Unusual Races

The races that follow may or may not be important. They may or may not be competitive. Nevertheless, there is something about them that sets them apart. Here are my "unusual races" for this election cycle.

Like Father, Like Son
Delaware Attorney General
Senator Joe Biden's son, also named Joe, makes a run at the top legal job in Delaware.

Florida CD 9
Congressman Mike Bilirakis is retiring, and his son Gus is running to replace him.

Maryland CD 3
Retiring Senator Paul Sarbanes' son, John Peter, makes a run for Congress. Making things more interesting is the fact that he's trying to replace Ben Cardin, who is himself seeking to replace Senator Sarbanes. And the wheel goes 'round and 'round...

Nevada Senate
Former President Jimmy Carter's son, Jack, tries to unseat Senator John Ensign.

New Jersey Senate
Thomas Kean, Jr., son of former Jersey Governor Tom Kean, tries to unseat Senator Robert Menendez.

New York Attorney General
Andrew Cuomo, son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, tries to replace Eliot Spitzer as AG.

Executive Shuffle
California
Term Limits don't have to mean the end of executive service. Just ask Democrats in California, here an intricate shuffle is being executed. Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante can't remain as LG, and so is running for Insurance Commissioner. The sitting Insurance Commissioner, John Garamendi, is running for LG. Everybody's happy. There's more - Treasurer Phil Angelides is running against the Governator, and Attorney General Bill Lockyer is trying to win the Treasurer job. Seeking to replace Lockyer? Former Governor Jerry Brown. Why bring in new faces when you can just share all the jobs?

Wyoming
This one isn't as egregious as in California. Secretary of State Joe Meyer is term limited, and so is running for Treasurer. Meanwhile, term-limited Auditor Max Maxfield tries to move up to Secretary of State.

Dissension at the Office
These races feature an incumbent Governor facing their own Lieutenant Governor. Of course, outside of primaries, this can only happen in states that elect these two offices separately.

Alabama
Governor Bob Riley (R) faces Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley (D).

Georgia
Governor Sonny Perdue (R) faces Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor (D).

Rhode Island
Governor Donald Carcieri (R) faces Lieutenant Governor Charles Fogarty (D).

NFL Politics
Two races feature former NFL players - Lynn Swann (R) is running for Governor in Pennsylvania, and Heath Shuler (D) is running for Congress in North Carolina.

Who Am I Voting For?
Last names serve as a great way to differentiate yourself from an opponent. Unfortunately, that doesn't work if the names are close - or identical. Somewhat surprisingly, there aren't that many races falling in this category.

Arkansas CD 4
Congressman Mike Ross (D-inc) faces Joe Ross (R).

New Jersey CD 3
Congressman Jim Saxton (R-inc) faces Rich Sexton (D).

And My Favorite
This is from Idaho. Back on May 26, Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne was named Secretary of the Interior by President Bush. As a result, his Lieutenant Governor, Jim Risch, became Governor. Now, Risch is stepping aside - Congressman C.L. Otter is running for Governor, but Risch isn't ready to leave politics just yet. Instead, he's running for his old office of Lieutenant Governor. That's right - the sitting Governor of Idaho is running for Lieutenant Governor. That strikes me as incredibly funny, and also incredibly odd.

New Jersey "win" really a "loss?"

Moments ago, the Supreme Court of New Jersey declared that gay couples are entitled to the same protections that heterosexual couples receive through marriage. They've given lawmakers 180 days to decide whether to fully extend marriage to gay couples, or whether to create a civil union system that offers identical protections.

This ruling comes after 2 years of nearly non-stop losses for proponents of gay marriage, both in the Courts and at the hands of the voters, and there's no question that it's a big "win" for the movement in the near term. However, the results could turn out to be anything but positive for supporters of gay marriage.

For the last few years, people like John McCain have been arguing that, while they are opposed to gay marriage in principle, they weren't comfortable amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage because it wasn't necessary to do so. The reasoning was that the Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996, was Constitutional and would prevent gay marriages from spreading across the country by virtue of the Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution if one state (such as New Jersey, now) were to authorize it.

Of course, there are many (such as myself) who think that a court challenge to DOMA would result in its being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. If this were to happen, it would outrage opponents of gay marriage, and would make McCain's argument completely moot. This is, in my mind, the only sequence of events that could lead to the passage of an Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment.

Rather than fighting this issue in the Courts, I think the movement needs to work hard to change people's opinions on the issue. Convince the public (and the legislators) that gay marriage (or, preferably, civil unions - which are less offensive to opponents and which can be structured to provide the same protections) is not going to bring down the republic, and all of a sudden you can start to get laws passed allowing civil unions. Failure to secure the support of the majority beforehand, however, will backfire. The courts are an unpredictable and unstable means of fighting political battles - and the consequences of winning in the courts are not always forseeable.

Cheney on 2008

Cheney says Hillary could win, while Obama is too inexperienced. Here's what I think - the Republicans aren't worried about Hillary because her negatives are so high, but they see Obama as a dangerous opponent and are trying to discourage him. Frankly, I too think 2008 is too soon for Obama. However, I think he's going to run for President to position himself as the VP choice of the eventual winner. Thing is, if Obama runs, he just might win the nomination.