The race in Kansas-4 is very close so far. You can check the returns here.
I’m following Harry Enten’s analysis on twitter and it sounds like we are headed for something between a razor-thin Democratic win and a 10 point Republican win. Even the latter would be a huge swing from the election when Trump won the district by 27 points.
Baud
Booman is being pissy about this race.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Don’t forget off cycle elections favor republicans. so beating the 27% spread would be even more significant given the playing field is tilted in their favor.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
there’s that number, again.
PaulWartenberg
Right now 9:39 pm according to NYTimes with 32 percent of precincts in Thompson is barely up 50.5 over Estes 47.8. Are the larger precincts more Republican than Democrat to where we should expect a huge swing to Estes?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Doug!
Far from this opera forevermore.
Doug!
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Ha ha
Mnemosyne
I guess tonight is when we find out what’s the matter with Kansas.
Oh, come on, you know you guys were thinking it.
EBT
This will be a loss, but significantly closer than it would be any other year.
Cookie monster
Kansas SOS site has more up to date results.
Corner Stone
@PaulWartenberg: He’s going to lose by 15 or so. If some how he holds it down to single digits that would be nuts.
JPL
It’s amazing that it is this close, and I hope that means the GA 6th district can flip. News about the 6th, the mayor decides where to open early voting, and in Roswell that meant a library on the east side. It just so happens to be Handel’s district, and the area of someone running for council that he supports. This week the local library was open for both elections but not with the proper equipment, so lines were long.
patroclus
Cool – a separate thread! 49-49 now; very tight!
SFAW
@Cookie monster:
The trade-off is that you get to see Kris “Non-whites think they get to vote? Fuck THAT shit!” Kobach’s grinning mug
schrodingers_cat
WTH is a latte liberal? Who likes milky coffee, anyway?
JPL
@Corner Stone: He’ll lose but not by that much, imo. It appears that less populated areas haven’t reported yet, unless I’m reading the sos site wrong.
PaulWartenberg
there’s reportedly a problem in one county where they miscounted. so here comes the long delay of a recount?
patroclus
48-50 (about 970 down). We’re probably going to lose, but this one should have been called 2 hours ago when the polls closed, so it’s still a good sign.
JPL
Will this be the biggest Trump win ever?? It was his robo calls that drove it over the top..
schrodingers_cat
@JPL: Can he dial with those tiny digits?
Baud
A minor loss now will hopefully sow the seed for a wave election in 2018.
JPL
@schrodingers_cat: That’s why he keeps Ivanka close by.
Mnemosyne
@PaulWartenberg:
News like that in a Republican-controlled state makes me assume that the Democrat won, so they’re going to “recount” until they get the desired result.
rikyrah
Trump won by 27 points.
Pompeo won by 31 points.
this is literally the home of KOCH INDUSTRIES
GregB
@schrodingers_cat:
That is the wingnut pejorative about liberals being snobby, book reading, education getting, degree having, Volvo and Prius driving, quiche, scone, croissant eating, latte drinking, soft and squishy NPR listening, intellectual elitists.
japa21
Estes is starting to pull away, if a 3 point lead with 61% reported can be considered pulling away. I expect the final result to be less than 10.
Baud
@GregB: I fit some of those things.
MomSense
@Cookie monster:
Wow. Fewer than 2000 votes separating them right now.
SFAW
Not that it matters much, by the FTFNYT site is a few minutes ahead of FTF Kobach’s site
japa21
Ill be honest. It would surprise me if there a few (meaning several) precincts being held in reserve to see just how many votes Estes needs to win. What is the Kansas equivalent of Waukesha County?
Omnes Omnibus
@japa21: I will point out again that the Waukesha incident was exhaustively investigated. I’ve posted the links multiple times. No one held back votes.
japa21
@Omnes Omnibus: Okay. I understand. Thank you for reminding me. As a former resident of Waukesha County, I am relieved.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Me 2. Why are liberals supposed to like French stuff?
ThresherK
C’mon, Ross. Say something good about Auschwitz; we all know you’re itching to show us how smug and non-PC you are.
