Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

In my day, never was longer.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Not all heroes wear capes.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Everybody saw this coming.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / Local Updates

Local Updates

by | 129 Comments

This post is in: 

Here’s an update on the local races I posted about a few days ago:

In NY-27, former Trump campaign manager and future orange jumpsuit model Chris Collins appears to have pulled out a narrow win over Nate McMurray. Since the margin is about 1%, McMurray is going to request a recount, in keeping with his fight like hell attitude.

Jen Lunsford, who was running for SD-55 against aging former sportscaster and pro-lifer Rich Funke, lost by 4, which is an impressive effort in a district where Republicans typically prevail by double digits.

There aren’t any “moral victories” in politics, but it is a type of win when a Democrat participates in a tight race in a red district. Jen and Nate’s campaigns were overflowing with energized volunteers and were well-financed. Nate leaves this race with a good shot at replacing Collins when NY-27 is an open seat after Collins goes to prison. Funke is part of the Republican minority in the Senate, and as such he won’t be able to get the kind of member items that he bragged about in his state-sponsored glossy mailers. Jen, or someone like her, has a good shot at replacing him as we build towards a Democratic supermajority now that we have a majority in the New York Senate.

It’s really hard to see a good candidate lose, but we still need good candidates in these longshot districts, and we had a lot of them this year. Even though they’re disappointed this morning, a lot of Jen and Nate’s volunteers will be there again next cycle, now that they see victory as a real possibility rather than an impossible dream.

Reader Interactions

129Comments

  1. 1.

    BlueDWarrior

    I think that’s the right idea to take when losing an election. Yes it’s bad to lose, but so long as there is tomorrow, then you say “Yeah that sucked, let’s see what we need to do for tomorrow then.”

    The wheel is always turning, and you don’t know where the next opportunity will be.
    Like you said, it’s a fair chance that Collins ends up convicted and going to prison, so his challenger needs to keep his machine active in case there is a Special Election next year.

  2. 2.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Democratic sweep in state offices in NM – Michelle Lujan Grisham as governor. And a real game-changer as Land Commissioner: Stephanie Garcia Richard. The Land Commissioner is in charge of gas and oil drilling fees, which are supposed to be used for education. Typically we have had an oil man in that post. Richard is a teacher and has some good ideas about how to run things. New Mexico recently lost a lawsuit in which it was found to be neglecting funding education, so she has the force of that behind her too.

    Also at the federal level – Martin Heinrich stay as senator, and Districts 1 and 3 are Democratic – Native American woman Deb Haaland in 1. District 2 is too close to call. It usually goes Republican.

  3. 3.

    Frankensteinbeck

    McConnell can’t pass a nightmare ‘budget’ again. That was the single thing that terrified me most. He openly promised to gut the entire social safety net, and now he can’t. He can’t pass any legislation at all without Democratic buy-in. The Senate would have been wonderful, but that was the bandage our bleeding nation desperately needed so we could live to fight another day.

    EDIT – And to echo Cheryl, while we get overfocused on the Senate, a whoooole lot of good stuff happened at state levels. We didn’t sweep the pot, but we got what we needed most.

  4. 4.

    guachi

    I wonder how the losses in the Senate will effect getting a budget passed. It’ll be much harder to pass a budget with a 55-45 Senate and it will be much harder taking the Senate in 2020 with a 55-45 Senate.

    Can you see any of the newly elected Republican Senators compromising on anything?

    ETA: With a Democratic House and a large Republican Senate majority, the only real legislation that will pass will be a budget.

  5. 5.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Baldwin won and Walker lost. End of story. Yes, I am being provincial. I am in flyover country.

  6. 6.

    BlueDWarrior

    @guachi: In terms of the budget, the margin doesn’t mean as much, unless you want to let Republican Senators not vote for it on principle/to protect themselves. Pelosi can say “I’m passing what I’m passing out of the House, and we’ll talk in Conference.”

    It does mean that your most realistic shot to overturn the Senate moves back to 2022 barring a wave of general Republican malfesance/scandal, or Trump getting BTFO between now and Election Day 2020.

