Looks like Boston chose “the unions guy” (Marty Walsh) over “the charter schools education guy” (John Connolly).
ETA: From commentor Rheinhard:
As a NJ voter, while Christie’s win is disappointing (while not unexpected — Barbara Buono ran a largely invisible campaign), one bright spot is the overwhelming victory of the ballot initiative to raise the NJ minimum wage to $8.25, with annual cost of living increases. This effectively overrides fatass’ veto of the bill passed by the NJ legislature, thanks to wage increase supporters getting it on the state ballot.
***********
Got beaten to the front page, first by Cole and then by Soonergrunt. Wrap up your bitching microanalyzing here…
***********
I hope we see more of Barbara Buono:
RaflW
First Somali-American elected to a city council in Minneapolis today. But he ran a rather homophobic campaign against a gay progressive incumbent, so a crappy way to win.
In brighter news, Rank Choice Voting does not seem to be blowing up in our faces here.
ETA: as in, no US electorate has elected a Somali-American to such an office before this evening. Again, could be happy, but want to know more about what his campaign did and what it disavowed, etc…
mzrad
I really enjoy following Jim Newell’s live blogging of US elections via The Guardian. Live blogging election results, debates, and such are a wonderful way for compatriots to come together, virtually.
Thank god for the series of tubes!
Spaghetti Lee
Not much going on here in the Land of Lincoln. The results seem to be mostly good though. Anyone hear what became of those rural Colorado counties’ secession vote? Not that they’d ever clear the state lege, the governor, and the feds, but I hope that such stupidity gets beat down at the source. I assume, since I didn’t hear anything, it failed: it would be news if it didn’t fail.
max
Seven precincts out in VA AG race. AP has Obershain up by a 1150 or so, but all but two of the out precincts are in Herring turf, particularly Norfolk which has two precincts out and went for Herring 70/30. (One out in Mecklinburg, Newport News, Prince William, Rockbridge and Rockingham.) By law, the candidates can appeal for a recount here, because there don’t seem to be enough votes out to break open the race beyond the 1% of total votes necessary to forestall a recount. It’s just a question of who comes in first prior to tomorrow, and then after (or maybe before) error corrections in county reports.
OK, Newport News came in, five precincts left, vote total differential is 820 to Obershain.
max
[‘Those voter disqualifications appeared to have mattered.’]
max
@Spaghetti Lee: Not much going on here in the Land of Lincoln. The results seem to be mostly good though. Anyone hear what became of those rural Colorado counties’ secession vote?
Secessionists are losing, fairly badly.
max
[‘Haven’t seen a total in awhile.’]
Spaghetti Lee
Clicking around in Rheinhard’s link:
Exit polls showed Christie’s support among black voters since 2009 jumped by 12 percentage points, to 21 percent. And he took 51 percent of the Hispanic vote, an increase of 19 percentage points over four years ago.
Huh. He also lost the under-30 vote. Nothing that I saw on how he did with women voters. Good news about the minimum wage, btw. Illinois’ has been over $8 for a while and amazingly downtown Chicago hasn’t turned into a smoking wasteland.
FlipYrWhig
Christie can’t pronounce the letter L. Wasn’t a great speech, and that made it almost comical.
Omnes Omnibus
@FlipYrWhig: What does he say instead? As a kid, I had a thing where I pronounced a double L as a W. Instead of “yellow” I would say “yewow.” It still pops up once in a while when I am exhausted.
patroclus
Huge doings in the Land of Lincoln today! The Illinois House passed marriage equality late this afternoon and Governor Quinn will sign it and it will take effect June 1 just in time for weddings month!!! Boystown in Chitown is celebrating tonight! Also, medical marijuana was previously passed and will take effect January 1, so some “sick” people will be able to get their (uh) “medicine” at all the June weddings!
