Politics: 2020 Illinois Senate Race Result

As much as I wanted a post on the results of the presidency back in December or earlier, I am glad that I haven’t done it yet and will work really hard to get it done at some point soon in the near future (I hope), although it might not happen until next month. I also have no idea at the time how long these random updates will continue and if it will go back to monthly ones instead. I also don’t yet know when I’ll see more of The Good Fight as that would supersede a lot of these political posts, but would undoubtedly still have different political things in it.

Anyways, let’s get to the 2020 Illinois senate race results. Every six years now it seems, one of the most boring and predictable elections happens which can be a nice change. I have no idea just how little the RNC cares about winning this election, but one can only assume that they don’t have any interest because they never seem to spend money on winning this seat at all. And while Dick Durbin, the winner of the race, doesn’t spend any money on ads either (at least on TV that I see), he is able to coast to a win easily as well.

Let’s face it: this senate seat won’t be interesting until Dick Durbin dies or retires from office. He has held this seat since the 90s while the corresponding senate seat keeps being fought over more and more and is normally occupied by a new person every cycle. I’ll have to keep track of that in 2022. He will hang on to his senate seat until the 2026 election with his term set to expire on January 3, 2027. I have no idea what else there is worth saying.

Politics: 2020 Indiana Governor Race Results

There is an important post for this blog that I want to do that isn’t ready yet and I needed to do something quick. Thus, I’m talking about the Indiana governor race from earlier this year. This was at one point going to be one of the races that I was eager about as I wanted there to be a change in who held the office at one point, but then changed my mind.

Basically, the race came between incumbent Republican governor Eric Holcomb, Democrat Woody Myers, and Libertarian Donald Rainwater. It would seem that a lot of people did not like Eric due to some of the restrictions that were put in place. But it doesn’t explain alone why Donald did as well as he did, getting at least 11% of the vote. Eric still won around 56% of the vote with Donald seeming to steal the votes from the Democrat. I didn’t support Woody since he was not that strong a candidate. Plus, I liked Eric’s efforts to combat the coronavirus largely due to him joining an alliance of largely Democratic governors.

Ultimately, Eric is now term limited and will not be able to run again in 2024. If he ever turns on me, then I will start counting done to when he will be leaving office since it is guaranteed that this will happen at a specific date. He will leave office when his term expires in 2025. I will not know what he could do after that in terms of a political future. Will he run for other office? I do not know. But I actually like the fact that he won and look forward to him continuing his time in office in the future.

Politics: 2020 Attorney General Election Results

I have an important post to cover in this blog, but I will not be doing that today. I hope to have that covered next before the year is over. I’ll be scheduling a lot of posts for different blogs to cover the rest of this year and one for New Year’s Day as well. Now I decided that it would be fast and easiest to write this post now. I will cover other results of races from this year later while covering some of next year’s elections and other things that I feel work well in this blog.

Now I do need to cover more in general the attorney generals that are related to the case that relates to Obamacare called California versus Texas. (Speaking of that, when are we going to learn the results of that case? I mean, it has had its only day in court so when are going to hear what the results are? Shouldn’t we know already?) Now I will split some of them into two groups and a picture in a later post should explain more. The ones that I call good are the orange ones. Of all of them that ran for reelection (which was all of them), note that the orange ones advance and will stay around until 2025.

Starting at the beginning, let’s start with the state of North Carolina. The race was between the incumbent Democrat Josh Stein and the Republican challenger Jim O’Neill. Josh won reelection and will continue to serve as a result. Let’s next get to the state of Washington. The race there was between incumbent Democrat Bob Ferguson and the Republican challenger Matt Larkin. Bob won reelection. In the state of Oregon, the race was between incumbent Democrat Ellen Rosenblum and the Republican challenger Michael Cross. Ellen won reelection. The last state in this grouping to mention is Vermont. The race there was between the incumbent Democrat T.J. Donovan and the Republican challenger H Brooke Paige. T.J. won reelection.

As for the states with attorney generals that are against Obamacare that ran for reelection, the ones that I’m calling the green ones, they also all won their elections and won’t be up again until 2024. I’m already counting down the days.

Let’s start with the state of Missouri. While Eric Schmitt wasn’t elected to this office before, he did win this office by winning reelection. This Republican won against Democratic challenger Richard Finneran. In the state of Utah, Republican incumbent Sean D Reyes won against the Democratic challenger, Greg Skordas. In West Virginia, Republican incumbent Patrick Morrisey won against the Democratic challenger, Sam Petsonk.

Now there was one of the green ones that will be leaving office. His name is Curtis Hill and he will be leaving office on January 11, 2021. He never had to face the voters of Indiana as after a scandal left him without a law license for a month, he wasn’t nominated to another term. Instead of him, the Republican party of the state (not the voters) chose Todd Rokita to be their nominee and he won against Democrat Jonathan Weinzapfel.