    —

    Honestly in the Senate it feels like what happened in 2002, where 9/11 fouled up all the Politics, so we missed a chance to turn over the Senate and it had to wait until 2006. Here, the map was so awful and Rural voters are so in love with Trump I did not see how we didn’t get bled out.

  8. 8.

    foucault swing voter mistermix

    @Cheryl Rofer: NM-2 within 1% when it typically is 55-45 or 60-40 means that R’s will have to spend on it next cycle. That’s good news, too.

    @guachi:

    Can you see any of the newly elected Republican Senators compromising on anything?

    The next 2 years of Senate inaction will be threats of shutdown, endless cliffhangers, and would you like an omnibus with your omnibus shitpiles being pushed through at the last possible second.

  9. 9.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @guachi:
    Republicans have a history of compromising on budgets if they don’t think they have a chance of getting absolutely everything they want. It’s a mixed history, though, with precedents for them demanding that the absolute minimum of funding be allowed to keep the government running at a starvation level. So, we’ll just have to see.

  10. 10.

    Walker

    Actually the real story in NY is that the republicans have lost any control of the State Senate. I expect some interesting redistricting in the future.

  11. 11.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Walker: Could be a chance to snatch a couple more House Seats in NY in 2022 then. Whatever it takes to maintain this majority.

    Honestly the fact Democrats did so well in most suburbs means that a lot of Republican Legislatures might start cracking in 2020, which is basically the ballgame when it comes to the House. The Senate is gonna be a second-order problem since it has to with trying to win statewide in states with a lot of rural votes who just get triggered by people with (D)s after their name apparently.

  13. 13.

    BlueDWarrior

    And shock of shock, there actually was enough outstanding vote in Connecticut to get Lamont over the top. So at least CT doesn’t have to suffer the indignity of being a somewhat bigger Maine when it comes to have a crazy Republican Governor trying to run a mostly Blue state.

  14. 14.

    guachi

    @Walker: And that’s on top of NY being a bright spot for Democrats. No districts in NY were Lean D but they won both toss-up districts and one of two wins nationwide in Lean R districts.

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    EDIT – And to echo Cheryl, while we get overfocused on the Senate, a whoooole lot of good stuff happened at state levels.

    Even beneath the state level..in Harris County, Texas, the Democrats SWEPT the entire judiciary.

    That will matter a lot to the lives of people there.

  19. 19.

    Luciamia

    So, Trump will hold a gloat-fest, sorry “news conference” at 11:30. You can watch that, or Gigi over at TCM.

  21. 21.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Luciamia: I expect him to tersely address the House and then talk about the fact that Republicans won so many Senate seats in States he won 2 years ago.

    Because like we’ve said, the man is physically incapable of admitting to flaws.

  22. 22.

    MattF

    My own neighborhood (Bethesda MD) turns out to be somewhat leftier than I thought. Leftmost candidate easily won the County Executive race with over 60% of the vote, despite WaPo endorsing ‘centrist’ independent. We’re definitely on the blue team. And the bizarre rightwing ‘gadfly’ candidate lost badly.

  24. 24.

    zhena gogolia

    @wasabi gasp:

    YAYAYAYAYAYAYAAAAAAAY!

    And my horrible state senator lost too. God, I did not want to have to look at Bob Stefanowski for the next few years.

  26. 26.

    Jerzy Russian

    @BlueDWarrior: I don’t think the president’s party has ever picked up seats in the Senate, going back to 4004 BC. Not a lot of people know that….

  27. 27.

    BlueDWarrior

    @rikyrah: The stronger you can make the Suburbs for Democrats, the more spaces Democrats have to ascend to national prominence. Even in places like the South where it’s so hard for Dems to win statewide, you can still make a name for yourself as a prominent Congressperson if you can create enough space for other Democrats to occupy with you.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Stacey Abrams name again as Congresswoman Abrams in 2+ years, for example.

  31. 31.

    West of the Cascades

    We got Democratic supermajorities in the Oregon legislature in addition to holding the Governorship … this means corporate tax hikes and progressive policy changes could be an easy sell in the 2019 session. Oregon’s constitution requires a 3/5 majority vote for the legislature to increase taxes or fees. Democrats have that now here.