FlipYrWhig
@Omnes Omnibus: It sounded to me like he was swallowing the L’s. More like a French L than an American L. Listen the next time he says “leadership.” Not quite at Condition: Brokaw, but on the spectrum.
lamh36
My takeaway from VA that I think Dems and online liberals acitivist should take note of…the Obama coalition is what the Dems need to win elections in these purple states. Now maybe with Hilary on the ballot Dems may actually get more white women to vote against GOP, but we’ll see.
Spaghetti Lee
So…they kinda have to run Christie now, right? He’s the only Republican in the last 5 years or so who’s shown he can win a moderate statewide electorate. Yeah, he’s a nasty piece of work, but hopefully that nastiness will be put to work telling the Cruz/Paul squad to fuck off and bringing the GOP’s civil war right out to the forefront.
max
@max:
They lost the vote in
sixfiveSIX! of eleven counties. Wins in Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Phillips, Washington, and Yuma (57 votes for to 13 votes against) counties, losses in Elbert, Lincoln, Logan, Moffat, Sedgwick, and Weld.max
[‘Gonna have to break out the calculator.’]
Yatsuno
@Spaghetti Lee:
Not election related anyway…
But you’re not alone there. Go birthplace!!!
Spaghetti Lee
@patroclus:
Oh, whoops, forgot about those, sorry.
PeakVT
Christie got 21% of the AA vote and 51% of the Latino vote on the way to a 20pt blowout?
We’re never going to hear the end of that from our craptastic media, no matter how irrelevant the results are to a national race.
max
@max: OK, Newport News came in, five precincts left, vote total differential is 820 to Obershain.
Which would give Obershain a 200 vote lead with 5 precincts out.
max
[‘Oh, my.’]
patroclus
@Spaghetti Lee: No problema – nothing will harsh my buzz from the legislature today! We’re #15 (16 if you count D.C.) with Hawaii to follow in a few days and New Mexico (possibly) in a few weeks! Feel the Momentum!
Spaghetti Lee
@max:
Combined population of those five counties: 29,405 (thanks, Wikipedia), with the hoofed animals of various description probably outnumbering the people. I say let ’em go: I’ve always wanted to find out who would win a debate between a Teabagger and a bison.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@FlipYrWhig: President-in-Waiting Christie is on a mission to capture America’s heart. I don’t like to make predictions in today’s bizarro political climate but if he can somehow finagle the Republican nomination for President, he will trounce whatever Anti-Christie Democrats throw at him.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: I wasn’t that good a speller as a small child. Entire families must still respond to their reassigned wast names dating to that period of wife.
Yatsuno
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
I prefer beef.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: Not the initial L. Only the L sound in the middle of a word. Yewow. Jewo. Mewo. Etc.
patroclus
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Well, I don’t agree. He vetoes marriage equality and the NJ courts had to impose it against his wishes. He’s a relentless bigot that just happened to hug Obama for atmospherics. He’s hugely vulnerable – the remainder of the country can see through him.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: You were far cleverer and more lingually dexterous as a child — mine was more of a clear-cut operation, heavy on the leading edge.
DocSardonic
Why would we want to see more of Barbara Buono…….her campaign was run about as shoddily as Martha Coakley in Mass against Scott Brown and Alex Sink in Florida against Voldemort
max
@Spaghetti Lee: Combined population of those five counties: 29,405 (thanks, Wikipedia), with the hoofed animals of various description probably outnumbering the people. I say let ‘em go: I’ve always wanted to find out who would win a debate between a Teabagger and a bison.
Vote totals for the 11 county “statewide” vote for secession: For – 34941 (43.6), Against 45223 (56.4%).
So roughly speaking, in red counties, the teabaggers represent 43% of the vote.
max
[‘They could secede from their counties FIRST! And then have those new counties secede to form a new state! Yeah! That’s the ticket!’]
max
max
[‘Woo.’]
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: Mom, the elementary school teacher, still worried. And mine still pops up once in a while. When tired, I have talked about peanut butter and jeWy sandwiches. I can live with it. No one notices unless they are listening for it – like me.
