Who Was That Mosqued Man?
This is where I live. Yes! Our bigotry has gone national. Glad to see my congressional candidate of choice appear as our resident "bad ass." But he also just lost the Dem primary by a couple hundred votes, leaving us with a bit of a dud who, luckily for him if not for us, had access to a much deeper pocket than Ben Leming had. But not Republican deep. So the GOP, already holding the edge to take the open seat, now has a pretty easy road to replace Bart Gordon. Both primaries were bizarre three way races where win, place, and show were separated by mere hundreds of votes and fractions of a percent. Diane Black, the GOP nominee, is pretty crazy, but she's not the worst they had. Which is saying something.
posted by tenaciousmcd @ 12:17 AM
2 Comments:
The GOP primary for the 6th was, in my opinion, one of the most interesting election outcomes across the state. Maybe it's because I used to live there, and it's one of the few races I actually paid close attention to, but it was interesting none the less.
Personally, all my money was on Jim Tracy taking it all the way. Or that's who I expected to win the primary, at the very least. I know of Senator Black. I've seen her "on the job", and when I saw that she had also entered the race, I knew it would come down to a battle between them, and only them. Right? No other candidates would really stand a chance in a fight between these 2. Right?
How. Little. I. Knew.
When Lou Ann entered the race, I laughed. This is a person who lost the GOP primary, 2 years ago, for a state representative seat. And lost it badly, I believe. And yes, I know she became the head of the RuCo GOP afterwards, but I didn't think that would really carry her very far in a large, multi-county, district like the 6th. As I said, how little I knew.
I saw the election results and I gasped. How in the hell did a heaping cup of batshit-crazy, like Lou Ann Zelenik, actually come within 600 votes of winning the GOP primary? Seriously, there are few people as delusional as her. She's insane. She should have never been a real contender in this race. She shouldn't have had a chance. But as it turns out, she turned it into a 3-way race, with a RAZOR THIN margin between the 3 candidates, and actually BEAT Jim Tracy. (?!)
Candidates like Zelenik never stand a chance at all without a certain type of political environment. One consumed & fueled by anger, fear, hatred, etc. - one of extremism. It's scary to think the 6th district GOP has become (or has always been) THAT crazy.
Anyway, like I said, I thought it was one of the more interesting primaries, from across the state. I don't know if the results surprised you, but they surprised (scared) the shit out of me.
The worst part is, now that Zelenik DID come so close, she'll likely be back. She's going to run for office until she wins. Coming so close to winning the GOP nomination to a congressional seat is only going to be like fuel to the fire for her.
I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm glad Diane Black won that race. Lou Ann would have been more beatable, but I'm not sure Brett Carter is up to it. As bad a congresswoman as Black will be, she's unlikely to be the kind of daily highlight reel crazy that Zelenik would have been. But that's how this district is going. Jim Tracy lost because Lou Ann split his geographic base (the Boro), taking all the crazies. And that's a big chunk of the GOP vote--everywhere.
If you get the chance, pick up a copy of the local Rutherford Reader, available for free outside many fine Boro establishments. Some of the most vile, bigoted swill you will ever read.
So Will, are you still in N'ville? Shoot me an email.
Post a Comment
<< Home