Emily's List Endorsements

Emily's List has a list of candidates the organization has endorsed.

Emily's List Florida Candidates

Christine Jennings
Suzanne Kosmas
Annette Taddeo

Emily's List has a fact sheet page on John McCain. This video showing McCain mocking "the health of the mother" should give women pause.

Again…just again, an example of the eloquence of Senator Obama, health (indicates air quotes) of the mother. You know that’s been stretched by the pro-abortion movement to mean almost anything.

Enough with the air quotes!

Netroots Needs to Stop Backing Fringe Democrats

In 2006, I received shit for stating that Jan Schneider can not win District 13. I supported Christine Jennings. That choice proved to be correct. Schneider was supported by MyDD. (Which is dedicated to electing Democrats.) Guess what netroots? You got screwed.

Jan Schneider, the district's Democratic nominee in 2002 and 2004, has rejected her party's pleas to stay out of the race and is instead running as an independent.

One poll shows Schneider winning 9 percent of the vote, siphoning support mostly from Democrat Christine Jennings.

David Wasserman, a nonpartisan analyst with The Cook Political Report, cites Schneider's candidacy as the reason he predicts Buchanan will likely win re-election.

Schneider told the Herald Tribune winning isn't her goal. Schneider refused to endorse Jennings in 2006. There is only one reason to run if it is not to win.

"She's the Ralph Nader of District 13," said Michael Shelton, who managed Schneider's first race in 2002 and is now a deputy treasurer for Jennings. "She's out to seek revenge upon the Democratic Party."

This is petty and a huge ego trip. Schneider proves she doesn't have the temperment or judgement to serve in Congress. I want to serious candidates. Not people acting out self-esteem issues.

The netroots endorses these fringe Democrats that later bite the progressive movement in the ass. I backed Christine Jennings because she could raise money and get DCCC support. Netroot activists should judge a Democrats fitness. If they don't this will continue to happen.

Congress Report on District 13 Race

File this under you got to be kidding me department.

A bipartisan task force said Friday that it had found no evidence of voting machine malfunctions in a disputed 2006 Florida congressional election.

The panel agreed that U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, who has less than a year remaining in his term, can stay in Congress. He had been seated by the Democratic-controlled House while it probed the election.

The task force was formed after Buchanan's Democratic opponent, Christine Jennings, challenged the validity of the results because more than 18,000 ballots did not indicate a selected candidate in the 13th Congressional District race.

The panel concluded that the undervotes were caused either by voters who intentionally did not vote for a congressional candidate or were

MIT Professor Charles Stewart's study found the odds were 5 million to one that 18,000 did not register a vote in the Congressional race.

Somewhere Brad Friedman's head is exploding right now.

Christine Jennings On FP Radio

Kenneth Quinnell and Alison interview Christine Jennings.

Florida Congressional Seats In Play

One Democratic and three Republican seats are in play. Tim Mahoney's seat is being targeted by Republicans. The Cook Report labels Mahoney's district as leaning Democrat.

Republicans Ric Keller, Vern Buchanan and Tom Feeney seats are in play. Feeney and Buchanan are facing difficult re-election campaigns. Feeney is being investigated by the FBI and has ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He has formed a defense trust for potential legal bills stemming form the FBI investigation. Several high-profile government officials have been convicted from their involvement with Abramoff. Former Congressman Bob Ney being the most notable.

Buchanan won a controversal election against Christine Jennings. His seat is targeted by Democrats and Jennings has announced she will run against Buchanan in 2008. She has large grassroots support from election reform and netroots activists. The voting machine problems from the previos race played a role in Florida switching back to paper ballots. The Buchanan/Jennings race will be one of the most-watched races in 2008.

Democrat Suzanne Kosmas has allowed her name to be used in a poll to see her viablity as a possible Feeney opponent.

People can help Tim Mahoney by giving a campaign contribution.

Christine Jennings Interview

Interview with Christine Jennings on Flashpoint. She discusses her political differences Vern Buchanan and her challenges against the vote count.

Christine Jennings Video

Here is the whole video of Christine Jennings announcing that she will run for Congress in 2008.

