Tuesday Open Thread

Welcome to your Tuesday open thread. This is turning out to be a great week, weather-wise. I hope you’re getting a chance to enjoy it!

The NY-26 special election to replace Rep. Chris Lee (the Craig’s List congressman) looks to be very interesting. For one, former Democratic candidate Jack Davis is running on the Tea Party ticket. The district is Republican but the Democratic candidate has the lead.

Today Daily Kos released a poll we conducted for them which found Democrat Kathy Hochul leading with 35% in the NY-26 special election to 31% for Republican Jane Corwin and 24% for Tea Party candidate Jack Davis.

Obviously Davis’ presence in the race is the biggest reason it’s so competitive and a lot of what I wrote last April about why a Charles Djou special election win in Hawaii wouldn’t be that meaningful applies here as well. Still I think there are several very important things we found on this poll that reinforce some of what we’ve been seeing in our national polling and show why Democrats should have a very real chance to take the House back next year:

-Congressional Republicans are extremely unpopular.

-The dominance the GOP showed with independents last year is over.

-There no longer appears to be an enthusiasm gap.

It’s a race to watch, but it’s easy to read too much into it.

Donald Trump can prove he’s not a racist:

Responding to accusations of racism this morning on Fox & Friends, Trump said he is the “least racist person there is,” citing the fact that an African-American man won The Apprentice once as proof:

TRUMP: Well, you know, when it comes to racism and racists, I am the least racist person there is. And I think most people who know me would tell you that. I am the least racist, I’ve had great relationships. In fact, Randal Pinkett won, as you know, on The Apprentice a little while ago, a couple of years ago. And Randall’s been outstanding in every way. So I am the least racist person.

Trump has a great relationship with “the blacks.” He actually hired one.