There are a lot of election results being announced and a lot still outstanding (as Soonergrunt and mistermix have mentioned), so I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread where Juicers can mention what’s happening with results in their own neck of the woods.
Have at it.
nancydarling
For the first time since Reconstruction, the Republican party has taken over both houses of the lege in Arkansas.
And, the Democratic party here is moribund.
Also, some branch of the KKK is starting to recruit in my county.
hep kitty
I’m getting all kinds of ideas for tee-shirts
An Obama/Biden 2012 shirt with “Where’s My Free Stuff?” printed on the back
hep kitty
@nancydarling: How can I be this old and remember America as a relatively liberal country compared to today? I grew up in the south, forcripesake! Did I dream that? I mean, I never thought about it before until all these creeps started coming out of the woodwork.
Such times we live in.
khead
Gay marriage and gambling in MD.
I want to open up a combination diner/chapel/craps hall complete with “Hon” waitresses and lousy crab cakes.
different-church-lady
I’ve elected to go out for coffee. I’ve been certified as the winner by a razor thin margin of one vote.
Slowly going through the junk mail and finding a billion glossy pieces from the Warren/Brown senate campaign. The funniest one is “Women For Brown”, which features a huge picture of… his wife and two daughters. Yeah, Scott, nice illustration of the concept of “captive audience” there.
Kurt Montandon
Anti-science, anti-environment, anti-labor, anti-choice, and all around asshat Lungren lost his seat in CA7.
Unfortunately, I’m still represented by McClintock.
Served
Illinois Republicans are deader than they ever have been after submitting to Teabag Fever two years ago. Illinois Dems (whose corruption is a bit overblown, but still an actual issue) have veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers. On top of all of that, Mayor Rahm has officially started the push toward marriage equality, just two years after civil unions were legalized in the state. It feels good.
different-church-lady
That was before the godless north started letting blacks in the White House.
jibeaux
@hep kitty: Hate to say it, but you would probably get lots of compliments from 27%ers.
amk
Well, breitbart is still dead.
TooManyJens
@hep kitty: I think that might get you mistaken for a Tea Partier.
nancydarling
@hep kitty: I spent a fair number of my childhood years in Kansas, and I can’t recognize the place any more. Their legislature is worse than Arkansas’. We’ll see what our new lege comes up with.
The top of my state senator’s to-do list is a voter ID law. I have heard, but have not been able to verify, that the brand for his cattle operation is KKK. He ran unopposed in this election. Did I say that the Democrats are moribund here?
TooManyJens
We ended up losing our Congressional race (IL-13) by, last I heard, 1,287 votes. Which hurts, but at least now we know Dems can be competitive in the new district.
jibeaux
I just read some more quotes from the Maine GOP guy who claimed there was voter fraud because nonwhite people were voting. The initial release was pretty fascinating, but the follow up was even more so, because he included:
1. you guessed it, “I have black friends.” and
2. But wait, he’s also not racist because it’s not just black people! Also in on the voter fraud are the yellow men! He now reports that people called him to say they saw a Chinaman voting and there are no Chinese people in their town and how that’s a good point!
Caramba. Also too, there are Chinese-descended people everywhere. You know, they have those restaurants?
EconWatcher
Wonder what George Allen is going to do with himself now?
The guy is really just a slightly more subtle and presentable version of David Duke. If you got them talking in a quiet room, I doubt their ideologies would be that different.
In fairness, I guess I don’t have any evidence that Allen has anything against Jewish folks. But as for the rest of “those people”….
TooManyJens
@jibeaux: And here’s a poll watcher in Colorado complaining because there were a higher proportion of people of color voting at his assigned polling place than what he sees at the mall.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/11/watch_a_colorado_gop_poll_watcher_report_a_high_concentration_of_people_of_color.html
shortstop
@different-church-lady: Don’t you guys think Scott Brown’s wife looks like a slightly less mashed version of Tammy Faye Bakker?
shortstop
@Served: We best get equal marriage to replace that civil union stopgap. It’s so embarrassing having Iowa lap us.
shortstop
@jibeaux: The hell is Davis X. Machina to comment on these stern allegations of roaming hordes of black people exercising the franchise Down East? This has been one of my favorite stories of the election.
The Red Pen
I’m happy to report that after no recounts, Todd Akin is still not going to be a Senator for my state.
