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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

News Roundup, 5/5/2008: Tomorrow Brings Yet Another Primary

This weekend gave you Guam and an R-to-D district flip in Louisiana. Who could ask for anything more?

Guam ended up not being that big of a deal — everyone split everything down the middle, more or less — but it had the potential to be made a big deal by the newshounds. Had one candidate campaigned there personally and the results been the same, you would have heard hemming and hawing about how so many resources were dedicated to getting out the vote with so little return, etc.

Of course, now that we've passed Guam, the focus has moved on to tomorrow's contests in North Carolina and Indiana. The early vote in Indiana is running at a high level, and certainly the networks will have plenty to punditize about for the rest of today and tomorrow and the next day as a result of two more primaries hitting the books.

It is a period in the news where things that should be big deals are largely being ignored. Take, for example, this story about a regional EPA director who was forced out of the job by the Bush administration for actually trying to protect the environment from things like corporate dioxin contamination. Isn't this why we have an EPA in the first place? Or did Nixon put some sort of secret only-if-want-to clause in the agency's charter?

I bet that's what it is, actually.

And it is no wonder. Nixon's dark sorcery probably allowed him to see how things would go down in the future, when the Republican Party got ahead of itself and started being badly beaten at every turn. Now prospects are dim at best for them in the House in 2008.

The signs of frustration are beginning to mount. In Minnesota they've even begun breaking basic rules of politics, like Rule #1: Don't be mean to guys with cameras. What would have been a simple chronicle of a public meeting has now become an enormous spectacle and an embarrassment for the Minnesota GOP.

Things are not perfect for Democrats, but everything does seem to be coming up Milhouse for the D's in the arena. Nick Lampson is fighting hard in his bid for re-election in Tom DeLay's old district, and the House leadership is preparing some incentives for re-electing him. So pay attention, everyone that lives in Lampson's district. He is good for you.

Since Friday, Patrick McLeod has brought us two stories of note. The first concerns the Texas Supreme Court's decision favoring Bob Perry and Texas Watch's observation that the Court went out of its way to provide for a man that provides for their campaign efforts in a very literal, financial sense. The second concerns a very special election in Louisiana that took place over the weekend, in which the 6th congressional district went blue and elected Democratic candidate Don Cazayoux as their new representative, flipping a seat that had been Republican since the 70's.

Finally, we have a new On The Record, in which Grace Stevens interviews Bandera County Democratic Party Chairperson Janelle Rath. Thanks for sticking with us; we'll be with you all week.

NC votes

Just for the record- my mother, grandmother, and campaign treasurer all voted for Obama in NC. Hillary might be picking up some votes, but she won't win there. Though, my grandmother needed some convincing to vote for Obama rather than not vote at all.

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