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Another story about another "Democratic" Congressional member from my state making some off the cuff tasteless remarks about Speaker Pelosi. Last year it was Parker Griffith saying that he had a gift certificate to the mental health center for Mrs. Pelosi.
I think old Bobby has Parker beat in the goofiness of his answer as to if he would vote for Pelosi again for Speaker.
Never cross a bridge until you come to it," Bright said in comments confirmed by his office. "She may get beat (for re-election), she may step away, she may get sick and die."
Yeah the irony of Bobby's last name being Bright.
Unfortunately Bobby is as close to a "Democrat" that we can possibly get as the district is drawn right now.
I think the message here is clear - Blue Dog Bobby Bright voted against every major piece of legislation that President Obama pushed.
Look, this is one district where I don't think that anyone but Bright could win. So to say that we need a push from the left in 2012 is fine. However, I believe that this district could be diced up and sliced up into an even more Republican district that even Bobby Bright can't win in 2012. That being said, we need his vote for speaker of the House. That's all we can expect, but unlike Parker Griffith we can expect that Bobby will vote for Nancy Pelosi.
If you love horse race politics, then you must love today's political news cycle. All kinds of interesting developments.
1. Arkansas Lt. Governor Bill Halter will be taking on Blanche Lincoln in the Dem primary. Very significant battle between the soul of what's right in the Democratic party and the corporate Republican light part of the party.
3. Harold Ford saw the writing on the wall and chooses not to run in New York . Now he's playing solitaire till dawn and watching Captain Kangeroooo. Or just counting his money.
Plenty of more good news. Just a couple of the highlights. We aim to please.
Bobby Bright (AL-02) will likely face Montgomery City Councilwoman Martha Roby (R) in the 2010 general. If her first fundraising quarter is any indication Roby will be a strong challenger .
Roby raised $125k in the quarter ending on June 30. What shows that Roby will be a strong contender is the fact that she did not spend hardly any money. She has 125k cash on hand.
Bright probably exceeded many expectations with a 219k quarter . He has approximately 358k on hand.
However, Bright was able to pick up a lot of his money in Federal PAC contributions. Nearly all of Roby's money was individual contributions.
Last April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended capping production of the F-22 Raptor at 187 planes. Gates said the move was part of a series of changes in defense spending that he called "no-brainers." (The F-22 has never seen action in either Iraq or Afghanistan.) Yesterday, the House Armed Services Committee "threw a wrench in the Obama administration's plans to end" the F-22 program, voting 31-30 on a measure marking up the Defense Department spending bill that would "add $369 million in extra funding to keep production of the Air Force's most advanced jet alive." Six Democrats - Reps. Jim Marshall (GA), Joe Courtney (CT), Gabrielle Giffords (AZ), Eric Massa (NY), Bobby Bright (AL), and Mike McIntyre (NC) - joined 25 Republicans in voting for the amendment. The Wall Street Journal reports that "the extra money would be a boost for Lockheed [Martin's] Marietta, Ga., production facility" which is in Marshall's home state.
If Republicans (and Blue Dogs) are serious about their fears of deficit spending they need to step up and fight waste in all sectors.
Montgomery City Councilwoman Martha Roby announced on Wednesday she has filed her paperwork to run against Bobby Bright in AL-02.
Roby, a lawyer, said she would formally launch her campaign at a later date.
"For the past six years on the Montgomery City Council, I've used common-sense leadership and conservative Alabama values to guide my decision making, and in Congress I will continue to apply those same principles when seeking solutions to get this country back on track," she said in a statement issued by her campaign on Wednesday. "This election is about the hardworking people that want to live, work and raise a family here in central and southeast Alabama.
"I will continue to listen to these voters in the coming months as we work to build a grassroots campaign based on the leadership that Alabama families are calling for in Washington."
The Montgomery native is married with two children, the youngest born in February.
From what I know, Roby seems capable of running an organized and well-funded campaign against Bobby Bright. I would imagine that the Republican Party would be pleased with Roby as their Candidate against Bright in 2010. This is going to be a race to watch and one that might be a toss up coming right out of the gate.
I'm mad because my state found it more important than to take care of state business that it would worry itself with something said in a Miss USA contest.
The Alabama House has approved a resolution that praises Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean for speaking out against gay marriage.
The House approved the resolution Thursday by Republican Rep. Jay Love of Montgomery on a voice vote.
A voice vote. They wouldn't even take a freaking roll call vote ?
So with the earlier reports about Mike Rogers having a cash on hand problem, we have been eagerly awaiting the FEC reports from our three sitting Democratic Congressmen. Of course Artur Davis will be running for Governor, but he will be moving his money from the Congressional account to his state campaign in June.
Bobby Bright - raised $220,583.80 and is currently showing $171,818.78 cash on hand. I'm not overly impressed for someone that will be targeted very heavily as a pick up opportunity for the Republicans. This is not abysmal by any means though and better than what I expected actually. Bright has no campaign debt though.
Parker Griffith - raised $236,173.26 and is currently showing $193,544.60 cash on hand. While it's about the same as Bright and he does have a lot of campaign debt, I think Griffith is in much better shape. I don't think there is a strong Republican bench at all in this District and from what I've been told Griffith is a better fundraiser than Bright.
Artur Davis - Davis raised $110,649.41 but
from my understanding he stopped taking individual contributions after his Gubernatorial announcement in February. However based on looking at his report he did accept PAC contributions in March .
Davis shows $1,121,412.57 in cash on hand which is a very solid amount considering he hoped to be able to move 1 million to his Gubernatorial account.
