Christie wins, Blasio wins, and it looks like the VA race is going down to the wire. Depressing to think that that many people voted for the Vagina Theologue, but whatever.
Waiting for Sons, myself.
*** Update ***
And Terry wins. Oddly enough, Fox called it first.
Redshirt
Second most important election in the nation tonight: Portland legalizes it.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
My daughter thinks she accidentally voted for Obenshain. She didn’t know what the R’s and D’s meant beside their names.
R. Johnston
VA is done. The outstanding votes are in Fairfax and Prince William, Blue country. Remember how Obama was trailing there until late then pulled easily ahead? Same thing tonight. No one wants to call it with Cooch still leading the count, but it’s over.
max
Well, Fox has called it.
max
[‘But they’re the home of premature ejaculation anyways, so there’s that.’]
raven
@max:
Rachel say
no no no
David Koch
Freak news calling it for TMac
Anoniminous
3,000 vote separation and Cooch is done.
Question is Herring. Still 50,000 behind but can make it up.
Unless Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader‘s daughter gives Obenshain the victory.
Anya
This makes me really nervous!
jibeaux
Dafuq is wrong with Virginia? That asshole was polling even with men and 20 points behind with women, which, with the exception of the men, is as it should be. Sheesh.
Mister Papercut
@jibeaux:
How much time do you have?
MomSense
@Anya:
Makes me nervous, too.
raven
Rachel calls it.
Baud
MSNBC called it for T-Mac!
raven
@MomSense: Sheesh, relax girls.
Shana
@R. Johnston: Yeah, my generally R leaning precinct voted pretty heavily for McAuliffe. The heavily Dem areas are slow coming in. I’m not worried.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
anybody else think Chuck Todd sounds like he “interviewed” John Boehner at about happy hour tonight?
Cacti
Not every Democratic candidate can be as perfect as Manchin.
scav
Don’t forget to root for Kay’s schools too, among all the other results. Basics!
Elizabelle
Now, we must get Mark Herring for Attorney General.
That’s been the tough race. Got to see how big Terry Mac’s coat-tails.
R. Johnston
In NYC, I’m guessing we get some confirmation of the crazification factor. I predict Joe Lhota 27±2%.
Matt McIrvin
Fairfax County always reports late, because it’s huge, and it’s heavily D. Obama carried VA by margins that were only clear late into the night in both 2008 and 2012.
Tom Q
@R. Johnston: You completely nailed it. The networks knew where all the outstanding votes were, and that TMac would easily offset Cooch’s margin, but they were embarrassed by the optics of calling it for a guy trailing in raw votes. Just about the second TMac pulled into the lead, they made their call.
raven
@Tom Q: And this victory is bad for Obama and good for the tparty.
GregB
Chuck Todd looks like he’s slowly morphing into Pat Caddell. In looks and in beltway wankerishness.
MomSense
@raven:
It was much closer than people thought so of course tomorrow morning the Joe’s are going to talk about Christie non stop and how VA doesn’t mean anything and how people are losing their health insurance and suffering from sticker shock and it is all Obama’s fault!
@Redshirt:
B-J meetup in Portland!
JMG
As they say, it’s match play and not medal. Margin of victory only matters if there’s a point spread.
PsiFighter37
Gotta hope Herring can catch up to Obenshain – think that’s going down to the wire.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Oh my god Chuck Todd is a fucking douchebag. Rachel, bring back Steve Schmidt! Even Michael Steele was less concern trolly to Dems today.
Elizabelle
I wish I could be at that victory party, but tired and the parking will be a zoo. Alas.
KG
@Redshirt: this is my not shocked face.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@GregB:
When Chuck Todd’s eyeballs start scurrying around his face like alarmed silverfish, we’ll know the metamorphosis is compete.
Cacti
Virginia’s crazification factor looks a little higher than 27%.
E.W. Jackson got 45% of the vote for Lt. Governor.
Southern Beale
Clearly Cuccinelli wasn’t conservative enough.
PsiFighter37
Herring now only 1.5% back, but only 170 precincts outstanding…can he make up 30,000 votes in that span?
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Guess they started in early.
@Elizabelle:
Just want to say thank you for all of your volunteering!
Elizabelle
Another odd, odd thing Chuck Todd said tonight — and we have been collecting them.
He was describing Fairfax County as “on the other side of the Beltway.”
