First the big news from Arizona:
BREAKING: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema wins election to U.S. Senate from Arizona. #APracecall at 5:41 p.m. MST. @AP election coverage: https://t.co/miEWlbTVZW #Election2018 #AZelection
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) November 13, 2018
And now the important news from Arizona:
Congrats to @kyrstensinema. I wish her success. I’m grateful to all those who supported me in this journey. I’m inspired by Arizonans’ spirit and our state’s best days are ahead of us. pic.twitter.com/tw0uKgi3oO
— McSally For Senate (@MarthaMcSally) November 13, 2018
And…
There is no evidence of election officials "cooking the books" in Arizona. Such careless language undermines confidence in our democratic institutions. https://t.co/cNjYp0yIa1
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) November 11, 2018
Both of those tweets are notable because they should not be notable in a healthy political system. The McSally concession came pretty much as soon as it was apparent that there just weren’t the votes for her to win. It took a few days but the Arizona process worked well and to spec. This is a graceful bog standard concession with a disappointed candidate and a good dog.
The tweet by the outgoing Senator is push back on conspiracy theories that if unanswered delegitimate electoral politics. This should be a nothing burger as well in a healthy political environment. Yet it too is noteworthy.
Baud
Congrats, Sinema.
Ben Cisco
Good on McSally. I guess Flake finally took a stand on SOMETHING.
HinTN
Congrats to McSally for being classy. Flake? meh. Also big props to the next Senator from Arizona.
burnspbesq
Who the hell is Calvin Moore, and what drugs is he on?
Ken
Was “Republicans gain two in the Senate” based on the initial AZ results? If so, someone’s going to be upset and hide in his room another day.
Platonailedit
gop kills sanity.
schrodingers_cat
What is the final House tally? +38 seats is what I found. Not sure if there any more seats left to be called.
debbie
Won’t McSally now be appointed to McCain’s seat?
raven
Isn’t she just going to get the other seat?
Ruckus
@Platonailedit:
More like the moron would shoot himself in the foot and in jumping around, fall off the board, screaming that the terrorist shot him.
trollhattan
This is an important and surprising gain. Not a prediction, but I can foresee the Pacific states plus Nevada and Arizona becoming a reliably blue bloc. Unless Boise becomes a megalopolis I’m writing off Idaho.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: “Nothing is over! Nothing!”
trollhattan
@schrodingers_cat:
IIRC California still has house seats in play.
WaterGirl
@debbie: @raven: That’s the rumor that’s everywhere, but there hasn’t been any kind of official announcement.
I’m taking the graceful concession speech after an ugly campaign as an indication that McSally knows she’ll be in the senate anyway.
Fishfry
McSally isn’t classy, her campaign ads were some of the most disgusting I have seen in this state since I started voting. She’s playing nice because she will probably be picked to fill McCain’s seat until the 2020 election. Governor Ducey should have picked someone instead of Kyl to fill the seat and ensure they would stay until the special election. The voters in Arizona have spoken and it wasn’t to send McSally to the senate. Congrats to Krysten Sinema, my new Democratic Senator!
Ben Cisco
We may be seeing the beginnings of narrative rewrites (in which claims for “sane” GOPers ensue). Cynical take? You bet.
Yarrow
Congrats to Sinema! Hard to imagine AZ has a Dem Senator. Amazing.
In other exciting news:
At least eight Mueller prosecutors working on a holiday. Something’s up.
Baud
@Yarrow:
Not necessarily. They have a lot of work to do even when something isn’t imminent.
gene108
@Ben Cisco:
Flake takes plenty of stands, as long as he does not have to back it up with votes against his party.
Dan B
Bad news that Flake is the best national republican. I believe his politics are “courteous cruelty”. Or Darwinian (except can’t use that name…)
I’d research them but I’m hoping this is his last hurrah.
piratedan
@debbie: speculated but not confirmed….
Kyl wants to go back to drinking at the lobbyist cash spigot and he was there to hold Kavanaugh’s hand thru confirmation…. McSally would be a fit, but then again, Ducey could nominate Gosar or Biggs or Lesko and the GOP would likely keep those congressional seats based on how the districts currently are inhabited. Possible that there’s some sympathy for nominating McCain’s widow Cindy or Ducey taking the spot himself.