*Oh and Robert Aderholt R (AL-04) is showing $334,668.71 on hand - officially making Rogers by far with the least amount of cash on hand of any Alabama Congressman. I would imagine that Rogers probably posted one of the lowest incumbent cash on hand numbers in the country.
Bobby Bright since his election last November has already been considered one of the most vulnerable members of the U.S. Congress. Republicans know that they will have limited opportunities to pick up seats this off year.
It should come as no surprise that 2008 Republican nominee State Rep. Jay Love is considering a rematch according to a story on The Hill today.
"I am considering it," Love told The Hill when asked whether he is looking at running again in 2010. "I have not made any decision yes or no."
This story is about as newsworthy as my announcement that I might eat chicken for dinner tonight. I don't know if Love would even get out of a Republican primary. He ran a pretty horrendously awful campaign in a R+13. Bobby Bright on the other hand has certainly not endeared himself to a lot of the traditional Democratic base.
It's still plausible that Bright could change parties in the future as well. I'm already calling this race as a 2010 toss-up and a very possible pick-up opportunity for the Republicans whether Love stays on the sidelines or Bright doesn't change parties.
In what turned out to be a very comfortable victory, Todd Strange avoided a runoff and will replace Bobby Bright as the Mayor of Montgomery.
Strange finished with 53% of the vote with Michael Briddell coming in a distant second at 32%. Willie Cook tanked at 6%.
Of course I'm not surprised as Strange raised enough money to run a professional campaign. Briddell seemed to come on strong at the end but not enough to force a runoff.
Overall this turned into a fairly predictable election.
The DCCC has already made their list of incumbents they need to work to protect in 2010. Of course Boobie Bright and Wayne Parker Griffith are on the list .
"In November, Americans sent a clear message: change the direction of the country and get the economy back on track. Our new Members are already hard at work doing just that," said Chairman Van Hollen. "The Program has a proven track record of success - the DCCC's independent expenditure campaign made a significant investment in only 10 of 34 Frontline districts. As a result of House Democrats' historic success over the last two elections, we have named 40 Members to the DCCC's effective and successful Frontline Program. Frontline will give Members an added boost so they can continue to focus on the issues their constituents care most about. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Congressman Chris Murphy are an aggressive, battle-tested leadership team that knows how to win."
Griffith did vote for SCHIP so I think he would be better than Wayne Parker. However, Bobby Bright is a complete disaster and a disgrace.
Bobby Bright, AL-02 (Montgomery), has been a very disappointing Congressman thus far. Perhaps this should have been expected considering he was in a tug of war between the Republicans and Democrats to choose a party.
I thought Bobby was going to be a populist typical Blue Dog Democrat. I even thought he might be better than your average Blue Dog. He could be someone who voted conservative on social issues and been an economic populist. However, he has proved us all wrong and what I would consider even worse than a DINO (Democrat in Name Only). He might be worse than what we would have gotten with his opponent Jay Love.
Of course the DCCC dumped as much money as they could find into Bright's campaign. One theory is that they did not fail because they simply proved a Dem could win this seat. Well, I'm not so sure that anyone outside of Bright would have won this. He had seemingly 100 percent name recognition and took on an opponent badly bruised from a rough primary battle.
Bright justified his most recent vote against the stimulus package by saying
"My vote against the stimulus package was not against funding for schools -- it was a vote against a bill that I believed contained too much spending on items that would not immediately stimulate the economy, which is the sole purpose of a stimulus bill,"
.
That's just the latest of his bad votes. I think that his votes against the renewal of SCHIP and the Lilly Ledbetter act are unconscionable for someone who ran as a Democrat.
I support the continuation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program(S-CHIP) to the extent that it is available to the children of families who cannot afford health insurance.
I don't see how he can possibly justify or his vote based on this position. Or how could he reconcile that statement with this vote? Bright needs some help awfully quick. He's not winning any friends with too many Democrats. A good point is that Idaho Congressman Walt Minnick voted for SCHIP and he's in an even redder district than Bright.
Jim Marshall was the only other Dem that voted against SCHIP and I cannot find any references to issues on his campaign re-election website.
Unfortunately I think Bright's voting record is going to resemble Marshall quite often. Marshall was the mayor of Macon, Georgia before Congress. So like Bright, I think he is a lot better city executive than a Congressman.
In a cruel twist of fate , Mike Rogers voted to reauthorize SCHIP while Bobby Bright voted against the bill that provides health insurance for children.
Rogers was widely criticized for voting against SCHIP in previous terms. Of course Rogers now knows that he has to have a moderate voting record.
Bobby Bright was one of two Dems who voted against SCHIP. This is an unconscionable vote in my opinion.
At this point in time, I'm not quite sure why Bright is a Democrat other than the fact that he votes for Pelosi as Speaker of the House. Otherwise Bright is a Democrat in name only.
Only 5 Democrats voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Act. Kind of ironic since Ledbetter is from Alabama. And Left in Alabama makes the great point that this was not the Blue Dog Coalition voting in Unison here. You would think that Griffith and Bright would have voted for fair pay legislation with it being named for an Alabama citizen.
The DCCC spent all kinds of money in these two races and we cannot even get these two rookies to vote for fair pay legislation. Meanwhile they did not send enough money to Josh Segall who certainly would have voted for this legislation. (Ledbetter is from the 3rd Congressional District).
Oh and by the the way the Paycheck Fairness - Bright and Griffith nearly stood alone as "Democratcs". They were joined by Walt Minnick of Idaho. Even the most conservative Dem in Congress Dan Boren (OK) voted for the Paycheck Fairness Bill.
Look I know that if Bobby Bright weren't the nominee in AL-02 we would not have won this seat. I beg to differ on Griffith's vote. At least Artur Davis made the right decision.
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