Omnes Omnibus
@japa21: It was GOP incompetence, not evil. That time. The voter suppression now? Evil.
patroclus
@japa21: Yeah, unfortunately, a 2200 vote lead now and it’s been growing. Unless Wichita precincts are out, this one’s probably over. Thompson needed a bigger early vote advantage to hold on to this – hopefully, we’ll do better in Georgia.
japa21
@Omnes Omnibus: Evil and incompetence can go hand in hand. It is just that the incomptenece was the driving force at that time.
japa21
@patroclus: It will end up around 10%. If this had been on the radar screen earlier, there might have been a chance.
patroclus
46-52; 5800 deficit. Oh well…
jacy
@GregB:
Well, I do like a good scone and drive a Volvo. But I only listen to NPR if I’m forced to by my children……
Omnes Omnibus
@japa21: That is what I meant, yes.
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat: I think that was a Bush-era thing. Remember when we were supposed to hate the French because they were soft on terrorists for some reason? Freedom fries and all that?
Also, John Kerry spoke French, so in 2004 it was the Worst Thing Ever.
schrodingers_cat
@dmsilev: I remember Freedumb fries.
chris
Wiki says Kansas has 2.911 million people. So far 85,000ish have voted.
So much for democracy.
Marcopolo
I’d just like to remind folks that this is a deep deep deep red district. Pompeo routinely won re-election by 30 points. Losing by any margin up to 10 points is a shockwave statement to the Republican Party. If Democrats across the country picked up 15-20 points in their races in 2018 we are looking at 50+ seats picked up in the house.
We’ll have to see how things play out over the next 18 months, but whether we win or lose tonight is a big statement of where voter sentiment & enthusiasm are right now.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud:
GregB
@chris:
It is a House district. Not the entire state.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Fucking coincidence, how does it work?
Did you see my mini-rant about the GA Dems who can’t seem to get their act quite together for the volunteer Voter Protection poll watchers?
Marcopolo
@japa21: if this had been on the radar screen earlier it would probably have been nationalized (Estes vs Pelosi) and I doubt we would have done better.
amk
@chris: How many voters in that district?
chris
@GregB: I know, I was being a little hyperbolic. (Vote early and often!) But Wichita has 380,000 people; looks like most of ’em stayed home.
Edit
Mnemosyne
@dmsilev:
France refused to help us invade Iraq because they thought it was a dumbass thing to do. And they were right.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Adam L Silverman
And the next shoe drops!
amk
@chris: The vote total so far is over 80,000 per KS sos site. Still low, as you say.
RandyG
@amk:
Total vote count in KS04 2016 house race: 275,251. Today’s number will come in at 110-120,000. Hmmmmm……
pk
also need to consider that anti-brownback may be in play as well as anti-trump
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
JPL
@Marcopolo: That’s what I think. If it is within ten points, they don’t stay home next time.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
No Money, Mo Problems
remima
According to TFNYT, only 127 of 257 Sedgwick county (basically Wichita) precincts have reported so far. I’m not giving up hope for my hometown quite yet.
But I also wouldn’t be at all surprised if the delay in reporting the majority of precincts in the county is intentional. Kansas judges have refused to allow researchers to access the voting machine ballot tapes.
/
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: The American Revolution, Paris in ’20s, French New Wave Cinema, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists (and so on), Existentialism, Catherine Deneuve, and so on.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
tick, tock….. tick, tock…..tick, tock….. tick, tock…..
GregB
@Adam L Silverman:
This boob is on his last legs.
patroclus
Narrowing slightly – still a 6000 vote deficit – still 46-52. 88% in.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: Actually who likes a milky liberal? Except, perhaps, a newborn baby liberal…
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I was referring to the GregB’s list of food stuffs, most of them were French. But yes what you said as well.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
unscheduled “vacation” (ie fleeing the country)
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Quiche and croissants are yummy. I am more of a cafe au lait guy though.
Anya
@Mnemosyne: They’re dumber than dirt. They’re patient zero of Trump voters.
dmsilev
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Is he headed for the Dominican Republic or to Thailand?
