If you’ve read enough election stories over the years you know that the congressional district in Pennsylvania Dutch country around Lancaster has never elected a Democrat. Ever. Before Republicans existed they elected Whigs. Before Whigs, they elected Federalists. This year, even this district is in play. The Democrat, Jess King, trails incumbent Lloyd Smucker by only 50-46 — especially impressive because the residents of the newly redrawn, post-gerrymandered district went for Trump by more than 25 points two years ago.
Iowa Rep. Steve King, he of the cantaloupe-calved Mexican drug mule children and the blatant admiration for open racists, is losing corporate donors left and right, and it’s emboldened (or frightened) the GOP to leave him to twist in the wind. He’s not expected to lose, but he has to run hard for the first time.
Some people worry Democrats don’t know how to fight dirty. Please. They rolled out the old anonymous mailer gambit in both Montana and Missouri to voice support for libertarians, hoping to peel off a Nader-like 5% who find the Republican insufficiently freedom-loving. GOPers quickly followed the mailers back to the source, so neither side has a monopoly on ineptitude. Of course, this only counters the many states where Republicans in charge of elections are mailing Democratic voters the wrong instructions.
In a somewhat related story, the editors at HuffPo got all, well, huffy that someone hired a click farm to move its expose about a shady Democratic operation called End Citizens United off Page 1 of the Google results. The scoundrels!
This week’s Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon, mocking the GOP’s “soft” voter suppression messaging to millennials, tickled me more than usual.
And with that, kids, I’m gone until Thanksgiving, so pitch in to keep the Open Threads full.