Thank you, everyone, for voting harder.
— Millard Fillmore's porcelain zither (@agraybee) November 9, 2022
*Major* props to our own WaterGirl, for herding us cats jackals and keeping us all focused and up to date, last night and for the previous many months!
Soon…
.@HayesBrown: Here’s a short list of changes that would have been in place today had the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act passed: https://t.co/Z6tIxKGfZw pic.twitter.com/3CmiOi0LfL
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 8, 2022
This baseball cap is a national monument Biden declared in Colorado last month— fulfilling a campaign promise of Senator @MichaelBennet who just won re-election. https://t.co/EwwBr6Nddu
— Akayla Gardner (@gardnerakayla) November 9, 2022
Took control of government faster than any opposition movement since Herbert Hoover. Passed four major bills on pandemic aid, industrial policy, climate and infrastructure with a zero-seat majority. Now just pulled off one of the most impressive midterms in decades. https://t.co/30UTPCy2N3
— dr. stupid (@cityafreaks) November 9, 2022
If it wasn’t for Gen-Z, there would have been a red wave.
The polling shows that OUR generation voted for Democrats more than any other age group. WE are the reason Democracy will stand.
We now have a seat at the table. Time to start listening.
— Olivia Julianna ?? (@0liviajulianna) November 9, 2022
.@JoyAnnReid on the impact abortion had on #Election2022: "The history of the way elections work cannot survive a cataclysmic event in the lives of half the population." https://t.co/x010F2TMpX pic.twitter.com/62bFgdyTRo
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 9, 2022
Because Democrats did a lot of popular things and the Supreme Court made a wildly unpopular decision. https://t.co/izqjK7sKbL
— Millard Fillmore's porcelain zither (@agraybee) November 9, 2022
McCarthy victory party delayed as mixed bag of results trickle in. pic.twitter.com/6kLstnbL0T
— Erik Wasson (@elwasson) November 9, 2022
Several House GOP sources tell CBS after midnight tonight that they are now increasingly worried that if GOP wins a narrow House majority, it'll be utter chaos for McCarthy/leadership team. Rep. MTG & her allies would have much more sway in a tight GOP House, the sources predict.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) November 9, 2022
Pelosi can govern with a 1 seat majority.
McCarthy is fucked 6 ways to Sunday with that number. https://t.co/xxP6IgQ9X6— Elizabeth Rogers (@ahumorlessfem) November 9, 2022
Remember, sharing is caring:
Donald Trump is the big loser tonight.
Joe Biden and the Infrastructure Bill is the big winner. pic.twitter.com/x0va75BuZB
— Christopher Webb????VOTE (@cwebbonline) November 9, 2022
or being shot in a parking lot https://t.co/JCWidmrfJ2
— world famous art thief (@CalmSporting) November 9, 2022
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
rikyrah
The young people came out 🤗
Baud
A million times this.
And you too, AL, for bringing the joy every morning.
H.E.Wolf
@rikyrah: The kids are alright 🤗
Isua
THANK YOU WATER GIRL AND BALLOON JUICE! You guys got me through all this and got me donating. (General lurker here. I should probably comment more, I have a dog I could talk about.) This morning I am buying Stacy Abrams’ romance novels for my kindle as a show of personal support because she’s amazing, and once I finish grading whatever nonsense my students submitted last night, I’m gonna read her.
dmsilev
Some disappointments to be sure (really Ohio? Vance?), but nowhere near as bad as it could have been and looks like at worst the House will have a razor-thin GOP majority. Which is bad (and fingers crossed it doesn’t happen), but they’ll spend so much time fighting among themselves that it will limit the damage.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! 🙏
Eolirin
@dmsilev: At worst we also lose the Senate. NV is not looking great.
HinTN
@Baud: We sometimes get it right.
Baud
@HinTN:
Dammit. That block quote was supposed to be this.
But good in TN.
oatler
@Eolirin:
ABC has an In-depth analysis on the Dems stunning losses, hosted by Chris Christie. Punditry has added wisdom to his bought-and-paid-for dewlaps.
Shalimar
@dmsilev: I’m not sure a barely Republican House would be bad. Yes, it means nothing gets done in the next 2 years. On the other hand, there is no better possible 2024 slogan than some variation of “Just say no to 2 more years of clown car government.”
jonas
@Eolirin:
Ugh. That’s too bad. It was looking like she might pull it off last night. Well, w/o the Senate, we can forget getting any more judicial nominations, but at least Mitch McConnell is not going to blow up the world over the debt ceiling and will continue supporting Ukraine. A GOP-controlled House would have been an unmitigated catastrophe.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I want to see Trump go after De Santis. Get him, Donnie! Rip his liver out.
New Deal democrat
@dmsilev: You want to really smile?
This morning, if I am Ron DeSantis, I am totally UN-intimidated by Trump. I am running in 2024.
In a Trump vs. DeSantis GOP primary in 2024, root for injuries. Even better, root for a *small* DeSantis win, followed by Trump p***ing all over him and (successfully) urging GOPers to write in his name in the general election.
Eolirin
@jonas: It’s not over yet, she might still. But it’s going to be scary close if that happens.
And we may yet get a GOP controlled House. It’ll just be with thin margins.
Kay
@dmsilev:
Ryan was always a long shot. It’s a Trump + 8 state. A red state.
Democrats won’t win as long as there are so many rural counties with lopsided GOP outcomes – 75R/25D.
They can have perfectly respectable urban turnout and as long as all those smaller counties are 75/25 they will lose. It just doesn’t add up for them. Ryan knew what he had to do- he had to shrink some of the rural margins. He just couldn’t do it with even a good campaign.
It’s a shame the state has gone so far Right, but it has.
jonas
@Shalimar:
You’re assuming the average voter pays any attention whatsoever to Congressional politics. Most probably don’t even know what party controls the House at any given moment. This always works in Republicans’ favor, however, because they pay no price for running a complete clusterfuck of a clownshow that panders to their base, while Democrats get no credit for doing things right because no-one but partisan political junkies pays any attention and, well, the less said about our political media and their priorities the better.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
LOL! So specific.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I feel dirty but I’m quoting Bill Kristol (15 minutes ago):
Betty Cracker
@jonas: According to WaPo, Cortez Masto is trailing in the vote count but still likely to win. Not a sure thing by any means, but all is not lost.
Baud
@jonas:
If that were entirely true, we would have done much worse in this election.
But I generally agree with you that we shouldn’t assume any particular awful thing the Republicans do will create some massive voter backlash.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Wow. That would be incredible.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: If the republicans hold the house, I want trump to tell McCarthy to step aside, and let a true maga like himself become speaker. I want the Maggots to implode.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Yep. I’m accepting that same reality about Florida. There’s no getting around it.
Kay
Probably worse for Ohio than Vance is the state supreme court. Vance is actually bad for the country more than he’s bad for Ohio.
Ohio is really corrupt. A far Right court dominated by Republicans who don’t follow recusal norms or any ethical standards will just make that growing problem worse. The state looks more and more like a declining lost cause.
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah:
Yes they did! I worked the polls on UNM campus yesterday. I was supposed to be just a poll watcher for the morning shift, but ended up staying well past closing time at 7pm to help with crowd management.
Gen Z turned out in massive numbers, so much so that the same-day registration computer system nearly shut down from overload. (Of course they were last-minute registrants, what did people expect?) Quite a few had to wait hours first to register and then for their new registration to clear the system and get their ballot. But wait they did, mostly with patience and good humor. I was impressed and often nearly in tears over their presence and persistence. From their comments, it was clear that Dobbs was a motivator, among other things
The kids are alright.
Baud
@Kay:
It’s really a shame because OH had benefitted greatly from Biden’s policies, as I understand it.
JPL
Water Girl had at least one more assignment and that is to raise money for Warnock. If we lose Nevada, republicans are going to spend a lot to get Herschel that seat.
jonas
@Kay:
The Trumpification of rural America is a tragic thing to see. Trumpinomics does absolutely *nothing* for them or their families or their farms/ranches — in fact most Republican policies are aimed at promoting Big Ag, degrading the environment, and impoverishing farmers — but I guess those guns and being “anti-woke” or whatever are more important than, you know, prosperity and health. smh.
Kay
They came out against Dobbs even with virtually no coverage of the impact of the decision from major national media and no investment or effort by national media in covering it.
It was all local media, social media and a couple of online liberal outlets like Jezebel. Women got it without the big lavishly funded media companies. There’s some kind of lesson there for Democrats.
citizen dave
I imposed a news blackout on myself after reading last night that Florida is still (overall) crazy, and broke the blackout by coming here once I arrived at work. Thank you Balloon Juice for being there. As Tom Waits used to stage banter “I love you all individually and as a group. “
sdhays
@Baud: Obama and the Democrats saved the Ohio’s automobile manufacturing industry, and too many Ohio voters didn’t appreciate it.
jonas
@Baud:
I know, right? Remember when Trump campaigned a bunch there in 2016 and crowed about how he had jawboned the Carrier company into keeping their plant open in Ohio? The second his back was turned, they shut it anyway and moved to Mexico. Then Biden comes along with a bunch of clean energy jobs, a massive Intel chip plant, etc., and no-one gives a shit.
H.E.Wolf
@dmsilev:
@Kay:
https://electoral-vote.com/ had a comment last night, re: Tim Ryan: “The Democrats better find a place for him, by forcing the GOP to spend tens of millions to save what is supposed to be a safe seat, he did the Party a lot of good”.
jonas
@Betty Cracker:
I assume that’s because most of the outstanding ballots are mail-ins from strongly Dem counties/precincts or something?
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:The margin that DeSantis won by just proves that Florida is a basket case. The inmates have truly taken over the asylum.
eta, Eric schmitt’s winning margin says the same for Misery.
Math Guy
I am still gobsmacked that Walker got more than 17 votes let alone bringing this to a runoff.
Anyway
Psyched about the PA wins, all the midwestern governor races (WI, MN, MI, IL) – bummed about Vance any his smarmy shtick in the senate.