When he’s standing in it. Chuck: Tyson’s Corner is IN Fairfax County. You should know that.
You are standing there, wanking away, in a hotel ballroom in Tyson’s Corner IN Fairfax County on YOUR side of the beltway.
Could he have been idly thinking “other side of the Potomac”, which some of Fairfax County is?
Anoniminous
Herring is starting to creep up. Now he’s 45,000 votes behind and steadily gaining.
raven
@Elizabelle: You pay that much attention to this dork?
max
@Southern Beale: Clearly Cuccinelli wasn’t conservative enough.
I haven’t heard that one yet, but I’m not watching Faux.
Could he have been idly thinking “other side of the Potomac”, which some of Fairfax County is?
Yes. Different from DC.
max
[‘You know… more honktastic. Nudge nudge, wink wink.’]
Elizabelle
@MomSense:
Will tell you, we had so many volunteers today that I did not have to do very much! Just a few hours.
Kind of a nice problem to have. We ran out of packets to walk.
Did not go on the (heroic!) 7:00 am canvass, but hear the voters were very appreciative to see Democratic volunteers at their doors.
EcoNerd
@Cacti: The crazification factor might be a variable, rather than a physical constant. If the republicans keep running batshit crazy black guys at some reasonable frequency, we might might be able to detect peak wingnut.
Elizabelle
@raven:
Hey, he’s not Steve Schmidt or Morning Joe.
I think Todd’s wife was Jim Webb’s press secretary or director of communications or something like that …
Mister Papercut
@Anoniminous:
Now down 30k with 93.31% of precincts in.
David Koch
What is the use of watching “libuerl” Maddow if she’s only going to have on republicans to tell us how defeat is really victory.
Baud
@Mister Papercut:
Seems like a lot to make up.
Matt McIrvin
@MomSense: I don’t think we’re going to have a good idea of McAuliffe’s actual margin in the VA governor’s race until tomorrow morning, or at least later tonight.
CaseyL
I’m able to breathe a little better now that the numbers in VA have turned in McAuliffe’s favor. Whew.
The Seattle Times has put up a liveblog to follow local election results, which is kind of funny because we vote by mail and it’ll be days before we know what the results are.
Baud
LOL
Anoniminous
@Mister Papercut:
Now it’s down to votes outstanding rather than percent of precincts reporting. My thinking is there is enough left for Herring to pull it out. Whether he will, or not, is the question. As a guess, but based on exit polling, I’ll bet he is going to win in a squeaker.
Elizabelle
@David Koch:
Yeah, good question.
Finally she’s getting around to Cuccinelli’s problem being his policies. Specifically here, about women’s health.
I wish Cooch’s crusade against climate researchers at UVA got a lot more notice. His party shrieks about government overreach, and here’s Cooch deploying the state government against one of its finest universities, which had to spend big bucks to defend itself.
That got us several scientifically-minded Republican Terry McA voters. One put up a prominent yard sign.
Mister Papercut
@Baud:
Probably. Now the margin is 25,429 with 95.24% in.
We do silly shit like this, though. Bob McDonnell won AG by a couple hundred votes the year Tim Kaine was elected governor.
David Koch
0
PsiFighter37
@Anoniminous: Another 50 precincts came in…Herring only picked up 5k votes. He’s gotta do better than that in whatever’s left, or he’s going to end up losing by around 10,000 votes.
amy c
I live in NoVA and shit on it a lot, but I do love it on election nights.
T-Mac also killed it in and around Richmond, which surprises me. Maybe that’s Governor Bob’s legacy?
Elizabelle
@PsiFighter37:
Yeah, nail biter.
I think you’re going to see ballots that don’t choose a governor or lt. governor, but go for Obenshain and local offices/school bond, whatever.
Come on Mark Herring!!
EriktheRed
Oh well, may not have been a blowout, but Cooch being out of power in Viginny was the main objective and it’s been achieved.
Elizabelle
It’s Hen – REYECO. Not Henreeko.
Does Chuck Todd never talk to anyone around Richmond?
(Rachel can’t pronounce it either.)
Anoniminous
@PsiFighter37:
yeah it’s going to be a nail biter.
From what I have read low-information voters are giving him votes due to name recognition from his daddy and Obenshain being very, very, careful not to let people know he was a Republican in his campaign literature.