MattR
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
I highly doubt that.
max
Virginia – County Vote Results
November 06, 2013 – 01:19AM ET
Attorney General – General
Total
2536/2541 precincts
Herring: 1,097,106, Obershain: 1,097,259
max
[‘That was a big correction.’]
Elizabelle
@max: whoa
TS
@DocSardonic:
For reasons known only to themselves she received virtually no support from the national party – perhaps they thought it was a waste of money – or perhaps Christie bullied a few people – but when democrats start endorsing a GOPer – who is anti everything – something is not as it should be. The media may have helped the democrats in their decision making – they love the Gov Christie.
Check out Pierce
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Lessons_Of_The_Past_Forgotten
max
@Elizabelle: whoa
Yup.
VA Code:
Senator Herring needeth some extra scratch to help ensure he becomes the new AG (Ya need extra lawyers to become boss lawyer):
max
[‘Link in email quoted. I have sent in my bit.’]
Hill Dweller
piratedan
@TS: from what I understand, the deals that Christie made with the power brokers in the state, Dem folks in the state legislature, essentially remained in Christie’s pocket and as such, the party essentially wrote this off. Shortsighted, just because he cleared the low hurdle of not being a prick while asking for relief funds, he’s been riding this “reasonable Republican” schtick for all it’s worth. His deeds tell a different story where he’s anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage rites, anti-minimum wage increase and he’s anti-union and to top it all off, he’s gotten a pass of fucking up the distribution of the Sandy relief funds. Yet if the local dems are in bed with him, hard to blame the national folks for passing (although I wish that they had fought this, with better organization and candidates)
this is an image over substance election, enabled by greased palms on the NJ Democratic Party side.
shows that Dems aren’t perfect and capable of short term thinking against long term planning. On the plus side, doesn’t appear that there’s any change to the NJ asembly
Chris T.
@max: Could we have Teabagger Reservations, perhaps? :-)
max
Virginia – County Vote Results
November 06, 2013 – 01:49AM ET
Attorney General – General
Total
2537/2541 precincts
Herring: 1,098,388, Obershain: 1,097,772
TOUCHDOWN!
max
[‘We got a lead! All important when heading into a recount.’]
max
@Chris T.: Could we have Teabagger Reservations, perhaps? :-)
It depends. Will white tribal councils allow native american tribal councils to prosecute offenses on the reservation by non-tribal members?
max
[‘};)’]
David Koch
I wish I had a dollar for everytime I heard Giulliani was unbeatable by the Acela Media from 2005-2007
He was touted as the blue state repuk who could make divided government work. He even was the candidate of Fixxed News because he helped pull strings to get it launched when he was mayor in the 90s.
In the end, he raised the most money of any candidate, had the highest name ID, had the entire media on his side, never failing to wave the bloody shirt of 911, and he didn’t win a single delegate.
And while Giulianni used to like to dress up like a women, he didn’t have these explosive, comprising photos to deal with:
http://badatsports.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/obama-christie.jpg
http://rawreplaymedia.com/media/2012/1212/cbs_christie_obama_130528c1.gif
Steeplejack
@David Koch:
Your first link returns “Error 403: Forbidden.”
David Koch
@max: Holy Fuck!
David Koch
@Steeplejack: really, this should work: http://badatsports.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/obama-christie.jpg
Steeplejack
@David Koch:
Still getting an error.
It’s not you, it’s me.
Amir Khalid
@David Koch:
Still no joy.
Bill E Pilgrim
@FlipYrWhig: That’s a Jersey/Phiwwy thing, I think.
By the way, way back several threads if not days, re your response to a comment of mine: I wasn’t talking about McAullife, thus the disclaimer. I was just responding to what John wrote about our very serious people seeming “above it all” and etc, doesn’t seem that way to me at all.
If you don’t remember what I’m talking about (entirely likely), never mind. I was traveling, on the iPhone, plus BJ was not responding, at the time.
