Elections 2010 (The Takeaway)

Channel Description:

Latest Articles in this Channel:

08/23/10--05:21: Inside Arizona's Primaries: Gov. Jan Brewer, John McCain Up for Re-Election (chan 1191450)

Voters will be heading to the polls to cast their votes in Arizona's primaries tomorrow. We'll finally get a look at how voters feel about Gov. Jan Brewer as she seeks re-election. The governor has been closely watched since she signed the controversial immigration bill, SB-1070 into law. After she signed the immigration bill, her poll numbers sky-rocketed, according to Mark Brodie, reporter and host at KJZZ in Arizona. And he does not see this primary being a problem for her. He also does not predict any problems for Sen. John McCain, who will likely face his toughest challenge on the road to re-election.

But the most interesting race lies in the Congressional 3rd District, where Ben Quayle, son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, and nine other candidates are seeking the Republican nomination, in what has turned into a very nasty and cut-throat race.




09/06/10--05:07: A Country Divided: Midterm Elections Preview (chan 1191450)

Across the country, there are only nine political primaries left this season, and the race for November’s midterm elections is coming into full swing. 

Two members of our political team discuss the upcoming races and what to expect from our coverage. The Takeaway Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, describes the national chessboard between the Dems, GOP and Tea Party-backed candidates; and correspondent Farai Chideya joins us to describe her new WNYC project: "Race, Rage and Reconciliation," a three part special on the midterm elections.




09/13/10--04:07: Tea and Taxes in Delaware's Senate Primary (chan 1191450)

As one of the last states to hold primary elections, Delaware has been the focus of a lot of national political attention. In a recent interview with Fox's Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin flexed her political clout and officially endorsed Tea Party Express-backed candidate Christine O’Donnell.  But what does a Palin endorsement mean for GOP Rep. Mike Castle, the veteran Congressman and former Delaware governor, as he bids for the same senate nomination? 

We speak to Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich, who visited Delaware over the weekend, and spoke with some of the people and candidates involved in tomorrow’s primary.




09/13/10--05:07: Taking the Political Temperature of the Sunshine State (chan 1191450)

Our political coverage of the midterms turns to Florida. The Sunshine State has been in the international limelight for weeks, following Pastor Terry Jones’ threats to publicly burn Korans. With the bonfire cancelled and the 9/11 anniversary past, we talk this morning about a state full of voters whose opinions range the gamut on the Koran burning issue and the three-way race for U.S. Senate that’s been heating up for months. 

Farai Chideya, host of WNYC’s three-part series “Pop and Politics," visited Florida over the weekend.




09/15/10--04:06: Insurgency Wins Over Incumbency in Delaware, New Hampshire (chan 1191450)

Republican primary voters in Delaware faced a much-hyped choice at the polls yesterday, and ultimately voted for Tea Party-endorsed Christine O'Donnell over moderate long-term Delaware Rep. Mike Castle. The state Republican party campaigned hard against O’Donnell, saying she is likely to lose against a Democrat in the general election. The outcome could have big consequences for which party will occupy Vice President Biden’s place in the Senate.

In New Hampshire, things were no less complicated for voters in that state’s Republican primary, which was also held yesterday. For them, the decision was between state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, who is backed by the GOP establishment, and Tea Party-endorsed candidate, Ovide Lamontagne, whose platform includes support for an Arizona-style immigration law. Ayotte, if she wins, is expected to have little difficultly beating out the Democratic candidate, Representative Paul Hodes, for the Senate seat. However, it is uncertain whether New Hampshire residents would be willing to elect a Tea Party-backed candidate over a Democrat.

Takeaway Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, rounds up the results of the last major primaries before the November election.




09/15/10--04:06: Uncertainty for the GOP After Tea Party Candidates Win Big In Primaries (chan 1191450)

Last night's primary elections set the stage for the nation's general elections with seven states and the District of Columbia heading to the polls. Once again, the viability of the Tea Party was the central question in several races on the Eastern seaboard.. While several Republican insurgent candidates won big last night, their victories over establishment candidates muddle the G.O.P.'s chances of retaking the Senate in November.

Last night's biggest Tea Party upset came from Delaware, where long-shot Sarah Palin-endorsed candidate Christine O'Donnell beat long-time incumbent candidate Mike Castle for the Republican Senate nomination; but, that wasn't the only surprising result in last night's tally. In the New York Republican gubernatorial race, Carl Palidino, a pugnacious billionaire and party outsider, beat establishment candidate Rick Lazio. The results are still too close to call in a Senate primary in New Hampshire where fiscal and social conservative Ovide Lamontagne is expected to win.