  32. 32.

    Ian G.

    One thing last night tells me is that Colorado and Virginia should be considered solid blue states going forward, which really impresses me considering how they both leaned right in my voting lifetime (going for W in 2004, for instance). Win back Big 10 country in 2020, as we had some promising results there in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

  33. 33.

    zzyzx

    I don’t see much good news out of last night. The Senate is stuck until at least 2022 if not 2028 which means that there’s a real chance I will never see a non-conservative Supreme Court justice added to the bench in my lifetime. We had to hold the Republicans to a 1-2 seat gain and we couldn’t. Blue state getting bluer and red states redder screws us over.

  35. 35.

    West of the Cascades

    @Ian G.: and Nevada also should be considered solid blue. Jacky Rosen won easily over the odious Dean Heller in the Senate race there.

  36. 36.

    DeliciousGuacamole

    I’m thrilled that Joe Cunningham won (SC-01)! He’ll be my Representative. I enjoyed canvassing for him, meeting enthusiastic voters, more Dems here than I thought.
    The off-shore drilling issue was a strong one for him, plus he ran good ads with Republican mayors endorsing him. Arrington was too extreme.

  37. 37.

    Spanky

    Just remember, folks, there’s still almost 9 weeks before the next congress is sworn in.

    Constant vigilance! I still worry Ryan will try to pull something on his way out.

  38. 38.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Jon Tester is down 3k votes to a militia nutjob WTfuckety fuck Montana?
    Ofcourse here in AZ it’s all close but no cigar in statewide races. Jeezus.

  40. 40.

    guachi

    @Ian G.: Absolutely on CO and VA. It just took a while for the blueness to manifest at more than the presidential level. Each of those voted Obama/Obama/Clinton, correct?

    And now the Congressional delegations and state legislatures look better, too.

  43. 43.

    Tazj

    Yes, it’s disappointing that McMurray lost but it was very close for a R+11 district. The margin was around 1% and McMurray is asking for a recount.
    I saw large signs on a pick-up truck 3 vehicles ahead of me in the child pick-up line at school yesterday they read “Vote Republican”, and “I’m a Proud Deplorable.” Idiots.

  45. 45.

    The Moar You Know

    Well, I got good and fucked locally (school board flipped to the bad guys and my wife is a teacher) but am not unhappy with the election as a national whole. We flipped some districts I truly did not expect. Oklahoma? I want to know what she did there. Fucking Oklahoma. We can win anywhere if we can win there.

    Now we’ve got to – seriously – work twice as hard and give twice as much money. We’ve got to do better than this in 2020.

    San Diego County voter turnout was only 30%. I am utterly appalled by that.

  46. 46.

    David Fud

    There seems to be a runoff brewing in both the Secretary of State’s office and the Public Service Commission in Georgia. If Georgians want to fix their election system, the runoff is Tuesday December 4th. If Georgians want better oversight and not to be stuck with Georgia Power’s crappy nuclear plants, the runoff is Tuesday December 4th.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    Here in CA, we picked up 3 Republican House seats, including Rohrabacher’s and the seat Issa vacates, which means MaryG is probably giddy since she worked so hard for that. The 3rd seat that went Dem was my Swing Left district, where Katie Hill beat Steve Knight.

    I understand why Betty is depressed to discover that her home state is more red than she wanted to believe, but them’s the facts. Florida is red, not purple, and the racists who live there showed who they are.

  51. 51.

    Miss Bianca

    @Luciamia: If I have to take my pick of which lecherous old man I have to watch in gloat mode, I will pick Maurice Chevalier over Donald Trump any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

  52. 52.

    jnfr

    I’ll chime in here to agree with TaMara – I am very happy with how things have gone in Colorado this cycle. Not only for our new Governor, but happy to see Coffman out and also that Dems will have the full legislature. We even managed to take the AG and SOS slots, which was big.

    I am sorry that 112 didn’t win (would have severely reduced fracking in the state) but at least 74 went down too.

    Yay Colorado! I love this state.

