The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the party’s super PAC, the House Majority PAC, have spent well over half a million dollars in an effort to win a special election in South Carolina’s 1st District, a reliably Republican seat that is competitive only because Republicans nominated controversial former Gov. Mark Sanford. But even if Democrat […]
The Senate special election in Massachusetts took an interesting turn this week, when former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez drew more than 50 percent of the vote to win the GOP nomination. Gomez will face Rep. Edward J. Markey on June 25. Markey won the Democratic nomination with 57 percent of the vote over Rep. Stephen […]
Daylin Leach, who is running for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s open 13th Congressional District (currently held by gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz), doesn’t run from the liberal label. In fact, he proudly calls himself “the most progressive member of the Pennsylvania Legislature.” (See Roll Call Politics editor Shira Toeplitz’s “The Candidate” interview with […]
Republicans are on quite a streak when it comes to throwing away elections. In 2010, it was Christine O’Donnell of Delaware, Ken Buck of Colorado and Sharron Angle of Nevada. Then, in 2012, it was Todd Akin of Missouri and Richard Mourdock of Indiana. And now? And now it might be Mark Sanford of South […]
House Democrats are promoting a crop of “problem solvers” in their effort to expand the number of competitive districts and win back the majority. But for many of these new recruits, the first problem for them to solve is if, when or where to move into the congressional district they want to run in. In […]
The deep disappointment coming from the White House, gun control advocates and the parents of Newtown, Conn., at the demise of the Manchin-Toomey Senate compromise gun bill is understandable. But some of the rhetoric following the amendment’s defeat has been over the top. Supporters of stricter gun control have called those who voted against the […]
For political junkies in a non-election year, the release of quarterly fundraising reports by incumbents and potential candidates provides one of the few moments of true delight. After all, the reports are filled with numbers, giving us quantitative measures of fundraising strength and potential electoral success. However, those Federal Election Commission reports aren’t nearly as […]
Sen. Max Baucus (D) will not seek re-election in 2014, according to The Washington Post’s Paul Kane. Baucus coasted to re-election in 2008 (73 percent) and discarded Republican Mike Taylor (63 percent) in 2002 with a memorable television ad. The senator’s last competitive race was in 1996, when he defeated Republican Dennis Rehberg 49.6 percent […]