David Koch
@Steeplejack: @Amir Khalid:
I uploaded it to imageshack, so it should work (Warning: NSFW).
http://imageshack.com/a/img24/901/qnrf.jpg
fuckwit
How the FUCK is it even possible that Cuccinelli could have even gotten that close to winning? That’s fucking frightening.
fuckwit
@DocSardonic: Because she’s female, and AL roots for the home team, that’s why.
Sorry, Buono was a dud. Do not want. We need to clone Elizabeth Warren instead. More fighters, and I don’t give a damn what gender they are.
piratedan
@fuckwit: R’s came home and they tried to tie MacAuliffe to the issues with the ACA rollout is what I’m hearing. Plus some of the earlier polling may have convinced some Dems to stay home thinking a 6-8% lead means that “My vote” isn’t needed. White women didn’t drop into the Dem column as fervently as minority or younger women did(is what I’ve seen in a couple of places)
Steeplejack
@David Koch:
Thanks. Ugh.
Spaghetti Lee
@fuckwit:
I don’t think it’s Buono’s fault that the NJ state party left her hung out to dry because they’re all apparently a bunch of starfuckers when it comes to Chris Christie. Buono sounded angry and defiant even in her concession speech, and she’s been saying what we all want people to say about Christie-that he’s a fraud and an extremist with a good PR image-the whole time. I don’t see why it’s her fault that she was in basically a no-win race and got little help.
? Martin
Getting more local support here for my idea to sell Alabama to China. Thinking of putting up a WH.gov petition for the idea.
Origuy
Sunnyvale, which is the largest city between San Francisco and San Jose, voted for a strict gun control measure.
The NRA will be at the courthouse tomorrow.
MikeJ
With 2555 out of 2558 reporting:
REP Party Mark D. Obenshain 1,087,403 49.90%
DEM Party Mark R. Herring 1,087,376 49.90%
27 votes
MattR
@Origuy:
The sad thing is that I expect that the NRA was screaming about this provision being an unfair infringement on Second Amendment rights.
Origuy
I heard an NRA spokesman on the radio complaining about the requirement to keep guns locked up when not in use. He thought that arms should be ready at a moment’s notice, apparently for use by a well-regulated militia.
Mister Papercut
@fuckwit:
I would bet a fair portion of the would-be Sarvis voters got cold feet. I think he was polling around 9-10%, and will actually end up @ 6.5%.
Anyone who actually thought McAuliffe had a legitimate chance of a 6% MOV needs, at a minimum, a serious and lengthy intervention of some kind. Hell, Warner and Kaine didn’t even break that in their gubernatorial elections.
eemom
VA Board of Elections has Herring ahead as of now. Yeeehaaaw.
Patricia Kayden
@fuckwit: white voters
MikeJ
@eemom: Thank god.
Interesting that more people voted in the AG race than the gov.
Botsplainer
Wingnut tears taste truly delicious, not unlike ambrosia.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3087997/posts
The article is, of course, stupid. The comments following it are a delight. Rage, recrimination, calls for secession or civil war, some trolling..
NotMax
@Botsplainer
It’s a bit like MadLibs, isn’t it?
Vicksburg Loss A Giant Gain For Confederacy
Enron Collapse A Behemoth Boon For Investors
One could do these all night…
raven
@NotMax: Fackin marooons. . .
OzarkHillbilly
Anybody know if the funding for a $70 million high school football stadium in TX passed?
Botsplainer
@NotMax:
When you’re at rock bottom, the only way to go is up….
Botsplainer
@OzarkHillbilly:
Rejected by a 10 point margin.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly:
She caught the Katy
Left me a mule to ride
Botsplainer
Conservatism can never fail. It can only be failed.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/05/Cuccinelli-Campaign-Says-National-GOP-Abandoned-Them-We-Were-on-Our-Own?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Yummy goodness on those wingnut tears. I may pour them on breakfast cereal.
OzarkHillbilly
@Botsplainer: @raven: Who’da thunk it? Even Texans have at least a semblance of common sense.
raven
@Botsplainer: Buono said the same thing.
