Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Waiting for Connecticut

The most interesting domestic political event for some time is going down in Connecticut today. A pretty fair blow-by-blow can be followed on the Connecticut chapter of Lefty Blogs.

Lieberman’s web site went down and his campaign accused Lamont forces of a denial of service attack. Bull-Pucky! The explanation, and an account of Lamont’s honorable response, is on Kos. Link

ABC’s The Note reports:

There are no pooled network exit polls. The Connecticut Legislation and Elections website (Link) will be updated continually, as soon as information comes in. The state is using a brand new system, which may or may not work. Should the system not work, officials are prepared with a spreadsheet and the site should be updated at roughly fifteen minute intervals with results.

Lever machines will dominate in today's primary, with a smattering of optical scan voting places. And here is a chart, courtesy of the excellent folks at the AP, detailing the timing of the reporting of results on election night in 2004 to use as a guide for tonight.

First Reports from Counties: 8:35 pm ET
20% of Precincts Statewide by: 10:00 pm ET

Speaking of voting…I wish I believed in the tamper-proof character of optical and electronic voting, but I don’t. I would much prefer to mark my X on a paper ballot which was counted at the voting place under the watchful eyes of judges from the major parties.

In CD 8 news Patty Weiss has two TV commercials up on her web site for your viewing pleasure. Good production values, very slick, just what you would expect from an old pro. Link

10 comments:

x4mr said...

Still at 52% with 87% reporting.

Cannot overstate the screaming of my alarms regarding electronic voting and creating an election system that can be hijacked. Already a little paranoid that it has been. I'm an old schooler big time on this one. Though not impossible, it is hard to mess with millions of pieces of paper.

If we let the system become vulnerable to a few keyboard strokes.......

Liza said...

tooblue4u,
Thanks for the link to the Star article. This is really interesting. The real beneficiary of this Gifford's TV ad seems to be the Star's Daniel Scarpinato who is being praised for his investigative reporting. I noticed that the comments related to the article are mostly negative towards Giffords. No one is defending her, at least not yet. It would probably be a good tactical move right now for her handlers to scrap this ad and move on.

x4mr said...

Calm down, anon.

Without question this article is a blow to the Giffords campaign and certainly think they should respond and quickly.

From my experience, it is common practice for reporters to contact parties for comment on a story before they run it, including those comments as deemed appropriate. Don't get that this occurred, and not clear what it means if anything.

What I find a little interesting, and really not clear that it means anything, is the absolute crucifixion fest of comments posted after the online story.

Rex Scott said...

I AM PASTING BELOW A POST I ORIGINALLY PUT ON TEDSKI'S SITE:

Before the anti-Giffords bloggers get all high and mighty and fill this site with vitriol, let's recall that Gabby's ad cites an Associated Press article, likely written by someone like Howard Fischer, who covers the Legislature full time and is more familiar with its operations than Daniel Scarpinato.

Linda Binder, then a GOP senator and one of two moderates (the other being Slade Mead) that planned to vote against the budget, was getting ready to leave the country. The GOP leadership knew that and wanted to get a vote without Binder opposing them. Gabby's maneuver foiled them and the budget was not voted on until Binder returned to Phoenix, when it was defeated.

Scarpinato points out that Gabby's vote would have killed the bills in committee, but anyone even remotely familiar with how the Legislature operates knows that the leadership would have revived the bills in another form for a second round. The KEY was having the votes to defeat the ENTIRE budget when it came to the floor. The record from that time shows that Binder and Mead's votes were crucial to the eventual outcome (Mead lost his seat in a GOP primary partly because of that vote and is now a Democrat!) and Gabby ensured that Binder was in Phoenix when crunch time came.

Look, it is pretty lame to take this story and spin it into a big lie that Gabby lacks Democratic credentials, especially when you see the support she has gotten from all segments of of the party. I don't question the party loyalty of Weiss or any of the other candidates and a former party chairman who once tried to unite all Democrats should be ashamed of himself this morning. Let's play fair in pursuit of this nomination so that we can be ready to come together behind the winner and beat the Republicans.

Rex Scott said...

FULL DISCLOSURE: I ORIGINALLY POSTED THIS ON TEDSKI'S SITE-

Before the anti-Giffords bloggers get all high and mighty and fill this site with vitriol, let's recall that Gabby's ad cites an Associated Press article, likely written by someone like Howard Fischer, who covers the Legislature full time and is more familiar with its operations than Daniel Scarpinato.

