Poker Players Against Kyl: Working for a Tuesday One-Outer

As this post's title suggest, it'd be a heck of a longshot, but a recently started movement called Poker Players Against Kyl has started a last-ditch movement to try to usurp the still-favored John Kyl (R-AZ) in his bid on Tuesday for reelection.

Kyl, whose personal cause for much of the last decade has been his railing against online gambling, is one of the principal forces behind the shaping and passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Kyl was expected to cruise to victory in this current reelection but voter dissatisfaction has steadily chipped away at what only weeks ago seemed to be an insurmountable lead; Democratic challenger Jim Pederson (pictured at right) has trimmed the margin to the mid-range single digits, prompting Democratic hopes for a miracle upset.

With that in mind, Poker Players Agaisnt Kyl started up a donations fund at a site called ActBlue, which is a Democratic clearinghouse site for miscellaneous donations and causes. The site page for Poker Players Against Kyl is located here, for the curious. Amazingly, the PPAK cause has rocketed to the number one spot for donations on this site, topping $10,000 in just a few short days. That amount is a drop in the political bucket, but it's likely to be used for get-out-the-vote and anti-Kyl messages in the next two days, a defiant gesture that also serves as response to a Kyl staffer who pooh-poohed the political willingness of gamblers in general.

As a wry aside, it's true that gamblers remain gamblers, personal interests be damned. Gambling911 reports that overseas betting action on various U.S. Congressional races has been solid, and more money has been bet in expectations of Kyl holding his seat than has been wagered on any other race. It's a wise bet, if a very sad one. I guess we'll know the outcome by sometime late on Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.