Posted on 11/05/2009 7:36:10 PM PST by Clintonfatigued
North Dakota Republican state legislators and officials have had no better luck than anyone else in prodding Gov. John Hoeven for hints about whether he'll run against Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan next year.
Four GOP lawmakers who raised the subject in a meeting with Hoeven in his Capitol office last week said the governor gave them no hints about his plans, although one participant said he believes Hoeven will make the race.
"I think he feels a responsibility to do it," said Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier. "Maybe I'm a little optimistic in my thinking, but I do believe he's giving it serious consideration."
Another participant, Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, said he did not believe it was necessary for Hoeven to announce his plans soon. "The longer he waits, it's OK," Kasper said. "The races are long enough the way they are."
(Excerpt) Read more at wkrg.com ...
I wish that Hoeven would make a decision soon. I’m encouraged by the speculation that he feels a sense of responsibility on runnning. We need him to save the country from the ‘Rats, and there are too many of them on Capitol Hill.
Good. Start kicking those damn blue dogs from the Heartland. Can’t wait for the sweep to hit the Southwest and the Midwest.
Shouldn’t this be easy pick for GOP?
Did I get kicked off the list? :)
Not easy, but possible giving Hoeven’s popularity and the way the political winds seem to be blowing.
Dorgan is a good politician and even I have a few good things to say about him, so I’m betting that knocking him off will be harder than some of our other targets.
Oh, sorry. I don’t have a written list, just a memorized one. You hadn’t responded to many threads and I forgot about you. My mistake.
My fault...I thought you had a written one.
Sometimes, I don’t respond, but I always read. I find your insight and posts very interesting. I keep up with 90% of them anyway, but I just wanted to get the other 10%. :)
Winning Jersey and VA will be a boon to Congressional recruitment. Expect more promising candidates for Congress to step forward in the next couple of months.
Hey, you’d better tell me what you want to be pinged to. I think I usually only hit you up with NY or Northeast-related stuff. Like CF, my list tends to be memorized... (and I’m always accidentally forgetting some names).
I agree. It’s a travesty that there are several states like North Dakota where Republicans crush Dems in presidential elections, by they’re represented by Democrats. Montana and South Dakota also come to mind.
I forgot to add Arkansas as well. Republicans win this state by 10-20 pts in presidential elections (with the exeption of Slick Willie). There’s no reason why it should be represented by two Dems.
I’m down for as many as you can remember to ping me on. I’m interested in as much of the big picture as possible. :)
Ah, OK, I’ll try. ;-P
There are reasons for some of that. ND, for example, tended to often send Socialist Republicans (endorsed by the Non-Partisan League, despite the name, a pro-Socialist group). When the NPL, which usually endorsed Republicans, merged with the ND Democrats in the late ‘50s, that’s when the Dems started to take the lead in state politics. The GOP is the majority party now, at least at the state level, but it has been exceptionally difficult to blast the NPL/Democrats from the federal level, if only because we don’t field serious candidates against them.
South Dakota is different than ND as they had no Socialist group like the NPL, but what accounted for why the delegation isn’t entirely GOP can be blamed at the feet of ex-Gov & ex-Rep. Bill Janklow, who was a prima donna RINO who played no small part in taking out our federal Republicans while playing footsie with the Democrats (it was no surprise Tom Daschle was at Janklow’s vehicular homicide trial as a character witness !).
Montana is also problematic for us, we have only elected 2 Republican Senators since the popular vote began in the 1910s. We’ve done better with electing Governors there (and the legislature), but we have trouble with getting a lot of the statewide offices, too. We currently hold zero. Only Denny Rehberg is the sole Republican at the statewide or federal level.
Arkansas was well on its way to becoming a GOP state downballot, that was until Huckster took that and turned it right back around to the Dems. Like MT, we have zero statewide Republicans and only just the 1 federal Congressman. The GOP only made its first gains in the AR House last year for the first time in almost a decade. Had we a more competent GOP Governor leading from the ‘90s into this decade (read: Haley Barbour), the state would’ve had far more GOP officeholders.
As it stands, we could actually hold all 4 House seats there, and both Senate seats. We probably will take Blanche Lincoln’s seat next year so long as we don’t run a dud candidate (although they will be second-tier, since there’s only one first-tier Republican in the state, and that’s Congressman Boozman, and I don’t count Huckster, he ain’t interesting in helping the AR GOP). More embarrassing for the state GOP with respect to the statewide elections next year, the Dem Governor, Mike Beebe, has proven to be adequately competent (or at least I haven’t heard or seen any major missteps), and the GOP may not even put up a challenger to him, prefering to focus on the winnable Senate race.
West Virginia is another state where the GOP should hold two senate seats.
The Blue dogs are a house only thing.
The Blue Dogs won't bite...they are a bunch of cowering, shivering, and submissive shelter dogs.
They will vote as they are told by master Pelosi, and are otherwise totally undependable for voting their "conservative" leanings.
WV is an odd state. Started out Republican when it split from Virginia during the Civil War, swung back to the Democrats in the 1870s, back solidly to the GOP by 1900, back and forth between the two parties in the ‘10s, back to the GOP in the ‘20s (solidly so), back very hard to the Dems in the ‘30s, but rarely competitive for the GOP afterwards. Last time we won a Senate seat was in 1956 for the two-year remainder of a 6-year term. The Dem incumbent died in the other seat, and the-then GOP Governor, Cecil Underwood, appointed a Republican - so we actually had two Republicans going into the 1958 elections, but that election was the worst ever for Senate Republicans since the popular vote was instituted. Closest we’ve gotten since was in 1978 when Byrd’s seatmate, Jennings Randolph, nearly lost to Gov. Arch Moore (Rep. Shelley Capito’s father).
I personally think when Byrd dies (and he turns 92 shortly and is obviously in poor shape), we may get the seat back in a special, especially depending upon whom Dem Gov. Manchin appoints. I think WV is coming back to us, but the party has some work to do downballot (we had heartbreakingly close losses for statewide races last year, and the lone Republican, Sec of State Betty Ireland opted not to run for a second term, and we had an African-born Black Republican who was ignored by the national party and had no money as the nominee who predictably lost to a rich White Dem lady). Three of the major cities in WV (Charleston, Huntington & Wheeling) have GOP Mayors.
Ugh, Janklow. Let’s see: He ran in the primary against Jim Abnor in 1986, weakening him enough so that Daschle could knock him off that year, he ran for the House in 2002 and forestalled former Senator Larry Pressler from making a comeback, and then proceeded to run over the speed limit and kill somebody in a motor accident, forcing him to resign and helping to lose the seat to Stephanie Hestreth-Sandlin.
He should have his own wing in the How-to-ruin-your-own-party Museum.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.