Year: 2012

Today, I formally filed for election to serve the banks (TC, see my notes throughout. "people" sounds better here) of Delaware in the United States Senate. When I take the train back home to Delaware almost every night, I laugh my ass off at the fact that I have (too much transparency... try "am humbled by") the opportunity the people of the First State have given me to serve them in our nation's capitol. Delaware is a place where the petty politics of division and negativity that we see all too often in Washington these days aren't welcome.

Was this the big announcement yesterday? Cory Booker? I guess Anthony Wiener wasn't available to take a crap on the President's re-election messaging.

And now onto the House. Since the last time we did this in March, some new candidates have filed. But before we go on, I should note something. In the chart below, I list every incumbent unless they have announced that they are not running for reelection. In a lot of cases, some incumbents have not yet filed, but they have some more time to do so, since the deadline is not until July 10. All 41 Representatives are up for election. So let's see what has developed in the House races since the last time we reviewed the playing field.

It has been a couple of months since we have done this, so let's check in on the playing field of our General Assembly races this fall. First up is the Senate. The Senate has 21 members, 14 of them are Democrats and 7 are Republicans. The GOP would need to pickup 4 seats to gain of majority of 11. The big news since we last did this is that Liane Sorenson, the moderate Republican Senator who was redistricted into a very competitive race with Democratic Senator Dave Sokola in a new merged 8th Senate District in the Newark area, decided to retire rather than face Sokola. I must say, I found that surprising. I had listed that race as a toss up of course, but if I had to bet the race, I would have said that Sorenson had the edge. But maybe the demographics of the new 8th SD were too daunting.

Holy poll drop, Batman. New presidential polls in Ohio, Virginia, Florida and Wisconsin change our map dramatically. The new map in question. Yes, I am putting it at the top now, and also in the excerpt section you see on the front page.

"There was a woman in Iowa who shared her story of financial struggles, and [Romney] gave her an answer right out of an economic textbook. He said, "Our productivity equals our income." And the notion was that somehow the reason people can’t pay their bills is because they’re not working hard enough. If they got more productive, suddenly their incomes would go up. Well, those of us who’ve spent time in the real world -- (laughter) -- know that the problem isn’t that the American people aren’t productive enough -- you’ve been working harder than ever. The challenge we face right now, and the challenge we’ve faced for over a decade, is that harder work has not led to higher incomes, and bigger profits at the top haven’t led to better jobs."

Wisconsin goes back to the blue side. Pennsylvania stays blue. Vermont stays dark dark blue. Arizona stays red, albeit light red.