JPL
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I’d say it was to spend more time with his family, but it appears that he doesn’t have family wanting to spend time with him.
sad
Anya
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: nah. Vacation is the “spending time with family” for the assholes whose families are not talking to them.
Jay C
Latest (22:45 ET) AP figs are 52-46 for Estes (there’s an Independent in the race who has garnered 2%).
patroclus
AP called it for Estes. :(
Spanky
@dmsilev: Don’t we have one of our agents in Thailand right now?
japa21
Race calkwed for Estes. 94% reporting he has a 5.8% lead. That is phenomenal. For a GOPer to win that seat by that small a margin in a special election, which normally has an advantage for GOP is amazing.
JPL
@patroclus: So are the Koch’s celebrating or saying omg, why so close?
amk
GregB
Remember when brave and manly conservative warrior Jonah Goldberg referred to people protesting the GW version Iraq war as “Cheese eating surrender monkeys”.
Part of the French thing with the wingnuts is the French military collapse in WWII and subsequent Vichy collaboration.
Weak=French.
efgoldman
@RandyG:
Nothing sinister. Off year special elections generally have very low turnout.
Sab
So the Courier-Journal thinks that it is important to run off pulmonologists from rural counties, because Kentucky has too many of them?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus I had a delicious chicken salad sandwich made with green chilies and cilantro, on a croissant once.
SiubhanDuinne
Single digits in KS-4. I’ll take that happily.
dmsilev
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Fox will just replace one angry old white guy with another. Trump probably can carve out an hour a night from his schedule.
ken
@japa21: And the Kansas Dems did that with basically no national help.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, let’s keep our focus on the forest.
chris
@amk: Sad!
But not surprising I guess.
rikyrah
Dana Houle @DanaHoule
19/…to win a seat that strong for the other party. But Thompson doesn’t need to win for this to be an omen for 2018. If Thompson is…
Follow
Dana Houle @DanaHoule
20/…within 15 points, it’s bad for the Repubs. If it’s within 10–with Dems having spent nothing–we need to go big in 2018. If this…
8:12 PM – 7 Apr 2017
RandyG
@efgoldman: I wasn’t thinking anything sinister. Just kinda bemoaning the low turnout, which is unfortunately all too normal for this type of election.
Omnes Omnibus
@GregB: Never mind that France was still broken from carrying most of the weight of fighting on the Western Front in WWI.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Well, well, well. This along with today’s Spicer disaster, I wonder how long he’ll be around?
EBT
@ken: How much help from the DCCC could he take without being tied to the DNC/Dirty Lefties?
LurkerNoLonger
Kansas. It’s never been the same since Superman left for Metropolis. All kidding aside it’s encouraging the Dem had such a good showing.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Who knows. As I wrote in my earlier post: it has been a strange day.
PhoenixRising
@EBT: -3 help
He’d have to give back contributions from the DCCC to not lose by 15. Matters because GA-06 and MT are next week. We can kick in or make calls to drive Dem turnout for the specials in those districts and have real impact. DCCC can’t do a damn thing without setting up a race between local R and Pelosi.
Yarrow
@japa21: Yes, this is amazing. Special elections in a strong R district should heavily favor the Republican. Single digit difference is a big deal.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Yup. That is is happening 80 days into an administration is wack.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: @Adam L Silverman: The smart money says anything from gone tomorrow to here until Karder’s Inauguration.
ken
@EBT: Exactly. So I don’t understand why people were complaining about the lack of help. It’s almost like a 50 state plan but this time from the bottom up. Let each state rebuild its party. It’s said our party is a mix of various constituencies, why not the Democratic state parties function the same way.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
This. Estes has already won statewide, by large numbers, yet he won by a low single digit against a first time candidate with no money.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Aren’t most days strange now? Seems like it.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Could be.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@japa21: @Yarrow: To be fair, there’s an opposing hypothesis that off-year elections don’t advantage Republicans specifically but rather the opposition party of the President, which has just happened to be Republicans for four out of the last six cycles. This election is extremely powerful evidence to support the “advantage to opposition party” hypothesis over the “advantage to Republicans” one, but a 21-point collapse in support within the first 100 days is still unheard of. The shitgibbon is bigly unpopular.
dmsilev
@Yarrow: I predict that he’ll last until Monday, when, having been forced to wear that Easter Bunny costume again, he snaps and runs off and is last seen streaking down the Mall.