As for the only two states that had this office up for election this year, I might as well cover both of them before I get to the end of this post. In Montana, the incumbent Republican, Tim Fox, did not run for reelection. The race was instead between Republican Austin Knudsen and Democrat Raph Graybill. Austin won the election. The last state was Pennsylvania. The incumbent office holder, Democrat Josh Shapiro, beat the Republican challenger, Heather Heidelbaugh. 

That’s all that I need to cover for this post. I hope that you found it helpful and I will do a better job explaining the green ones versus the orange ones in the next post including the graphic that will make it all make sense to you. So stay tuned. There is more to talk about regarding a lot of the attorney generals in this country.

Politics: The Crusade Against Act Blue

Lindsey Graham couldn’t believe for a moment that people would want to give more money to his opponent than to him. He and some others were wondering how Act Blue was raising so much money for the Democratic candidates for office.

He thinks that Act Blue should be investigated. The Democratic fundraising site pulled in a lot of money for Democratic candidates in the 2020 election cycle. Still, it would seem that Democrats underperformed in the elections, not doing as well as they hoped.

But what is the crusade against Act Blue? Well, quite clearly, it is people like Lindsey Graham and others like him who think that openly giving money on a secure website is somehow bad because it puts him at a financial disadvantage. Of course, he still won anyways so maybe he will give up this idea of an investigation into a legal political donation site. What does he think is wrong with this site? It is hard to say.

When we have this thing called dark money, it very clearly puts some people at an advantage they wouldn’t otherwise have which is why a lot of candidates refuse to accept it. Dark money relates to Super Pacs and other things like it. Act Blue is very open and not like dark money at all. It is more likely that Lindsey Graham has benefited from dark money than by something like Act Blue. And that’s provided that people have even used something like that for him. Last I checked, the Republican counterpart to Act Blue was so new that most people might not know about it or use it.

Will there be any problems or issues if Act Blue is investigated? I wouldn’t see how myself. I mean, maybe something here and there could cause issues, but it is ironic that Republicans, people who are more likely to benefit from suspicious things like dark money, are wanting to investigate a very open site that emails receipts to the people who use it. Plus, if there have been some people that misused it, what would that mean in general? Would the whole site be bad and not just one person here and there? That’s why the crusade against act blue, if it was even that major an issue anymore, is kind of dumb and pointless.

Politics: 2020 Elections- Extra Innings

There is a lot to talk about still in politics after the elections happened in 2020. I can look ahead at the next set of elections from 2021 and even 2022. But there will now be a runoff for both of the senate seats in Georgia that are happening early in 2021, putting the race for the senate into extra innings, hence the name of this blog post. As for me sorting out the next set of posts from doing 2021’s elections, the results of 2020’s elections, and a few other things here and there that are worth mentioning in the election theme that I follow for this blog.

The fate of control of the senate is in control and Democrats will get what they need to, but only if they win both of the senate races that are heading to runoffs. Thus, I’m just focusing on the two Georgia senate races since that’s all that’s left to talk about.

What are the results of the regular race thus far? In the lead up to this next race, David Perdue got 2,458,453 votes and Jon Osoff got 2,371,921 votes. Since neither had more than 50% of the vote, that means there is set to be a runoff between incumbent Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Osoff. It is odd that the date of the runoff doesn’t happen until after the start of the new senate term, making it possible that David would have to vacate his seat, at least for a moment. If there would be temporary replacement, that is currently unknown.

One of the notable parts about that race is that there was a viral moment during the debate that had gone on. I don’t have footage of the whole debate, which might be good and interesting. But he’s an article about one of the most notable moments with other parts of the debate mentioned in the link as well.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/perdue-ossoff-face-georgia-senate-debate-attack-goes-viral-n1245238

As for the special election, that is between incumbent Republican Kelly Leoffler and challenge, the Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock now that we are in the runoff stage. He actually got the most votes in the primary. The main thing against Kelly is the insider trading allegations that are against her. I’m not even sure how she came in second instead of some other Republican or even a Democrat. She was appointed to the vacant seat and only seems to be in here as she has a lot of money to self fund her own campaign.

As stated before, if Democrats fail to win one or both of the elections, they will not be able to gain control of the senate. If they win both, there will be a 50/50 split between parties. I would have to endorse both Jon Osoff and Raphael Warnock in both elections. If you live in Georgia, I would have to recommend that you vote for both of them. As for any donations, do what you want to as I’ve already donate what I’m going to for both races.

I do have to wonder how much influence Trump could have on this election as this could be the first after his era is over, but might not be as he will still be in office. As for what posts might happen yet, I know currently some of what I will cover (and I’ll have to cover the results of all that have been covered in this blog thus far, with a few others here and there), but do not know for sure what order they will appear in yet. Stayed tuned for posts and know that if the when of when I update this blog changes, I should let you know when it happens.