Depends on personalities and ambition as always…. I know that they like McSally and she’s a loyal Trumper but some people in GOP circles are apparently piqued that she’s not being a raving loon non-stop in order to emulate the current administration.
Baud
Gillibrand voting for Schumer for minority leader. Rose Twitter will go bezerk.
Ken
@Baud: Indeed, with new crimes being committed and/or confessed every day.
Platonailedit
Karma = everything the traitorous thug touches turns into turd.
Baud
@Ken: And that’s just me!
WaterGirl
@Baud: What is rose twitter?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: You’re no fun.
Mary G
@WaterGirl: Wilmer fans often have a rose in their Twitter name.
Platonailedit
@Baud: At this point, who gives a shit about bs bots?
WaterGirl
@Mary G: Ugh. I thought all the Wilmer fans were boys.
Followup question: why would Wilmerites care how KG voted for minority leader?
Baud
@Platonailedit: Dems who want to fight people who want to undermine us.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Schumer has become a hated figure on the left.
schrodingers_cat
Karma is not cosmic justice but your own deeds (karmas) coming to bite you in the ass. You always pay for your actions, one way or the other
kar = hands. (same root as maker, baker, etc)
Fair Economist
@Baud: Is anybody else even running for Senate Minority Leader besides Schumer? He apparently has outstanding caucus political skills and is a stellar fundraiser. Last cycle he was unopposed.
WaterGirl
@Baud: hmmm. Maybe my problem is that I don’t see Wilmer fans as being on the left. They are just out for themselves.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Funny how the objects of hate of the purity lefts are almost always Ds and not Rs
Baud
@Fair Economist: Don’t know. People have been talking about him a lot, and it annoys me because it seems like such a distraction.
schrodingers_cat
WTF is happening in Maine?
Yarrow
@Baud: Well, true. But not in this case.
chelsea530
McSally is going to step into McCain’s seat, if Kyl gives it up. :)
Baud
@WaterGirl: I don’t see those things as mutually exclusive.
Baud
@Yarrow: Do you know something?
Platonailedit
@Baud: They are useless distractions. Their ‘influence’ is overrated.
Mandarama
I am sure McSally is probably not a good person, if she’s a Trumper…but this was well done. Her golden looks just like my Murphy we lost in August, and I noticed he was trying to put his paw on her arm (golden move), and of course he was on the sofa. So I have to rank her above our crazy wingnut Marsha Blackburn. ☹️
burnspbesq
@Baud:
Did anyone seriously expect something else?
Ken
@Mandarama:
Talk about low bars.
janesays
@Ken: Republicans +2 in the Senate is based on Sinema winning and Nelson losing Florida. If Nelson somehow pulls it off (unlikely – recounts almost never reverse initial results), that brings the GOP down to +1 in the Senate. The vacated Mississippi seat is still technically open pending a runoff election, but there’s pretty close to 0% chance of the Democrat winning that race – it’s only going to a runoff because the two Republicans in the three-way race split the wingnut vote – almost all of McDaniel’s voters will now vote for Hyde-Smith in the runoff.
That said, +2 for the GOP in the senate is a hell of a lot better than wingnuts were thinking it would be on election night when +5 GOP briefly seemed like an actual possibility (before Montana and Nevada were called for Democrats).
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Sending thoughts and prayers to Martha McSally.
At least in this trying time, she can take comfort in knowing Obamacare will provide her good healthcare.
janesays
@debbie: John Kyl was already appointed to that seat a month or so ago. It will be on the ballot in a special election in 2020 (Kyl has already said he won’t be running), and then again in 2022 when it would normally be up.
janesays
Nevermind, I see now that Kyl may wind up resigning the seat in January, in which case McSally is likely to be appointed to serve until the special election in 2020.
debbie
@janesays:
They seem a bit election happy. They should have had one, either a couple weeks ago or when they vote in spring, instead of two in 2020 and 2022.