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus:
Guess we’ll see what happens…
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: I felt like going out on a limb.
danielx
@Omnes Omnibus:
There does come a time when incompetence becomes evil.
amk
guachi
Checked current results versus Trump’s results in those counties in KS-04.
So far Democrats are getting 56.5% of their 2016 Presidential totals and Republicans are getting 36.5% of their totals (with votes still to be counted)
This was a winnable race with enough enthusiasm. Democrats should be excited about this result.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: He’s likely not going anywhere any time soon.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Always good to stretch every now and them.
danielx
Totally OT, but another piece of my misspent youth gone down the river:
Guitarist J. Geils Dead at 71
Was a time when they were the best live band in America, in my not very humble opinion.
Seth Owen
@GregB: And they ignore the fact that many French continued to fight in the Free French Forces and the Resistance. DeGaulle maintained that the surrender was illegitimate. In any case, there were Frenchmen on the front lines from 1939 to 1945, so no one fought longer.
Jay C
@amk:
He’s a Republican: he could have won by ONE vote in a seriously contested recount, and would probably still crow about winning TEH BIGLIEST VICTORY EVAH!!!!!! And find a media chorus to loudly agree with him.
jl
News report says Foxy Bill is going on vacation. That’s good, I think he needs a long vacation. He’s been looking kind of tired old and out of it for a while.
jl
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Sorry I missed your comment.
But, it is so sad, people will want to be reminded. Maybe Hannity can join him.
Raoul
I think a final margin of less than 10% is remarkable. Thompson ran a solid campaign on a short timeline and limited funds. I’m very proud of him for running to win. And as he said in the clip I just saw, he got out and shared core progressive values message with a lot of voters. Something that takes time, effort and money to do, but that can help build energy and an organization to help at least move Kansas back from it’s current Brownbackian dystopia.
Omnes Omnibus
@jl: Since ’83?
(((CassandraLeo)))
@jl: You could say the same thing about the president*. Don’t you think he looks tired?
On the other hand, I am sullying the good Harriet Jones, Prime Minister, with the association. I apologise.
Cain
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: That guy is our rockstar from Oregon.
chris
@danielx: Bummer as we used to say.
I agree with your opinion. Saw him live a couple times when he was 26 or 27.
Davebo
@Baud: He had a point though.
Then again, Booman is in an almost perpetual state of pissy.
SFAW
@(((CassandraLeo))):
On the other hand, if you got the same result that the Doctor did, I think Harriet/Penelope would be just fine with her name being sullied a little.
clay
@amk: Sheesh. Literally zero people said he couldn’t win.
Cain
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
I hope he does it live.
EBT
@PhoenixRising: Wonkette has been pimping MN and GA hard.
Corner Stone
What the F is an “armada”?
(((CassandraLeo)))
@SFAW: I suspect you are entirely correct.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sarcasm? Because seriously, I think anything under 15% is phenomenal, and Thompson did that easily. Not sure why you’re being so negative here unless I’m completely misreading you, in which case I apologize.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Big SUV from Nissan. What do you ask?
Raoul
I guess Thompson has now announced for 2018. Good. This is a race that needs to be run. Democrats need to come out of the woodwork and see if they can ride his coattails for dog catcher, school boards, whatever, in Sedgwick County and maybe a few others.
KS needs to have at least a centrist if not progressive counterparty to the freakin winger GOP there.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Completely misreading my intent if not my words. Big picture is important. Winning here would have been a tree. Running this close is a view of the forest. Too convoluted?
dmsilev
@Corner Stone: Bunch of Spaniards in not-very-seaworthy ships.
MisterForkbeard
@SiubhanDuinne: I think he’s agreeing with you – he’s saying you can see the big picture (the forest and huge vote swing) rather than the individual result (tree and narrow loss). ‘Twas a little awkwardly phrased, though.