  53. 53.

    mali muso

    Well, I’m feeling pleased that in all the years of living in VA-10, I will finally be represented by a Democrat. Goodbye, odious Comstock!!! Hello, Jennifer Wexton! This district was gerrymandered so badly to keep Frank Wolff’s seat safe for years and years, so it’s a real victory to finally flip it blue.

  56. 56.

    Barbara

    Virginia flipped three house seats, which was better than expected, but the reverberations from last year are really what we should be celebrating, because in 2020, there is a good chance that both houses of the assembly will be Democratic, along with the governor, which means undoing the gerrymandering that has made it so hard to get to this point. The main effect will be in the 5th congressional district, which basically was drawn to neutralize the impact of Charlottesville and Albemarle County. I was also thrilled to see the impact of the ungerrymandered Pennsylvania house elections, although disappointed that one close election went the other way.

  59. 59.

    Miss Bianca

    @jnfr: I really really wish Dems could pick up CD-3 again, and I am kind of bummed that none of the tax initiatives passed, but on the whole, yay-ish for CO!

  60. 60.

    Rusty

    Also living in the same district of Funke (a guy who the prior election gave away an AR-15 to prove he is a gun nut like his base) and Lunsford, I am very disappointed in the result but I do think competitive races have consequences. Funke is politically astute enough to see his district trending blue and he responded. No assault gun give away this election, and he has made very public efforts to show he is supporting the suburban schools, a big local issue. That 4% difference was probably won by getting state funding to transition the local school from half-day to full day kindergarten. His campaign highlighted other issues that would more typically be blue than red including maternity leave. My consultation with the loss is that the Democrats now fully control the NY state senate and he will be limited to sniping from the sidelines.

  62. 62.

    Michael Cain

    @Spanky: Ryan can’t get up to much mischief unless McConnell nukes the legislative filibuster in the Senate. That, followed by a dozen quick bills mostly in regulatory matters is my nightmare. My own personal bugaboo is a one-sentence add-on to the Clean Air Act: “Neither the federal government nor the states may regulate CO2.”

  64. 64.

    evap

    It looks like the odious Karen Handel was tossed out by a pro-gun control black woman. Handel was the one who brought in those hackable, no-paper-trail electronic voting machines while sec of state. And the votes left to count in GA are in heavily Democrat areas, so there is still a chance of a governor run-off.

  65. 65.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Sarah Kliff @ sarahkliff
    16m16 minutes ago
    Hard to overstate how strongly Medicaid won last night, mostly in red states
    —3 states (ID, NE, UT) passed ballots to expand Medicaid
    —2 states (ME, KS) elected governors likely to expand, too

    Works out to about 500k people gaining coverage.

    You could call this Medicaid winning. You could also call it “Obamacare winning”. Voters in three blood red states voted to expand and strengthen Obamacare.

  66. 66.

    WaterGirl

    I am relieved that we got the House, disappointed that we didn’t get the senate, and WTF florida? Really glad that we knocked off some truly evil people around the country, bummed about Nunes (but I hope he enjoys being the subject of an investigation) and just now I saw that Dana Rohrabacher lost. The last one warms my heart.

    Is it close enough for a runoff in Georgia, or did Stacy Abrams just miss the threshold? I can’t seem to find anything definitive about that.

    Our candidate for IL-13 lost by 3000+ votes, so we are stuck with the evil slimy Rodney Davis. How I loathe that man! But I think the was the only Democratic loss statewide and for the first time EVER, the Democrat won every single race. So we tossed our evil county clerk who worked very hard to keep democrats and students from voting, and the Rs knew they wouldn’t have a majority on council so they finagled a new position called “County Executive” that will have veto power, and their candidate lost!!! Better still, their candidate for that was the evil guy who had been the County Clerk for many years. That one is sweet.

    My heart is breaking at Beto’s loss.

    But I just read that Dana Rohrabacher lost, so that’s a shot in the arm.

    My friend and I are going to try making a german pancake / dutch baby this morning — on the books long before the election — so at least I will have to get out of the house. On my way out now, but if anybody has a link to the video of Beto’s concessions speech and/or the clip where he said he was so fucking proud of everyone, I would be pleased to return to those after breakfast. My google fu for videos is seriously subpar.

  69. 69.