Politics: 2020 West Virginia Governor Race

This will be my last post before the election. I will have to cover other subjects that sort of relate to elections from the next post after this. In addition to that, I will get to covering the results of the elections after they are known, the elections for 2021, then the elections for 2022 as well.

As for the West Virginia governor race, the country road has to take me home, where I stand. Wait. That’s a song unrelated to this election. The incumbent is Republican Jim Justice. He was once a Democrat, having been elected as that. He was a Republican before and didn’t stay a Democrat for long. West Virginia hadn’t had a Republican governor since 2001. If he wins office, he will be the first Republican elected governor from this state since the 1996 election.

There are many issues with him and his time in office. While his businesses gets a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), that’s not a problem on its own. But as governor, he is in charge of the state agencies that regulate his businesses. He also had moderate views. Some of what are considered conservative views that he has are being pro-life and supporting gun rights. Some of his liberal views are supporting LGBT and health care rights.

Many people like me might view Jim as a traitor to his old party. His opponent is Democrat Ben Salango. Ben is currently a county commissioner. Other third party candidates in the race are Daniel Lutz of the Mountain Party, Erika Kolenich of the Libertarian Party, and various write-in candidates. There’s not much else to say about that.

While I could talk some about the effects of coronavirus on West Virginia, there isn’t as much to say about it since it doesn’t seem to be as bad there. How much of that was due to Jim doing things good or simply not having as many people packed there together like they are in some states that might have more people in it. But it could have to do with measures that he did so he might not be as bad as I think. 

Still, when it comes to an endorsement in this race that I feel like doing, I would have to endorse Ben Salango in the race. While not talked about as much, Jim feels like a lesser version of the guy in the White House with his influence of things specifically with his businesses. Thus, Ben would be a more trustworthy candidate. If you can vote in West Virginia and haven’t done that already, then vote for Ben Salango.

Politics: 2020 South Carolina Senate Race

One of the most important races right now is the South Carolina senate race. While no poll has the Democrat with the lead just yet, enough are tossup and even those that give it to Lindsey are not giving him that good an edge. Could he actually lose? Will people #sendLindseyhome? One can only hope that his time is finally up.

When it comes to Republican incumbent Lindsey Graham, there was actually a point in time not even that long ago where he was a good and logical person. But then he surrendered to the very idea of Trump like nearly every other Republican of today.

Meanwhile, the Democratic challenger in the race named Jamie Harrison. He has done a lot of good and can do even more good if he gets into office. I can only hope that his proves to be a major upset of the elections in question.

Now I have some links to share about Lindsey and there sure are a lot of them. All of these are from some point during this year, but are pretty old. He embraces the worst of the far right as he becomes fascist in his quest to out the whistleblower of today. He (or she, but probably he from all the sources that I’ve read thus far) may be the Deep Throat of our time and we may never know for sure who they are. But it is important that we keep this person safe and anonymous as a whistleblower is supposed to be.

Link: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/3/1916208/-Fascism-rises-Graham-says-Senate-GOP-will-summon-whistleblower-to-expose-how-this-crap-started?detail=emaildkre

There are notable people who have flipped on Lindsey and seek to take him out of office. Here is the story of one you used to support Lindsey and will now be against this man, wanting him out of office.

Link: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/12/1944276/-Former-supporter-of-Graham-What-is-the-character-of-a-man-who-will-not-defend-his-best-friend

While the next article is from May, it is relevant now due to him being perhaps the most notable of all of the senators that have done a 180 on confirming Supreme Court justices this close to an election. Use his words against them. This man is now the one that is in charge of the senate judiciary committee instead of Chuck Grassley. 

Link: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/16/1945555/-Liar-Lindsey-doubles-down-on-the-GOP-Double-Talk-Merrick-Who

Another old story talks about the conservative court stacking that has been going on since near the end of the Obama administration and continues to this very day all while this side has the audacity to claim that only liberals want to do this while doing this.

Link: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/28/1948277/-Graham-amps-up-McConnell-s-court-packing-scheme-says-conservative-judges-over-65-should-step-aside?detail=emaildkre

It seems that every horrible Republican in the present, there is a good version of them in the past. Looking back in time, you’ll see a Lindsey Graham who does not like Trump and thinks that Biden is a good person.

Link: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/13/1952949/-Lindsey-Graham-Tells-Trump-Go-To-Hell-Says-Joe-Biden-s-As-Fine-A-Man-As-God-Made-In-New-Ad

That is all worth talking about this for now. When it comes to an endorsement in the race, it is hard not to support someone other than Jamie Harrison to vote for. If I hadn’t seen a lot of the Kavanaugh hearings, then I wouldn’t hate Lindsey as much as I do. Now if he does actually lose this election, he’ll have no one but himself to blame.