Adam L Silverman
@Raoul: And if he’s smart, he announces tomorrow that he’s running against Estes in 2018, because that seat is up for reelection next year.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
See, this pisses me off. According to a (gloating, wingnut) commenter on the HuffPo blog, there were 78K Democratic votes in KS-4 in the 2016 election. Currently Thompson has a little over 51K votes. So there were at least 26k more votes that could have been gotten, by a determined, thorough GOTV. Ok, special election apathy – 10K votes would have been enough.
and this is why, damm it, the only DNC chair candidate i truly favored was Howard Dean – the last chair with a “Fight’em everywhere, no GOP gimmes, spend money at the state and local level instead of on incompetent DC consultants.
(Never mind that when the Dem’s won seats in 2006 under his leadership, Rahm “Pick your battles and recruit GOP clones” took all the credit.)
and I am HRC all the way, not a bernieBro – who i have still not forgiven – and i gave to Thompson. So i can be a LITTLE pissed.
links, in case anyone wants to revisit 10-year-old arguments. Which i don’t – except DAMMIT!
dean link 1
link 2
SiubhanDuinne
@danielx:
Just a couple of days ago, “Angel in the Centerfold” popped into my mind for the first time in a decade or more. RIP, JG.
SFAW
@Corner Stone:
Ain’t it one o’ them animals what ends up smooshed on Texas highways?
SiubhanDuinne
@MisterForkbeard:
Thanks. I usually agree with Omnes, so this took me by surprise. But I am +2 so easy to believe I got it wrong.
Cain
@Adam L Silverman:
Indeed.. that will make him sweat. He’ll need to have something to accomplish one year in. Otherwise.. kxxxt.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Watch it! You’re almost in troll territory. Just say “yes” and move on.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sorry, it’s on me. Your phrasing was a little ambiguous, but I am almost always willing to give you benefit of the doubt, as I am tonight.
jl
@SFAW: A hefty lady armadillo?
PhoenixRising
@reality-based (the original, not the troll):
This was not a matter of money, which is what the DCCC can drop from a helicopter. Who was going to knock on every damn door in Wichita with a probable Dem behind it for money at this time of year? No one local. Another 3 weeks to organize it, maybe…
This race was not winnable in a special if this local boy didn’t win it: That’s my position. GA-06 and MT though…we have time.
Corner Stone
@dmsilev: One of them just won The Masters so it looks like they know how to sail it close, after all.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@GregB:
also because the French Foreign minister – Villepin – wrote an eloquent – and prophetic “USA, we are always your friends but please don’t invade Iraq – you will regret it! because XWZ” – Op-Ed in the NY TImes – all of which came to pass.
so, you know – in wingnuttia – “smart” = “weak”
Corner Stone
Can someone please knock that faux pen!s out of Steve Kornacki’s hand?
Adam L Silverman
@PhoenixRising: @reality-based (the original, not the troll):
Mnemosyne
@reality-based (the original, not the troll):
I tend to agree with PhoenixRising — the timeframe on this was so short that it was hard to get organized, and I don’t think anyone expected Trump to have basically no honeymoon at all with voters.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: It might not have been my best metaphor, but I was surprised that you reacted so sharply.
jl
Recent developments since Nov ’16 indicate to me that the Mayan Apocalypse is a real thing. They just got the date a little wrong.
Yarrow
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): If the DCCC had poured money into the district it would have gotten a lot of attention and Estes might have won by more. There is an argument that only an under the radar campaign could win in a district as heavily R as this one.
The D votes left on the table are annoying, but I’m excited that Thompson did so well.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: What the hell channel are you watching?
Adam L Silverman
@jl: No one ever reads the back side of the calendar stone…
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: She has been offensive/intemperate for a few days recently. I suspect there is something going on in her personal life.
Omnes Omnibus
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): Ignoring again the fact the the French have historically wanted to get into every and any war. Even tiny colonial ones. The fact that they wanted no part of Iraq was the biggest tell ever – BAD IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yarrow
@Corner Stone: What in the world? What exactly is in his hand?
BlueDWarrior
@Yarrow: Votes left on the table is always a thing regarding Congressional elections. A disturbing number of voters only get up for Presidential years. That is one of the many long term problems we have to solve on the small-d ‘democratic’ end.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
Hopefully Thompson will be able to be as clever as Doug Applegate in Darrell Issa’s district and keep himself in the public eye as a gadfly against Estes so he’ll have better name recognition in 2018.