Any details on NY house races? They looked bad last night…
Baud
@sdhays:
@jonas:
People love to free ride on our work. It’s just something we have to accept because I don’t see a way to stop it.
Betty Cracker
DeSantis flipped Miami-Dade, so it’s not just rural Florida and The Villages that’s fucked up.
Eolirin
@Baud: The most massive voter backlash we’ve seen was to Trump being elected, where our 2018 results were really strong in the House but still not quite enough to take us over the hump in some close statewide races.
Not even the pandemic and its inept handling was enough to create the kind of real game changing wave for us we want to see.
So this is likely the best we’ll be able to get. And it’s just on the edge of being enough. It may fall short or we may just pull it out.
We’re not in a great place electorally. A lot of that is gerrymandering, and the structural issues with the Senate, but given the handicaps we have there just aren’t enough of us for decisive wins. NY’s results are really illustrative, though I think we can win back some of the races we lost next cycle.
Feels like everything is going to be on a knife’s edge, at best, for a long while.
H.E.Wolf
Also – adding my thanks to WaterGirl for a midterm season of superb fundraising jubilees!
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: That is nice to hear.
indycat32
@jonas: Indiana, not ohio.
OzarkHillbilly
@jonas: but I guess those guns and being “anti-woke” or whatever are more important than, you know, prosperity and health. In a word? Yes. That and Jesus.
jonas
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I was dragging Kristol a bit yesterday for his prediction that there would be no Red Wave, given his track record as the absolutely worst political prognosticator in history, but here we are.
Funny how when he started rooting for Team Blue he suddenly gets more accurate. Go figure.
JPL
@Math Guy: Why is a wife beater allowed to own a gun? Warnock had two really good ads in the last two weeks, with one featuring republicans who won’t vote for Herschel.
Elizabelle
Thank you Democrats, for turning out and voting. (Thank you, New Mexico Generation Z, for staying in line to register and vote! That’s great news, O Felix Culpa.)
My condolences to those who live in states where superior candidates could not be elected. This time. For some of you, that will change.
Very happy to be starting the post-midterms world with relief. Proud of Joe Biden and all that he has accomplished. To the tune of so much dismissal and derision. Proud of Democrats. Proud of jackals!
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Why? Does Miami-Dade want the freedom to ban books too?
jonas
@indycat32:
Ack. You’re right. That was Indiana. I can only presume that the point stands, though. Republicans kicking you repeatedly in the nads apparently feels better than having to admit a Democrat did anything beneficial for you.
Kay
@jonas:
I think about it a lot because I live among it. Obama lost my county by 10 in 2008. Biden lost it by almost 30. That’s the shift right there and it’s in every rural county. It adds up until they can’t overcome it with even increased turnout in urban centers.
D’s did fine in the other Great Lakes states last night, so it’s not a “northern Great Lakes tier problem” it’s an Ohio problem. They should redirect the Ohio effort to NC and/or GA.
Marcy Kaptur, who won last night, has said it for 20 years. Ohio can choose to trend towards MI or WI or MN or PA OR trend toward “Appalachian state”, like Kentucky and West Virginia. They are going with “Appalachian”.
jonas
@JPL:
‘Murica!
Baud
@Eolirin:
I agree. And it’s something we should have realized at least a decade ago. I think we’ve dreamed of a breakthrough moment, and that has adversely affected our approach toward elections.
Baud
@Kay: Happy about Marcy. She was redistricted into a red district, right?
Scout211
Another win for abortion rights. Kentucky Amendment 2 was is projected to lose. That’s a win for abortion rights. Montana’s anti-abortion initiative is also losing by a similar margin (52.4% to 48.6% per NBC). If the results stand, that would be all 5 states with abortion rights on the ballot will be wins for abortion rights. California, Michigan and Vermont have voted to enshrine abortion rights into their state constitution. Montana and Kentucky will have defeated the attempt to eliminate the right to abortion into their constitutions. I am feeling some good feels here. The kids are definitely alright.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: FREEDUMB!!!
Baud
@Scout211: 👍
Eolirin
@Baud: I will say, a lot of that, at least with the House, but possibly also with the Senate, is down to Manchin and Sinema blowing up the voting rights bill. Without heavy gerrymandering a night like this is a clear House win.
ryk
At the polling location I worked yesterday, here in my corner of red state Misery, it didn’t look like the youngs were going to show up. It was all gray hair all day and then we got slammed in the last three or four hours we were open with people under forty. It didn’t help the Dems much though since we had 14 Repubs running unopposed for judgeships and various county offices, but legalized weed won handily.
Baud
@Eolirin:
Yes, agree. I said that earlier today. It’s awful.
Benw
Funny (I think) personal anecdote from yesterday: I was a poll worker in my red-ish Long Island district, with barely any cell service from 5 am until 11 pm. (I did manage to sneak out a few times to check on my kids and make sure to get them pizza delivered for dinner.) The Republicans showed up at the polls and it felt like we were getting our asses kicked all day. I finally got out and called my wife and told her I don’t want to extrapolate but we are getting our asses kicked. Then she gleefully told me how things were going, so it felt extra sweet
Kay
@H.E.Wolf:
I agree that Ryan did the Party good, and Ryan is not even ideologically aligned with me- he’s further Right than I am. I’m just not going to put more than I already have into this state. It’s not headed in a good direction for anything- education, workforce, ethics and transparency in government. It’s a bad investment. I don’t understand hating immigrants, for example, even amng Right leaning business people. Immigrants are so clearly a plus here. The state would do better with many more. Where do they think growth is going to come from? It’s not Florida. It’s cold. There’s no going to be any influx from other states.
Tony G
@jonas: Actually, the people in “red” farm states (and in farm counties of “blue states”) benefit from federal benefits that are mainly paid for by the voters in “blue” state and “blue” counties. They are being subsidized by the people who they despise as “woke” moochers. Right-wing welfare queens.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
I am hoping Josh Riley pulls off a miracle in the NY-19 but currently I think Molinaro is winning by several thousand votes…sigh. Very glad to see Janet Mills will remain Governor of Maine. LePage was awful and needs to go Away!
OzarkHillbilly
Imagine that, spending money on their students. Who’da thunk it?
jonas
@Kay: It is sad. Rural upstate NY is similar — used to be pretty purple, but turning redder and redder with each election cycle. I think it starts with a lot of younger, more ambitious, college-educated people moving away for jobs and a more interesting life in the city and then picks up steam when the few people left are all nutjobs and after a while, everyone just sort of starts voting more and more like their neighbors and fellow church-goers, etc. There’s also very little independent journalism — the “local newspaper” tends to be a shopping circular with maybe a few syndicated columns — and so everyone watches Fox and stews in their own resentment over all the illegals and pedophile drag queens taking over America.
Emma from Miami
@Betty Cracker: the spanish-language ads and talk shows were uglier than usual. Sometimes, at my most nihilistic, I wish Republicans did take over and implement their plans for social security. Then all the 8th streeters would know what it means to go hungry.
Then I realize I’m not as bad as all that.
p.a.
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Little Book In C Major
Coming to a red state near you. (Sorry, non-wingnut red state residents 😧)
to GenZ:👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 (Another great incentive for getting/staying healthy, to live long enough to see them start to take the levers of power.)
to the
ReichRight: tick-tock muthaphuckas (h/t rikyrah).Betty Cracker
@JPL: I don’t know. It’ll be interesting to see the analyses of actual voter data as opposed to polls. Demagoguery around socialism has always been pretty effective in South Florida, but maybe the majority is now on board with all the culture war bullshit too.
Kay
@Baud:
She was redistricted to a red district but she has very deep support in Ohio. If Kapur had lost it really would have been a wave. I expected her to win but not as easily as she did. When I went to bed her margin in Lucas County (Toledo) was 40 points :)
Toledo is her hometown, her family were all autoworkers (and then 2nd generation engineers) and she went to a well know girls Catholic high school there, but still. They like her a lot.
Betty Cracker
@Emma from Miami: I wonder what will happen with the state party leadership.
PS: Prior to the election, I read that Rick Scott was angling for Mitch McConnell’s job. Another reason to hope like hell the Dems hang onto the senate. If anyone would be worse than the Senatortoise from KY, it’s Batboy of FL. Maybe the fact that it’s even close will disqualify Scott.
Ken
@ryk: I’m sure a lot of the grey hairs were voting to legalize weed too.
Was it “only” for medical marijuana? The scare quotes are because even if it is so restricted, you will soon be seeing plenty of ads from doctors who all but promise they’ll diagnose anyone as eligible. There will also be ads from services that will help you find such a doctor.
Eolirin
@Kay: Ohio has entered a death spiral, like most of the other trending red states.
Policy and economic conditions push out the people who would be inclined to stay but are capable of doing better somewhere else, which allows the right to consolidate more power which they use to enrich themselves but which also worsen conditions, which further drives people away.
If young people are leaving a state in large numbers, especially if all the college educated don’t stick around, if cities are failing rather than thriving, that place is inevitably going to turn deep red.
jonas
@Emma from Miami: I’ve been reading how a lot of the Spanish-language media in FL has really been captured by some seriously looney RW nutjob broadcasters spewing a bunch of Q-anon, antisemitic, anti-Dem horseshit around the clock. Is that true?
Eolirin
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Molinario is a very strong candidate. That it’s that close in that district is actually fairly impressive. More concerned that Pat Ryan is barely ahead and Sean Patrick Maloney is still behind by a few thousand votes with nearly everything in. Both races look to be won or lost with less than 1%, but we shouldn’t be losing those.
Emma from Miami
@jonas: Well, in my area it’s COMMUNISM! SOCIALISM! all the time with a little conservative religion thrown in. The real q-anon crap is further up.
tobie
@O. Felix Culpa: I’m glad it worked out that way in NM. This wasn’t the case in NC at all. Really poor youth turnout. I spoke to so many 18- and 19-year-olds in NC who just couldn’t be bothered to vote. It was the most disheartening thing to witness.
lowtechcyclist
FTFNYT headline:
A good part of the answer, dear NYT, is as close as the nearest mirror.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist: Well said.
