Congrats to Ciro Rodriguez, the new Democratic representative from Texas 23. It’s hard to overstate the upset value of this race. Incumbent Henry Bonilla ( R) barely missed winning outright when he outpolled Rodriguez 49-20 in November. Since then polls have trended in Rodriguez’s favor, but to my knowledge none showed Rodriguez ahead or even particularly close.
Let’s stipulate that it is risky to treat this race as a general indicator. Too many factors could be specific to this district and the massive cash infusion from the DCCC must not have hurt. Caveats aside, I will go out on a limb and say that Republicans should be extremely grateful that the election wasn’t held one month later.
***Update***
Think that Democrats will push for a revote in Katherine Harris’s district? It would be politically smart, though a touch cynical, to keep tonight’s upset in mind. Not that it isn’t the right thing to do anyway.
Mike
In the words of Nelson Muntz, Ha Ha!
Mike P.
Ahh, a nice exclamation point for those at Power Line and Red State that still just don’t get it.
Not that they’ll notice.
Chuck Butcher
Since it was the Republicans that wanted those junk machines, I’d say a re-vote is a swell idea.
Bombadil
Not only should they have to hold a re-vote, it should be done on paper ballots and everyone should dip their finger in purple ink when they’re done.
Democracy rules, babies!
The Other Steve
Did you hear how Congress had rejected any suggestion that we get rid of the stupid electronic voting machines?
Their reasoning… it would cost a lot of money to replace them all.
We’re willing to spend $200 billion a year in Iraq spinning in circles, but we aren’t willing to spend $10 billion in the United States ensuring our Democracy.
pie
We spread it over there so we don’t have to spread it here.
Zifnab
Did you see the poll numbers going in and coming out?
It was 51/44 for Bonilla the night before the election and Rodrigez won it 55/45. What a crazy shift. Redistrict that bitches!
Bombadil
And even better, there’s this from the WaPo:
(h/t Talking Points Memo)
Josh is right — “Karma”, indeed.
demimondian
We’re spending it over there so we don’t need to spend it over here.
p.lukasiak
Bonilla’s loss is simply stunning…..
Bonilla wasn’t personally unpopular, and Rodriguez was a weak campaigner. There are really only two key factors here….
1) Bush’s extreme unpopularity — basically, anyone with an “R” next to their name is starting out with a major disadvantage
2) the disarray in the GOP as a result of their losses on November 6. Its obvious that the GOP did not respond sufficiently (if at all) to the well publicized DCCC efforts on behalf of Rodriguez — and the Democrats simply outhustled the GOP here…
as to calling for a new election in Sarasota — that has to be a given. The GOP blew any chance they had of avoiding a new election by selecting a partisan hack to be in charge of “auditing” the machines used in Sarasota County. But first the Democrats need to hold hearings in which Sarasota voters testify under oath about the problems they had with the machines — and the ballot design — and the failure of GOP hack Kathy Dent to address those concerns despite their being brought to her attention during “early voting” well before election day.
jcricket
It’s really 31 seats – Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will be caucusing with the Democrats.
So, Democrats didn’t lose a single seat, governorship or house of Congress that they were defending. They picked up the US House, Senate, 6 governorships, took control of like 9 state legislatures and increased their control in nearly every state legislature they already controlled. All this after 6 years of total Republican control and a totally gerry-mandered era that was supposed to deliver a permanent Republican majority.
The American public has seen what the Republican party can do when given control. Republicans have been measured, and they have been found wanting. YHT. YHL. HAND. FOAD
jcricket
And I second the call for getting rid of the touch-screen electronic voting machines as designed by any of the current companies involved. Even with a “paper trail” these machines are clearly incapable of doing what they need.
For the time being, I prefer we go to all-vote-by-mail with optical scan paper-ballots, coupled with consolidation of election facilities in every county (meaning one facility per county with one set of standards and good oversight) and better statewide voter/voting databases. Eliminates virtually every problem we have with voting these days (machine maintenance, long lines, multiple technologies, touch-screen issues, etc.) without introducing any new ones. We could do this for the next 5 years.
Second step would be to allow people to print their optically-scannable ballots with a computer (still using a special envelope, to prevent duplicate ballot submissions) – but not store those computer-generated ballots on any database. The printing eliminates the ballot-spoilage problem with humans filling out/missing ovals, etc. We could do that for another 5-10 years.
Third step is actually voting online. Put this 10-20 years out.
MNPundit
Voting by mail SEEMS like a good solution, but it does have problems of its own.
What to do about voters who are confused by the ballots? At least with voting places you can tell that there is a problem like in Florida. How much more difficult would it be if they were all vote by mail that way, it’s more expensive than poll voting, and in both Oregon which has been doing vote by mail for a long time, and the UK there is either no rise in turnout (OR) or a decline (UK). That might be attributable to vote-by-mail but then again it might not be. The point is it has had no demonstrable effect on turn out.
Some argue that it’s insecure and not the best way to trust a majority of the votes (100,000,000 pieces of mail in a two week period every 4 years+normal operations? Ye Gods!) but I am of two minds about that, the mail was designed to be a system where the government could reliably send sensitive documents and it works rather well. If I have a choice of DHL, UPS or FedEx, I will always go with USPS.
Steve
The main concern I’ve seen regarding vote-by-mail can be pictured if you imagine the pastor of some nice, pleasant, evangelical megachurch announcing “Okay, everybody, bring in your ballots next Sunday and we’ll all fill them out together.”
Voting by mail has some big advantages, but it’s true that when you’re alone in that voting booth, you answer to no one’s conscience but your own.
Chuck Butcher
Somehow, we (OR)seem to avoid having problems, there are the odd re-counts for close elections and sometimes the optical scanners jam, but nobody says re-vote or stolen election…
Chuck Butcher
I hit the “Submit” a little quickly…
Megachurch; the ballots are mailed to your home, why would you take it to a church unless you were already buying their line? Or the union hall, or…
The only real concern is the control freak spouse one.
Steve
The point is that you can be pressured with a mail-in ballot in ways you can’t be pressured in the voting booth. And yes, the scenario of a husband making sure his wife votes the “right” way (or vice versa) is a related issue I didn’t bring up.
The fact that it works in Oregon is a positive, but I still think these issues are worth considering. Not everyplace is Oregon, for one thing.
Zifnab
What sort of godless heathen are you who doesn’t vote with your congregation?
Although, to be fair, anyone stupid enough to show up at a church with his ballot probably planned on voting straight ticket “Jesus” anyway.