Super Tuesday Open Thread

I’m working a precinct in Oakland for Obama-the young voters are pouring in at a steady pace.

While we are waiting for the national Super Tuesday news to come in here is some Texas state political news of interest!

DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Editorial

We Recommend

FOR Justice Sam Houston for Texas Supreme Court, Place 7
06:51 AM CST on Tuesday, February 5, 2008

It’s troubling that neither of the candidates in this race has experience as a judge, which is important for anyone seeking a seat on the state’s highest court.

That said, we’re comfortable recommending Houston attorney Sam Houston, whose law partnership and background in business-related legal affairs equips him for the types of cases that dominate the Supreme Court’s docket.

Meanwhile, his opponent, Dallas attorney Baltasar D. Cruz, displays a shocking penchant for verbosity. If he were to win a judicial seat, we worry that his difficulty keeping statements brief and focused would threaten to overwhelm a court already facing a significant backlog.

Where Mr. Cruz expounds at convoluted length to seemingly simple questions, Mr. Houston responds with clarity, thoughtfulness and brevity.

Mr. Houston also has an impressive list of high-profile endorsements, and his campaign war chest – $111,650 vs. Mr. Cruz’s $2,500 – shows he is prepared for a statewide race.

Our opinion of Mr. Cruz hasn’t changed from when he ran in a 2006 county election. His opponent, we felt, was unacceptable. After getting acquainted with Mr. Cruz, we decided neither deserved a recommendation.

This race boils down to judgment and judicial temperament. Mr. Houston has it, and Mr. Cruz clearly lacks it.

Young voter turnout here in AZ is expected to be huge! Already the early voting has increased by over 250%

Today I spent the day staffing the Bushwick Democratic Club for Hillary in Brooklyn, NY. We have seen high turnout numbers even though its raining. There has been especially high turnout among young voters and we have met several first time voters. I have even been able to recruit some new Young Dems members:)

I’m leaving in a few to head to the NY Hillary Party…will report from there.

So far, the media is continuing to be “on message” as far as the youth vote goes. MSNBC, CNN, and others have been reporting good turnout this cycle, noting GA in particular tonight.

CNN is crediting young people with Obama’s win in GA and (at least somewhat) with Hillary’s win in TN.

Endorsements….do they matter?

CW (conventional wisdom, something I am loathe to cite) says celebrity endorsements don’t move votes, but do political endorsements really matter any more?

The Kennedy-Kerry endorsements sure didn’t pay off tonight. Did Boston Mayor Menino’s endorsement matter more? Do the endorsements of prominent locals carry more weight (or come with more operatives on the ground) than iconic national endorsements? I am interested to see numbers for other big cities that split (Newark, NJ and Cory Booker, CA cities, etc) and do an analysis of hometown local figureheads vs. national and how their respective communities came down.

Huckabee. Back from the dead. Unfortunately, for us, I think. He’s splitting the conservative vote with Romney, handing us a very attractive general election in McCain. I certainly counted him out but he’s doing surprisingly well in most states. I wonder if, by trying to get the tlak radio folks riled up, the Limbaugh’s of the world just reminded people of the other conservative, who they like a lot more?

It took six hours to caucus because the church being used could only handle a couple hundred, and thousands showed. Same thing across Kansas (in certain areas) and hundreds gave up at each location because of the line.

Yesterday I registered for the first time with Democrats Abroad and voted in the primary here in Italy. I know this was covered on CNN. But I think one key point worth noting is the unexpectedly high number of study-abroad students who came to vote. This vote was a huge leap forward not just for long-term expatriates, but also for young voters. With all the millions of things to think about when you are going abroad for a semester, getting your absentee ballot is often at the bottom of the list. The possibility of voting abroad makes it easy. Let’s hope that we are able to vote abroad— as is the plan— in the general election of 2012!

I am from Albuquerque NM. I went to vote at about 4:30 local time. After about 15 minutes in line we found out that the polling place ran out of ballots. The line just kept growing and growing, by the time the ballots arrived the line was nearly 150 people and not one person minded the wait.

I thought I posted this on Tuesday night, but don’t see it. Here goes again…

Tuesday was massive turnout in GA. Our 18-30 year olds voted 3x the voting numbers from 2004 and moved from 11% to 17% of the overall Democratic Primary electorate. This from CIRCLE.org. Obama took about 106 of the 159 counties, still waiting on some absentee and other factors but nonetheless, was a huge day for us.

The local media around the state from radio to TV was really promoting Reminding people to vote which I think helped our numbers out a lot.

Both the Hillary and Obama campaigns in GA deserve a big applause for such a massive GOTV effort.