Kay
@jonas:
It sounds strange but I don’t think they’re patriotic in a way I recognize. They were at one time. They no longer are.
An example. Kaptur came to our county Democratic dinner and she wanted to talk about First Solar which is a huge Ohio solar company that everyone is familiar with because they’re growing and they employ a lot of people and it’s exciting right? They’re leading in solar. We may be stodgy but we’re going to be clean energy forward! The founder is from rural NW Ohio, ordinary person, public schools, etc.
So Kaptur is proud of that- “we build things”, that narrative. Huge response in the room from Democrats who are also proud of that. There’s just NONE of that on the Right. They admire …social media influencers. They admire…playing expensive mean tricks on immigrants. They follow such flimsy, fly by night junk. They have a QUALITY problem. That’s why the state is not a good investment and I will get out.
Another Scott
@Eolirin: I wonder if Intel is having second thoughts about dumping so much money for a new fab in the state? Or maybe they are playing a really long game. Dunno…
It seems like Ohio is a decade or two behind Virginia’s move blue…
Cheers,
Scott.
gus
Illinois 17th – Esther Joy King (R) v Eric Sorensen (D): 85% counted, still too close to call. Argghhh!
Steeplejack
@jonas:
And when the average voter does think about Congress, it’s “Partisan deadlock!” Egged on by the horserace media.
tobie
I gather Tom Malinowksi didn’t make it. That’s too bad. I like him. He was one of the few House members well-versed in foreign policy and we need that.
Qrop Non Sequitur
It’s kind of sad, I feel like I lost Florida forever as a vacation spot. My gay dollars can be spent elsewhere.
Emma from Miami
@Betty Cracker: No idea.
little boy Marco is the Great Latin Hope down here and I think he would need four Big Buds to pull him near the Presidency anywhere else. Everyone else is a remora with aspirations.
GregMulka
@ryk: I just wish we as a state had been smart enough to shoot down the other amendments.
John S.
@Kay:
Patriotic? Not by a long shot. I see the few zealots around here (western WA) flying their ridiculous Trump flags above the US flag. That’s not patriotism (though undoubtedly they have convinced themselves otherwise).
Owning the libs at all costs comes with a price, and patriotism is easy enough for these MAGATs to pay with. Hell, many of them have already sold their souls for the cause. And cheap.
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: Tim Ryan may make a place for himself, in 2026 when the Ohio’s Governorship will up again. This will be an open seat unless DeWine runs again, and he’s already old as dirt. Ryan is relatively young, and will do fine even if he’s in or out of politics between now and then, I think.
jonas
@Kay:
I think you’ve put your finger on it. Trumpism, at its core, *loathes* America. They *loathe* diversity, immigration, women, LGTBQ, educated people — all the groups with the creative energy and dynamism and cultural capital that their communities conspicuously lack. If America can’t be their idea of a white, Christian patriarchy, then they’re just as happy to see it burned to the ground.
Patriotism is love of one’s country. Ethno-nationalism is love of your particular tribe and the belief that it should run things to the exclusion of the others. The MAGAts are *not* patriots.
Eolirin
@Another Scott: I doubt it. From what I understand, there are geographic and logistical reasons to be situated there, and it’s a chip fab plant, not an r&d hub.
Honestly it’s good, and important, that industry is still investing in red places, because it does help us in the long run. Companies pulling out of areas reinforces the cycle to red. But they’re going to do it based on the economics not the politics. Ohio is still an okay place for manufacturing.
cain
@Baud:
That’s the funny part. Now they are mad that companies like Intel are going to drive up land values and make things more expensive. So I don’t know what the fuck these people want. They don’t want a good economy.. is it just owning that libs and that’s it?
GregMulka
@Ken:
Recreational. Medical passed in 2020 but the state got tired of watching all that tax revenue for legal weed flow across the river to Illinois.
Geminid
@O. Felix Culpa: I saw that as of early this morning, Gabe Vasquez led the New Mexico 2nd CD race by 1015 votes. That was with 95% of votes counted, some 193,000 total.. I guess counting will resume soon.
cain
@jonas:
All that can be fixed by driving them out with guns like some 70s or 80s movie. Only to find that the people they voted for will be siding with Big Ag ..
BC in Illinois
@OzarkHillbilly:
@OzarkHillbilly:
What O H said:
i.e., that Missouri “is a basket case. The inmates have truly taken over the asylum.”
BUT ! ! ! There is something to remember and remember and remember. Schmitt won 55-42. My own worthless Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R – safe republican vote) won 55-43. While the 55 percenters have a death grip on the state, and have had it for 20 years, with predictable results and worse, there are 40-45% of us woking for something completely different.
We don’t need to convince all of the 55 percent. If we can sway 10% of them . . .
[And if all the young people don’t move out of the state, which I couldn’t argue against.]
Brachiator
California results in the Los Angeles Times represent about 38 percent of the vote. Many races are not close, but some state and local contests might deliver surprises.
The Economist, BBC News and other news organizations now talk about the GOP ripple instead of some supposed great Red MAGA wave.
I am still avoiding most pundit commentary. These idiots insist on playing at being oracles, telling us what it all means. And later, there will be the inevitable white guy roundup at Abblebee’s. So much predictable rubbish.
O. Felix Culpa
@tobie:
Interesting, in a sad way. I wonder what the difference was. Maybe because D’s have had some success in our state, which gives them hope and motivation? Dunno.
jonas
@Steeplejack: I know! Can you imagine what it’s going to be like with a GOP House running non-stop partisan “investigations” of Hunter Biden or trying to prove Fauci personally bioengineered Covid and watching the media cover it as if it’s serious government oversight rather than a bunch of inmates running the asylum? I’m throwing up in my mouth a little already.
Eolirin
@Kay: When you’re motivated by resentment and have no real desire to work to improve your conditions, anyone else being successful is just something that needs to be destroyed.
Betty Cracker
@Emma from Miami: I still have hope that the loathsome Rubio will never be president. I think he’s too much of a squish for the Trumpublican Party, and by the time the GOP cycles through its full-blown fascist phase (if indeed it ever does), Rubio’s combover will start a centimeter above the top of his ear.
PaulB
Regarding the Nevada races, Jon Ralston, the dean of political prognosticators in Nevada, had this to say late last night (early this morning):
So, basically, it looks like we’re in for a nail-biter there, with the outcome not likely to be known for at least another day or two.
Eolirin
@cain: Yes.
Kay
@jonas:
Saying “local person invented something and founded company- bootstrappy!” would be a guaranteed cheer across party lines even a decade ago in Ohio. The “we build things” is a narrative that is central to rust belt places. Kaptur knows her audience.
But now it’s just Democrats. Republicans think First Solar is some kind of liberal green new deal plot. They prefer people who build far Right podcasts and far Right grift operations and sell rip off nutritional supplements to the rubes. They admire that. That’s a recipe for a shithole country.
Tinare
I am feeling better about the future than I have in awhile. I was a poll worker yesterday and, anecdotally, we had a good number of young, first time voters show up in person. The district I work in is a pretty split district. In 2020, Trump won that district, but so did the Dem representative. Last night the Dems swept the in person voting by a decent margin. Turnout was strong and pretty young. We have Gen Z. They are voting. That’s a habit that, if they start young, they will keep doing. I’m hoping the Democrats engage them in meaningful ways going forward to keep them.
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid:
Yes, the counting resumes this morning. There will definitely be a recount, given the close margin. I continue to hope for Gabe Vasquez to pull it out. I wrote letters to voters in his district. Totally would have made the difference. ;)
PaulB
Recall that there was some controversy earlier this year when it seemed that Democrats were trying to make the crazy Republican candidates win their respective primaries, thereby (we hope) improving Democratic candidate chances in the general election. (For the record, I think much of that controversy was exaggerated.) Well, exaggerated or not, it worked:
Nicole
Gen-Z turning out in larger numbers than usual for that age cohort makes me really happy. Voting becomes a habit, and the earlier you start the better.
My kid’s school is seeking a new head, and I was able to attend interviews with the potential candidates. One thing more than one of them said, in talking about education in general, is how optimistic they are about Gen Z and the new generation behind them. They’re kinder, more engaged with the world around them, and more eager to try to make a difference than we were.
I suspect some of that can be credited to SEL (Social Emotional Learning) becoming part of school curriculums, so look for the GOP to try to eliminate that from schools next. Maybe they’ll do it under the guise of “CHILDREN NEED HOME EC AND SHOP CLASS,” which, it just dawned on me, is a curriculum I had in the 1980s that my son does not. It’s a more than fair trade off. I’d rather my son be in a school that has SEL as part of the curriculum. I can teach him to cook at home. And if I fail at that, he can always order takeout if he’s hungry, but he can’t order a container full of, “works well with others” at his job.
Baud
@PaulB:
👍
Betty Cracker
Maggie Haberman from yesterday’s Times:
Don’t wait, Trump — take that presumptuous upstart down pronto!
O. Felix Culpa
@O. Felix Culpa:
Anecdata vis-à-vis the youngs yesterday: one young man in the polling place shortly before closing time told me he was there to support his buddy in line, who had not planned to vote, but was there because the young man had insisted he do so. Peer pressure, it works, sometimes for the good. :)
superdestroyer
No matter how districts are drawn, one party of the other will benefit. The current Democratic Party spin is to draw district that ensure representation from communities of interest. Such district drawing would be a huge win for the Democrats, would be blatantly partisan, and would probably not pass legal muster.
Eolirin
@PaulB: They “boosted” them by running what would be general campaign ads in the primaries. It helped them to fix the narrative of who those candidates were early. Which, if you think about it is pretty much a win win. Either you get a less extreme republican, or you start running against the more extreme one earlier and make it harder for them to pivot to the middle for the general.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Who footed the bill for that, one cannot help but wonder.