Now we need a better Democrat than Claire McCaskill.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@hep kitty: They weren’t hiding, they just didn’t feel threatened so they didn’t have to cause any trouble. We are more liberal today than we were, ask the gays, but a cornered animal is the most dangerous kind.
Hungry Joe
In San Diego County’s only closely contested race for a House seat, Scott Peters (D) appears to have a pretty much insurmountable lead over incumbent GOP’er Brian Bilbray. (Bilbray, being Bilbray, won’t concede.) With the election of Bob Filner as mayor and a city council 5-4 Democratic (the seats are officially non-partisan, but … ), San Diego is now deep purple and heading for blue.
Roger Moore
@Served:
We finally got 2/3 Democratic majorities in both houses here in California, also, too. It’s a big deal because it means that the Legislature can actually pass tax increases without somehow getting Republicans on board, i.e. it is actually possible now. This is unlikely to make a huge difference right away, because the Democrats don’t actually want to raise taxes that much and Jerry Brown is going to resist very hard, but in the long term that unwillingness to raise taxes immediately is likely to start undermining the Democrats’ reputation as a bunch of tax and spend crazies.
rlrr
@The Red Pen:
For all her (many) faults, she’s still infinitely preferable to Todd Akin…
nancydarling
@The Red Pen: I would trade Mark Pryor for Claire any day. That’s how desperate I feel.
gocart mozart
@amk:
This
gocart mozart
The 3 and 6 Jets are still electing to keep Tebow on the bench.
xian
@Roger Moore: what they really should do is reform prop 13, especially the provisions for commercial real estate.
Roger Moore
@xian:
The Legislature can’t reform Prop 13, at least not by itself. It would require a Constitutional Amendment to change it, and you can imagine that any attempt is likely to wind up with at least as much advertising as all 11 propositions on the ballot this year put together.
Culture of Truth
David Cameron’s tories suffered an embarrassing defeat today, losing an MP seat 17,000 to 9,000 votes in a swing area.
The Independence Party got 5,000 votes, while the Liberal Democrats got so few votes they lost their deposit.
Also humiliating is that less than 15% of people bothered to vote for Cameron’s police commissioners. For example, turnout was below 10 per cent in Stoke-on-Trent, while not a single vote was cast at one polling station in Gwent. Cameron says the commissioners have a mandate.
Conservative party sources suggested that lack of interest from the national media could be to blame for the low turnout.
Culture of Truth
Mitt Romney was the dental dam of the 2012 election.
Scott de B.
I’d like to repeat my request for a call-your-Senators and reform-the-filibuster thread.
xian
@Roger Moore: all propositions are constitutional amendments, so there’s that.
this is also why CA has a 30,000-page constitution (number made up for effect).
TooManyJens
@Scott de B.: Seconded. Although I think we need to decide exactly what reform we’re calling for.
burnspbesq
Republicans, it should be remembered, have other tools in their anti-democratic (large and small D) toolkit besides just stealing votes. However, they got slapped down in a bigl way yesterday by the Sixth Circuit.
http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/11/michigan-affirmative-action-ban-nullified/
For me, the really interesting part of this case is that the majority’s reasoning could easily be applied by the Supremes to uphold the lower court opinions that struck down California’s proposition 8. As the parent of a gay kid, I have a very personal stake in the outcome of that fight.
R-Jud
@Culture of Truth:
My husband was trying to do research for that vote. He was dismayed, because all of the candidates seemed to be using code and weasel-words that implied they were in favor of privatizing SOME part of the police force function. I asked a friend of ours who’s on the local police force, and he said “They’re all shite, but this guy is the least shite.” So Mr Jud went out and voted for Least Shite.
Kane
I heard somewhere that Obama won.
rlrr
@Kane:
Unpossible, all the momentum is going Romney’s way.
Roger Moore
@xian:
No, they aren’t. California allows initiative statutes, including most of the propositions on the ballot this year, but they’re different from legislative statutes in that they can’t be modified by the legislature so any changes have to be passed through another initiative.
burnspbesq
@R-Jud:
Butbutbut … He should have voted for Most Shite, so that things would become so bad that the sheeple would have their eyes opened and their consciousness raised, and would vote for Not Shite next time.
/emoprog
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@burnspbesq:
Have I told you lately that I love you, burns?
Cris (without an H)
Montana’s race for Superintendent of Public Instruction is headed for a recount. The incumbent Democrat is expected to retain her lead, but it’s certainly close.
