What's going on in your district? What's being reported?

[hedgehog]

For example, the other night Rachel Maddow had a report that Oregon's Democratic Congressman DeFazio is facing a strong attack from Concerned Taxpayers for America. It turned out that Concerned Taxpayers for America is more or less a front for Long Island hedge fund manager Bob Mercer. Turns out that DeFazio proposed a bill that would have Mercer paying higher taxes.

So the question is, is that information now general knowledge out in Oregon's 4th, or is it just kicking around the blue blogosphere?

What about all the stories about Tea Party candidates decrying BIG GOVERNMENT whilst taking all kinds of subsidies for themselves?

I haven't seen a peep about the local congressional race here in Upstate New York. What I have seen is a huge anonymous attack on our local Democratic State Senator.His victory in a special election turned the New York State Senate back to the Democrats for the first time in years. With re-districting coming up, the Republicans want the State Senate back. What's interesting is that the local paper, which used to publish articles from the John Birch Society, is publishing articles asking who's paying for all the flyers from "Common Sense". We've also had a Republican Town Supervisor endorse the Democrat.

[SteppingRazor]

1. I don't think you can depend on national coverage for congressional districts, nor should you.

With some 80 seats in play every two years, there's no way the national cable outlets can cover every race, much less the state Senate and state Legislature ones. That's what your local newspaper is for.

There's been some national coverage of my own congressional district, Florida's 22nd, but that's really just the result of us having a far-right Tea Party candidate in Allen West, which means Florida's 22nd ties into the zeitgeist, which results in coverage.

[hedgehog]

2. I've seen an unusual amount of activity by the national media

lifting the curtain on right wing candidates. My question is whether these stories are being carried in the local press. For example, it doesn't mean squat if I read a story on Allen West, but if his history becomes common knowledge in Florida's 22nd.....

[SteppingRazor]

3. Ah! I understand what you're saying.

I can't really comment on other areas, obviously (much as I would love to, I haven't kept up on the local dailies across the country :) ), but here, while there's been a lot of coverage, it's often come in under the tired false-equivalency burden of American journalism. In other words, you won't see a lot of stories saying "Here's all the crazy-ass things Allen West has done or said." Instead, you'll see stories saying, "According to Democrats, Allen West has done some crazy-ass things. West denies this."

[hedgehog]

4. Any letters to the editor that give you a glimmer of hope?

[SteppingRazor]

5. Meh. Letters to the editor tend to be written by right-wing cranks.

That said, when there are LTTEs from liberals, they're rarely about local races. Most of them write to remind people of how god-awful Bush was and how much of a shitstorm Obama inherited when he took office. Personally, I think that's the wrong take in this election -- nationalizing it instead of making it about local issues plays into the hands of the tea party yahoos who don't care about good governance so much as no governance.

[RockaFowler]

6. The other races have been nationalized, too

Atwater against Ausley for CFO. Atwater keeps saying that Ausley is a Pelosi Democrat. Ausley hasn't even been in Congress.

Bondi calls Gelber a Lifetime Politician (he was in political office for last 2 years as far as I know) in the race for Attorney General. She says how much she wants to end Obamacare and anything to do with Pelosi. Oh yeah and Bondi is a Sarah Palin fan (Miss Iquitarod even endorsed this bimbo).

And of course jerk #1 Scott says that Sink is an Obama Liberal who uses Obama Math (loved her zinger the other night about her Math Skills).

[SteppingRazor]

8. Yeah, the "I was a math major" bit was a highlight of the debate. n/t

[FSogol]

7. The local Repuke, just added the phrase, "Take America Back - 2010"

to his signs. He's Keith Fimian, a career lobbyist, receiving Chamber funds and flooding the airwaves with promises to cut taxes and reduce spending. The one or two polls that I see have him clearly behind Democratic Congressman, Gerry Connolly.

[WI_DEM]

9. WI-2, includes Madison, my rep (Tammy Baldwin) is safe.

[alsame]

10. NY 18, we have 'white pride' teabagger Jim Russell

running against Nita Lowey. Last time I checked, Nate Silver gave Lowey 100% chance of winning. :rofl:

I've seen no TV or print ads for Russell and only a few for Lowey, along with one robo-call.

[Kaleva]

11. Mi-01 is a statisicall tie.

[Retrograde]

12. Not much

In CA-14 the long-time Democratic representative is almost certainly going to be re-elected. There is a GOP challenger, but he's not really trying. Judging by the local yard signs the big issue is a local one on fire-fighters.

[AtomicKitten]

13. In my district, Cindy Sheehan has endorsed the Republican.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2010/10/20/cindy-sheehan-goes-republican.aspx

:thumbsdown:

[FarLeftRage]

14. The local paper where I live...

in NY-23, has Owen with a slight lead over bagger/wallstreeter dopehenny.

I'm getting Democratic fliers in my letterbox and phone calls reminding me to vote Dem on election day.

You live in NY-23, don't you?

[countrydad58]

15. NY-24

Asswipe Blue Dog Arcuri is +10 over Bigger Asswipe Bagger Richard Hanna.

[madamesilverspurs]

16. Well, let's see.

We have Karl Rove targeting Betsy Markey, who trounced Marilyn Gays-are-evil Musgrave two years ago (a race that Musgrave has yet to concede); Markey's current opponent got busted for his self-produced ad that attributed to Betsy a vote that was cast by Ed Markey (D-MA). In a race for our local state house one of the candidates sent letters to lobbyists soliciting donations for his campaign, donations that would help to secure access to him once elected (he won't be, but he's still loudly supported by the local teabaggers). We have Tom Tancredo running for governor (with Bay Buchanon chairing his campaign), and his opponent who fantasizes that he was a secret agent in Kansas also thinks bicycles are part of a UN plot to take over the world. Other than that...oh, yeah -- we've got Ken Buck (Cheney protege, enemy of veterans, racist, misogynist, pro-pollution, gay=alcoholic, law-breaking and teaparty darling DA who is receiving millions in ad help from Rove) challenging Democratic senator Michael Bennet.

Actually, it's kind of wild around here right now.