Omnes Omnibus
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): This was actually a good result. It was a good day.
Corner Stone
Kornacki has a schtick where he always has a rolled up sheaf of paper in his hand to whack down and up and point to the Big Board. It’s a phallic symbol. Sorry, but it just is.
amk
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): Yup. The dem voters need to stick these landings if they ever want to govern again.
Yarrow
@BlueDWarrior: Yep. I hope Dems realize that 2018 is an election year and vote.
Mnemosyne
I should be researching Scottish independence movements of the 19th century, but am I? No, I am not.
Stupid migraine. ?
Omnes Omnibus
@amk: Less than 100 days into Trump and GOP support seems to be falling while Dem support is increasing. This was a shot across the bows of the GOP. Fucking Kansas was competitive.
PhoenixRising
@Adam L Silverman: Exactly.
Kansas has exiled a lot of good Americans who donn’t comply with the most extreme version of Republican Christ, including my wife’s friend/roommate of the 1980s. When he was lost to AIDS, his parents came to Seattle to bring his body home and their neighbors the faithful Christians of KS-04 circulated a petition to prevent his burial in the cemetery. He was returned to the earth on the family farm in Sedgwick County, in secret.
This was 27 years ago, during the HW Bush administration, 20 years before Dr. George Tiller was shot in the head in his church on his usher Sunday.
Thompson damn near won this thing with the support of Planned Parenthood while endorsing an inclusive future for LGBT Kansans to keep all ‘our kids at home in the 4th’.
Well done and he’ll be back when Estes–who had already won statewide office–has even more to apologize for after a year in the do-nothing US House. Which has a poll rating between gum stuck to your shoe and syphilis.
Adam L Silverman
@PhoenixRising: I’m so sorry, though unfortunately not surprised, to read about your wife’s friend. How miserably twisted one has to be to do something like that is just amazing. I have often remarked that those most worried about an eternity in Hell simply create it for themselves and others in the here and now.
As for Thompson: he’s got everything going for him. Army vet. The House of Representatives is not going to do anything of any significance between now and the election and is going to be damned lucky not to be part of a government shut down or debt ceiling breach and default between now and the 2018 election. He was smart in how he handled the issue of firearms. And the President has now announced that he wants to immediately revisit and push healthcare. So Thompson is going to be able to leverage that as well. This should have been an easy Republican hold, instead it was a squeaker.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@Mnemosyne: Ok – well, between you and Mnemosyne and Taegan Goddard – and, you know – 20 point swing! – I am now somewhat cheered up. Onward! I wish the state party had helped him a little more – but that’s on them, not DC – so
And dunno about Georgia – GOP will fight to the last wingnut for that one – but Montana could be gettable.
Lizzy L
OT but it relates: I went to a town hall in Richmond CA with my progressive Dem Congressman Mark DeSaulnier tonight. It was good, well attended, though the crowd skewed white and boomer, but there was a mix. DeSaulnier called DJT “He who shall not be named” the whole time. He’s not inspirational but he’s been doing politics a loong time, he came up the old-fashioned way — local boards, state gov, and then the House — and he knows what he’s doing. The first question was about Russia, the election, and the Intelligence Committee (which he isn’t on.) He was not complimentary about Nunes. He said the biggest problem in politics today is money, Citizens United, the Kochs and the Mercers, and so on. He said, if we can fix that, we can get back to democracy, but if we don’t we’re going to continue the slide into oligarchy.
I left a bit early because I was beat, but I’m glad I went.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@Omnes Omnibus: too true!
My grandfather (native Frenchman, living in US after WWI) was actually the liaison between the US OSS & EIsenhower & General Giraud during WWII – lots of skulking around Casablanca and Algiers, evidently.
I have some cool pictures of him with Roosevelt & Eisenhower & Giraud & Degaulle in very dashing uniforms! – so the whole “weak French” canard always pissed me off .