Omnes Omnibus
Well, I put down a marker a while ago saying that the Dems would hold the House and gain about three in the Senate. It looks like we are going to fall just a bit short of that even with the best scenario. OTOH, the doomers weren’t right.
O. Felix Culpa
@Omnes Omnibus:
What’s the word on Barnes? Glad to see Evers won.
PsiFighter37
@Geminid: I read somewhere that all the ballots are counted. Think that will likely end up being a flip.
Democrats have a small chance of holding the House, but my home state (NY) will be in for some well-deserved criticism if it’s by a squeaker that we lose control. Hochul and the state party never treated the race seriously until the final 2-3 weeks of the campaign. She literally did not campaign at all. As someone who is from Buffalo, she needs to spend more time downstate in NYC and the suburbs. Her winning by 5% (or maybe a touch higher) is a huge indictment – Cuomo won in 2014 by 14 points in an arguably worse political environment for Democrats. That said, if Democrats lose the House, I hope Sean Patrick Maloney is also out. He was awful as DCCC chair, and everything he said that was reported in the news made him sound like the stereotypical coastal elite.
Geminid
@Another Scott: Politically, Ohio and Virginia have passed each other in the last two decades, while going in opposite directions. Part of their different dynamics may be due to demographic change that is in turn conditioned by economics. Virginia’s growing economy has attracted more college educated voters, as well as more 1st and 2nd generation immigrant voters, and both groups tend to vote blue now. Ohio has been more static economically and demographically, and that is showing in its politics.
Nora
The problem with NY-17 (Sean Patrick Maloney) was that it was redistricted, and gerrymandered like mad. There is absolutely no reason, other than trying to make Republicans win, to draw the district the way it is.
Still hoping Maloney pulls it off, but honestly he’s not the greatest Democrat, and not even as good as Nita Lowey, who was our rep for years before she finally retired.
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid:
Ms. O is from Ohio, and does not hold up hope for improvement there any time soon. She knows her family and their ilk all too well. Which is why she doesn’t live there anymore. :)
rikyrah
No more money to Florida. Dems need to go elsewhere: Georgia North Carolina Texas And, if we are going to commit to ‘ throwing away’ money for the forseeable future…commit to investing in a Southern State with a large Black population with some community organizing. (Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina)
lowtechcyclist
@Math Guy:
If Beelzebub himself was the GOP candidate and he would vote for all the things they’re for and vote against all the things they’re against, evangelicals would overwhelmingly vote for him.
zhena gogolia
I can’t believe Rubio won. Or Vance. Or R. Johnson. People are idiots.
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah:
Amen to all that.
Suzanne
@jonas:
Can I be a fucking elitist piece of shit and just say it: these people are dumb. They are not intelligent. They are not “street smart” or “graduates of the school of hard knocks”. They are not happy about jobs at a chip plant or clean energy because those are jobs for smart people, which they are not.
OzarkHillbilly
@BC in Illinois: Boy, you sure are optimistic this AM. ;-)
J R in WV
@Emma from Miami:
Our experience with urban Cubanos decades ago was that many of them were actually fascists working for General Batista, and fled before Castro could arrest them. But then here in America, they became blood red Republicans, and raised their kids to be fascists too.
The shrimpers weren’t like that, conservative Catholics and all, but not open fascists. But now that open fascist politics is acceptable in the US, all the immigrants who tended that way from their own history have jumped on that bandwagon, sadly.
At least in most of the nation, there is no “Red Wave” for the fascists to celebrate. The won in WV with Trumpian margins, tho. Sad.
Eolirin
@Nora: We seem to have fucked up our maps broadly. Though they’re actually pretty reflective of what should happen when the top of the ticket only wins by 5.
Except none of the red states play by those rules, so that may cost us the House.
O. Felix Culpa
@zhena gogolia:
I can. Because your last statement. Just add “hateful” as the descriptor for “idiots.”
PaulB
On the not-so-good news front, Republicans got their victories in the Ohio and North Carolina state Supreme Court races. Look for more extreme gerrymandering in both of those states, with implications for 2024.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: I think this is a great plan. I am with you!
Eolirin
@zhena gogolia: Johnson hasn’t won yet.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: Another reason to be with Ms. O. — she’s smart.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: the young’uns did indeed save this country!
Ella in New Mexico
@O. Felix Culpa: Good work! Thank you for your service! Some day when I’m not chained to my clinic all day I’m going to voluteer too.
I’m pretty proud of our state, and yes, the young people in it are saving us from the fate of places like Texas or Florida.
But we also have a lot of older voters who think with common sense and decency and can see pretty clearly what a danger the Republican party is to America–I spoke to an 89 y.o patient yesterday who had just voted and was so excited to tell me she voted “Straight Democrat Ticket”. She’s live in New Mexico her whole life and can’t believe what she sees and hears coming out of the mouths of the R candidates.
Very good day in New Mexico, for sure.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize:
Yes she is! Witty too. And she chose me, which may be a sign of insanity, but works in my favor.
zhena gogolia
@Eolirin: Is there hope?
Omnes Omnibus
@O. Felix Culpa: Still too close to call. I live in hope, but it is probably a bridge too far. OTOH, Dens won enough state lege seats that we kept the GOP from a supermajority. Evers’s vetoes will still hold.
Eolirin
@zhena gogolia: It’s gonna be very close and may go to a recount. So a little.
Raven
@Emma from Miami: I ate down there while waiting for my plane after my Keys fishing trip!
NotMax
Can’t help but wonder how much Luria’s being on the January 6 committee energized Rs in that particular district and contributed to her loss.
dm
Last week I heard an interview with Aaron Kleinman, of https://statesproject.org (The States Project).
I don’t know how to research an organization like “The States Project” to see if it is legit or effective (I’m still pissed at Justice Democrats turning out to seem like a grift). I have to say its “let’s focus on state-level work because money goes farther there, and so does knocking on doors” is attractive to me and might be a thing the Balloon Juice PAC might want to check out.
One of the things he said in the interview caught my ear, and I’m probably going to see if I can find out more about it. He said that he’s seeing Republicans set up “community centers” in Black and Latino neighborhoods, where they do things like teach about personal finances (sounded like a Republican ACORN to me, and reminded me of Black Panther community service like their breakfast programs).
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@rikyrah: Good morning!
Uncle Cholmondeley ☑
My daughter voted in a neighboring state for the first time, so I texted to see how it went.
Daughter: I wasn’t aware that I got to vote for coroner so that was cool.
Me: I hope the coroner candidates had a debate. What were the issues?
D: Well there was only one candidate, so make your own joke there.
M: 🤣
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: If Crist we’re serious about helping Florida, instead of chasing money for himself, perhaps he could spend his time party building. You constantly remind us that the D party in Florida is shambolific.
ETA Always amused that autocorrect changed Crist to Christ. Uh, no
O. Felix Culpa
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thanks. I am modestly hopeful too. At least he and the Dems are making Johnson sweat. Very glad for the state lege results.
MisterDancer
I’m going to be working on this — but I’m not excluding Florida.
I remember when people said similar about Georgia. I’ve heard people write-off every damn “red” state in the Union, forgetting how many “blue” folx live in each.
And we do it because we’re angry at these outcomes, and in fear now for our Democracy and basic human rights. Yeah, y’all know I get that! Yet — we’re not in that mix in these states, not part of those grassroots, not aware of who is in every state of the Union, trying to catch a damned break thru layers of voter restrictions and media isolation and growing harassment for just “looking different,” much less voting for anyone other than The Cult.
So no, we don’t “give up” on anyone. We consider that we are planing seeds — just like the GOP did in the 1970s! — that may take time to grow. Yeah, it’s Dean All Over Again, but man had a point.
JML
@O. Felix Culpa: not happening for Barnes, which is too bad. He’s a good guy and RoJo is a lying traitor. But there’s a lot of racists in WI who will never vote for a black guy.
Jeffro
Has anyone started a countdown for when trumpov releases all the
blackmail“info” that he has on DeSantis? (courtesy of slimeball Gaetz, I’m sure)Baud
@MisterDancer: “Write off” is too strong. But resources have to be allocated, and that has to take into account both short-term and long-term goals and liklihood of success.
Immanentize
@Jeffro: It will not be all at once. There will be a warning release first.
Kathleen
@Scout211: My friends in Northern Kentucky reported long lines at the polls yesterday. One of whom was a woman raised as an Evangelical Republican who voted for Democrats and against an anti abortion amendment for the first time in her life. She detests Republicans and has voted third party for years because of her views on abortion. But she felt she had to make a stand against fascism so now she’s voting as a Democrat.
J R in WV
@Tinare:
I’m glad for you and your district…where are you located, not your address, but what state / area was your experience in?
Leto
“Tell Oz. I want him to know it was me.” – Gritty
UncleEbeneezer
@jonas: Thank you. They love WHITE (And Male, Cis, Het, Xtian) America. Nothing else. And they’re getting worse. Much as I’m thrilled that Dems outperformed and there was no Red Wave and we still have a slim chance to hold Congress, I’m absolutely distraught by FL, TX, OH and even red parts of Blue States. I just don’t know how on earth you reach people who only respond to bigotry, spite and a persecution/victim fantasy (for their group but nobody else). And I’m extremely frustrated for the Millions of good people who have to suffer in their Counties, States because of it.
Immanentize
@Baud: For example, no more money to those who may run against Marjorie Taylor
Greene. Those millions could have been used elsewhere.Albatrossity
Here in Flyover Country there is also a mix of good and bad news.
Sharice Davids retained her House seat despite an egregious gerrymandering of her district; thank you to the jackals who kicked in for her campaign here. Laura Kelly is the likely winner in the governors race, thanks to an ultra-right loony who left the GOP and called both of the other gubernatorial candidates liberals.