    Kelly

    @West of the Cascades: The Republicans spent a ton of money losing to Oregon Democrats. I draw a bit of grim satisfaction from that. Kinda creeped out by the “gun rights” measures passed in several rural Republican counties. The measures are probably meaningless but creepy anyway.

  70. 70.

    oldgold

    Damn it, the Republic was saved yesterday. WE WON BACK ONE BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT!

    While not a total victory, it was a victory.

    Except for the Confederacy, we did pretty much as expected.

    And, somewhere out there, taking his sweet time, we still have Bobby looking under every damn rock.

  72. 72.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Matthew Yglesias @ mattyglesias
    This is really like rain on your wedding day for a Green Party activist turned Blue Dog.

    Manu Raju @ mkraju
    Democrat Krysten Sinema trailing by fewer than 15,000 votes in #azsen with 99% reporting. The Green Party candidate got nearly 40,000 votes

    Black flies in your chardonnay notwithstanding: There are 40,000 people in AZ who both believe there’s no difference between Rs and Ds (even now!), yet still managed to find their way to the polls? Those are Stein 2016 numbers

  74. 74.

    JPL

    Because of provisional ballots we won’t know for a few days whether or not Abrams can force a runoff. The district that I’m in, it appears that McBath might win, although I can’t imagine Handel leaving gracefully. The most surprising news for me is Betty Price, wife of Tom is down by 100 votes for her state house seat. That would be a major upset, since the person running against her didn’t campaign very much. I can’t believe that my area is purple if not blue. That is crazy.

  75. 75.

    Luthe

    @BlueDWarrior: Alas alack, it looks like my door-knocking wasn’t enough to flip the my local towns for Lamont, though the jury is still out on Newtown (wtf?). And hey, we did get Jahana elected, even if that was probably based on Waterbury and Danbury more than my slice of ruralburbia. And Tori Boucher lost!

  76. 76.

    Hildebrand

    Michigan had a great night last night. We picked up Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, two House seats, and passed ballot measures on recreational marijuana and redistricting.

  77. 77.

    JPL

    @JPL: Tom Price has been positioning himself to get back into politics, and if his wife loses her seat that would not help his cause. Even the fact that it is so close is worrisome.

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Luthe: though the jury is still out on Newtown (wtf?)

    That’s a fairly wealthy area, isn’t it? I’m sure it’s all about taxes.
    I’m generally glad that a good sized state has a blue governor, and specifically glad that Joe Lieberman is feeling extra whiny in his frustrated spite this morning.
    ETA: And Scott Walker lost, and Kansas has a Dem governor!

  83. 83.

    Hungry Joe

    A lot of good news, yes, but I feel gut-shot about the Senate.

    And here’s what I’ve learned — just now learned — about being in a bubble: Even if you’re aware that you’re in a bubble … you’re still in a bubble. My wife and I had convinced ourselves, because we were among hundreds of enthusiastic, motivated volunteers putting in thousands of hours even as the opposition was doing next to nothing, that we would swamp the R+ differential in CA-50 and throw out the multi-indicted sleazeball Duncan Hunter. At 7:45 last night we were still out there, with flashlights, looking for addresses of supposed Campa-Najjar supporters who hadn’t voted, according to the updates we checked every couple of hours at the precinct polling place.

    Hunter was re-elected. it wasn’t even close.

    So I’ve come up with a Rule of Political Thumb: Whenever you hear someone say, “I know I’m in a bubble, but … “, ignore everything he or she says after the word “bubble.” Even if the person saying it is you.

  85. 85.

    Cermet

    @guachi: Don’t lose faith; yes, 2020 will not be the year dems take the senate but I bet they will win a seat or two with the huge turnout of dems as they take the orange fart cloud down. Come 2022, the dems might then have a better chance to swing the senate.

  87. 87.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    so trump and his Russian handler will both be in Paris this weekend.

    Is it too much to hope Mueller drops something big between now and then to make that coverage extra painful for him

  88. 88.

    Luthe

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It is fairly wealthy. I just checked the website of one of the local papers; it seems they are hand-counting the ballots because the state representative race is too close to call. That’s probably what’s holding up the count for everything else.

  93. 93.