(not even Mentioning the heroic French Rear Guard at Dunkirk. )
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@Omnes Omnibus: well, i am, as always, cheered by the commentariat here – so now i am officially re-
focused on forest again, abandoning my fantasies of one very big, unexpected, tree.
wait – that didn’t come out right –
Lizzy L
FYWP just ate a long comment I wrote about my Congressman’s Town Hall in Richmond, CA, which I attended. It was very good, well attended, interesting. Unfortunately, I am dead tired — 3 nights of lousy sleep, 4 very stressful days — so I am not going to rewrite. I am going to bed. I expect to sleep well, because Thing Are Better tonight. (Illness — not mine — doctors finally prescribed the right drug — good response. Since we’re dealing with a brain tumor, this is a pretty tense time. But Things Are Better.)
G’night, jackals. The KS news is pretty good, I think. Sure, it would have been great if the D had won but that was pretty unlikely.
Oh — are we betting on the week of Spicer’s departure yet?
Omnes Omnibus
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): France gave more than it had in WWI. WWII was a bitch. The West chose to recognize De Gaulle. There were other options. Those which match with Le Pen. Let’s see what they do. Here, we already failed.
Good for your granddad – it was a tough time.
Omnes Omnibus
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): It isn’t a good metaphor for this.
Adam L Silverman
@Lizzy L: I found it. It went into the trash. It is free.
Lizzy L
@Adam L Silverman: Hah. There it is after all. Thank you.
Adam L Silverman
@Lizzy L: no problem
Mnemosyne
@Lizzy L:
Good luck with the other person’s illness. My (now late) father in law got the worst possible brain tumor news (inoperable glioblastoma), but they were able to keep the tumor in check for 2 and a half years longer than originally predicted thanks to the right drug. Hopefully your loved one will be able to get some extra time as well.
Gretchen
Here’s a link to a story about the statistician that sued Sedgwick County, where Thompson did best, to see the voting machine tapes. She detected a statistical anomaly that patterns of votes for Republicans increased with the size of the county, and wanted to check reported results with the tapes. My county can’t be audited because we don’t have tapes. We just have to trust that the machines are working properly. So when Republicans do better than the polls predict, it’s because we’re dumb Kansans who vote against our best interests and don’t deserve anyone’s sympathy.
http://www.kshb.com/news/state/kansas/kansas-statistician-suing-the-state-to-obtain-election-records-says-voting-results-dont-add-up
Gretchen
@chris: Kansas has multiple congressional districts. There was only an election in one of them. Sadly, we don’t all get to vote in all the districts.
Gretchen
@Anya: So all of Kansas is “dumber than dirt”, including the 46% of Wichita voters who voted exactly the way you wanted them to? Those people? And me?
Gretchen
@Anya: My daughter brought her boyfriend home from Brooklyn for the first time last weekend. He was surprised to her hometown quite pleasant, and populated by her circle of reasonably intelligent, flaming liberal friends and family. He didn’t have a single encounter with a redneck or a tractor. But you hang on to your view of a place I assume you’ve never visited.
Gretchen
@ken: And no state party help either. Thompson asked the state party for $20,000 for mailers a couple of weeks ago and they said sorry, no can do.
Gretchen
@PhoenixRising: Thompson did have an impressive number of people door-knocking every weekend for the last few weeks, and he talked to any group that would have him. They guy is a worker. I hope he tries again in 2018. I’m on his mailing list since I donated several times.
Anya
@Gretchen: It goes without saying that I am referring to the majority of Kansans who continue to vote for the harmful GOP policies. After all they’ve voted for Governor Brownback twice despite his horrendous record.
And actually you’re wrong. I’ve visited Kansas twice. One of those times was on the 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.
Walker
@Doug!: I’m gonna work the straw
laura
@Lizzy L: Thanks for the report out Lizzy!
Gretchen
@Anya: It doesn’t “go without saying”, when you dismiss an entire state-full of people as “dumb as dirt”, that you don’t mean the 49.9% of voters who voted against Brownback, but only the 50.0% who did. Good for you, visiting on the anniversary of Brown, and still not getting that many residents of the state aren’t dumb rednecks who deserve whatever happens to them.