But the odious KKKobach won the AG race over an extremely qualified and sane Democrat; we will have four years of his clown act coming up. And in my town, a great Dem candidate lost a squeaker to a milquetoast GOPer who votes the GOP party line every time, even though he represents one of the bluer parts of the state. It’s so hard to fight against the folks who push that R button simply by reflex every time…
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@lowtechcyclist: Yeah it’s really weird that Walker gets so much support from “Christian Evangelicals”…I mean I was one of those people in the ’80s. At least I went to an evangelical church and believed most of what the pastor told me (though my parents were the looney liberals in the congregation they were accepted and are still active in the church, especially its charity work – although they did almost leave that church over Trump). But that pastor would be horrified by the idea of voting for someone like Walker.
That race is proof that the MAGA movement is no more Christian than it is patriotic. Here you have an honest to God Reverend, who has been preaching the gospel and ministering to “the least of these” for his entire working life, vs…a serial philandering, abusive, abortion paying for former athlete, who lets be honest is not all there…and the “Christian” thing to do is vote for the latter? It’s just nucking futz. It’s not Christian in any sense that is recognizable to me.
Kent
I more or less imposed a news blackout on myself last night and then woke up today to find that Sara Palin’s race in Alaska against Mary Peltola might determine control of the US House of Representatives.
What the fuck?
And the race here in the WA-3rd likely won’t be decided for days.
Baud
@Immanentize: I think that money wasn’t from Dems organizationally but from individual ActBlue donors. I don’t know how you can stop that.
Geminid
@PsiFighter37: Was Maloney reallyawful? Republicans came into the midterms having gained an 8-10 seat structural advantage from gerrymandering. And I think what some people call the “Midterm Effect” on voter turnout is a real dynamic. Under those circumstances, I think the head of the DCCC did a creditable job.
But its Maloney, and even though he’s a Progressive Caucus member, he got dogpiled by so-called progressives because he ran in the district he lived in instead of making way for Mondaire Jones. But unless someone can convince me that Jones would have won that district when Maloney couldn’t, I think Maloney’s decision was justfied.
Immanentize
@jonas: I am very sad about Conole. He could still win, but it is close and he is down a bit. Another Tenney v. Brindisi?
Baud
@Albatrossity:
Happy about Davids.
Omnes Omnibus
@JML: The weird thing that I saw in the stats last night is that Barnes was getting the same percentage of votes that Biden 2020 had in in county after county, but Johnson was polling ahead of Trump 2020 in a lot of the red counties. So a mixture of race, crime fearmongering (to the extent that it is separable from race), and the fact that the WI GOP likes Johnson more than they liked Trump.
OzarkHillbilly
GA yes, NC yes, TX no.*
(* more local races maybe, but the GOP has a gerrymandered lock on the assemblies)
I can see spending money on local organizing but again the GOP has a gerrymandered lock on the state assemblies, so backing candidates in races has to be targeted to actually vulnerable seats.
rikyrah
MARYLAND DID THAT LAST NIGHT!
Black Governor
Asian Lt. Governor
Woman SOS
Black AG
SO glad that we finally got over the Black running Statewide hump that seemed to plague Democrats in Maryland. Never made any sense to me. Not in a state where 1 out of every 3 voters is Black.
Baud
@rikyrah:
👍
sab
Come January, my congress critter will be Emilia Sykes instead of Tim Ryan. Yay!
Betty Cracker
So the “red wave” was…ketchup on that motherfucker’s wall. (He’ll take no satisfaction from FL’s hard-right turn because that’s not about Himself.)
PaulB
One outcome that I would dearly love: Boebert loses her seat, which results in the Democrats retaining control of the House by that one vote. It’s stunning to me that she’s down by nearly 3500 votes with 90% of the votes counted.
Eunicecycle
@Geminid: DeWine can’t run again, thank God.
geg6
Dems had a very good night in PA. So good, it’s possible that we may take the state House. That would be HUGE.
Eolirin
@MisterDancer: We should not be focusing resources into the statewide elections in places like FL.
We should be investing at the local level down ballot and at the state party level and trying to make progress there. If we can succeed at that then we can make the statewide races competitive again. Same thing for anywhere that isn’t close right now. WI and maybe NC are winnable with the right candidate. Texas and Florida are not. Resource allocation matters.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@UncleEbeneezer: It is depressing. I guess if you’re looking for hope look to Michigan’s results. MI was going the way of OH demographically – young fleeing the State for jobs elsewhere – and yet…something seems to have gone right there over the past 6 years. Trump to Biden and a Dem surge last night in a mid term year. Seems like course correction is maybe possible.
I didn’t see many political ads this cycle but I was watching MSU-IL football last Saturday (I grew up in MI and went to MSU for grad school but live in deep blue MD now) and Witmer ran a great ad tying Dixon to the Devos family and specifically how Dixon would cut their taxes but that would mean higher taxes for regular people like you! I think that is a message that resonates with some rural voters – some of them absolutely hated that Trump era tax cut for the rich, and they don’t want their taxes to be higher because some rich fat cat gets an even better deal than they’re already getting.
PaulB
CNN has just projected that Democrat Laura Kelly has won reelection for Kansas governor. Wow….
Lady WereBear
@Eolirin: My district is looking 60/40, which is something for a Strongly Republican District, which they put Stefanik into.
I’ll make that a win. And remember people I casually meet could be insurrectionists, which is a troubling thing.
Citizen Alan
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I consider evangelical Christianity to be literally satanic.
Another Scott
@Geminid: Virginia has been helped hugely by the federal government (DC suburbs, Norfolk shipyards and Navy bases, Quantico, DoD retirees, etc., etc.). Ohio is still suffering the legacy of manufacturing behemoths (autos, steel, rubber, etc.) shrinking and leaving. Ohio still has a lot of things that could help it a lot (good universities, huge rivers and ports on the Lake Erie, Canada being next door, lots of good land) that could help it a lot in the transition to clean energy, electric vehicles, solar and wind, and all the rest. The future could be very bright…
But the suburbs and the rural areas hate the cities, the cities ignore the meth-addicted country yokels, small towns are dying, and on and on. Somehow, good people in government find ways to keep some good things happening (e.g. the MetroParks – but that goes back to 1945), but it’s a never-ending battle.
Ultimately, the good people of Ohio have to show up and vote for sensible people to represent them in spite of the obstacles put up by the courts and the GQPers. There’s no other way, and it’s going to be a long slog.
Cheers,
Scott.
Suzanne
CNN’s website has a headline: THEY JUST MADE HISTORY. One of the pictures is of Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I guess she’s the first cubist portrait to be a governor.
zhena gogolia
@Citizen Alan: Liberal Christian here, have to agree.
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne: You are bad! 😄
Immanentize
@Baud: Like many things, perhaps education could help. Then again, maybe that “mad money” has its uses. Pinned Taylor down a bit?
oatler
Donna Brazile appeared in her Nancy Reagan blazer, saying it was because she’d been expecting a red wave, but that it had become a trickle. Good thing she didn’t wear her MAGA cap or she’d have looked quite the fool.
Burnspbesq
@New Deal democrat:
I’m looking forward to Trump having to litigate, on a state-by-state basis, whether he’s eligible to hold office after he’s convicted of violating Section 2071
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: Additional schadenfreude fodder: Ivanka and Lara Trump accidentally wore the same dress to Tiffany Trump’s bridal shower.
I cannot tell you about my smirk.
PaulB
While Peltola isn’t likely to win an outright victory, her numbers look pretty good. Palin would need pretty much all of her voters and Begich’s voters to pick her as their second choice in order for her to win. That didn’t happen in the election earlier this year and I doubt it will happen now.
The networks won’t call it until the ranked-choice voting count happens, but her chances look really good.
Immanentize
@Baud: Agreed. I am a big fan of hers.
Eolirin
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: They may be imperfect vessels but God is still acting through them to make sure that sluts don’t have access to maternal health care.
Eolirin
@PaulB: We’re very lucky she seems to be coming in second again.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Citizen Alan: It’s almost as if the gospel as preached by slave-owners was somehow twisted away from its aim. Weird, that.
Leto
@geg6: that would be fucking incredible.
Immanentize
@sab: That is fabulous! I lke Sykes stuff a lot. Looks like she ran a Shontel Brown style campaign. Substantive, not crazy.
Immanentize
@geg6: That would be so great giving Shapiro some breathing room
BC in Illinois
@OzarkHillbilly:
Of course, I’m living in St Louis County, which went 61% for Trudy Busch Valentine.
+ + +
On another note, going from Blunt and Hawley in the Senate to Hawley and Schmitt is just a step down. Roy Blunt (of the Blunt lobbying family) simply did what the Republican donor class told him to do. With Hawley and Schmitt, you have two men of unprincipled ambition, looking to move higher in life.
On the positive side, both Hawley and Schmitt say that Mitch McConnell should be replaced as Senate Minority Leader. Hawley suggests Mike Lee or Ted Cruz. (Yeah, Joshua. Make Ted Cruz the face of Senate Republicans, as you argue the case for defaulting on the National Debt. That’s a strategic move.)
sab
I am really looking forward to the fact that JD Vance is going to have to leave San Francisco and spend a lot more time in Ohio and DC. Especially in Ohio. I hope his pretty wife likes it here.
Nora
@Geminid: Before my city was moved into the 17th district, Maloney was our rep in the 19th, and he didn’t impress me as a representative. He voted against the ACA, and there were several other big ticket Democratic items he voted against, presumably to prove his “bipartisan” status. I don’t know about his time with the DCCC, but I was very happy when we got moved into Nita Lowey’s district because you could count on her to do the right thing.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: Crist will probably run for a House seat again — and move if he has to. As for the state party, if I ran the zoo, I’d burn it down and start over. Maybe put the lady who runs the Hillsborough County DEC (Tampa, etc.) in charge of the whole shebang. We’ve focused on South Florida for long enough. Maybe let the other population centers have a shot.
OzarkHillbilly
@PaulB: Cool.
Immanentize
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Just a note — Maura Healey in Mass ran on cutting taxes — for working people! We shall see what happens.