Besides the obvious implications of having a Republican in charge of public schools, this is important because the Superintendent is part of the five-member State Land Board, which is responsible for the management of 5 million acres of public land.
The current Board is five Democrats, and the good news is that they still hold a majority after the election (when a Republican won AG). But I’d rather see a 4-1 majority than a 3-2.
(More on the recount from MT Cowgirl)
mdblanche
@jibeaux: You never know where the Chinese will turn up these days.
Schlemizel
@rlrr:
If the Dems can just flip 3 or 4 more Senate seats she will become less important. 10 more and we can ignore her altogether 8-{D
schrodinger's cat
He is such a bastard. That 47% comment was a mirror into Mitt’s soul, he looks down on anyone who is not rich like he is. Including dental care in ACA is a great idea. last year at about this time I had a dental emergency, I had to have an emergency root canal. Even with my excellent dental insurance it cost me over $2000. This includes copays for an emergency dental surgery, root canal and the crown. I don’t even know how much it would cost without insurance. Its just insane. My infected tooth could have killed me if I hadn’t taken care of it.
burnspbesq
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
Umm, no. But if you’d like to do something about that, I think I can rearrange my schedule and open up the afternoon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0rZ2CPCYBQ
imonlylurking
No outstanding races here in MN, but can I tell you my dream race for 2014?
Al Franken is up for re-election, and I cannot tell you how desperately I want his opponent to be Michele Bachmann. Those crazy politicians from MN06 always think they have statewide appeal, and they don’t. OMG that would be so awesome.
Schlemizel
@imonlylurking:
From your lips to His noodley appendages! Gaawd, Al would turn her inside out – a thing of beauty and a joy forever!
I am very happy that the DFL now controls both houses. After 20 years of bad governors and 2 years of GOP control of both houses the state is a disaster. I don’t know how much the DFL can do to fix things but at least they can stop some of the bleeding
Jade Jordan
No information will be given until I get my FREE GIFTS.
Can someone send me the link to Obama’s gift registry? I want to order two nice things for me vote in 2008 and 2012.
nancydarling
Here’s a lovely love letter to California (my former home) from Robert Scheer
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_land_of_milk_and_honey_once_more_20121116/
Sited in the column from the WSJ:
There is a definite schism between the new titans of tech and the old captains of industry.
Lojasmo
Minnesota:
Kicked Kraaavaaaack out of the 8th CD, making our congressional delegation 5-3
Amy K. won in a landslide, keeping our Senate delegation 2-0
Flipped both state house and senate to blue.
Defeated anti-gay and anti-voter referendi
I will also note that all our constitutional elected officials and our governor are democrats.
I predict we will have had the highest voter turnout (as a percentage, of course) when all is said and done.
trollhattan
It’s been mentioned in a previos thread, but California District 7, remapped during redistricting, has gone from R to D with the election of Ami Bera. AP declared the race last night, although Lundgren hasn’t conceded yet. There aren’t enough ballots left to count to reverse what has been a steadily growing vote gap.
Not sure this is the end of Lundgren’s long political career, but I don’t forsee any more runs for statewide office. Maybe he can go back to his old gig pontificating on Catholic radio.
shortstop
@Schlemizel: The FSM is a man? No way!
danimal
@Roger Moore: If I were a CA Dem politician, I’d be exploring ways to cremate Prop 13 legislatively while proposing a tax-cut initiative (with Brown as the sponsor) to make the changes revenue-neutral. Put it on the 2014 ballot and watch Republican heads explode.
The CA LAO Budget Outlook just came out. It is such a different document; CA will have projected surpluses in 1-2 years, if we don’t screw it up. See what happens when the adults are in charge.
Eljai
California just called the 7th congressional district for Democrat Ami Bera. He kicked out the particularly odious republican Dan Lundgren in a close race. Bera is the third Indian-American to be elected to the House of Representatives. Yay!
danimal
@trollhattan: I’ve had this question for a while now: How did Lungren wind up in NoCal? He was my congressman decades ago when I lived in Huntington Beach. Did he get a taste for the fine Sacramento (lobbyist) lifestyle while in state office and never return home? Does this mean he’ll become a prominent Virginia politician now that he’s been in the DC area and experienced the fine DC (lobbyist) lifestyle? Grifters gotta grift.
draftmama
@Cris (without an H):
The recount is going to cost the MT republican party $115K. Do they really think thats worth it? They are just pissed that a Native from Browning won over a white lady. Which is probably why the vote was so close in the first place.
trollhattan
@danimal:
I thihk it went just how you frame it, but I don’t know the particulars. My go-to example of So-Cal carpetbagging is the odious Tom McClintock, who parachuted in to take control over the disgraced John Doolittle’s seat (covers all of NE California) after terming out of state office. Unless he gets his hand caught in the cookie jar like Doolittle did, it’s bascially a lifetime appointment/piggy bank.
