New Jersey "Races Worth Watching"

by: Jeff Gardner

Sat Jul 19, 2008 at 05:54:21 PM EDT

I went to another great panel at Netroots Nation today called "The Races We Aren't Watching But Should (and Those We're Watching Too)" - a panel made up of Markos Moulitsas, and Arjun Jaikumar (Daily Kos), Jonathon Singer (MyDD), and DavidNYC and James Lambert (SwingStateProject). While the audience was really large, it pretty much felt like the kind of conversation you might have with your best political friends - if you had some really A-list political friends.

The panel started with Senate races, and covered some of the usual suspects - the Udalls, Jeanne Shaheen. They noted how many races are very much in play as potential Democratic pickups, and reminded us how these things tend to go in trends (albeit sometimes in very bad directions - as in 2004). But, I saw that SSP lists Senator Lautenberg on its short list of "Races to Watch," so I asked what that was about.

Seems no one's really worried about New Jersey. But, there was so much schpilkis of the genectagezoink during the primary when it was a race to watch, that they're keeping an eye on it just a bit longer. (Also, of course, Lautenberg's polling numbers aren't exactly in blowout territory.)

But, everyone knows the familiar story by now - Republicans LOVE to spend millions losing in the Garden State. We should expect they may feel like doing it again this year. So, the consensus was: let them.

When attention turned to the House, Markos noted the real opportunity to expand the majority to as many as 101 seats. And, during the presentation, New Jersey was one place singled out as helping get us to that number, with John Adler being specifically praised as the very strong candidate he is (hint: watch for SSP's next update on House races coming out this weekend).

New Jersey also featured the only question to stump the panel: who's going to be the next member of Congress from NJ-1? Apparently, we're not the only ones wondering who that will be.

Unfortunately, so many people had questions, I totally blew my opportunity to ask about our House races during the main session.

Not to worry. I grabbed DavidNYC after the session to talk about other NJ races for consideration, and when I mentioned Dennis Shulman, he lit up - they really like what they're seeing and hearing, which is why the race was earlier bumped up to lean Republican. And, although it's not moving any further up the scale in today's rankings, it is a race they're watching.

Update: Time Magazine apparently agrees Shulman's is a race worth watching. -JG

Jeff Gardner :: New Jersey "Races Worth Watching"