UncleEbeneezer
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Thrilled about MI!! Just wish it was a formula that could somehow be transferred to TX, FL etc. Also thrilled about the big turnout by Gen-Z voters. That bodes well for the long-term.
Immanentize
@PaulB: 👍👍👍
MisterDancer
I’m not gonna stop someone from putting money wherever they like.
I mean, as someone else said above, I can’t. Neither can you. If someone asks, Ill tell ’em how I feel. But I’m not gonna rail at money going to a Crist; that way lies madness.
And I sure as hell am not in a position to tell the National Party — assuming that who you mean by “we” — what they should do. There’s a lot that goes into those calculations, and I’m not hear to Wednesday Morning Quarterback those decisions, today.
Yes: my energy/focus will be lower-lanes for a bit, and broad in overlook. That, to me at least, differs from saying anyone who wants to give to the next Democrat to run for FL Senate or Governor be discouraged!
In this, I want to support for whatever comes over next cycle (including special elections!) the work WaterGirl and others are doing to find those kinds of grassroots groups we here already help. And that’s what I’m invested in talking about today.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: And Massachusetts elected a woman Governor. For the first time ever (Jane Swift became Acting Governor through succession rules and did not run for reelection).
She is also gay, but I think that’s actually less remarkable given MA politics.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: LOL! I am here for ALL the petty! I did not know Tiffany managed to scrounge up a prospective spouse.
sab
@Suzanne: That is hilarious. The must shop at different stores.
Kathleen
@sab: He has a house in Cincinnati located in a beautiful urban neighborhood about 2 miles from downtown. The street is on one of my favorite running routes.
Immanentize
@Suzanne: You see cubist, I see Playdough. Art, beholder, etc.
Another Scott
@dm: Aaron (BobbyBigWheel) seems very, very level headed. I think he’s the real deal.
We really need to do all of the above – it’s a multi-front battle.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
Unfortunately more like moving in opposite directions. Per @Eolirin:
That’s what’s happening in Ohio, but it’s been exactly the opposite in Virginia for a few decades now. I grew up in the Mt. Vernon area of Fairfax County, and lived there for several years as a young adult before going off to grad school in 1982. When I moved back to the DC area in 1998, northern Virginia was a whole different scene than it had been when I left, and it’s kept growing since. The rural counties used to boss the cities around; they can’t do that anymore. But in Ohio, it’s going the other way.
Eolirin
@Nora: This is… Not true. I was in Sean Patrick Maloney’s district until this year’s redistricting. He wasn’t in Congress until 2013. The ACA passed in 2009.
Suzanne
@zhena gogolia: If you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit by me.
Bupalos
@Eolirin: It’s not a morning for this, but I really can’t help noting that you’re “analysis” of Ohio is… nah…
It’s a morning for WE DID PRETTY GOOD Y’ALL!
PaulB
Now this is the kind of groundbreaking political analysis that we need this morning (from Fox News, natch):
Mel
@Kay: Couldn’t agree more. If we weren’t anchored here with ill, aged parents who would never budge, we’d be looking to find blue-er pastures. People here are so willfully, insistently, gleefully blind to the grifting, lying, and gerrymandering.
One tiny, but infuriating detail that is the icing on the cake: on yesterday’s ballot, the races which required candidates’ parties to be noted after their names were all, as expected alternating. So, race number 1 lists the R candidate first, race number 2 lists the D candidate first, etc.
BUT- for all but one of the multiple seats that did not require / allow party affiliation to be listed (judges, schoolboard, etc.) all but one listed the Republican first.
All.But.One.
Former teacher and GRE prep coach here. Statistics largely show that when a person knows nothing about the choices on offer, and feels any kind of situational or time pressure, in most cases they will quickly pick the first answer and move on to the next question.
That ballot design does not seem like an accident. Hubby and I spent a half hour fuming, wondering how many votes Rs picked up from Ds who knew the main candidate slate but not the less publicized races, from independent voters, and from one issue voters who came out to the polls because of the senate race or the elder care levy, etc.
With that design, the “oh, shit, who are these people? I’d better just pick one” votes were going to go almost completely to the Magats.
Then we drowned our rage in Antiques Roadshow BBC and cat cuddling, and also: next election- doubling up on hours spent GOTV texting / calling. We desperately need to door knock and give out election slate flyers (activities that Rs here do all the time, but our local Dems almost never do in our urban neighborhood) but we couldn’t b/c of immunosuppressive meds and high risk conditions for Covid complications. So frustrating.
Matt McIrvin
@Immanentize: Massachusetts also seems (narrowly) to be passing a referendum establishing a new high-income tax bracket. So the message is very much distributional, soak-the-rich, rather than the dishonest tax-cut rhetoric of the olden times where they calculated a mean including you and billionaires and pretended that was your tax bill.
lowtechcyclist
@Immanentize:
“So you are the Crist, yes, the great Charlie Crist…”
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: Tiffany got engaged at the White House, just before the bitter, disgusting end of TFG’s term.
Apparently her almost-husband is far richer than TFG.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: That sounds completely reasonable! So I assume it can’t happen?
OzarkHillbilly
@BC in Illinois: I almost hate to say it but we’re gonna miss old Roy. He continued to toe the party line as it went crazy but he remained a relatively sane voice in the wilderness. That he is leaving is just another sign of how far off the rails they have gone.
Eolirin
@MisterDancer: No, I don’t mean the party, I mean we as in the activist base.
People will do whatever they want, but some things that they do won’t ever work. Not all tactics have a chance of making a difference.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Long-term, Ohio and the neighboring states are going to get inflow from the rest of the country becoming unlivable from climate change.
(Whereas Florida will be physically destroyed. Much of it just won’t be there any more.)
geg6
@Suzanne:
You literally made me LOL. That was awesome.
Suzanne
@Immanentize: The way she smushes her face around, all of her features look like they’re constantly out of alignment. It’s like Guernica, for fuck’s sake.
Suzanne
@geg6: I’m not a nice person.
Omnes Omnibus
New from WI this morning: Still counting ballots. Johnson campaign canceled a press conference where he was planning on declaring victory. Drama.
lowtechcyclist
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
I don’t know if it’s true all over Florida (other than the hurricane-devastated parts anyway) but Anna Maria island, where my wife and I have been vacationing for over a decade, is quickly pricing itself out of our market. The house we’ve been renting for years has gone from ~$2000 to ~$3000 to nearly $6000 for a week, with most of that change being just in the past couple of years.
We’ll go there one more time next summer to spend one last week there, and then we’ll look for other places to go. If it’s going to be both reactionary and hellaciously expensive at the same time, well, fuck that.
Captain C
@Betty Cracker:
Mags sounds surprised. You’d think she’d have learned by now how politics works, particularly with regard to her former
bosssubject.lee
While I’m happy for others states, I’m very bummed about Texas. It wasn’t even close. We’re so fucked.
My wife as she left for work this morning said it’s time for us to go.
Kay
@geg6:
PA did have a good night. And all of us should care about that, because had the Trumpists won they would fuck with the 2024 Presidential race and count. The same for Michigan (another good night) and Wisconsin (governor, if not senator).
Good job!
Ohio is, once again, at the rock bottom of that particular pack o states. It’s my part of the state too that is the problem. They all inexplicably decided to become West Virginia.
Ohio Mom
Ohio Family is settled here in the Cincinnati area. There is a good network of services for Ohio Son, for one small example, the university health system just started a clinic for adults with disability, with two psychiatrists on staff.
Ohio Son’s PCP only sees autistics. You probably have absolutely no idea how absolutely rare that is.
Our County disability services board is well-managed and progressive in spirit. There are a network of nonprofits that provide all sorts of services.
Still, especially after reading Kay’s comments, I start wondering about Son’s long term prospects here. I’ll probably be gone in less than 20 years. If Ohio is another Texas by then, I can’t even.
Yes, the personal is political.
Immanentize
@lowtechcyclist:
Perfect for Florida
Anyway
What about the oooooooooooooooooold Senator from Iowa? Did he win? Blanking on the name now
Geminid
@Eolirin: Illinois Democrats pulled off a very obvious gerrymander that passed state court review (I think Watergirl will finally get a Democratic Rep because of it). New York Democrats passed a similar gerrymander that New York’s judges struck down.
Elsewhere, Democrats in New Mexico’s ‘Roundhouse” may have helped Gabe Vasques flip the 2nd CD. They added some Albuquerque area precincts whie lopping of some areas in the 2nd’s northeastern corner. And Maryland Democrats maintained the map that gives them a lopsided majority in that state’s congressional delegation.
Cameron
@Eolirin: Totally agree about Florida, although I’m certainly open to correction from genuine Floridians. I get notices regularly from the Florida League of Cities reminding me that there’s been a law in place for about 100 years allowing municipalities a great deal of freedom in how they run their show, provided it doesn’t violate state or Federal law. This doesn’t help with civil rights, as most of the barbaric diktats are in state law, but it might be helpful in building more economically and environmentally sound communities. I don’t know.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Oh, most of it will be there; less of Florida than you’d think is within 20 feet of current sea level. But I expect to live long enough to see it become simply too hot for human survival outside of air-conditioned buildings.
geg6
@Suzanne:
Neither am I.
Scout211
My very red county in California had only one surprise. Every single race (national, state and local) went for the Republican choice (which is par for the course in my county), except for proposition 1, that enshrines reproductive rights into the state constitution. I was shocked and extremely happy that the voters here in my county supported abortion rights.
It may not apply nationwide, but it gives me hope that even more red states can pass reproductive rights on the ballot and overcome the state legislatures’ attempts to limit or eliminate reproductive rights.
One can hope. 😊
Kathleen
@Matt McIrvin: Cincinnati mayor Aftab Pureval made that point in a recent interview.
I for one love Cincinnati and have no intention of leaving. It really is a bubble. I also don’t venture out to Warren, Clermont or Butler Counties
Suzanne
@Kay:
I would like to think it’s because of the three additional blue votes my family brought, and losing one Republican vote for the convicted felon who broke into our house. NET 4.