Lojasmo
I wish FYWP had better edit function.
2008 turnout in MN was 77% which was the highest turnout in the nation.
We had 18,000 more votes than that in 2012, and our population increased by 41,000 between 2010 and 2011, so we should be in the same neighborhood
danimal
@trollhattan: McClintock’s a star with the John and Ken crowd down here. (And Gawd is that easy; just vote No on every appropriation, pretend it’s principled, and keep the p.r. staff busy…) He’ll run for guv sooner or later. Hopefully, that will end his public service career.
nancydarling
@draftmama: I just read Denise Juneau’s CV. I am impressed and so happy for her and Montanans. She is another chink in the armor of old white guys.
Roger Moore
@danimal:
I’d like to see them restore some of the stuff they’ve slashed before they start running an actual surplus. But it’ll be a lot easier to keep the budget balanced now that it can be passed with a simple majority. The thing that’s really been driving the state over the cliff was the need to get a few Republicans to agree to the budget every year by bribing them with goodies that would make future budgets harder to balance. Thank FSM that’s over with.
trollhattan
@danimal:
If his fluffers get him to run for governor, he’ll lose worse than Megs did. This ain’t Arizona.
Please, make it so.
Which brings me to, whither a Jerry second (fourth) term? I can’t get a read from him. If he doesn’t run, my money’s on Newsome v. Bowen in the primary.
burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
At some point, it would be nice if we could start to buy back and retire some of the bonds that have been issued over the years to paper over the cracks in our fiscal situation. That would be a fine way to deal with any surpluses that arise; you create a virtuous circle where retiring debt reduces interest expense which increases surpluses and allows for more retirement.
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
I’m still inclined to think that restoring services should take a higher priority than debt retirement. Of course Prop 98 makes sure that a substantial share of any increased revenue will be spent that way, which seems reasonable to me. I wish it didn’t mandate increased spending in boom years, which is when debt retirement makes the most sense.
I’ve thought about it a fair bit, and my general feeling is that a sensible, conservative (in the traditional sense) budgeting system would go something like this:
1) The state may not issue general obligation bonds. Any debt must have a dedicated revenue stream, either a tax or fee, to pay for it.
2) The Legislative Analyst’s office comes up with a target budget figure that is the lesser of last year’s actual budget (adjusted for inflation and population growth) or this year’s projected revenues.
3) The Governor proposes a budget that meets the Legislative Analyst’s number and (optionally) one that spends more.
4) The Legislature takes up the Governor’s proposal(s) and adopts a budget. It takes a simple majority to pass a budget that spends no more than the Legislative Analyst’s figure and a 2/3 supermajority to spend more.
5) Any surplus is split between a rainy day fund and retiring outstanding debt, starting with whatever debt is paying the highest interest rate.
I don’t see how to get from where we are to something like that, but it seems to me that it would be a better system than what we currently have.
danimal
@Hungry Joe: FYI. Bilbray just conceded.
burnspbesq
@trollhattan:
If Obama doesn’t put her on the Ninth Circuit, I’ll be amazed if Harris doesn’t run.
burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
Probably needs a Constitutional amendment. Which I would vote for.
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
I think we need a thorough Constitutional revision, not just an amendment or two. We’ve spent 100+ years tacking stuff on that really shouldn’t be in a Constitution in the first place. It would be a good idea to go through and at the very least clean the document up, if not do a more thorough rethink of how things are done. That probably ought to be a general practice: all our laws, up to and including the Constitution, should get a periodic review. Obsolete provisions should be removed, language clarified, and even basic assumptions of the law reconsidered.
sharl
Excellent idea for a post, SP&T, having commenters report “from the field.” Kinda goes nicely with what Kay does.
Before Citizens United – back in 2006 and 2008 – I used to use such reports – in those days, mostly from Open Left diarists – to determine which Congressional races showed sufficient promise for a contribution.
Ron
@gocart mozart: That’s because Tebow sucks giant moose balls.