Ben Cisco
@WaterGirl: First, presume a cesspool. Then imagine scraping the bottom of it.
Baud
@burnspbesq: Chris Hayes posed the question to her.
James E Powell
@Ben Cisco:
It’s not a stand unless he is risking something or what he does matters. With Flake, it’s all just wind.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@schrodingers_cat: There’s still two in the OC(CA-45 and CA-39), that have the Dem down by 2k with votes left to count.
Achrachno
@Mandarama: If appointed I wonder if McSally will turn out to be like Flake — talks nice but ends up voting with the creeps out of pure weakness. From the clip she seems like a reasonable person at heart — straight wing nuts cannot talk like that.
AThornton
If I’ve got my info correct there were 13 undeclared seats this morning. 3 have gone Dem and 2 GOP leaving 8. According to 538 Dems are favored in 6 and the GOP in 2.
All in all it looks like the Dems final tally could be over 40 seats
Achrachno
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Lots of votes and closing gaps. I’ll bet those fall our way — but they better hurry up.
Geoboy
So let’s win Florida and Mississippi and leave Mitch no better off than he was before.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
GA-07 hasn’t been called yet.
Mai Naem mobile
I am not sure why everybody is assuming McSally is going to be appointed to the seat. If I was Ducey I would find a Hispanic Republican to fill the seat or even Cindy McCain if shes interested. McSally lost the race for crying out loud. If Ducey or a Mormon is not on the 2020 POTUS ticket, I think the Dems have decent chance of flipping McCain’s seat.
Yutsano
@Geoboy: If Espy somehow wins Mississippi that leaves Yertle with 50/50 if I’m not mistaken. Which would have made this a total disaster for the Republicans if Nelson somehow pulls it off as well.
Duane
Just saw the picture of Baraboo High School boys throwing the nazi salute at their prom. Bunch of idiots. This wasn’t considered okay before Trumpov came along.
It’s time to flat out call the republicans nazis. Label them with it. Make them deny it. Those boys are the face of republican youth. Own it republicans, you made it.
Mandarama
@Ken:
I know… and it still took the heavy lifting of a golden to get her over it. Trump people are so wretched that I’m surprised when they love animals, I guess?
@Achrachno:
I’m sure… but even that would be an improvement over what we have here in TN. Freaking Lamar Alexander has had to say nasty things to placate our rude denizens, and you see how fast they excommunicated Corker. This state is crazier than I thought.
Skepticat
@schrodingers_cat:
I voted for ranked choice voting specifically because of situations such as this. (That and having been stuck with the idiot LeRage after he got only 32 and then 36 percent of the vote.) It will take a while to finish counting the ranked votes (it isn’t as though anyone has experience doing it), and of course the Rethuglican is crying foul. He actually said before the election that he’d dispute it if ranked votes were necessary. I do wish they’d hurry, and I so hope Jared Golden wins. As for what’s happening in Maine, that’s always a good and perplexing question.
Raoul
So, at most, the GOP goes from 51 seats to 53 seats, in a cycle where structurally they should have gotten to what, 56? Maybe 57?
It may not look like a ‘blue wave’ but it was a pretty solid showing, even if we net lost two seats.
Amir Khalid
@Duane:
Half a century ago, the Republican party began selling out to Confederate diehards. Now they’re selling out to fascists and tyrants.
cain
@trollhattan:
If we encourage Amazon to show up there, it’ll turn Blue.
cain
@cain:
Nevermind, it seems that Amazon has picked New York and N. Virginia as their 2nd headquarters. May God have Mercy on their souls.
janesays
@Yutsano: Incorrect – the GOP is already guaranteed 51 seats, regardless of what happens in Florida and Mississippi. The best case (and extremely unlikely) scenario for Democrats has the senate at 51-49 GOP, if the Democrats pick up Mississippi and hold Florida. Far more likely that we’ll have a 53-47 senate than a 51-49, though.
Still, when you take into account the Doug Jones win last year, it means the Republicans will start the next Congress with only one more senator than they started the current congress (52-48 before Jones won Alabama).