Elizabelle
And here comes “money could have pulled Cooch over the line.” And Todd wonders why Chris Christie would not come down and campaign for Cuccinelli.
This when Christie’s known as the not the tea party guy?
PsiFighter37
@Anoniminous: That’s on DPVA and Herring to constantly remind people that Obenshain is a Republican (although wasn’t his father basically the architect of the modern GOP in the state?).
Oh well. Hope he can pull it out, but doesn’t seem like it. Would have to imagine 2017 will be a Northam-Obenshain smackdown, similar to how Kaine v. Kilgore in 2005 was Dem LG v. GOP AG as well.
Elizabelle
@Anoniminous:
Funny, but I was worried about Mark up against Mark, and some misvoted ballots on that account.
Mark Herring is not high profile. He’s from Northern Northern Virginia. I’d never heard of him (which means nothing…)
Obenshain’s father was the GOP Senate candidate killed in a plane crash; John Warner then became nominee and won the seat.
Tiny bit wondering if voters might associate Obenshain with the highly popular (and very moderate and modern) John Warner, even in the back of their mind.
PsiFighter37
Another 40 precincts in…Herring still down just under 20k votes. 80 precincts left…don’t think he can pull it out.
If T-Mac had won by as much as the polls were saying, Herring would’ve been dragged through the finish line. As it turns out, T-Mac is only up 1.5%…looking like that won’t be enough.
Elizabelle
@PsiFighter37:
Maybe the absentee in person votes? There are over 114,000 of them.
When do they get counted?
I’m going to turn off MSNBC now. Is it Heileman pointing out that Cooch could have won, but for the shutdown? I’m sick of everything being good for Republicans.
Anoniminous
@PsiFighter37:
I bow to your and Elizabelle’s local knowledge.
But it ain’t over ’till all the votes are counted so don’t despair yet.
CaseyL
Over at GOS they’re reduced to hoping absentee ballots will help Herring. Anyone have any idea how many absentee ballots there are?
amy c
I’d never heard of Obenshain the Elder until, well, just now. Wiki says he died the year I was born – 35 years ago. It’s hard for me to imagine folks who aren’t already diehard Republicans suckered in by name recognition.
But I’m a relative noob to the area, so who knows.
The letter “O” was prominent on Obenshain the Younger’s campaign signs. I know I often found my lizard brain reflexively thinking “Obama” when I saw his marketing. Then having to correct myself that he was the R candidate. It is probably crazy, but I wonder about that.
I voted for Herring but he’s entirely unmemorable.
catclub
Sarvis got a LOT of votes. and comparing the Lt Gov and Gov races, he took them from Terry Mac.
Elizabelle
@amy c:
I always thought that elongated O in the Obenshain signs was crying out for an Edward Munch scream face.
PS: Richmond city is usually Democratic, as are some of its populous suburbs. Hanover County: Eric Cantor country. Don’t know how Chesterfield County votes; should look it up… would guess GOP lite, but I don’t know that …
amy c
@catclub:
Anecdotally, I felt like I had a lot of those conversations with people during this election. Reasonable Folks who Just Could Not Vote for Either of These Fools and Thus Would Vote Libertarian.
Usually when these types hit the voting booth, though, they go with their usual flavor of candidate, whatever they said the day before. Interesting if this time is different.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
Where does Fairfax County cross the river? I thought that is the state line.
Pink Snapdragon
@Elizabelle: Chuck Todd lives in Arlington and belongs to my synagogue which is in Fairfax County. What a doofus!
Pink Snapdragon
@Steeplejack: Fairfax County is located mostly outside the beltway, but a portion of it is inside. The Potomac River is the boundary between Maryland and Virginia.
Elizabelle
@Pink Snapdragon:
Hey, how did your election officer gig go?
Good on you for doing it!
becca
Watching the Jimi Hendrix doc on PBS.
Never was a big fan before.
What the hell was wrong with ME!
Mister Papercut
@Elizabelle:
Reliably red.
Bill Arnold
@EcoNerd:
No, it’s a constant, and any observed variation is simply sampling error. It’s reliable enough that some pollsters use it as a poll calibration mechanism. (*) In Virginia, people other than the 27% were voting for Cooch.
(*) OK I made the poll calibration bit up. But it sure seems like a constant.
