Massachusetts update

I've got an update on the Massachusetts governor's race directly from former governor and a presidential candidate Michael Dukakis:

Romney is now running fifteen percentage points behind his major Democratic challenger in the latest polls. But we won't win here or elsewhere unless we get back out in the precincts and take grassroots organizing seriously. We haven't been doing it, and it has been costing us elections.

I hope the party in Massachusetts is listening to this guy because he KNOWS what he is talking about. I truly hope that a blue state like Massachusetts can elect a Democrat like Attorney General Tom Reilly for Governor come 2006. How it keeps electing a Republican Governor is way beyond me...

I've added the CBS Public Eye to the blogroll today. Recently, I've updated the blogroll with links to campaign sites for PAC's and candidates up for re-election in 2006.

Today, I had the honor of meeting David MacKnight at the SBA Law Day sponsored by the Chase Law School at NKU. David MacKnight joined the staff as an Assistant Dean for Advancement after working for about 12 years with Ben Chandler. He last served Congressman Chandler as the Chief of Staff.

Paul McCartney graces the cover of Rolling Stone for the October 10, 2005 issue. He's a talented musician and deserves the cover.

E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post admits that he admires William Buckley, Jr.

And it's not easy for any liberal to agree with Buckley's support long ago for Joe McCarthy. (His novel about McCarthy was better). It's hard to credit his views in the civil rights era or to identify with his many knocks on that courageous liberal Republican, former senator Lowell Weicker.

Still, I will always respect this columnist, editor, novelist, lecturer and organizer because he undertook a mission and carried it out with real genius. He knew conservatism needed a serious intellectual life if conservative ideas were to be considered by those outside the right's faithful remnant. That's why he founded National Review magazine, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. He knew cranks were bad for the movement. He knew that deep splits among conservatives -- between internationalists and isolationists, libertarians and traditionalists -- had to be resolved.

Will they attack E.J. Dionne as well?

To win virginia, Tim Kaine must win Fairfax County. Not getting the Chamber of Commerce endorsement is not a good sign.

Mark R. Warner (D) won Fairfax in the 2001 gubernatorial campaign, and so did his predecessor, Republican James S. Gilmore III. The county's delegation to the General Assembly in Richmond splits about evenly, with Democrats representing districts inside the Capital Beltway and Republicans outside it.

The county added 25,000 jobs last year but has trouble finding places to put new homes for those workers. A growing immigrant community struggles to afford rising housing prices.

Kilgore's chamber endorsement drew responses from across the political spectrum.

Four former chairmen of the chamber wrote a letter to its executives protesting the endorsement, saying that Kilgore opposed two of the business group's top priorities: tax reform in 2004 and the transportation tax referendum in 2002.[...]

Kaine said the county's importance was brought home to him the moment he entered the George Mason student center yesterday morning with his son, Nat, a high school sophomore, and was greeted by Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D).

Connolly asked Nat, "What do you have to remember about this race?" Kaine recalled. "Nat repeated the line that Gerry has drilled into his head: 'It's all about Fairfax. It's all about Fairfax.' "

Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said it is inevitable that the Fairfax streak in statewide races will come to an end some Election Day. "All it is going to take," he said, is a "close election won by a Republican in which Fairfax County voted for the Democrat."

I have a friend at GMU known as the New Democrat. I wonder if he was there yesterday at the rally.

Former President Bill Clinton has joined the list of politicians who have headlined fundraisers for Tim Kaine. He joins Senators Barak Obama and Joe Lieberman.