Baud
The Reuters story on de Blasio’s win has this nugget:
LOL. I’ll leave it to people smarter than I am to figure out why de Blasio’s height is not only important enough to report, but also to convert to metric units.
Schlemizel
@fuckwit:
Two reasons I think.
Terry Mac is a slimy POS, it is a shame the Democratic party allow him to claim membership. He has his hand in the till and everyone know it. His negative numbers were really really high even before Choochie started in on him. (Choochie’s numbers were worse but less of a problem because of reason number 2)
In off year elections turn out is everything. The baggers would walk across broken glass in a blinding snow storm during a hurricane for the opportunity to vote for a white Idi Amin if that candidate promised to gut government, ban sex, and mandate prayer. If the Dem cannot generate real enthusiasm he will lose big time. That Mac did not is a sign that sanity is a more winning trait in Va than it used to be.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Botsplainer: Funding dried up October 1st? Where are they getting money from the Federal Gov? They couldn’t get funds because the shutdown?
amk
@Botsplainer: Given the piddly winning margin of Mac, it is entirely possible cuckoo could have won if he had the doubloons. Makes the wingnut tears all the more real and that much more enjoyable.
Central Planning
@David Koch:
Christie is twice the man Obama is!
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
Height can be very important for a male politician. It’s all about optics. 6 foot 5 is very imposing, hard to ignore. It allows him to look down on his opponent, so he can be a ‘man’s man’. To put it another way, “short man’s syndrome” is a very real thing and it exists for a reason.
PsiFighter37
Herring up by just over 500 votes now. Looks like we managed to flip the script of the 2005 AG race in our favor this time…
Kay
Yup, and de Blasio came out strong for public schools, too.
Columbus:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/public/2013/11/1105-columbus-school-levy-defeated.html
Anya
I still can’t get over the fact that white women voted for Ken Cuccinelli by 16 point margin. They voted for a guy so extreme that he supported cutting off funding for birth control for women, and even tried to make it a felony to provide some women with birth control. He wanted to ban in vitro fertilization. Not to mention all of his nutty and bigoted stands against guys, science and human decency. WTF Virginia?
As the daughter and granddaughter of white women, this gives me so much pain.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
You could say the same thing about a lot of physical attributes. I don’t see why height is particularly reportable.
Botsplainer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Maybe it’s a ripple from Chamber of Commerce anger over the shutdown. Coffers are low, and capital has to be preserved for essential operations through the really dry part of the cycle.
Reince Priebus is doing a bangup job – it was really smart to replace the personally engaging and likable Michael Steele with a white guy with a name that sounds like he should be commandant of a Nazi death camp in Holland. By my count, under his watch, the GOP has lost an opportunity for a Senate flip and one Presidential election, suffered erosion of its House majority, has enraged its business donor base with the shutdown, isn’t managing the internal civil war and had one important state completely reverse its executive side (along with all the political jobs that come with it). Those chubby, pasty Virginia political appointees are now hunting for new jobs in a wingnut welfare environment that isn’t all T-bone steaks and Cadillacs these days.
If Reince was a corporate CEO, it would be time for a going away bonus, a new going away jet and a year off before he chooses his next leadership opportunity.
Anya
Via TPM
What a pointless vote. They threw their hissy fit, what now?
Botsplainer
@Anya:
If you drill down into the data, that percentage will be driven by a nearly monolithic vote among the McMansion crowd. Those Stepfords are generally as racist, misogynistic, paternalistic and economically blind as their paper shuffling husbands.
Botsplainer
@Anya:
If at first you don’t secede, try, try again.
MikeJ
@Anya:
White women who voted went for Cooch. The turnout was half of the 2012 presidential election. Turnout is everything.
amk
The VA turnout was only 40% (2.2 mil out 5.2 mil registered voters). Are the registered voters split evenly between dems and repubs?
