend at the time, Ginger Alden, spoke in 2014 about her time with Elvis in her autobiography, in which she also described the horrific circumstances in which she found him on the day of his death, August 16, 1977.

She said: “Elvis looked as if his entire body had completely frozen in a seated position while using the commode and then had fallen forward, in that fixed position, directly in front of it…

“It was clear that, from the time whatever hit him to the moment he had landed on the floor, Elvis hadn't moved.”

Expand full comment

Thanks for the clarification.

Expand full comment