Linda Binder, then a GOP senator and one of two moderates (the other being Slade Mead) that planned to vote against the budget, was getting ready to leave the country. The GOP leadership knew that and wanted to get a vote without Binder opposing them. Gabby's maneuver foiled them and the budget was not voted on until Binder returned to Phoenix, when it was defeated.

Scarpinato points out that Gabby's vote would have killed the bills in committee, but anyone even remotely familiar with how the Legislature operates knows that the leadership would have revived the bills in another form for a second round. The KEY was having the votes to defeat the ENTIRE budget when it came to the floor. The record from that time shows that Binder and Mead's votes were crucial to the eventual outcome (Mead lost his seat in a GOP primary partly because of that vote and is now a Democrat!) and Gabby ensured that Binder was in Phoenix when crunch time came.

Look, it is pretty lame to take this story and spin it into a big lie that Gabby lacks Democratic credentials, especially when you see the support she has gotten from all segments of of the party. I don't question the party loyalty of Weiss or any of the other candidates and a former party chairman who once tried to unite all Democrats should be ashamed of himself this morning. Let's play fair in pursuit of this nomination so that we can be ready to come together behind the winner and beat the Republicans.

Rex Scott said...

I am pretty techologically challenged, azyoulikeit, and would not begin to know how to post a link. The fact that I inadvertently posted the above TWICE should testify to my lack of expertise in that arena.

The facts are that the GOP wanted to get their entire budget passed while Linda Binder was out of the country. Those of us whose jobs (I am an educator) would have been negatively affected if the GOP leadership had passed its budget were deeply grateful to the Governor, the two GOP moderates (Binder and Mead) AND Giffords.

I hope the campaign releases both the text of the AP article cited in Gabby's ad AND other press coverage from that time. The Star reporter should have done some more homework. The Giffords people need to make sure the full story is told. Folks like Tuttle, who is looking for anything to go after BOTH Giffords and Weiss (see his blog for examples) to help his candidate, need to tone down the rhetoric

x4mr said...

Both god and the devil are in the details, and given the thorough howling and wailing about SB1065, no doubt we're in for a lesson on Senate proceedings and procedures. The facts are no doubt on their way.

What I find particularly interesting is the timing of the Weiss press release and that it bears all the signs of a completely polished product.

There is no way in hell that release was written in a couple hours this morning. NO WAY.

Weiss campaign knew this article was coming and had the press release prepared for it.

x4mr said...

Giffords Campaign Response

wearetribal said...

Ben r, since you are not one of the people here who have posted scores of times, I will respond to you as a real person who may even change their mind and not the hidden campaign workers I take most of the others here to be. I mean, who else has that kind of time?

I understand your idea that Weiss's experience as a reporter gave her an ability to understand issues well. It is what the media has a great interest in having you believe. But it is very far from my experience that reporters mostly understand what they are talking about before they open their mouths. They study how to write in college, but not how to think or really research.

Weiss's recent comments about fuel efficency, for example, were just plain wrong. Cars averaging 35 mpg will never mean we need no foreign oil (domestic production being 15% below what we consume before cars even enter the equation).

And her support for universal health care, well please go to her own website and carefully read that section. Note the part where she says how it will be paid for...with "deductions from Social Security, paychecks, and welfare." Gee, thanks for nothing, Patty. Her universal health care plan is for everyone to pay for their own, including the extremely poor, retired, and disabled who currently are covered free. Because heaven forbid we ask wealthy people to help out those less fortunate by raising their taxes.

So I think you may want to look at Weiss a bit harder before you back her.

Latas, there is just a bottom line for me. We have to win this seat for the Democrats. It can make a huge difference in the world if the Dems take the 15 seats they need. Latas just does not have the cash, or name recognition to do without it, or volunteers to do without it. Sure, we could get lucky and face Graf...but it is just too important to take that risk.

And of the candidates, Giffords is the one prepared through experience and established Washington connections to get things accomplished when elected. She is the one best able to take on the Republican nominee. And she is a smart honest person who fights for the right things, which is why basically all the endorsements are going her way. Weiss got her husbands Psychology groups endorsement, and that is about it.

Liza said...

I would encourage everyone to vote for the CD8 candidate (Latas, Weiss, Giffords, Rodriguez, or Schacter) who you would want to represent you in the House. Money is not an issue. Whoever wins the primary will be funded. The Democratic Party wants this seat, make no mistake about it.