Well almost 3 weeks since the last Benawu congressional diary and the news is almost all bad.
We still have candidates in only 426 districts but it is about to become 425!
Check out the 50 State Page and give some lovin’ to Barry Welsh whilst you are there.
Below the fold for details……………
We are now up to 6 uncontested Republican districts with VA 4 and VA 6 coming up short. I still don’t understand why the Virginia Democratic Party and the Virginia Blogosphere focused so much on the Webb V Miller Senate Primary and left TWO congressional districts unopposed, the only state to do so.
In worse news Mark Hull-Richter will almost certainly fall short in his write in campaign in CA 42. Have a look at these returns from Orange County. Across the district Hull-Richter needed 2461 write in votes to get on the ballot in November. In Orange County he only got 263! (see the bottom of page 5 of the linked returns). Given that almost two thirds of the votes cast in CA 42 in 2004 came from Orange County I would say Hull-Richter is well sunk. **sigh**
So with that in mind the state of play is as follows:
425 Races with a Democratic candidate including 1 unconfirmed:
– LA 4 – Rev Artis Cash. When he files or sets up a website he becomes confirmed.
(Since my last diary unconfirmed candidates have become confirmed in AZ-06 and NY-03.)
10 Races where the Republican incumbent is unopposed:
7!!! Races where there won’t be a Democrat on the ballot in November.
AL 6 – Congressional District Map
CA 42 – Congressional District Map
FL 12 – Congressional District Map
MS 3 – Congressional District Map
TX 11 – Congressional District Map
VA 4 – Congressional District Map
VA 6 – Congressional District Map
3 Races where we don’t have a candidate YET.
LA 5 – Congressional District Map. There is currently no rumored candidate.
LA 6 – Congressional District Map. There is currently no rumored candidate.
LA 7 – Congressional District Map. Hunter Lundy is not running so there is currently no rumored candidate.
Whilst the last few weeks have been disappointing there is an upside. 425-428 districts filled is an amazing affirmation of Howard Dean’s 50 State Strategy as in 2004 we contested only 396 districts. We will have a full Congressional house slate in 43 or 44 states and with filing closing today in Rhode Island we now have 40 Unopposed Democratic candidates in districts where filing has closed! This of course compares to just 7 Unopposed Republicans.
Great job team.