It wasn't all good news for the Tea Party candidates. In Maryland, former Governor Robert Ehrlich will have a chance to get his old job back after beating Sarah Palin favorite Brian Murphy.

For analysis and insight into the results, and a look ahead to the general election strategy of both party's candidates, we speak with Takeaway Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich.




09/16/10--05:33: Party, Politicians Sliding Along Political Spectrum (chan 1191450)

It has been a successful primary season thus far for The Tea Party, especially with a surprising victory for Christine O'Donnell over former two-term governor and nine-term Congressman, Mike Castle, to win the Republican nomination for the Senate race in Delaware, Tuesday night.

What do these Tea Party wins mean for the Republican Party, and is the GOP shifting on the political spectrum?

Kate Zernike is a reporter for The New York Times, and the author of Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America.

We also want to know from you: Are you moving along the political spectrum this election season? Are you finding yourself moving further left or further right this year? Let us know in the comments or text it to 69866 with the word TAKE.

Responses by text message:

Don't know, but I do love the way the T.P.'s win by purporting NOT to be Republicans, but then as soon as they win, the $ can't come quick enough from Repubs
—Pontiac, MI


I'm an independent, and all this anger-driven rhetoric and negativity has only pushed me further left. Pablo/florida
—Hollywood, FL

Nope. The Tea Party is not "moving" the GOP. Rather it's fracturing it. Blame Gingrich and the Contract With America that urged people that govt = "evil"
—Pontiac, MI


I think the tea party represents a group of far weather republicans. I don't hear anything different from them vs far right republicans.
—Jonathan, Columbia, SC

No strict Dem ticket 4 me.
—Allan, Woonsocket, RI

To the left, to the left
—Miguel, Hialeah, FL






09/17/10--05:33: House Minority Whip Eric Cantor on Mid-Term Election Strategy (chan 1191450)

Every state save for Hawai'i has been to the primary polls, and the ballots for November are nearly set. In a few states we saw surprising results: results that might lead to changed strategies in the general election.

Fox News contributor and former GOP strategist Karl Rove declared on-air that Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell's primary win in Delaware spells nearly certain doom for at least one Senate seat the GOP was hoping to take in November.  

Does this gloomy forecast hold true for other states that saw Tea Party backed candidates unseat the traditional party players?  For the Republican reaction to Tuesday’s primary returns, we speak with House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Republican Representative from Virginia.




09/20/10--04:20: Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski To Run As Write-In Candidate (chan 1191450)

Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska, may have lost the bid for nomination in the Republican primary, but that fact hasn't seemed to dampen her plans to continue her campaign for November's general election. 

Murkowski announced on Friday that she plans to run as a write-in candidate against Tea Party-backed Joe Miller, who won the Republican nomination. Ever since her announcement, however, Murkowski has received a great deal of backlash from Republican officials.

Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich joins us to discuss whether this negative reaction by Republicans is warranted, and how Murkowski's decision may affect Alaska's senate elections in November.




09/20/10--05:06: Pennsylvania Voters Talk Midterm Elections (chan 1191450)

President Obama is in Pennsylvania today, campaigning for Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak.  

Two years ago, our own Andrea Bernstein, director of WNYC’s Transportation Nation project, visited Pennsylvania in a series we called “Counties that Count.”  The series looked at the issues motivating voters in counties that could hold powerful sway in highly contested states, back in the 2008 presidential election.  

Bernstein who returned to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a city and state very much in play this midterm election, to understand what’s driving voters this time around.




09/23/10--08:49: Republicans' New Policy Agenda Revealed Today (chan 1191450)

House Republicans unveil the blueprint of their new policy agenda, to be used in the next Congress if they win back a majority in November's elections. It's the first time the GOP has released a political agenda of this nature since 1994's "Contract With America."

The new plan consists of a 21-page document entitled “Pledge to America.”  (The text can be found on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.) Some of the key issues addressed are, not surprisingly, taxes, defense and a plan to “repeal and replace the government takeover of health care with common-sense solutions…”  

Soren Dayton, a Republican consultant and activist, worked for John McCain's presidential campaign. He joins us to help unpack this much-anticipated Republican agenda.  Dayton is also the co-founder of the blog, thenextright.com.  




09/24/10--13:15: An Interview with Rep. Betsy Markey (chan 1191450)

Celeste Headlee is in Colorado today, a state where Democrats are struggling to keep their majority in Congress. Among the contested seats is the one belonging to Representative Besty Markey, of Colorado's fourth Congressional district. She's facing an uphill battle against her Republican challenger Cory Gardner, who is trouncing her in the latest polls. 

