Democratic Rep. Ed Markey leads Gabriel Gomez by 11 points, 54%-43%, among likely voters, per a new Boston Globe survey. The special election will be held on June 25th.
Let’s hope this particular gap keeps on expanding:
(CNN) – When voters were asked who would get their vote for if the election were held today, the gap expanded, with Markey still at 54% but Gomez at 41%. [...]
[A]ccording to the Globe, poll respondents find Gomez more likable. He also has the edge over Markey among unenrolled or independent voters, a crucial voting bloc in the race.
…A political unknown… and this guy’s a young, fresh face. That’s one way to see this race. The second coming of Scott Brown….
Those same campaign people that lost Mitt Romney the presidency, who lost Mitt Romney his supposed home state by 23 points, and lost Scott Brown an incumbent U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, they are the same people in Massachusetts doing the Gabriel Gomez campaign for the Senate seat against Ed Markey.
So, it’s the second coming of Scott Brown either way, right?
Which may explain this survey by Public Policy Polling that shows Rep. Ed Markey (D) continuing to lead Gabriel Gomez (R) by eight points, 47% to 39%.
Today Chris Christie announced the appointment of Jeffrey S. Chiesa, the state’s attorney general, to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Frank R. Lautenberg. (Per Think Progress, he supports gun buyback programs and opposes the death penalty.)
Politico emailed this alert:
“I said on Monday I was going to select the person I thought was going to be the best person to represent New Jersey between now and Oct. 13,” Christie told reporters. “During the last few days as I’ve gotten to deliberate on this decision, it became clear to me that Attorney General Chiesa would be the best person to represent the people of New Jersey in the United States Senate.”
Chiesa’s name had not been among those circulated in the early short-lists mentioned by Christie insiders.
Christie announced the selection at a news conference in Trenton, shortly before he was set to leave for a GOP donor retreat in Utah with Mitt Romney, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
To any Democrats out there who still believe Christie is a Dem in GOP clothing, read that bolded part again. I know I keep pushing the same point over and over again, but this misguided admiration for this very Republican big mouth is about as self-destructive as a Democrat can get. I implore you to read my posts that make the point in greater detail.
The biggest losers are New Jersey taxpayers, who will foot the bill for the absurd and unnecessary special election; and New Jersey schoolchildren, who could have used the money for education that Christie is wasting on the special election.
The mega-loser is the Christie brand, which is kaput, bye-bye and done for. Christie is no longer different. He is just another hack looking out for himself. Christie will not run for president in 2016.
…If the senate election were held on November 5th and it was all just one big election, well, lots of people would come out to vote for the person who is widely assumed to be the Democratic Senate candidate: This gentleman, you may have heard of him, Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, and potentially going to bring a lot of voters with him.
You can imagine what those voters might look like, what the Cory Booker electorate might look like and how that might differ from the Chris Christie electorate.
Now Chris Christie wants to run for re-election and he does not want the Cory Booker electorate at the polls on the day that he and his Republican colleagues in the state legislature are standing for re-election, whether those people are African-American Democrats, Hispanic, or white liberals excited about Cory Booker running for office.
And so the way he solves this problem is to hold a special Cory Booker election in which all the Cory Booker fans can go and get it out of their system and vote for Cory Booker and hopefully just stay home three weeks later while Christie lets the rest of New Jersey vote for him for re-election.
This will cost, by the way, an estimated $12 million more than if general elections were held on the same day. You can pay 249 New Jersey teachers for one year with that money based on typical starting salaries. And it contradicts the spirit of a law Christie himself previously signed to consolidate elections to save money. It contradicts Christie’s boastful tv ad…
It’s not just craven, it is insulting to democracy.
It’s so unexpectedly schadenfreudy to see the GOP acknowledging the Christie Me Me Me It’s All About Me Syndrome:
Republicans are fuming over New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to hold an early special election to fill the seat of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, with several Washington-based operatives suggesting he’s putting his own interests ahead of the GOP’s. The decision to hold a separate special election in October 2013—just two weeks before his own election—would give any interested Republican candidates little time to announce, organize a campaign, and raise the necessary money to take on a top-tier Democrat, likely Newark Mayor Cory Booker. [...]
“I think this ends his 2016 chances. It’s year after year with this guy,” complained one senior Republican official.
Fun stuff, good times, swell excerpt, but will they still feel that way in a year or so? Stay tuned.
There he is, Gov. All About Me, New Jersey’s very own Chris Christie:
“I don’t know what the cost is and I, quite frankly, don’t care. I don’t think you can put a price tag on what it’s worth to have an elected person in the United States Senate and I will do whatever I need to do to make sure those costs are covered because all the people of the state of New Jersey will benefit from it and we’re not going to be penny-wise and pound-foolish around here.”
Memo to Chris: Some people do care, especially when you’re holding a special election only three weeks before you’re up for your own re-election. ABC:
The decision to hold an election in October comes with a price tag approaching $25 million because every statewide election in New Jersey costs more than $12 million to execute, and the two parties will hold primaries before the election.
He must think his state has money to burn after that silly little Sandy storm.
And yet even Democrats feel some kind of misguided affection for this mean-spirited, not in the least bit liberal, very self-serving, very conservative loudmouth: WTF is wrong with these people? “Major Democratic donors flock to Chris Christie.” Please read that post if for nothing else than why he will never become a Dem (which for some unfathomable reason some on the gullible left believe is his destiny), and what he really stands for.
In a decision fraught with political implications, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey announced on Tuesday that he would schedule a special election in October for the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Frank R. Lautenberg on Monday.
The move was expected to draw criticism from Democrats in the state, arguing that such a move by Mr. Christie, a Republican, would amount to squandering taxpayer money to protect his own political ambitions. Scheduling a special election rather than adding the vote for the Senate seat to the November ballot would cost millions of dollars
A special Oct. 16 ballot means the choice of a new senator will not overshadow the race for governor, which will now remain at the top of statewide ballots in November. Republicans in the state are counting on Mr. Christie, who has been hoping that a landslide re-election victory will help propel a possible run for president in 2016, to draw his supporters to the polls, helping Republican candidates for the state Legislature and for many local offices.
Would you like to donate to The Political Carnival monthly? You can on our Support TPC page.
The Political Carnival is a fast paced Progressive political site that combines humor with dead serious, dementia with politics (synonymous?), and sprinkles in idiosyncratic posts with breaking news.
Lt. Col Barry Wingard is the lawyer for Gitmo detainee Fayiz Al-Kandari. For their ongoing story + related topics, please click on the link below: Kuwaiti Citizen Detained at Guantanamo since 2002
You can read the complete story here or on Wikipedia.
Subscribe to The Political Carnival Newsfeed via Wikio
The Political Carnival is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Photographs on The Political Carnival site (please read):
Photographs from other sources sometimes appear on TPC for humorous or illustrative purposes. As it is not our intention to use these images in any inappropriate manner or to infringe upon any rights held by others, anyone holding legal rights in the use of these images who wishes to have them taken down please contact us immediately requesting such removal, with which we will comply promptly.
TPC RSS Posts Feed
TPC Comments Feed