Baud
@MikeJ:
White women who voted went for Cooch
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
Sexism is a 2 way street. Who cares if a women representing you is particularly attractive or not? Should be nobody, but a quick glance at the women in the House of Reps says otherwise. (Senate not so much, senators tend to be older)
SiubhanDuinne
@Botsplainer:
:-)
Kay
@Anya:
I agree with you. It’s disappointing. I think it’s complacency, a belief that the gains women have made can’t be rolled back. They can, of course. My daughter gets that. The war on women was the first time she really engaged politically. She votes and describes herself as liberal, but that was the first time she was alarmed and concerned.
OzarkHillbilly
@Botsplainer:
Turn off the internets, Botsplainer wins for the day.
Kay
@Anya:
I don’t get the appeal of Christie, either. I don’t really understand why “I’m an belligerent bully but I’m very honest about it” is a draw. He’s still a belligerent bully. Presumably you could have both, someone who was “honest” and not an asshole. It’s not either/or.
Honus
@MikeJ: Interesting, but not correct. About 20k more votes in the governors race. Herring did poll more votes than mcauliffe though.
satby
@Botsplainer: And those white women don’t believe that all those threatened restrictions will apply to them; even if they ID as “pro-life” (a term I despise as totally inaccurate) they’re sure they can get birth control, abortions, whatever if the need arose.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Virginia, Alabama Voter Choices Show Tea Party Declining
Alabama, I did not expect.
Honus
“Terry Mac is a slimy POS, it is a shame the Democratic party allow him to claim membership. He has his hand in the till and everyone know it.”
I keep hearing this, but nobody’s ever been able to give me a concrete example.
“The VA turnout was only 40% (2.2 mil out 5.2 mil registered voters).”
I think this is actually good news. The turnout in 2009 was about 40% and we got waxed. The word all along was that we needed 60% turnout to win. Winning with 40% is impressive. 50 or 60% would have been a rout.
MikeJ
@Honus: Yeah, I overlooked the L candidate’s total.
Baud
@Honus:
Good point.
Baud
@Kay:
It’s an anti-Democratic meme. Have you ever heard anyone say about a Democrat: “Well, I don’t like his personality or his policies, but he’s honest about it so I’m going to support him.”?
amk
@Honus:
That’s what you need if you want to shut up and shut out teanutz. A piddly 2% margin would only enrage and encourage them.
PsiFighter37
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: He only won by 4%…not like the whole GOP there turned semi-sane or anything.
Xantar
White women voted 54-38 for Cuccinelli.
What.
Chyron HR
@Honus:
He’s a CLINTONITE! Blaaaaargh.
P.S. Hillary is 44, party unity my ass.
Central Planning
@Botsplainer:
I went over there to read some of the comments. The comments are hilarious, and even the tags people put after their names are hilarious too. To wit:
“Santorum-Bachmann 2016 for the future of the country!”
“Stupid is a Progressive disease.”
“The #1 Must-see Filibuster of the Year: TEXAS TED AND THE CONSERVATIVE CRUZ-ADE”
“Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.”
That’s gold, Jerry! Gold!
Schlemizel
@Honus:
Trust me those stories where floating around Democratic circles long before he ran against a Republican. He was known for the behavior when he was in the Clinton circle.
Cervantes
@RaflW: Not sure it’s comparable but a Somali-American was elected to the Minneapolis school board a few years ago.
Botsplainer
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Don’t take it as a sign of much. At LGF, somebody was pointing out that Byrne is a total nutbucket as well, and there isn’t a hair’s width difference between the two on ideology. The difference, as I understand, is that Byrne leaves open the idea of saying “good morning” in the Capitol corridors to passing Democrats as opposed to screaming “fuck you”, kicking them in the nuts and leaping on them like a demented, rabid badger.
Botsplainer
@Central Planning:
Back when I was there and somewhat beyond wingnut-curious, I had a great tag based on multiple interactions over the years – “killing FR and driving away the base since 2000”.
I guess I wasn’t a good conservative.
Kay
@Baud:
I could see if it was “brave”, but going after relatively powerless people isn’t brave at all.