Representative Markey joins the program to talk about her reelection campaign. Takeaway correspondent Andrea Bernstein also gives us a feel of the political landscape in Colorado right now.




09/24/10--13:57: On the Ground in Colorado (chan 1191450)

Here, where the prairie begins, Democratic hopes are wilting.  This is the land of big trucks, cattle farms, natural gas drills – and a few universities. It’s also where an increasingly educated population is settling, coming for the tech industry and access to the Rocky Mountains. This was supposed to change the entire political landscape. Back in 2008, an excellent New Yorker article described what it called Colorado’s “political transformation,” – from red-state Republican to libertarian Democrat. The state had voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004, and Bob Dole in 1996.

But in 2008 then-Senator Barack Obama gave his speech accepting the Democratic nomination from the mile-high stadium, the late-summer sun glowing late into the evening over the Rockies. With the help of all those young, professional independents, Democrats from Denver, and an energized Latino population, he won the state 51 to 47. In the fourth CD, Betsy Markey, an appealing businesswoman, trounced her Republican opponent by a 12-point margin, 56 to 44.

“I don’t need to spend $2000 to support every illegal f*****g Mexican in this country. Nor do I need to keep busting my ass for this government. You know, my son can’t ride the bus to school anymore.  He’s got to walk two miles to school, explain that to me!  You know, why does education have to go, but yet we can support illegals, we can piss money away on stuff doesn’t’ matter, a health care plan that will never work

Health care was a big reason for the rage, and understandably so. No one has seen a benefit, but they’ve seen their premiums go up, and been told by their insurance companies it’s because of the reform bill.  They’ve heard that insurance companies will no longer be offering stand-alone insurance to children. “Insurance companies are already dropping them so they don’t have to be included,” unemployed trucker Richard Koester told me in the parking lot a Safeway in Greeley. "I think this whole game they are playing is wrong for the country.” 

Change nothing, voters kept telling me. Don’t mess with what we have. In 2008, this would have been unfathomable, where Republicans and Democrats alike were so desperate to change health care that any reform would do. Just change it.

But now -- over and over I heard it. We’re screwed.

I’m not sure there are any circumstances under which Tom or Koester would have voted for Markey, now, or in 2008. But their passion was a whole lot stronger than Ashley Brewer’s, who said of the health care bill: we need to give it time.  And of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. “Well.  It was a good try.”

Republicans do have their own problems. Tea Party-backed candidates won both the nominations for U.S. Senate and Governor, and that’s not to the liking of some independents, like Paul, who works in broadcasting.  “I’m an independent who leans Republican, but not tea-party Republican,” he told me outside the Red Rooster.  “I’m a registered Republican and I think the Republicans have done a terrible job of picking candidates this year,” echoed retired geologist John Conner, over beer and pizza in downtown Golden a western Denver suburb in the Rocky foothills. In the Governor’s race, it seems the Republicans have eaten their young, with Tea Party-backed Don Maes (who warned that Denver’s bike-share program would lead to a U.N. takeover. “This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms,” he said) not conservative enough for former presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, who is also running. 

In Jefferson County, a swing county just west of Denver that has attracted a lot of highly-educated, professional Republicans and Independents, it’s the Democrat, John Hickenlooper, who’s in the lead. A former brewer who has marketed Denver as a world-class city, Hickenlooper in 2004 passed a sales tax to support a 150-mile transit expansion, now underway. Even in today’s anti-tax environment, Republicans like Randal Hudspeth told me they thought that tax was a fair way to pay for infrastructure. Unlike President Obama’s proposed $50 billion transportation plan, which almost everyone said is unaffordable just now.  

That’s the position of Senator Michael Bennet, the Democrat who won the primary with lots of Obama support and promptly repudiated his labor day infrastructure plan.   Bennet was appointed to the job after Ken Salazar became Interior Secretary, and his support is lukewarm. The Republican Ken Buck is relatively mainstream for a Tea Party candidate, having served as Weld County DA (where he was part of a large, national crackdown on immigrants working at meat packing plants). But Buck is hobbled among independents by supporting the “personhood” ballot measure, which would define life as beginning when an egg is fertilized. And the Democrats are using that support to define Buck as “extreme” in every way.       

That seems to be sinking in. “There are things I’ve heard in regards to abortion and women’s rights that I don’t like,” Republican Alissa Cahill told me in Greeley.  “But I’m not sold on the Democrats, either.” Over and over I heard this, among men and women alike. Still, Buck is leading in the polls, and Bennet’s votes for healthcare reform and the economic stimulus aren’t winning him huge applause, either.