Kathleen
@Suzanne: Can I sit next to you?
zhena gogolia
@PaulB: lololol
zhena gogolia
@lowtechcyclist: lololol
Prove to me that you’re no fool, walk across my swimming pool
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: At some point, they can’t just keep reshuffling the same old deck. Or maybe they can!
Suzanne
@Kathleen: Please do. Shit-talking is the agenda.
Josie
@Suzanne:
I agree with Zhena that you are bad and I am right there with you. We have to take our pleasure where we can find it.
jonas
@Immanentize: Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to pull it off, unfortunately. It looked good for a little while yesterday because there was some kind of technical issue preventing Oneida county (one of three in the district) from posting its results until really late. It’s a very red area, so that was keeping a lot of Williams’ votes out of the tally.
Kathleen
@Geminid: The Rethug gerrymandered map made Landsman’s win possible in OH#1.
Another Scott
@Eolirin: Chip fabs can go just about anywhere. Intel has them in the US, Israel, Ireland, etc.. There’s always some R&D going on – processes drift, etc. – so they do need a critical mass of researchers.
They could have put it in NY or VA or MN or …, but they picked Ohio. It’s a bit of a puzzling choice to me given the drift of reactionary politics of the state (though RCA used to have a fab there, and there are or used to be smaller DoD-focused outfits as well, so they can get the people). We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
OverTwistWillie
The Russian Army has ordered a withdrawal from the west side of the Dnieper River.
Eolirin
@Geminid: Sorry when I said we, I meant New York.
New Deal democrat
@PaulB: “CNN has just projected that Democrat Laura Kelly has won reelection for Kansas governor. Wow”
The State of Kansas is on my short list for where Democrats should put resources into party building.
Why? Kansas has 2 Senators, just like FL and TX. The governor’s race demonstrates that D’s can win statewide there (D’s also came just 2% short from dislodging the execrable Kris Kobach).
And between the Kansas City suburbs, Topeka, and Wichita, there is the basis for a Democratic majority to take those 2 Senate seats on the $$$ cheap.
Kay
@Mel:
I’ll ask my husband about your ballot design. He does contract election legal work for the state in a 4 county region of NW Ohio. He knows a lot.
I love the Great Lakes and I won’t leave the whole region, plus I still have a son in Toledo athough he’s single and works all over so he coud end up anywhere. We’ll move to Michigan where we have property. Oceana County, which is reddish but not nutjob or militia. It’s also incredibly beautiful. On Lake Michigan but rural. They grow cherries and asparagus instead of soybeans and corn.
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: Analysis of voter rolls after last year’s statewide races in Virginia indicated that some Republicans who did not come out for Trump in 2020 came out for Youngkin. Not a whole lot, but maybe enough to make a difference in a two point race.
PaulB
CNN has called two more House races: Democrat Don Davis wins in North Carolina and Democrat Brittany Pettersen wins in Colorado.
A couple of calls from half an hour ago: Democrat Hillary Scholten wins in Michigan and Republican Don Bacon wins in Nebraska.
Current results, per CNN: 182 Democrats (4 pickups), 201 Republicans (10 pickups). The rest are still too close to call.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: I guess they are just trying to chase the obvious money? It makes me sad, but cutting off the power of the South Florida Dems would not be the worse idea (speaking as former resident of Miami Beach).
Immanentize
Regarding Abortion — Note both Kemp and DeSantis did not go full Gilead on abortion (yet).
Eolirin
@Another Scott: You need a lot of water for chip fabs, and you ideally want a labor pool for manufacturing. Ohio isn’t in a drought area and has ready access to water, with an established infrastructure for manufacturing. The Hudson Valley is an existing chip manufacturing hub, so yeah NY would have been an option, but they’d be in more competition with IBM so it’d probably be more expensive for them.
OverTwistWillie
“Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit. If they lose, I should not be blamed at all.”
Donald J. Trump
WaterGirl
@Immanentize:
I feel the need to chime in to that targeted fundraising has been our approach in 2021-22, with no BJ thermometers funding any races like that since we learned our lesson in 2020.
JML
Much to my surprise, the DFL has taken control of the state senate and held the state house. (with as nasty as the races had gotten and vanishing support in the northland especially on the Range, I really didn’t think it was going to happen) With the trifecta, they should be able to manage a smart use of the $12B surplus the GOP refused to compromise on last session, with no giveaways to the millionaires! GOP decided to bet they could get more of what they wanted by waiting until after the election: they thought they had a shot at the Governor’s office (wasn’t as close as they thought) and were confident they’d hold the senate and win the house.
Whoops.
I expect them to demand on the first day of the session that the DFL “compromise” (aka, capitulate) with them and insist that despite losing they’re still the ones that have an electoral mandate.
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
Different than the rural counties though. I understand completely how “blue” area Ohio thinks the state is still purple. All I see is red and widening margins re: every Democrat on the ballot. The upside is our population is stagnant or declining so there is a “100% wingnut” number we can reach and top out. My county will never be bigger than 30k votes. It will probably go down.
Mel
@Kay: Oceana is such a beautiful county. Sand dunes and those gorgeous parks!
MisterDancer
These People!
Related: I know it sounds weird, but I pay some attention to Fashion. Ever since, as a kid, I flipped thru late 70s/early 80s VOGUE/EBONY/etc. and watched the “Conservatization” of the Fashion Industry (ask me how much I hate shoulder pads?), I’ve tried to keep a weather eye on trends. I think we filter a lot of how we “feel,” as a culture, thru what we choose to wear.
I don’t have a hard/fast theory about it, it’s just something I find interesting and — miniskirt/stock market bunkum theories aside — barely touched on in most discourses I’ve seen.
lowtechcyclist
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I’m sure if you asked them, they’d say, “but the unborn baybeez!” and tell you that their lives mattered more than Herschel’s personal conduct.
Yeah, like those fuckers care about life. One million Covid deaths here, and 15-20 million around the world, and they didn’t give a damn. Their alleged Christianity is nothing more than a thin cover for tribalism.
Nicole
@PsiFighter37: Hochul was always going to have a lower margin of victory that Cuomo did because she’s a lady person. No way NYS would have elected a women governor without her first having been put in the job. I’m proud of us for electing her in her own right, even if it was closer than I would have liked.
I’m hopeful, as time goes by, voters will decide it’s good to elect women because, among other reasons, we’re much better at keeping our hands to ourselves and not touching other people’s bottoms without their consent, but misogyny runs deep and it’s going to take awhile, and a lot more women in office for us to get there.
Matt McIrvin
@Nicole: In Massachusetts, it took a MAGA chud running against the woman candidate to do the trick. Against Charlie Baker she would have had no chance.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Somebody cited this old clip on Twitter this morning: “What do conservatives mean when they say they love America?”
Kay
@Mel:
It is but the ground itself is also lovely- the land further out from the lake. NW Ohio is flat as a pancake (glacier) which I love- the sparseness and loooooong sightline- but Oceana has rolling grade and it’s pretty- all those orchards.
PaulB
California, Vermont, and Michigan now guarantee the right to an abortion. Anti-abortion measures in Kentucky and Montana went down to defeat.
Marijuana proposals had a mixed result: North Dakota, South Dakota and Arkansas said no to legalization of recreational use; Maryland and Missouri said yes to legalization of recreational use.
Ohio Mom
@Kay: A lot of them *are* from West Virginia (with apologies to Cole). Their grandparents brought that mindset with them when they drove up 1-75 looking for good factory jobs, and made sure to inculcate their children with it. It’s a culture that holds fast to tradition and they are not letting go of their dysfunctional values.
When I first moved to Cincinnati, someone I worked with considered himself a proud “Urban Appalachian” and recruited me to volunteer at the Appalachian Festival and the Urban Appalachian Council.
These organizations thought they were going to create a sort of Urban League for these internal immigrants, focusing on fighting harmful stereotypes, promoting the civil rights for Appalachians harmed by those stereotypes and economic opportunities for those who couldn’t find a rung on the ladder.
Maybe this effort was doomed to fail because it’s very easy to emigrate out of being Appalachian. You just work your way up and start discriminating between your grandparents from the hills and you. That identity belongs to them, you shed it. Sort of the way my grandparents were Hungarian, Czech and Austrian but I consider myself from New York.
Anyway, the between the successful ones who mostly immigrated out of Appalachian identity and the ones left behind who kept cultivating their proud mountain values of distrust of strangers and disvaluing of education, that’s what we ended up with.
It’s not Ohio’s only issue, I think losing too many young people and not attracting more is a big one, but it’s there.
Am I in contention with Suzanne for most elitist comment now?
Miss Bianca
@Nicole: They’re already demonizing SEL in my neck of the woods. Leads to CRT, dontcha know. And it’s “government indoctrination”, according to one of our county commissioners. Yep, it’s coming.
Eolirin
@JML: Which state?
CaseyL
Savoring a bit; mostly just relieved – and sweating out the final few races.
I am overjoyed that my senator, Patty Murray, won over that ghastly Tiffany Smiley.
Suzanne
@MisterDancer:
Absolutely.
I also think that we would understand a lot of our political problems better through visual culture analysis.
WaterGirl
@PaulB: Thanks for that. I can’t stop laughing.
Suzanne
I will note that I just looked at Guernica again, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders bears a striking resemblance to the bull.
Lady WereBear
@Nicole: I worked on the phone with the accounting staff of NYC and a sharper group of ladies one will never meet. They knew all the arcane stuff and should graduate to law school in a sane world.
Ohio Mom
@Another Scott: Lots of DoD tech contractors in Dayton because of Wright Patterson AFB. Just about the only industry left in Dayton. A couple of hours away from the new Intrlnplsnt though.
Geminid
@Kathleen: Sounds like Republicans got too greedy. The wanted to capture Sykes’s and Kaptur’s districts and keep Chabot’s too. In the event, they lost all three.
lowtechcyclist
@Citizen Alan:
I can’t quite manage that since I don’t believe in a literal Satan.