“Brave” to me would be going after some hugely influential monied interest. Christie screams at individual public school teachers, and part of the reason he screams at individual public school teachers is, he’s a (former) registered lobbyist on behalf of a for-profit K-12 education outfit.
It’s such a shamefully low bar for courage. He lets those public school teachers have it! Not cops, not any other unionized public worker in the traditionally male realms, just teachers.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Sequester – Alabama has a lot of defense jobs with places like Huntsville.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Baud:
Re conversion: It’s probably a wire service thing from days of yore. The “feed” was sent to your local rag, which would edit the story for house style, e.g., feet and inches here, metric in Canada. But the story was written for all subscribing outlets, and in such a way that if it went through unedited it made sense.
OzarkHillbilly
@Honus:
Read this. It is from Mother Jones:
There is a lot of smoke there. Nothing concrete (in the way of indictments) but as the author said, he likes to push the envelope. Some things are still under investigation. In my eyes it was just as important that Northam won yesterday.
MikeJ
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: And the shipyards in Mobile.
Cervantes
@lamh36: Cooch beat TMac by 16 points with white women.
Yes. It’s astounding.
Cervantes
@PeakVT: Christie got 21% of the AA vote and 51% of the Latino vote.
Yes. It’s astounding.
Marc
@Anya: Older white women voted for Cuccinelli. Young and single women – those who would be most directly affected by Cuccinelli’s policies – voted overwhelmingly for McAuliffe.
In other words, it’s a classic case of IGMFY.
(Also: married women supported Cuccinelli more than married men did? Huh.)
Cervantes
@Spaghetti Lee: I say let ‘em go. Two more nitwits in the US Senate? No, thanks.
Cervantes
@DocSardonic: Why would we want to see more of Barbara Buono…….her campaign was run about as shoddily as Martha Coakley in Mass against Scott Brown and Alex Sink in Florida against Voldemort.
In what way was Buono’s campaign comparable to Coakley’s?
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Kay, that is “bRave” with an (R). To the GOP, taking from the poor, the aged, and the helpless to give to the rich is bRave.
handsmile
More great and good news from New York City and State, beyond the landslide fact that a hardcore progressive has been elected to be its new Mayor!
Letitia James, the new NYC Public Advocate (Bill de Blasio’s old job), is the first African-American woman to be elected to city-wide office.
With Scott Stringer’s victory to become Comptroller (in September’s primary, he defeated Eliot Spitzer – not the result I wanted), Democrats will control all three city-wide elective offices for the first time since 1993.
A liberal African-American lawyer and former Cinton-era federal prosecutor, Ken Thompson, was elected to become Brooklyn’s new District Attorney. He trounced the fossilized incumbent, who switched to the Republican/Conservative ticket after losing the primary.
The worst one of the two state ballot proposals to transfer Adirondacks public land to private ownership (a mining company!) was narrowly (but thankfully) defeated.
That the proposal to expand ca$inos in the state was approved by wide margin – after a disgustingly deceptive TV ad blitz – is the only really bitter news (that I know of thus far) from the Empire State.
OzarkHillbilly
@handsmile:
Stealing money from old people is a time honored profession.
gene108
@Kay:
A string of bumbling Democratic governors prior to him helps his appeal.
McGreevey resigned in scandal.
Corzine did some good things, but didn’t understand the inner-politics of the state. He was autocratic. He wanted to get things done his way and didn’t understand that some of the things he wanted to do would irk his core supporters and didn’t realize he needed to get the support of local, powerful, Democrats behind him.
So when the economy went into the toilet in 2009, Corzine had strong unfavorability ratings. His shit stuck to him. From furloughing state workers* early in his tenure to force a 1% sales tax increase through the legislature to nearly getting killed in a car accident that was caused because he violated state law by having the state trooper driving his car speed down the NJTP at 90 mph and not wearing a seatbelt, people felt Corzine was somehow above the petty concerns of none multi-millionaires (though he did push through a tax on incomes over million dollars**).
