Tea Partiers have launched “Operation Alaska Chaos”, an effort to flood the official list of filed ‘write in’ candidates to bury Lisa Murkowski’s name in a big long list. And it seems to be working.
Usually one serious sexual harassment allegation is enough to cause real difficulties for a first time political candidate. With Tom Ganley, Republican challenger in Ohio’s 13th congressional district, we’ve now got a second one. Another woman, Dianne Hill, just filed a police report.
TPM Reader JL recounts his unusual flight into DC for the sanity rally:
My girlfriend and I cashed in our miles so we could fly in for the rally. As we boarded our flight from Minneapolis into Reagan, it was largely an older crowd, and we figured we must be the only ones on the flight headed for the rally.
OK, folks, it’s the Friday before the election, and what happens this weekend is going to be decisive in a lot of these really tight races. We’re going to be working all weekend to bring you the very latest on the elections — in addition to covering the Comedy Central rallies in DC (just the phrase “Comedy Central rallies” makes me laugh).
So check in with TPM this weekend, but also keep sending us your election tips, insights, and take on what’s happening in your neck of the woods. With your help, we’re able to surface stories that might otherwise fly under the national radar.
The Washington state activist who was allegedly assaulted while protesting against Republican Senate nominee Dino Rossi at the GOP headquarters in Walla Walla County tells her story to TPM.
Michelle Obama headed to Nevada Monday to campaign for Harry Reid, his campaign announces.
Even if the Democrats had had a strong two years, there’s little doubt that one of the most endangered freshman Democrats would have been Virginia’s Tom Perriello. He’s a fairly progressive Rep down in Southside Virginia — VA-5. It was an eyepopper when he beat Virgil Goode in 2008 in the midst of the flood tide. So you’d figure someone like that would already be roadkill in 2010. But he’s not quite there. The odds are definitely against Perriello on Tuesday. He’s been closing the gap over the month, but he’s still by at least a few points. Nate Silver gives him just over 10% shot at winning. But just to give you a sense of how Nate’s percentages work, that’s almost exactly the odds he’s giving Joe Sestak.
What’s striking though is that Perriello’s in what should be an incredibly tough district for Dems this year but he’s actually doing better than a lot of Dems who are running on friendlier territory. And the key is that he’s remained pretty steadfast in hissupport of the president’s agenda all the way through. Indeed, tonight, he has President Obama in his district for a big blow out rally to rev up Perriello’s supporters.
If Perriello somehow manages to pull it out on Tuesday or just gives rival Richard Hurt a serious single digit run for his money, it will show there was a different way for Dems to come at this very difficult year.
If you’re not going to be in DC tomorrow at the Restore Sanity And/Or Fear rally in DC, join us for live coverage. We’ll have TPM reporters and photographers on the Mall covering the days events as well as our on-going election coverage through the weekend.
Republican Tom Ganley, running for Congress in Ohio’s 13th congressional district, has had a rough month. On October 1st a woman came forward to sue Ganley for sexual harassment. Today a second woman, like the first a customer at Ganley’s auto dealership, has come forward to file a police report alleging a similar pattern of conduct.
Now Ganley is hitting back claiming that the number of women coming forward claiming he harassed and fondled them is a sign of what’s wrong with Washington and he is consulting his lawyer to see if he can sue the Democratic party for the rash of accusations.