30 years ago in NH and liked him very much. Not much to go on, but I hope he runs. His son, Jason Carter,  is a peace corps volunteer.

it's Jack Carter or nobody. I'll go with Carter.

Why the heck not?  We love political families in this country--Kennedys, Bushes, Clintons, Gores, Doles, etc.  The fact that Carter was not an extremely popular president might hurt, but JC has become much more respected in his post-presidency years.  Plus, recall that Bush Sr. was also a 1-termer who was not popular with the general public OR the Republican base before Jeb and W started their meteoric rises in politics.

He says he's socially liberal, but also a religious Southern Baptist.  Could be a good combination!

i'm all for it!
-C.

at http://www.oursenate.com

I'll support any Dem willing to challenge.

How about adding an option to the poll for "will support an opponent to Ensign"?

Living in Nevada, I don't really see any strong candidates comming out of the Democratic woodwork, especially with Reid's apparent lack of interest in finding a challenger for Ensign.  With all state constitutional offices up in 2006, and a potentially competitive race in NV-3, I don't see any major Nevada Democrat politican who's looking for a promotion running for Senate this time. I don't know if Carter can win, but it would be nice if he can at least make it a race and keep Ensign from funneling his campaign contributions to embattled R's in Pennsylvania, Montana, Ohio, and other battlegrounds for the Senate.

Given that our Senate race looks pretty tepid next year in California (Di-Fi -- meh . . .) and our entrenched incumbents give us few races of interest in No Cal (except maybe for Pombo's district in Central Valley) I for one, like many Californians, would relish the opportunity to go next door to Nevada and work for a Democrat. I think Jack Carter has a lot in the plus column, not least of which are a well-respected father and mother, elder statesman, down-to-earth, smart, humanists.

Let the blue seep into Nevada and Arizona I say -- just keep working from the edges of the country on in. Viral politicking.

I agree with you Chris 100%! We should immediately put both Carter & Reid on notice prior to their meeting next week.

The netroots should immediately let Sen. Reid know that Carter has the netroots behind him if he decides to run.

Just in case Reid forgets that Ensign still has an R next to his name. He should know, the GOP NEVER allows friendship to interfer with their agenda.

Just as many years of friendship between John McCain & John Kerry DID not Stop McCain from GOING ALL THE WAY in supporting Dubya. ( even if he hates Dubya)

His grandfather J. Earl Carter, Sr was a fixture in  local Democratic Party politcs, he served as a member of the local school board and the in the Georgia state House of Reprsenatives and may well have been speaker had he not died young, His father we know what he did, but I know almost nothing of Jack Carter.  His father has been out of office for 25 years and he has not done anyting to advance himself push programs, work for the party or candidates.  I doubt Sen Reid will do much if anything to help him and the state party seems to put resources in the Governors race.  If the tide turns big anyting could happen, but I doubt it turns that big.  

along with numerous expressions of disgust with the Great and Powerful Harry Reid for harboring a known Republican senator in his own state, can be gleaned at http://www.lasvegasgleaner.com

This is great news. And
because Jack Carter looks
like a legitimate self-starter,
and not anybody's recruit,
it should let Reid off the hook.
He can say to his colleague,
"Hey, I didn't ask him to run
and I can't stop him from
running." So Reid keeps his
deal and the Democrats get
a candidate. That works for me.

And with Nevada's rampant
growth in recent decades,
I'm hoping that its voters
may be more accepting of
"newcomers" running for office.

Anyway, Jack Carter's name
makes him automatically
a celebrity and that's a jump
start in American politics.
His celebrity is not of the
Governator class, more
like a Sonny Bono, but
ever so much better than
a nameless candidate or
no candidate at all.

This is not a winnable race. Not without Oscar Goodman as our nominee. You get a big league legit challlenger in there and I guarantee Harry Reid will do everything in his power to oust John Ensign.

As someone else posted, all the big statewide offices are up in 2006. Retiring Republicans have held them and now there will be pickup opportunities. Those are the logical destinations for our top Democratic newcomers. They are short in number after the statewide flops of the last few cycles. John Ensign is an extremely formidable candidate here, regardless of his national reputation or senatorial resume. He came within 400 votes and a lengthy statewide recount of toppling Reid in '98. I'm convinced Richard Bryan retired rather than face Ensign in 2000.

My ongoing frustration: Nevada is hysterically overstated as tilting our way on liberal blogs. I've tried to emphasize that for years on Democratic Underground and elsewhere. If you live here, you know it. Outsiders must be digesting phony baloney, numbers or premises.

This state was winnable in 2000. Gore blew it. The Yucca Mountain issue was top drawer and not not been officially decided. Bush was petrified of the issue and wouldn't even set foot in the state, other than one brief tiptoe in friendly northern Nevada. Bush put out a very carefully worded statement that was clearly deceiving, that no decision had been made on Yucca Mountain as a temporary site. That essentially meant Yucca Mountain HAD BEEN isolated as a PERMANENT site. Gore could have pounced but he forfeited instead, another 35 visits to Florida or Pennsylvania instead of a few here.

This state changed dramatically post 2000. You have huge high income housing developments in Las Vegas, particularly north and west of the city. Those are transplanted westerners from nearby states, and they vote Republican. The new district 3 was intentionally designed by the GOP controlled legislature to start close to 50/50 then drift steadily toward the Republicans.

Most importantly, 9/11 and terrorism fear have trumped the influx of Hispanics. Those Emerging Democratic Majority dynamics have been derailed or at least delayed. I work statistics for casino sportsbooks and have to deal with literally dozens of different casinos and their personnel, in person and via phone. When the conversation is politics the mood is conservative, slightly moreso than before and I'be neen here since the late '80s. The 9/11 hijackers including Atta met in Las Vegas and that's been highly publicized. People who don't follow politics closely but clutch specific themes for their voting tendencies inevitably mention terrorism and national security to me. I hear it in sportsbooks and restaurants and outside movie theatres and everywhere. Our percentages in Clark County have been slightly declining, in direct relationship to the political moodswing I've detected. For now, we need to prioritize elsewhere.    

Hey Jack would be great!  He is very passionate, intelligent with lots of common sense, and is in many ways his father's son.  Hopefully it won't take as long to recognize worth as it did for his father!  

It's about time, Jack!
MBexFX