    Barbara

    @Hungry Joe: It’s easier to see the bubble when you are standing outside of it. In 1988 I was a newly minted graduate working with another newly minted graduate from Harvard who had been really active in the divestiture movement to end apartheid. She told me that divestiture would be a really important issue in the presidential election. I remember telling her that as someone who had been living in North Carolina I was pretty sure she was wrong. At which point she said she thought that Cambridge was much more representative of the nation than North Carolina. I didn’t argue. There is no arguing with someone who is truly in a bubble. Obviously, evidence burst her bubble in short order, but there are still a lot of people living in unpopped bubbles.

  94. 94.

    Tazj

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s crazy isn’t it? That people would vote for that awful Martha McSally who has been lying about her ACA votes or waste their votes on the Green party candidate.
    However, there might be some good news. According to Nick Riccardi,(AP political reporter), there are still plenty of votes in Arizona that have not yet been counted, and it could take days to do so. It’s not great that McSally is leading, but it’s far from over and I thought it was.

  96. 96.

    Sister Golden Bear

    I’m feeling generally OK about last night — some heartbreaking losses for sure, generally within the range of what was expected — and feeling safer about remaining in the country, although the Trump administration can still significantly hurt trans and LGB people through administrative actions.

    But couldn’t resist sharing a further play on William Carlos Willam poem:

    Sorry
    I have taken
    The Xanax
    That were in
    The medicine cabinet

    And which
    You were probaby
    saving
    For an emergency

    Forgive me
    We elected
    Nazis and dead guys
    And supressed so many votes

  97. 97.

    Kathi Beratan

    I’m relieved: NC made big progress yesterday back towards sanity. We broke the supermajority in the NC House, and I’ve heard (but not seen confirmed) that we did the same in the NC Senate! This is a much bigger deal than it might seem. We have a very good Dem governor who has been fighting against our anti-democratic General Assembly as hard as he can with no power now has actual veto power. And we now have a solid majority on the state Supreme Court with the election of Anita Earls, a civil rights attorney; this will matter because there are going to be a number of lawsuits related to voting rights coming soon!

  98. 98.

    Hungry Joe

    @Barbara: What’s so odd about being in a bubble and being aware that you’re in a bubble is that you still can’t quite overcome its effect. You think you’ve adjusted for it, but you haven’t because … well, you know.

  100. 100.

    The Moar You Know

    My wife and I had convinced ourselves, because we were among hundreds of enthusiastic, motivated volunteers putting in thousands of hours even as the opposition was doing next to nothing, that we would swamp the R+ differential in CA-50 and throw out the multi-indicted sleazeball Duncan Hunter. At 7:45 last night we were still out there, with flashlights, looking for addresses of supposed Campa-Najjar supporters who hadn’t voted, according to the updates we checked every couple of hours at the precinct polling place.

    @Hungry Joe: First: thanks for busting your ass. It will pay off when Hunter goes to trial and 50 needs a special election. But we’re going to need another candidate.

    But yeah, bubbles. I lived and worked out there for five years and I knew goddamn well there was NO WAY Campa-Najjar was going to win. No way. It’s the 50th! Like a Taiwanese friend of mine said a while back “I don’t go out there. Just like Texas”. Which it is, as you well know. I’m fucking floored he did as well as he did, but that’s a high water mark for a guy with an Arab name in that district.

    Again, thanks for busting your ass. It will pay out in the future.

    Me, I’m glad I can finally say I’m no longer in Issa’s district. I busted my ass on that one in 2016 with Applegate.

  101. 101.

    Platonailedit

    Maggie’s Laundromat is open for business*

    *this service is only available for Donald J Trump— ???? ?????? (@WilliamPieper) November 7, 2018

    In reply to a magat halbermann spin.

  102. 102.

    geg6

    We have re-elected our governor and senior senator. We have a new lieutenant govenor, who is going to go places from there and I have a Democrat representing me in the House. We didn’t win the local PA house/senate races but the GOP super majority in the state senate is gone. Wolf, Casey, Fetterman and Lamb all won in my county. I had hoped for more, but knew that was just unwarranted exuberance. Wish we’d done better in the Senate, but that was always a tough row to hoe. It could have been worse, so I’m feeling okay right now. It’s a start and we keep fighting.

