Mock The Vote

It's Johnson County Fair week this week, which means it's mock election time. Completely unscientific, of course, but interesting anyway.

Last year's mock vote happened at the peak of Michele Bachmann's straw poll surge, and she won, while Rick Santorum couldn't get a vote outside his immediate family. Literally: I was working the last shift at the fair, Santorum was sitting on zero votes (we do mid-day updates each day) when Karen Santorum, several of the kids, and a lone staffer showed up.

There's a pretty good and probably accurate list of third party presidential candidates; btw this is the first cycle since 1988 that Ralph Nader  hasn't been running in some fashion under some label. (The best prediction the mock election ever made was in 2004, when it showed that 90% of the Nader vote was going to collapse here in the People's Republic.) There's also the Loebsack-Archer race and the justice center question.

Speaking of mocking the vote, TheIowaRepublican's Kevin Hall has some news about upcoming GOP nominating conventions, and frank assessments to go with them. In Senate District 34:

The only one seemingly interested in running is…Randi Shannon’s campaign chairman Ryan Flood … Flood has a Des Moines address, was a Polk County delegate to the state convention and also served on the credentials committee …

Meanwhile, another Paul supporter, and member of the Libertarian Party, is running in HD 33 vs. Dem House Leader (aka Fleebagger-in-Chief) Kevin McCarthy. Cory Ewing hopes to secure the Republican nomination at a special convention on August 1 …  Perennial candidate Jeremy Walters, who embarrassed the Iowa GOP two years ago while running against McCarthy, hopes to be nominated as well …

And our friends in the Lee County GOP, who almost singlehandedly destroyed the Iowa Caucus, are holding a meeting July 30 to nominate a candidate to run against Dem incumbent and union capo Jerry Kearns in HD 83 … Jim Steffen is running for the GOP nomination. He’s a lifelong Lee County resident, Marine veteran and current member of the Iowa National Guard …  All three of these seats are almost certain to remain in Dem hands.

The weekly Kevin's Korner kolumn is certainly konservative, worth a read, both for  newsworthy kontent but for it's krusty take on the week.