In comparison, the economy is markedly better in 2013 than it was in 2009. 750,000 people aren’t getting laid off every month, so those people, who have jobs feel relatively secure.
Christie’s not done anything to piss off his base and greased the palm of local Democratic bosses / legislatures, so no one has an incentive to keep Christie’s crap front and center all the time. He doesn’t have Corzine’s bags of money, so he’s not as aloof, in comparison.
In short, Democrats have had a pretty bad recent record as governors, so there isn’t a lot of enthusiasm to put a Democrat back in Trenton, since Christie has not materially screwed up the lives of most people. Sure he hasn’t done anything signficant, but he hasn’t done any visible harm either***
* State employees are a big group of Democratic supporters, so Corzine stepped on part of his base by forcing a furlough to raise sales tax.
** When Christie came in and had a chance to roll back a Corzine era tax increase he chose the millionaires tax and left the 1% sales tax increase in place.
*** Sure poor people have seen services cut, but for the middle class and upper middle class the improved economy means there’s not as much dread as there was in 2009 and Christie hasn’t done anything to screw up their standard of living, so he gets a pass.
gene108
@Kay:
That hurt his appeal early in his tenure. (Edit: His base isn’t in love with lazy union thug school teachers, so he didn’t lose support from his core supporters because of it).
Prior to Sandy there was a chance a good Democratic candidate could’ve beaten him. He has had his miscues and hasn’t done much as governor.
Christie, learning from his mistake of vacationing in FL, while NJ got buried under two feet of snow decided to be highly visible during and after Sandy.
For a variety of reasons that put him over the top.
@MattR:
Christie loses to Hillary, but be beats all non-Hillary Dems in NJ.
A lot hinges on Hillary running or when she officially makes an announcement on whether or not she runs.
piratedan
@Anya: they totally get to spend the next two centuries lamenting their “lost and noble cause”
Pink Snapdragon
@Schlemizel: I’m really tired of a bunch of blowhards from elsewhere in the country telling us how bad McCauliffe is. He is a reliably liberal politician who will do what he can to expand Medicaid in Virginia. He is sane, and he will work to improve the lives of my fellow Virginians. I was proud to cast my vote for him as well as the other democratic candidates on my ballot. We are still stuck with a heavily republican assembly though, so it is unclear how much exactly we will be able to accomplish. So just shut the fuck up already!
JAFD
Greetings from Burlington County, New Jersey
Yours truly did a stint as a member of a District Board of Registry and Elections (aka the folks sitting behind table at your local polling place) yesterday.
Bipartisan cooperation brightened the Municipal Building – Democrats supplied the coffee, Republicans the donuts, and Independents brought the candy leftover from Halloween.
Procedure in NJ these days: Citizen comes in, gives name. Poll worker finds it in spiral-bound list. Citizen signs list, then signs top half of ‘voting authorization’ card (Stack of 3×5 cards, perforated to tear in half, each half numbered and with hole punched thru. Stack held together by ‘cable tie’ through top halves). Worker checks signatures against list, writes ‘authorization number’ on list and initials it, tears authorization card in half. Voter gives bottom half of authorization card to worker at machine, who pushes a button to turn on machine for voter, checks that voter has pushed the button to register vote when finished, and threads string thru bottom half of authorization card, adding it onto stack.
About a 1/3 turnout in the district yesterday, plus several cute youngsters accompaning their parents or ‘grampies’ (“She can go behind the curtain with you, but that doesn’t give you one-and-a-half votes.”), and one provisional ballot (scrambled late registration). Christie won the precinct by 60%, the minimum wage increase got 65% (Worked last month at an adjacent precinct, where a 20% turnout gave Booker 80% of the votes.).
Not optimal campaigning = Each candidate for governor has opportunity to put a campaign statement on back of official sample ballot mailed to every voter. Dem’s didn’t get theirs in on time
smedley the uncertain
@Spaghetti Lee: 5 of the 11 counties with the initiative on the ballot voted to secede.