Distinctly Catholic

Florida may have turned temporarily blue for the 2008 presidential election, but the state remains decidedly reddish in hue. It has controlled the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee for more than a decade as well as both houses of the legislature. Since 1996, when the GOP took control of the Florida House (it had taken the Senate four years earlier) the number of Democrats serving in Tallahassee continued to plummet, although 2006 saw Democrats re-take some seats, but not enough to win control of either chamber in the state house.

Control in Tallahassee matters especially this year because of the re-districting that will occur once the Census results are in. Currently, Democrats do not have a seat at the table, but if they can win the governorship, they would be able to influence the process. Not only will the congressional lines be redrawn, but Florida is likely to gain two congressional seats so the district maps will be especially important.

Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies will be sponsoring a panel one week from today. “Religion & the 2010 Elections: The Impact of Religious issues and Religious Voters” will be held Wednesday, October 13, 2010, at the National Press Club. The event begins at noon and is slated to go until 3 p.m.

Doug Gansler has an op-ed in this morning's Washington Post in which he takes a position different from mine (below) on the Snyder v. Phelps case. I will only point out that Mr. Gansler is running for re-election and evidently knows how to read a jury.

Politico has an article about pro-life Democrats in Congress who are facing tough re-election races. We have looked at some of those races in our "Election Time" series. The Susan B. Anthony List is leading the charge against these pro-life Dems because of their vote on health care. Try and count the number of dis-information items in the quotes!

The California gubernatorial contest did not interest me at first.

While examining the California Senate race, I asked why such a large state produced two lousy candidates, but I know why this large state produced such lousy choices for the Governor’s race: The job is impossible.

If Arnold the Terminator can’t fix Sacramento, it probably can’t be fixed.

So, the race appeared boring both in its content and in its outcome and the candidates attracted to the prospect were predictably boring. The Democrats nominated an old government hand and former Governor, Jerry Brown, and the Republicans nominated a zillionaire CEO, Meg Whitman, who has poured more than $100 million of her own money into the race.

What to say about Jerry Brown?