  103. 103.

    Matt McIrvin

    Locally, for me, there were no big surprises. Massachusetts Question 1 (patient/nurse limits) lost by a bigger margin than I thought it would; that was about as surprising as it got.

    On Question 3 (retain the transgender protection law) Yes wins easily with 2/3 of the vote; big rebuke to the bigots who got it on there.

    I’m happy to see the big wins in New Hampshire, though. Democrats take both houses of the state leg and the House seats.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne

    @Hungry Joe:

    And yet Rohrabacher got tossed out on his ear, so you weren’t in a total bubble.

    I’m assuming that Hunter’s voters rallied around him and against the “fake news.” One wonders if they will stand by their man even after he cops a plea or gets convicted.

  106. 106.

    Collie Dad

    Mostly shitty results in Ohio. Wingnut Mike DeWine will be replacing John Kasich as Governor and, with the exception of Sherrod Brown being re-elected to the Senate, the rethugs swept all of the statewide offices.

  107. 107.

    Barbara

    @geg6: I still laugh when I think of the “Mayor of Braddock.” I canvassed in Braddock in 2004. It’s one of those places in Pittsburgh where I say to myself “what would this neighborhood be like if Pittsburgh were San Francisco.” Incredible old buildings and hills that give them incredible views. Right on top of a steel mill that probably isn’t working anymore, but was then anyway.

  109. 109.

    beef

    I’m looking at the results and I’m bloody thrilled. Would have been nice to see Beto win, but …

    From where I sit, it looks like Trump’s path to victory in 2020 has closed. His victory in 2016 was a delicate thing. Take away Russian interference or voter suppression, put a sock in Bernie, trade Hillary for someone less known — change almost any one thing, and his electoral college majority falls apart.

    Well, Trump lost voter suppression in WI and MI last night That’s done. And, he’s no longer welcome in PA, judging by the change in voter sentiment there. Oh, and there’s going to be hundreds of thousands of new voters in FL, most of whom probably resent our country’s habit of imprisoning black men.

    It looks to me like the Republicans get to choose between civil war in their party and following Trump off a cliff. Should be fun to watch.

  111. 111.

    burnspbesq

    @germy:

    Demographic change also matters. John Carter survived in TX-31, but he lost Williamson County, the rapidly-growing northern suburbs of Austin. He’s got a big problem going forward.

  113. 113.

    JR

    @Barbara: The mill is still alive and well in Braddock

    Braddock’s big problem isn’t just jobs. It’s geography. It’s a long way from where people with money work. Plus the fact that the mill *is* active means that you have some pretty hearty pollution issues to contend with.

  114. 114.

    chopper

    @beef:

    from an inside baseball point of view i’m pretty chuffed. even those races that we lost, most all of them were in red districts/states where it shouldn’t have been close. yet beto, a guy who most all of texas had never even heard of a year ago, got within what, a few percent? in texas! steve king had to squeak out a win FFS. and some truly odious POSs got canned. we won the house and a bunch of governorships and some states like NY and VA really brought some shit home.

    OTOH, this wasn’t a typical r-versus-d type election of old. this was clearly a choice between democracy and fascism, and fascism should have been shown the door, and it wasn’t. that’s disappointing AF.

  117. 117.

    Kent

    @Hungry Joe:

    And here’s what I’ve learned — just now learned — about being in a bubble: Even if you’re aware that you’re in a bubble … you’re still in a bubble. My wife and I had convinced ourselves, because we were among hundreds of enthusiastic, motivated volunteers putting in thousands of hours even as the opposition was doing next to nothing, that we would swamp the R+ differential in CA-50 and throw out the multi-indicted sleazeball Duncan Hunter. At 7:45 last night we were still out there, with flashlights, looking for addresses of supposed Campa-Najjar supporters who hadn’t voted, according to the updates we checked every couple of hours at the precinct polling place.

