Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell the difference between a real news story and something from The Onion. Earlier reports that entertainer Clay Aiken was considering a run for the Democratic nomination in North Carolina’s 2nd District have been overtaken by new stories about the singer “putting together a team” and preparing to run — one […]
I hate candidate recruitment stories. More specifically, I hate stories that seem to blame the party campaign committees for their inability to coerce candidates to run. In reality, there are so many factors that the committees cannot control that it’s simply unfair to hold them responsible for every alleged recruiting “failure.” Until party strategists obtain […]
Last summer, the Republican National Committee promoted Marilinda Garcia as one of the party’s Rising Stars. But her next challenge looks like winning a Republican primary for a seat in Congress. Garcia was first elected to the New Hampshire state House in 2006, when she was 23 years old. She lost re-election two years later […]
Rep. Bill Owens’ retirement announcement brought back a flood of special-election memories. But one thing in particular stood out to me. For all the national attention that competitive special elections receive, winning candidates’ time in Washington is often relatively short. Owens’ tenure, when he completes his term, is long compared to some of his special-election […]
Republicans continue to expand the Senate map in their quest to win back the majority in 2014. With former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie in the race, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner can no longer take his re-election race for granted. But Virginia is still a long way from the most competitive contests in the […]
After a flurry of surprise retirements, GOP Rep. Buck McKeon’s announcement was one of the worst kept secrets of the last year. So even though the district is competitive, Republicans weren’t caught off-guard and have two credible candidates already in the race. The California congressman’s exit has been rumored for a long time. Jon Fleischman […]