Vern Buchanan Is In the Money

Republicans are pushing hard to make sure Vern Buchanan keeps his seat. Buchanan raised $365,000 from April to June of 2007. The organized push by the GOP has been staggering.

More than 70 other PACs, including those for the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Florida's sugar and citrus industries, have given Buchanan more than $162,000.

Also bolstering Buchanan's fundraising total: A $106,000 refund from his 2006 political media consultant and almost $78,100 in travel reimbursements for campaign stops by President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

There are two hysterical quotes from the article. The first is by Buchanan's campaign chairman Tim Clarke.

"Vern's agenda of lower taxes, less spending and more personal freedom is resonating with the people."

Actually, Christine Jennings is going to run against Buchanan in 2008. He barely beat her in a still contested election. Republicans do not want to lose more seats in the House.

The second is by the worst quote machine in Florida politics. Yes, I'm talking about about University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus.

"District 13 remains a very important district nationally, a symbol to both parties," MacManus said. "There's not an analyst out there who doesn't expect another slugfest."

Wow. That is some indepth analysis. This is what makes her a media quote machine.

Task Force to Meet on District 13

There is movement by Congress to investigate the District 13 election mess.

Just got a message from the spokesman for Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas, announcing the next meeting of the 13th Congressional Task Force in Washington is set for next week.

That comes just a day after they said they would wait to respect Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., who died Sunday after a bout with cancer. She was the chairwoman of the House Administration committee, which created the task force Gonzalez is leading. Millender-McDonald's funeral is set for Monday.

This isn't going to change the outcome. Vern Buchanan will keep the seat. Christine Jennings will have a good shot if she runs against him. (Which I'm sure she will) What the investigation needs to do is find the numerous mistakes that were made and document them in a detailed report.

Sarasota County was a perfect storm of fuck-ups. There was Kathy Dent's incompetence, bad ballot design and Election Systems & Software voting machine problems. Absolutely everything went wrong. To say the huge undervote was just people turned off by nasty politics is utter nonsense and should be treated as such.

House Administration Committee To Form Task Force On District 13

I hope this story is true.

The Buzz has learned that the U.S. House Administration Committee has formed a three-person task force to look into the disputed Sarasota congressional race.

An official announcement has not been made yet, but it seems that last week's news about a possible problem with the touchscreen machines may have led Committee Chairman Juanita Millender-McDonald to act.

The task force is made up of two Democrats, Reps. Charles Gonzalez of Texas and Zoe Lofgren of California, and one Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California. Gonzalez will serve as chairman.

Contested elections are part of Committee on House Administration's oversight responsibilities. Christine Jennings is contesting the results and has accused election officials of a cover up. Jennings' people point to a letter Kathy Dent received about problems with Election Systems & Software sent about voting machine problems. Jennings did not receive this letter and other documents.

ES&S Knew About District 13 Voting Machine Problems

Election Systems & Software sent this letter to Sarasota County election officials on August 15, 2006.

"It has come to our attention after a number of inquiries...that some of your screens are exhibiting slow response times...We have determined that the delayed response time is a result of a smoothing filter that was added...In some cases, the time lapse on these consistent reads is beyond the normal time a voter would expect."

Kathy Dent said it was too close to the election to update the equipment. She contends that the problems cited by ES&S had no affect on the undervote. That is debatable.

During early voting, 4 voters complained that their votes weren't recorded. Dent sent out an email calling the situation "critical." Voter Kenneth Sanderson had to twice attempt to vote for Christine Jennings.

"I'm an ex-poll worker, so I understand all the problems that can happen," he said. "I don't hold much confidence in machines."

It appears ES&S and Dent knew about the problems and fail to go public with the information. For geekheads: this appears to be the problem from the letter.

We have determined that the delayed response time is the result of a smoothing filter that was added to iVotronic firmware versions 8.x and higher. The smoothing filter waits for a series of consistent touchscreen reads before a candidate is highlighted on the ballot. In some cases the time lapse on these consistent reads is beyond the normal time a voter would expect to have their selection highlighted. The delayed response to touch may vary from terminal to terminal and also may not occur every single time a terminal is used.

All this time we heard Dent and ES&S swear up and down about the machines. Now we find out about this. Utterly fucking disgraceful.