I don’t believe in all that End Times/Rapture/Antichrist hogwash either, but if I did, I’d consider Trump to have been an all too successful trial run for the real thing. With emphasis on “look who fell for him the hardest.”
Taken4Granite
I emerged from my news-free bubble this morning to find that here in New Hampshire, Hassan, Pappas, and Kuster all held their seats. So did Gov. Sununu, which was not unexpected as he passes for a sane Republican these days. The local fishwrap has surprisingly little information on their website about downballot races, so I have no idea how the Executive Council or many of the regional state legislative races went. State Senate was 13-10 R with one vacancy going into the election.
I am especially pleased to see the odious Don Bolduc go down to defeat. I ended up on his mailing list–he probably got it from some other Republican candidate–and suspect him of passing my e-mail address on to a gun shop that spams me three times a day with offers such as the AK-47 that is essential to completing one’s gun collection.
WaterGirl
@PaulB: Was the R win in Nebraska a flip or a Republican hold?
Bupalos
@lowtechcyclist: I totally get how we look at races the next morning and translate our disappointment into big trends and forces we can hork up in 5 seconds and do this kind of analysis. But this really isn’t an overall accurate description of what is happening in Ohio right now. To just kind of point up the kind of detailed reality missing here, you’re literally quoting someone that started this Ohio analysis with an “Ohio” annecdote… from Indianapolis. Where others jumped in to explain that it shows how stupid those darned Ohioans are and express bewilderment at how Intel would locate in… a place adjacent to a one of the largest research institutions, churning out tech grads, with great infrastructure and a low cost of living and land index. Yeah, no idea what they’re thinking there. Don’t they see the “death spiral??”
There are indeed massive global economic forces that have swept through the industrial “midwest” and great lakes stretching almost all the way through PA to the coast, and deeply changed politics and lives. All of these states from Wisconsin through PA have seen the exact same force applied and responded the exact same way with the differences between them exactly correlated to overall urban/rural density. However there are signs that this supertanker of doom has slowed and is turning and in the coming decades is going to be relatively very well positioned.
Sadly one of the reasons for this is climate change.
The reason I always jump in on these is because living here and understanding the advantages, changes, and tangible quality of life possible… one of the things really slowing the turn of this supertanker is this very attitude and perpetuated image.
Another Scott
@Eolirin: Motorola had fabs in Arizona and Texas. Motorola / Freescale / NXP / whatever – they – call – themselves – now, AMD, and Samsung have fabs in or around Austin. And Intel has that fab in Israel. They have ways of finding water, if they want to be there badly enough.
Other states should have made better pancakes, apparently. Or been willing to give them $2B… (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
Cheers,
Scott.
Nicole
@Miss Bianca: God, that’s depressing, but give props to the right-wingers; they’re smart enough to see where being taught to care about other people leads…. to GODLESS LIBERALISM.
(Ironic since I think that Jesus Christ dude they claim to like so much was pretty into the whole caring about other people thing.)
My brother, a professor, credits participation trophies with the students he sees being more engaged and interested in making a difference that we were. Seriously. He thinks having the work you put in acknowledged, even if you don’t win, does a lot to make people willing to continue to put the work in. I think there’s something to it; we all like to feel like our efforts are noticed. Taking the time to recognize effort is part of SEL.
JML
@Eolirin: Minnesota. land of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. (stubbornly refusing to change the name of our party since the merger back in the 40’s)
Ken
@PaulB: You don’t usually see analysis of that quality outside of sports.
Ohio Mom
@Kathleen: Yes, OH-1 was something of a booby prize of the redistributing fight. I’m happy to be finally rid of Wenstrup but I can’t read any big trend in this.
@Kay: Yeah but a lot of the money for our local services comes via Columbus. Medicaid Waivers are key to the health of our disability services ecosystem.
There’s some of the “innocent disabled children” sentiment to count for continued support but adults aren’t cute that way and their support needs are more expensive (you are an adult a lot longer than you are a kid). Derp Red states are usually awful places to be disabled.
Eolirin
@Another Scott: Well yeah, but those fabs aren’t new. Under current circumstances why would you invest in a drought zone when you don’t have to?
Another Scott
@Bupalos: My mom was from Kenton. I went to some grade school there, HS mostly in Dayton, worked a couple of summers at WPAFB, grad school in Cinti. I haven’t lived there in a long time, but do have friends in the state still. My perspective isn’t just some ivory tower stuff reading about flyover country.
Sorry if I punched a bruise.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Nicole
@Matt McIrvin: It makes me remember the Onion’s headline when Obama won in 2008; something along the line of things in America finally got bad enough for Americans to do the right thing.
It’s such a crappy point to be at now, because we are going to lose some elections purely because the Democratic candidate is a woman, and yet the only way to ever get past this knee-jerk against the women candidate is more women in office so it becomes normal.
I hate Amy Coney Barrett, but not gonna lie, I love that there are 4 women on the Supreme Court now, regardless of political leaning, because kids of all genders will grow up thinking that’s normal. I’m so old I remember a political cartoon when Sandra Day O’Connor got on, and it was the Statue of Justice thinking to herself, “About time!”… while looking at a pair of shapely, obviously feminine legs going up the stairs to the Court. Le sigh. Even when women would get something it would be undercut. Things ARE getting better, but it’s a sticky time to have to continue to push when you know it means losing some races you might otherwise win.
Geminid
@Eolirin: Well, New York Democrats tried. They may have tried too hard though. They might have gotten away with a less ambitious gerrymander, but we’ll never know.
When it comes to redistricting, I think a problem generally for Democrats could be how their voters are concentrated in and around cities. A neutral commission or court appointed special master seeking compact districts will not exagerate Democratic strength. They might do the opposite, though.
Bupalos
Maybe absolutely speaking it’s your part of the state, but relatively speaking Cuyahoga and really let us down on turnout. We’re not making much of an inroad with the “EVERY election matters” message. Vance positioning himself as a liberal dad that cooks breakfast and Ryan positioning himself as Dewine took Trump out of the race and our base was not motivated.
Miss Bianca
@Nicole: Interesting. Yeah, that county commissioner was up for re-election. Sadly, I think he probably won handily, although we had a woman as an independent candidate running against him. I’ll be interested to see how the final numbers shake out.
At least Brittany Pedersen won CO CD-7! I’m finally represented in Congress by a Dem! And CD-3 – which our county used to be part of – *might* be about to boot Boebert. So, there’s some good news out there!
Geminid
@Ohio Mom: All those West Virginians had to have gone somewhere. That state had six congressional Representatives in 1960, and now they’re down to just two.
Bupalos
@Another Scott:
Maybe there is a bit of soreness. I really went for it and had a shocking amount of success informing and changing some eastern european votes to Ryan and hopefully some attitudes to the party… and obviously I don’t get to see that in final numbers. Still feel great about that and it makes me hopeful.
But I really do think we are making the mistake with some places missing newer trends and entrenching attitudes. All I’m really arguing against is that kind of story of inevitability. The “time to give up on X” vibe. If we’re looking for a horror story, Florida is right there. And in no way should we give up on Florida either. Learn lessons, figure out what’s going on, change approaches, yes. Learning from our challenges and addressing them is how we make change.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Bacon’s win in Nebraska was a hold. He was one of the few Republicans who won in 2020 while Biden carried their district.
PS: how do you like your future Democratic Representative?
Math Guy
@JML: we just moved to MN in June. I love that they are the DFL – reminds people of who we look out for.
Dadadadadadada
@Nicole: That’s funny, I remember them spending the 90s screaming about how shop class and home ec were irrelevant to the modern economy, and cutting the budgets for such classes.
Nicole
@Dadadadadadada: Ah, so I was on the tail end of the Home Ec-Shop (or, “Industrial Arts,” as Shop was called at my school) curriculum. They were co-ed by the time I got there; everybody took both so I sewed a duffel bag and a made a metal letter holder in the same year. It makes me laugh now, realizing we had a classroom that was full of working kitchen ovens and we were all, “Yeah, that’s about right.”
My kid is in 7th grade and I just taught him how to make the cooking project we did when I was in 7th grade. Some things you learn in school really stick with you.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@OzarkHillbilly:
While I’m depressed as usual with the very rightward tilt of our state and not especially optimistic about our longterm prospects here, I do think there may be a small opening in Mississippi for seed planting. The way the state mishandled Jackson’s repeated and desperate requests for updating their water infrastructure, that is something that can be hammered on over and over in that state. It was obviously racist in a way that is very hard to miss, even for a state population long used to denying racism.
dnfree
@Ohio Mom: My aunt from West Virginia said that when she was in school 1930s-40s), the three Rs were readin’, ritin’, and the road to Akron.
Tony G
@lowtechcyclist: “I consider evangelical Christianity to be literally satanic.” I despise evangelicals as much as the next guy but, from my perspective, the history of Christianity (like the history of all religions) has been full of violence, hatred, greed, racism and misogyny. Just like any other religion (or just like non-religious cultures). So the evangelicals, as awful as they are, are just carrying on the tradition.
The Lodger
@Eolirin: The Intel plant (and the other high tech employers coming to the surrounding area) may stave off a total RWNJ takeover of that corner of Ohio. Don’t expect the new blue dots to be classic liberal urban centers, but they’ll be relatively free of MTG-style lunatics.
The Lodger
@Betty Cracker: So Tiffany and Mr. Tiffany think she’ll get anything in the will. It is to laugh.
The Lodger
@Kathleen: Some Rethug on the redistricting committee really, really didn’t like Chabot.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: I missed this yesterday so you’ll probably never see this reply. I love that she won, and she sent me a million mailers and I got a zillion robo calls about how her opponent was against abortion, and she made me watch a trillion youtube ads for her, and another trillion against her opponent “Regan Dearing is not for us”. So she fought hard and she won, and I of course voted for her. But I really don’t know much about her yet. But I am glad she is my representative, especially after having that piece of shit Rodney Davis for so very long. And Tim Johnson was another piece of shit before that, but not as shitty as Tim Johnson.