New York Republicans missed a whopper of an opportunity as well. Senator Chuck Schumer (D) just happened to be up for reelection this year when a special election to decide Hillary Clintons vacated senate seat was also up ALSO in the same year their Governor is up for reelection. If the party just planned strategically, fielded a trio of dynamite candidates and poured money and resources into the state, they could have turned dark blue New York into a 2 Republican Senator and Republican Governor red state. Instead they handed the Democrats all 3 seats with little pink bows on them…

For reasons unknown: No one with any name recognition or history stepped up to the plate to challenge Schumer, Rick Lazio – a state senator who challenged Hillary for Senate in 2000 and could have now won that same seat if he chose to run against temporary Senator Kristin Gillibrand – instead decided to run for Governor and lost to Carl Paladino who has so many missteps and baggage that he is poised to lose to Democrat Andrew Cuomo by 20 points or more. Why didn’t former Republican Governor George Pataki – who used to get a lot of “he might run for president” buzz, after all – step up to the plate to give Schumer a run for his money? Why didn’t Rick Lazio challenge Kristin Gillibrand for that senate seat he could have totally won instead of going up against Paladino in the primary? And most perplexingly – Why the hell didn’t Rudy Guiliani run for either Governor or Senator?? That one is the biggest WTF of the race. He is still “leaving the door open” to running for president again, and yet not doing anything to make that a possibility. Dude – objective minds agree that you did a net-awesome job as mayor and handled 9/11 like a pro, but come-the-fkk-on… It’s not grounds to be commander and chief of the country. BOAT, MISSED.

Then the Business-woman Trio:

Technically all three races are within grasp but Jerry Brown losing to Meg Whitman for Governor in California is the only one where an upset is really possible, though his consistent lead in the polls suggest that Whitman, the former CEO of eBay is going to lose – which really sucks for her since she broke records by spending over 150 Million of her own dollars on her campaign – which I think is awesome. People are bashing her for it because she’s a billionaire and people like to rag on the richies even when it doesn’t make any sense to.  Cuz isn’t the biggest knock against politicians that they are corrupt and only want power? Okayyy… so here we have someone who is not asking for money from any of her supporters or special interest groups and will thus not owe any favors when in power and will then use that power to…give herself less power. The fkk, California? I don’t even understand any possible knock against Meg Whitman. “Oh no! Please save us from an intelligent self funded feminist-ideal pro-choice businesswoman!”. All the attack ads against her are personal attacks on how she’s a bitch or she was a mean boss at eBay or a mean boss to her illegal immigrant housekeeper because she fired her (aka “followed the law”) after it was revealed that she lied to the agency she was hired through and to the Whitman family themselves about her status as an illegal. Good going California – lets not put someone in charge of our billion dollar deficit economy who joined a company that was making $4 Million a year and left it 10 years later making $8 BILLION a god damn year – ya, that would totally suck to have that happen to us. Good thinking…
It’s patently insane that Meg Whitman is going to lose this race, but… that’s California for you…

West Coast Republicans have, for the first time in at least 2 decades, fielded some really impressive candidates all around. And none of them will probably win. Where as the east coast GOP screwed the pooch nominating O’Donnel in Delaware and, everyone, in New York – out West they produced the prementioned Whitman in California, another sharp businesswoman and former CEO (this one of HP) Carly Fiorina for senate and Dino Rossi for senate in Washington who is running against the hapless Patty Murry. Rossi won the Governor’s race 2 elections ago, but a recount stole the vicotry from him so he came back for a remach in the last Governors race and then lost for real. ug. Kind of the inverse of Bush, really: in how Dubya “lost” but got into office anyway and then won reelection. Rossi is in a dead heat with Murry, where he is sometimes one point ahead or 2 points behind and that to me says he is just barely gonna lose his 3rd statewide race. Bummer.

Barbara Boxer (D) is the incumbent senator running for reelection against Carly Fiorina in California and while not quite as stupid as Meg Whitman losing, this one is pretty stupid also. Boxer has been in this senate seat for over 20 years and hasn’t done shit with it. Her hometown newspaper refused to endorse her over precisely that fact. Furthermore, she’s kind of a bitch. And by kind of, I mean, total. She’s catty and snippy and just unpleasant. Normally that shouldn’t matter in a senator whose only real role is to vote on stuff, but not in this case.

Boxer’s “call me senator instead of ma’am” embarrassment and subsequent defiance in refusing to apologize alone is enough to make her deserve to lose her job. She won’t because it’s California and no one cares. Which is a real shame since Fiorina is exactly the type of moderate-Republican that a state like California should be open to.

One Republican candidate from the east coast who is as quality as her west-coast counterparts (and is going to lose by similar or greater margins) is Linda McMahon running for senate in Connecticut. She too is a self made millionaire who came from nothing and is self-funding her campaign and yet stands to lose by double digits to a guy who doesn’t know how a job is even created (“well…in a variety of ways.. and… with a variety of people… because… uh.. I like jobs. Jobs are awesome. I fought for jobs. And.. um. Jobs. I’m gonna make them. As senator”) and who lied about serving in Vietnam. Dude…

Linda’s impending loss is the east coast Meg Whitman shame: here you have a pro-choice businesswoman who is not asking for your money – in fact wants to lower the amount of money the government takes away from you, will only server 2 terms in office and will not even take a salary or any special Government benefits and yet will STILL lose just because she has an R next to her name and states like CT and CA are “Democrat or no body” states. SO much so to where they are offered a deal of a lifetime – a woman who will work for free to help the state and the country – and they still say no way. Nice…