Zelma
Re Christie’s popularity, I think I finally understand it after listening to his speech. I’m a Jersey girl and I worked and voted against him. But when I heard him talk tonight, it suddenly became clear. We New Jerseyians feel terminally unlovable. We sit, ignored, between Philly and NYC. We are the butt of innumerable jokes. But, clearly, Chris Christie loves New Jersey. And so New Jerseyians love him back.
Whether it’s an honest emotion, who can say? Whether it “plays in Peoria,” who knows? But, even I – who really don’t like him or his policies one bit – was surprisingly moved. At least somebody loves us and speaks well of us! You have no idea how hard it is to be from New Jersey unless you’re from New Jersey!
Elizabelle
@Zelma:
Insightful.
Pink Snapdragon
@Elizabelle: I worked in the Danbury Forest Precinct in Fairfax. It’s not a big precinct, but the dems won all the races. Interestingly, Herring got more votes there than either T-Mac or Northam, but I was quite surprised at how many votes the Republicans actually got. Also there were a lot of undervotes. People voted for the three statewide races and the school bond referendum and left the delegate and sheriff races blank. A fair number of people also left the lt. gov. race blank even though they voted straight repub in the other races.
Also, Stacy Kincaid has won the sheriff’s race and will be the first female sheriff in Fairfax.
Elizabelle
@Pink Snapdragon:
I didn’t know Stacy Kincaid won. Wunderbar!
Danbury Forest. Know just where you were. I bike near there frequently.
Interesting re voting patterns.
When do they count the absentee ballots?
Steeplejack
@Pink Snapdragon:
Yeah, I get that. But what she wrote was:
I believe all of Fairfax County is on one side of the river.
Anoniminous
What the heck? What happened? Obershain is only leading by ~1,300 votes.
...now I try to be amused
@Zelma:
Benjamin Franklin called New Jersey “a barrel tapped at both ends”.
Pink Snapdragon
@Elizabelle: Then you also bike near my house because I live in King’s Park and you can see the back of my house from Danbury Forest Drive. Would you be on the trail that goes past the rec center?
NotMax
de Blasio
Elizabelle
@Pink Snapdragon:
I bike the trail around Lake Accotink, then through Danbury Forest a bit to loop through.
Canvassed the townhouses; I’d not realized how nicely they’re situated in the woods. Lots of privacy, with deer traipsing through.
Elizabelle
@Pink Snapdragon:
I bike the trail around Lake Accotink, then through Danbury Forest a bit to loop through.
Canvassed the townhouses; I’d not realized how nicely they’re situated in the woods. Lots of privacy, with deer traipsing through.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack:
Hey there.
Nothing like blasting Chuck Todd for his knowledge of geography and erring there myself: I was thinking about Fairfax County being across the Potomac from DC but realized I am thinking of the Mount Vernon area of Fairfax and it’s Maryland across that river!
I am not sure exactly where Fairfax County’s borders are — going to take a better look at a big map tomorrow.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
Forget it. I thought you might be referencing some obscure bit of local history like there is a sandbar on the Maryland side that belongs to Fairfax County because the river moved in 1831 or something.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: 1827, you dumbass.
Elizabelle
And we gots snakeheads in that river.
I am claiming them for Fairfax County.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
D’oh!
Pink Snapdragon
@Elizabelle: Yeah, those deer are the reason I no longer plant flowers or have a garden. They eat everything. Fairfax Co. has a “deer reduction” effort going on now through February at Lake Accotink. Involves bow hunters but off the trails. My friends in Danbury Forest say the deer have actually learned to stay on the trails because the hunters can’t shoot them there.
Elizabelle
@Pink Snapdragon:
Those bowhunters have definitely trained the rest of us to stay on the trails.
boatboy_srq
@raven: Doesn’t help when you see a voter turned away at the polls (of about 10 in queue). NOT encouraging.
My district went narrowly R (couple hundred votes) locally, but pretty solidly TMac. Our delegate is probably rethinking his next run.
boatboy_srq
@David Koch: She does it for the comic relief.
Matt McIrvin
@Elizabelle: It’s on the other side of the Potomac, but Arlington County (which used to be part of DC) and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church are in between. (In Virginia, incorporated cities are not part of a county.)
Matt McIrvin
…Also, there’s a geographic quirk with the Potomac in that the state line generally runs along the Virginia side of the river, not down the middle. In Colonial Beach, there’s a casino built in the river out at the end of a pier so it can qualify as “riverboat gambling” under Maryland law.