Hype for Bodnar in Montana

 

I don't have a lot of connection to Montana, so I haven't been following the US Senate race out there ... until today. There's an Independent in the race, Seth Bodnar, who's coming on strong and pulling even with the Republican candidate in at least one poll. There's also a Democrat on the ballot, polling at about 17% (more on her below). Here's a Bodnar campaign video that I especially liked:

 

 

Seth Bodnar is a Green Beret, former GE Transportation executive ("chief digital officer"), president of the University of Montana for the last eight years -- and a very sudden political rising star. I've examined his issues page -- surprisingly extensive and often specific on details -- and he rarely deviates from what I'd call progressive political ideology. He's not a liberal on guns, but consider the state he's seeking to represent: "He opposes a federal assault weapons ban, a new universal background check mandate, and a federal red-flag law," according to his website. He's pro-choice and a pretty fierce defender of Montana's public lands, vowing to oppose any sale or transfer of any acerage. He also -- along with the Republican in the race -- takes a hardline about new data centers.

That Republican in the race, Kurt Alme, is a Harvard-trained attorney and longtime veteran of government work, directing Montana's Department of Revenue, serving as Montana's U.S. attorney under DJT, and working as budget director under Gov. Greg Gianforte. The seat is open because its current inhabitant, Sen. Steve Daines, announced he wouldn't be running for another term literally at the last minute of the open filing period, and Kurt Alme walked in, like, a minute later and filed for the seat. Clearly, they had hatched a plan for the hand-off. Alme has the blessing of the GOP establishment in Montana, and the resentment of some rival camps in the party who were blindsided by Daines's sudden retirement.

The Democratic candidate, Alani Bankhead, served 21 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. Her assignments included counterintelligence and human-intelligence operations, work in Iraq, and protective security for senior Pentagon officials. After military service, she became a life coach. Running in the Democratic primary against four others last June, Bankhead surprised the field, getting 46% of the vote. The political action committee Progressive Vet spent millions promoting her candidacy. They stopped supporting her after the primary, perhaps flummoxed by not one but now two distinguished veterans running for the same office. And the DCCC also announced it wouldn't be sending any support, and prominent Democrats, like Sen. John Tester, began endorsing Bodnar as the more viable candidate, and it seems likely that Sen. Chuck Schumer was part of the pressure campaign on Bankhead. In an October 9 Washington Post op-ed, Bankhead squealed on a sitting but unnamed Democratic senator who had allegedly offered her a job, which she presumed was conditional on leaving the race. Then about a week later, in an interview for Montana's PBS, Bankhead said she had been offered a made-up position at the DNC -- again, a particular job that would require her giving up her Senate campaign. The DNC denied any such offer. And Bankhead has steadfastly refused to end her campaign, while polling puts her consistently under 20% support.

I have my doubts that Bodnar can win with Bankhead splitting the Democratic vote. 

Friday in Salisbury

 

Students at Livingstone College in Salisbury, an historically Black college founded way back in 1879, chose yesterday, Friday, for their show of strength and civic duty. Photo lifted from the Rowan County Democratic Party Facebook feed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second NC A&T March to Early Voting

 

NC A&T students -- denied an early voting site on campus which they had in 2024 -- staged a second march to the polls yesterday in Greensboro, and we hear it may have been even bigger than the first one.

Photo Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lynn Bonner reported that the students organized the 40-minute walk from campus to an early voting site, "partly to do their civic duty and partly as a show of strength." Here's video shot by Bonner.

 

The Clown Show and the Resistance

I want to meet the Republican political strategist who got all the important people in Washington together a few weeks ago and said okay everybody we're just going to send him out there to hallucinate in public, tell racist jokes, and talk about how hot he thinks certain guys are.

--Seth Abramson 

 

 

The greatest recent moment of self-owning came yesterday in the White House. With JD Vance sitting beside him, the president, found guilty 34 times of falsifying business records, announced that he was launching something called the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program. Mermaidmama had fun with that: 

 

 

Notable statistic from first days of early voting: Turnout among unaffiliated voters has risen even faster than their share of the electorate. In raw numbers, their votes increased 88%, from 133,683 in the first five days of 2022 early voting to 251,891 this year, according to the Center for NC Politics substack run by Catawba College political science professor Michael Bitzer. 

(That's wave material right there. That's what that is.)

 

Turnout for Early Voting in Watauga Remains Strong on Day 3

 

Some 1,229 votes were added yesterday, Monday, Oct. 19, to the Watauga County early vote total. Though a little below the turnout on opening day last Thursday, those high numbers have been holding steady since last Friday. 

Below -- Turnout in Watauga County by party on Monday, October 19 (from the John Locke Foundation vote tracker). Also valuable and brand new, the Carolina Forward Turnout Tracker, more inventive and insightful than John Locke.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Youth Are Voting in NC; So Are the Medicare Crowd

 

This is the John Locke Foundation's Vote Tracker chart for turnout by age during the first two days of early voting in Watauga County. I note the spike in the youth vote, the steady high numbers among the elderly -- with between them, the big depression of the 30- and 40-somethings:

 

1st Day of Early Voting

 

Huge turnout on the first day of early voting Thursday! More than 201,000 voters cast ballots statewide, up 47% from the same day in 2022. 

In Watauga, Democrats and Unaffiliateds tied on first-day turnout, 42% apiece. Republicans showed up as 15%, down almost 13 points over first-day EV 2022. Dead man walking.

This was the scene in Greensboro Thursday, as students from North Carolina A&T marched from campus to vote downtown. They marched an hour. Because the local elections board decided to remove their polling place from campus. 

It Seems to be Going Well

 

First day of early voting, Chatham County.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tanks for the Memories

 

This is brilliant satire, because Mermaidmamamaggie is using all the actual words spoken by DJT's new Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia. Plus Zacharia has also been outed for claiming (falsely) that she was an attorney.