After the overwhelming response to “10 Things Losing Candidates Say,” I decided to try to turn it around and point out some common themes from winning candidates. Of course these phrases don’t guarantee success — a candidate’s party and the partisanship of the state or district will be a larger determining factor. But these sayings […]
You can’t rewrite history, but Republicans probably wish you could. While two high-profile former GOP officeholders — Texas Rep. Tom DeLay and the late Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens — have now had their convictions overturned or dismissed, Republicans are still dealing with the political consequences. It’s easy to forget the electoral impact of DeLay’s and […]
Political parties seem to suffer through internal battles periodically, but the current state of the GOP is much worse than what Democrats went through some 25 years ago, when organized labor and old-style liberals fought against the Democratic Leadership Council for the soul of the party. I still remember going to post-election events during the […]
The relationship between parents and children can be complicated, particularly when both are politicians. On Monday, state Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger announced that he wouldn’t challenge Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in North Carolina. In an interview with Reid Wilson of The Washington Post before his decision, Berger mentioned professional commitments to his colleagues […]
Roll Call's Kyle Trygstad nearly declared the end to the Senate recruitment season recently, but House strategists on both sides of the aisle still have their work cut out for them. With a little more than a year before Election Day, Republican and Democratic operatives are searching for quality candidates in more than a handful […]
It’s no secret Democrats whiffed at a huge opportunity in California’s 21st District last cycle. And while it’s taken them awhile to get their footing, it looks like they have found a candidate that could run a competitive race that matches the competitive district. In 2012, Republican David Valadao won the Northern California seat with […]
If you listen to South Carolina Democrats, you are pretty certain that Republican Gov. Nikki R. Haley is in deep trouble next year. Not so, says Haley’s top strategist, Jon Lerner, arguing she is very likely to win re-election. Both assessments can’t be correct, can they? “Despite bringing in 3 big-name out-of-state governors to help […]