2007 Elections

By Dave Lindorff

There are a number of reasons why the Puerto Rican Democratic primary election set for this coming Sunday won’t matter, in terms of Hillary Clinton’s failed bid for the party’s nomination.

The main one is that she’s not going to get the big vote that she has been predicting.

Clinton, trailing Obama by about 400,000 votes nationwide with only three primaries to go, is fantasizing that she will win the lion’s share of one million Puerto Rican votes, which would put her in the lead for the nomination in terms of the popular vote, though not in the delegate count.

By David Swanson

As we muddle our way through primary elections fraught with errors, fraud, and suppression, it's useful to look back at the elections of 2004 and 2006. So, on Wednesday February 20th, from 8 to 9 p.m. ET I'll be interviewing David Earnhardt live online, and you can phone in with your questions.

In 2006, Rahm Emanuel's DCCC wanted to talk about everything except Iraq. Fortunately Ned Lamont's campaign in the spring and summer of 2006 proved Iraq was a winning issue, and many Democratic candidates ignored the DCCC's advice, talked about getting out of Iraq - and won.

But now it's deja vu all over again.

Yesterday there was a special election in OH-05 to fill the seat vacated by the death of Paul Gillmor. It's a pretty solid red district, rated R+10. Local Democrats worked their hearts out to elect Democrat Robin Weirauch, or at least beat the spread. But Weirauch lost by 14%.

I didn't follow the campaign messages, but I trust Matt Stoller when he says Weirauch took Iraq off the table.

California seeks nearly $15 million from voting machine company
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen sued a major voting machine company Monday, accusing Election Systems & Software of selling unauthorized machines to San Francisco and four counties.

The lawsuit seeks nearly $15 million in penalties and reimbursements. Bowen contends that ES&S sold 972 of its AutoMark A200 voting machines to San Francisco and Colusa, Marin, Merced and Solano counties in 2006 even though the state had not tested and certified the machines.

"ES&S ignored the law over and over again and it got caught," Bowen said in a statement. "California law is very clear on this issue. I am not going to stand on the sidelines and watch a voting system vendor come into this state, ignore the laws and make millions of dollars from California taxpayers in the process."