09/29/10--08:41: Reid-Angle Faceoff Intensifies in Nevada (chan 1191450)

Our partners at the BBC traveled to Searchlight, Nevada to speak with voters about the upcoming election for the U.S. Senate. Incumbent Senator Harry Reid is facing off against Tea Party-backed Sharon Angle. As in some other races across the country, Democrats are facing an uphill battle, trying to distance their candidate from Washington and the Obama agenda.




09/29/10--08:48: California Political Rivals Face Off in Debates (chan 1191450)

The California governor's race kicked off last night in the first of three debates. Billionaire political novice Meg Whitman, a Republican, faced off against her Democratic rival, former governor and current Attorney General Jerry Brown. 

Bruce Cain, professor of political science at U.C. Berkeley, joins us for some post debate analysis. He'll also preview tonight's debate in California's other closely watched race, the Senate contest between incumbent Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina.




09/30/10--08:40: Both Political Parties Eye California Races (chan 1191450)

The conventional wisdom is that Christine O’Donnell’s primary win for Senate in Delaware took another state out of play for the GOP, who hope to win back control of the Senate in November.  

That puts a lot of weight on the remaining states in play for both parties.  Until recently, polls showed the California Senate race between Democratic incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer and her Republican challenger, ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina, a toss-up. Now that Boxer is pulling ahead – in some polls by as much as 8 points – the race is gaining national attention from Democrats, Republicans and the Tea Party backed PAC, FreedomWorks.  

Yesterday, both candidates participated in a debate that aired on KPCC, Southern California Public Radio. We speak with one of the co-moderators of yesterday’s debate, Patt Morrison, about the debate, the race, and the national attention being paid on California politics. Patt is a longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of “Patt Morrison” on KPCC 89.3, Southern California Public Radio.




10/05/10--08:39: On the Internet, All Politics Are National (chan 1191450)

With November's mid-term elections only weeks away, many candidates have begun rounds of debates in a final effort to win over voters. In California's gubernatorial race, Republican Meg Whitman lost some points in polls when her opponent, Democrat Jerry Brown, accused Whitman of employing an illegal immigrant. Hours before last night's debate between Republican Linda McMahon and Democrat Richard Blumenthal in Connecticut, McMahon released an attack ad telling voters Blumenthal lied about his war service.

We talk with Michael Shear, chief political reporter for The Caucus Blog at The New York Times about the importance of the debates and their potential impact on undecided voters.




10/06/10--08:40: Political Ads of the 2010 Midterms: More Expensive, Negative (chan 1191450)

Politicians and their advocates will spend upwards of $4 billion on ads in this mid-term election cycle, according to Thom Mazloom, founder of the M Network, a communications and branding company.

So is that such a big deal? There will be 20 to 25 percent more in ad spending than in the midterms of 2006. Besides getting big sooner, the ad campaigns have gone negative much faster.

• John Dennis' "Wizard of Oz" ad targeting Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
• Rep. Alan Grayson's "Dan Webster Taliban" ad targeting Daniel Webster 
• Jack Conway’s "$2000 Deductible" ad targeting Rand Paul 

Below, watch Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Delaware, Christine O'Donnell's first major political ad.




10/06/10--15:50: Latino Registered Voters Less Likely to Vote This Year, Poll Finds (chan 1191450)

With less than a month until Election Day, Democrats are hoping to keep control of both the House and Senate while trying to appeal to their core constituencies. Just two years ago, President Obama brought the Democrats back to the White House with the help of Latino voters. Democrats will surely need those votes if they hope to keep their majorities in Congress, but it is not clear that the Latino votes will come through in the mid-terms.  A new poll from the Pew Hispanic Center reports that only 51 percent of Latino registered voters say they are "absolutely certain to vote," this season, compared to 70 percent of all registered voters who say they'll go to the polls.

Why is it looking like so many Latinos will skip voting November 2?

Marc Lacey, Phoenix bureau chief for The New York Times, sees the Arizona immigration law as being a big reason for many Latinos' low voter motivation this season.

Univision host Jorge Ramos sees Latinos frustrated by both Democrats and Republicans, and instead of going out to vote, are voting by staying home.




10/22/10--05:20: Is 'Mean Girls' Misogynist? (chan 1191450)

Earlier this week, we spoke to Gail Sheehy of The Daily Beast about what she and Maureen Dowd have labelled the "mean girls" in this election — Republicans like Linda McMahon, Sharron Angle, and the "Mama Grizzly" herself, Sarah Palin. But is that term fair? Or does it just show that the political, mud-slinging political playing field has been leveled?

With us to weigh in on how female candidates and voters are changing is Rebecca Traister, senior writer at Salon.com and author of "Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election That Changed Everything for Women."