Election 2008

Meet the Candidates: Congressional primaries in Maine, North Dakota and Virginia today

By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas

We've moved past the presidential primary season, and through the summer and early fall we'll be focusing these election-day posts on congressional races. States holding nominating contests for House and Senate seats today include Maine, North Dakota and Virginia, and there are a few interesting match-ups to note.

Virginia should play a pivotal role in the 2008 election cycle, since Democrats have been making inroads there — especially on the congressional level — for the past few years. Still, only a few of the state's congressional districts have comptetive primaries today. At the top of the ballot, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is unopposed by other Democrats in the U.S. Senate race. Virginia Republicans, meanwhile, decided to nominate their candidate via convention, and chose Warner's predeccesor Jim Gilmore two weeks ago. Most of the activity is in House races, especially in the 8th and 10th districts.

Click through for more on the congressional primaries)

Obama, McCain Battle for the Mr. Clean Campaign Image

Submitted by John Stauber on

NPR reports that "Barack Obama, exerting his new power as leader of his party, has told the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to eschew all contributions from Washington lobbyists and political action committees (PACs). ...

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Main Source: 
NPR Morning Edition, June 7, 2008
Topics: 
Iraq
Election 2008
Democracy
Ethics
Lobbying
Politics

Meet the Candidates: The Victors of Tuesday's Congressional Primaries

Seven states held congressional primaries for a total of six Senate and 70 House seats this Tuesday. We've got the results of the congressional primaries in Alabama, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, New Jersey and South Dakota, thanks to the citizen journalists posting information to the candidate profiles in Congresspedia's Wiki the Vote project.

New Mexico definitely had the most interesting race as two current Republican representatives and one Democratic representative vie for the seat of retiring Sen. Pete Domenici, but this is an especially turbulent election and nearly every seat is being contested, so they're all worth a look.

You can find full listings of all the candidates and profiles at the Wiki the Vote project homepage or through the listings below. We need your help to find out more about these candidates, so if you know something about them please add it to their profile. (You can always contact one of the staff editors for help.)

Iran Claims Fly While Media Bombs

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"As they duel over how best to deal with Tehran," Senators John McCain and Barack Obama "are exaggerating what's known about Iran's nuclear program," reports Jonathan Landay. "The U.S. intelligence community ... thinks that Iran halted an effort to build a nuclear warhead in mid-2003, and the U.N.

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Main Source: 
McClatchy Newspapers, June 2, 2008
Topics: 
Iran
Journalism
Election 2008
International
Politics

Meet the Candidates: Seventy-six congressional primaries today

By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas

As the presidential primary season draws to an expected close tonight, attention is beginning to shift toward congressional races across the country. Seven states are holding nominating contests for House and Senate seats today: Alabama, California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. Our citizen-journalists have kept Congresspedia’s Wiki-the-Vote project humming with updates to candidate profiles and portal pages for every state, but we welcome your knowledge if you’ve got information that can be added. Here’s a quick guide to getting started.

On to the races: Sen. Barack Obama is favored in both South Dakota and Montana, and Sen. Hillary Clinton's next move remains unknown. Elsewhere, six Senate seats are up for grabs, and 70 House seats as well, and while many are competitive we thought we would highlight some of the most interesting or important races. Click through for our state-by-state breakdown.

Waste Not, Want Not for Friends on the Campaign Trail

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

After top campaign aides resigned over unsavory lobbying activities, Republican presidential candidate John McCain "adopted a five-point policy ... to help restore his reputation as a Washington reformer," reports the Wall Street Journal.

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Main Source: 
Washington Post, May 31, 2008
Topics: 
Front Groups
Election 2008
Third Party Technique
Democracy
Ethics
Lobbying
War / Peace

Superdelegates to Decide the Fate of Michigan and Florida Votes

On Saturday the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet to decide the fate of Florida and Michigan's delegates to the Democratic National Convention. As DNC members, the 30 rules committee members are all superdelegates and also have a vote at the convention. Between them, 13 have endorsed Hillary Clinton, eight have endorsed Barack Obama and nine are uncommitted. They also include one DNC member from Michigan (uncommitted) and one from Florida (endorsing Hillary), who are unable to cast a vote concerning their home states. (See the full membership here.) The committee will hear challenges to its earlier ruling that Michigan and Florida's delegates would not be seated at the national convention, with their votes thus not counting towards the presidential nomination. Bringing the challenges are Florida superdelegate and DNC member Jon Ausman (undeclared for either Clinton or Obama) and a representative from Michigan's state democratic party. Other representatives from the two state parties and the presidential campaigns will also make their case to the committee. The committee will hear three specific challenges:

Featured Participatory Project: ID the Candidates Supporting the "Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq"

Submitted by Avelino Maestas on

On March 27, a coalition of Democratic House candidates and military experts unveiled the "Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq." As one of the more solid commitments to end the war, it has generated a lot of buzz lately as more than 50 candidates have endorsed it. With the Iraq War as the foremost issue this season, an endorsement of the plan is a critical piece of information about a U.S. congressional candidate, so we need your help to add it to the profiles of candidates that make up Congresspedia's Wiki-the-Vote project.

Yes
Main Source: 
Congresspedia, May 27, 2008
Topics: 
Citizen Journalism
Iraq
Election 2008

Rep. Vito Fossella Makes 30 Republicans Retiring or Resigned from the House

When Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) allegedly ran a stoplight in Virginia earlier this month, he hit the brakes on his career in the U.S. House of Representatives, which has now ended with his retirement. While he resisted calls for his resignation for a while, his drunk driving arrest and the ensuing scandal proved to be too much for his Republican colleagues, who kept up the pressure on Fossella to vacate his Staten Island seat in the hopes of fielding a candidate not under investigation.

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