MORNING GLORY: The Democrats have a 'Fanatic Four' of extremist Senate candidates
Despite the basic rule of politics — it takes 50% of the vote plus one to win — both parties have occasionally put forward nominees from the farther reaches of the right or from the extreme left.Those candidates have sometimes combined terrible public personalities and debate skills with policy positions far beyond the edges of mainstream politics.This year Democrats are trying to sell four extremists to voters: Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, Troy Jackson in Maine and James Talarico in Texas.
In three of those four races, Republicans have countered with nominees from the center: Mike Rogers in Michigan, Michele Tafoya in Minnesota and the incumbent in Maine, Senator Susan Collins, who, as Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations is the most powerful woman inside the Beltway and whose defeat would be an enormous "own goal" for Mainers.MORNING GLORY: FIVE SENATE RACES SHOW WHY DEMOCRATS MAY REGRET THEIR PRIMARY CHOICESThe Republican Senate nominee in Texas is the state’s own attorney general, Ken Paxton, who has run and won three times in the Lone Star State.Paxton is a flawed candidate, but he will be a reliable GOP vote in the Senate and the party has rallied to him even though there are bruised feelings from the contentious primary.Republicans have indulged their base over the years, especially in 2010 when it put forward Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Sharron Angle in Nevada, and Ken Buck in Colorado, and in 2012 with the nominations of Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana.All five of those Republicans lost.This year, a week out from Election Day, it especially doesn’t look good for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Troy Jackson in Maine.
El-Sayed has a reflexive attitude of grievance and in Maine, Jackson suffers in any side-by-side comparison with Susan Collins, who is a formidable political athlete.DAVID MARCUS: IN BLUE MAINE, NOBODY BELIEVES SUSAN COLLINS WILL LOSE UNTIL THEY SEE ITTalarico has seen ...