Episode #302: The Difficulty of Being a GOP Governor in Kentucky

It wasn’t the most memorable off-year election in history, but there were some great storylines. How does a vastly unpopular governor in Kentucky still manage to make the results so close? Was Donald Trump a drain on Republicans in Virginia but a boost in Kentucky and Mississippi?  Greg Giroux of Bloomberg sifts through Tuesday’s results for some clues.

There wasn’t much election news out of New Jersey this week, even though all 80 Assembly seats were at stake on Tuesday. But if you wanted an exciting election in the Garden State to talk about, we would recommend you go back to the Senate race in 2002 when Democratic incumbent Bob Torricelli was enmeshed in a campaign finance scandal and Republicans were smelling blood. Torricelli is on the program this week to talk about those days, the last-minute decision that may have saved the seat for his party but which spelled the end of his political career.

And whither Kamala Harris? The California senator opened her presidential bid last January to great fanfare, and her dressing down of Joe Biden in the June debate led many to see her as a top contender. But she has faltered since then and has decided to go for broke in the Iowa caucuses.  Scott Shafer of KQED traces the rise and possible fall of her candidacy.

Music used in this podcast:

The Winner Takes It All by ABBA

We’re So Happy by Earlimart

The Man Who Sold The World by Nirvana

What Becomes of the Brokenhearted by Jimmy Ruffin