Current Affairs General US politics (ie, not POTUS related)
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summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
Martin Alvito
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Those are some plum committee and subcommittee slots, Rick. Would be a shame if something happened to them.
Come on over to caucus with the Dems Lisa Murkowski!
Martin Alvito
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So the new litmus test is Obergefell now that they bagged Roe, eh? Shocker.
Murkowski is young enough that self-interest probably precludes her from party-switching right now. Things would have to change dramatically in the new system they have up there for her to want to switch.
Yeah, not a surprise is it.
Alaska now having ranked choice voting rather than party primaries presumably means the party label isn’t as important to re-election and Alaskans have a pretty independent streak - think she could sell being an independent especially if it came with some good committee appointments. With the rightward lurch she isn’t going to be in GOP Senate leadership anytime soon and her chances at a national run would seem pretty slim.
Martin Alvito
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She probably could sell it, but the challenge is always coming from the right. I wouldn't recommend trading that (R) next to her name on the ballot in unless she has no plans to run again, or unless the Republicans implode.
There's also the seniority problem, as it determines committee chair slots. As I understand it, the way seniority works in the Senate for the Democratic Party is determined by when they were elected as a Democrat. This helps explain why party switching has generally gone the other way in recent decades. In the case of Lieberman, Reid guaranteed him that he would retain his seniority if he was re-elected in 2006 (though Reid also endorsed Lamont).
That wasn't a hard sell to the caucus in the case of Lieberman, as he was generally popular among his colleagues. Cutting the same deal with Murkowski results in at least one aggrieved senator, which Schumer doesn't need. If it's Indian Affairs, it's Schatz. If she gets Energy back, it's Manchin.
She has already won once without the R party label and that is a pretty impressive feat for a write in campaign when you have the surname Murkowski!
2010 United States Senate election in Alaska - Wikipedia
Agree seniority is a complication - what do they do with Angus King who iirc is an independent but who caucuses with Dems?
Wonder if this will clear the way for Romney to vote on the bill
Martin Alvito
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So far, assign him very carefully. He's at least four years behind in seniority on every committee he serves on. Since he's 75, there's a good chance that problem solves itself (elected in 2013).She has already won once without the R party label and that is a pretty impressive feat for a write in campaign when you have the surname Murkowski!
2010 United States Senate election in Alaska - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Agree seniority is a complication - what do they do with Angus King who iirc is an independent but who caucuses with Dems?
Sanders has Budget, which is extremely powerful, so presumably they let him count his service as Democratic from day one since he caucuses with them. My guess is that they did the same thing with King.
Leadership can pretty much do whatever it wants with subcommittee chairs. Since there are so many subcommittees, even the most junior senators in the majority party usually chair at least one. This is not the case in the House, where significant seniority is required to chair a subcommittee. That's important, because a subcommittee chair is a potential veto point.
Some late night popcorn (CEO of Senate Leadership fund)
Martin Alvito
Player Valuation: £50m
I just don't understand what Scott is trying to accomplish here. Is the point to force a vote where he puts the McConnell allies on record?
What is he going to do, primary them? Does he think Trump's numbers are particularly strong in Florida? They're not. Presidential numbers (and the gubernatorial results) suggest DeSantis is more popular right now.
I'm missing a piece of the puzzle here. All I can come up with is entertaining conjectures such as, "Does Scott know that the Russians have dirt on DeSantis, which will be revealed at the appropriate time (as Trump threatened), which has him cozying up to Trump as much as possible?"
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