    Same thing here in the WA-3rd which is the SW corner of the state. Thought we had tremendous energy for Carolyn Long but looks like Trumper Herrera-Beutler will pull it out, although the race hasn’t been called yet. What we learned here (which we already knew) is that Vancouver is a purple/blue corner of suburban Portland that is surrounded by a whole lot of Kentucky in rural SW washington logging towns and mill towns that are more or less exactly like the coal mining towns of KY and WV. At least the blue parts of the district are growing fast while the red parts not so much.

  118. 118.

    Prometheus Shrugged

    @The Moar You Know: Agreed on all counts. I talked to a few people that live out there, and they all said the same thing. The people who were going to vote for Hunter were just putting in markers for a special election.
    It’s sad that the district has developed into such a cesspool of vile racist hate. My wife and I liked to walk our dogs out there, but we can’t go anymore. It probably always had a racist foundation, but now the deplorables have become emboldened and visible. It is pretty amazing the Campa-Najjar got what he did.

  119. 119.

    Barbara

    @JR: Really glad to hear that it is still working. I wasn’t sure. It was obvious that before cars, there was a premium for living not far from work, but that with automobiles, workers moved at least “over the hill” to avoid the noise and smell of the mill. There was no avoiding the air quality, I can tell you that with certainty. When I canvassed, I talked to widows of steelworkers still living close to the mill, but most of the population lived in public housing further away. Also, those hills are so steep you cannot drive a car on some of the streets.

  121. 121.

    H.E.Wolf

    @TenguPhule:

    27% of the voters in Hawaii voted for the Republican running for Governor here.
    Reply

    Excellent news! That means the Democratic candidate won with approximately 73% of the vote, or an almost 3-to-1 ratio of voters. Many of us on the mainland yearn for such wonderful numbers. Thank you, HI, for keeping the GOP voters to that rock-bottom 27%.

  122. 122.

    Kenneth Kohl

    @Tazj:

    child pick-up line at school yesterday they read “Vote Republican”, and “I’m a Proud Deplorable.”

    Kind of surprised, with that bumper-sticker outlook on life the kids aren’t home schooled.
    Also, too; absentee votes in play?
    Note the Collins classy response at paragraph 5/or so. I’m your “neighbor” on NY-26 (Brian Higgins) – so easy-peasy at our end ;)

  123. 123.

    Hungry Joe

    @The Moar You Know: I walked a couple of precincts for Levin, then defected to the 50th when I figured he had it won. (We live in the 53rd — safe blue with Susan Davis.)

    Congrats on being de-Issa’d. Kinda like being de-loused, I’d guess, only without the itchy powder. I do NOT speak from experience.

  124. 124.

    The Moar You Know

    It probably always had a racist foundation, but now the deplorables have become emboldened and visible. It is pretty amazing the Campa-Najjar got what he did.

    @Prometheus Shrugged: It has. I used to play a lot out there in the late 80s. Lotta redneck biker types back then. They weren’t shy about it, either. I’m playing gigs in town again. I’ve got a black drummer in my band and for his safety (hell, and mine) I wouldn’t take a gig out there even if the pay was stellar.

  125. 125.

    Prometheus Shrugged

    @The Moar You Know: My wife is African American, and we’ve traveled through many racist parts of the country and encountered many not-so-subtle hostile glares in those places. But the last two times in Alpine, we were harassed to the point of me having my fingers on 9-1-1 (the dogs saved us).
    What’s strange is that throughout much of the rest of Southern California, mixed race families are now more common than not. I guess there’s some comfort in the fact that the overt hate has been corralled into pockets like the 50th. The first step is containment…

  127. 127.

    TenguPhule

    FUCK!

    The Republican won the local district representative for my district.

    FUCK FUCK FUCK.

  128. 128.

    Miss Bianca

    @Cheryl Rofer: Democratic sweep in state offices in CO, too – and both houses of state leg turned blue! And a majority of our Congress reps (not mine, alas), now Dems! This is a victory for us, indeed!

  129. 129.

    jonas

    Anthony Brindisi squeaked out a win in NY-22, which took another seat away from a particularly odious Trumpster Claudia Tenney in a R +15 district after she and allied PACs poured what must have been millions into non-stop negative ads on every media platform imaginable. So some good news there, esp. since several polls in the runup to the election showed him trailing by 3-5%.

Comments are closed.