We have it. So what do you kids have to say about it?
Update (12:05 AM): Webb just took a very tiny lead (under 3000 votes) in Virginia, with 99% of the vote counted. This is probably going to a recount, but this is getting very interesting. The Republican’s Senate firewall may be on fire.
Update II (1:06 AM): Harold Ford should concede Tennessee shortly. In Virginia, Allen went to bed about half an hour ago, but he made it pretty clear that he’s not going to be bashful about a recount and contesting every vote. The kids on MSNBC seem to believe that the remainder of the uncounted votes are in Fairfax county, which should boost Jim Webb’s vote total by a few thousand by morning. Expect a few weeks of insanity.
Update III (1:34 AM) I must have been heading to the fridge for a beer and missed it, but Jim Webb declared victory in Virginia saying “We all need to respect the process in this country, the Democratic process.’ We all go out, we vote, we argue, we vote, but also I’d like to say the votes are in…And we won.” That may well be true, but I wouldn’t expect that to be the final word on that race
Update IV (1:52 AM) McCaskill is on stage now declaring victory in Missouri. The networks aren’t calling it and Talent hasn’t conceded yet, but she’s up by about 25,000 right now. This is an uncommon move on her part. I like it. I gather maryb2004 is happy about the result.
Update V (2:08 AM) Something of a holding pattern until we hear what happens in Montana. I just wanted to mention that I was totally wrong about this election. My guess was a 13 seat pickup in the House and and a 3 seat pickup in the Senate. Quite clearly I’m a dope. Tonight is a complete blowout. Were it not for the who the hell does Lieberman caucus with factor, I think we could be pretty confident, at this hour, of taking both the Senate and the House. The Democratic House majority is going to be very big. We’re going to need to hold these turkey’s feet to the fire.
Update VI (2:49 AM) This is a good one. It looks like Patrick Murphy has beaten Mike Fitzpatric in PA-08. Combined with the defeat of the insane Curt Weldon, this goes a long way towards turning Philadelphia’s suburbs all blue. It’s late, so I won’t go into a long explanation, but the Philadelphia area’s association to the Republican party goes way back to just prior to the American Civil War, when the Republican party was the liberal party. I was raised in a Republican household in the Philadelphia suburbs by a man, my father, who spent some of his day yesterday making get out the vote calls for MoveOn.org. He hasn’t changed. The Republican party is done in the Philadelphia metro area.
Update VII (3:10 AM) Still waiting on a Montana call. It’s pretty clear Tester is going to win, but having been an election night junkie for most of my life, I know I’ve still got about a half hour or so of tired pundit bullshit, spoken by sleepy pundits, that I have to listen to before I get some satisfaction. Webb is up by over 11,000 and, barring some serious problems in the recount, Tester’s win is going to seal a Senate majority.
Same thing I had to say about it over at Dkos:
YEARRRGH.
In a faux-Vermont accent, of course.
Fabulous. Now they damn well better perform — and that includes subpoenas.
I say it’s about freakin’ time.
Now let’s see if we can pull off the Senate.
My prediction is still entirely possible — Dems tied with Repugs and the whole thing thrown into chaos.
It’s the smell of Republican control of the House going up in smoke. Also the smell of the shredded documents they’re burning.
Heck, if supper burned tonight I’d order pizza.
I’d ‘ve ordered pizza, too. Do you suppose the Alternative Energy Plan of the GOP is energy from the mass burning of documents?
Right! Kissing up to a thug who started a totally unnecessary war, giving the country away to the highest bidder–if the they don’t lose this election the country is comatose.
Woohoo!!!
Well, well, that’s all that I can say, it’s so good to see the Reps. look all downtroden and starting to talk about working together!!!!!BTW Jon Stewart and Colbert have election special..
OK I am letting my self celebrate now.
Work together? After the last six years? Bwahahahahahaha.
in the GOP version on unilateral bipartisanship.
Would have liked both House and Senate, but I’ll settle for the House…now let’s just hope the committees shake down properly.
If Conyers doesn’t chair Judiciary after all he’s done, I’ll never donate a dime to the Democrats again…
SWEET!
Glad my earlier paranoia and doom-saying was wrong. Note to Conyers: Fire up the printer, and start pumping out the subpoenas. Yee-haw.
Me too, BJ, me too.
that the Dems are going to use the subpoena powers to investigate all the purported “reasons” we went to war in Iraq.
This is going to be more fun than the Watergate hearings of my youth…better lay in a good supply of healthy snacks…
Hearings.
Subpoenas.
Indictments.
I can hardly wait.
Webb takes the lead!!
Where you getting that? I see them talking at Kos. But where are the numbers?
CNN has it here:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/VA/S/01/index.html
Whoop!
Still not blogging, I see, BJ!
Have the military votes been counted? Webb should do well there, unlike most Dems.
Think they might be counted last.
It’ll be a hell of a lot easier to sleep at night.
After the last 6 years, if the dems don’t get the House and Senate, they don’t deserve them!
But Rogers held onto his seat in Michigan’s 8th {sigh} I was so hoping that he’d go down as I saw more and more signs for Jim Marcinkowski go up around town. Unfortuantely, the repugs in the state legislature have gerrymandered the districts so there’s very little competition.
I’m not at all suprised. But, this from a Livingston County paper is telling (if you read between the lines).
Yeah. Looking forward to writing him a letter welcoming him to the minority party. Yee-haw!
Oh be still my beating heart….After an abysmal CT vote, my other important race was Pombo v. McNerney.
With 22% of the vote in, McNerney leads by 2%; 51-49%.
Looking at the exit polls and the county-level results in MO, MT and VA, I think that the Dems still have a chance in all three states. I don’t know enough about the geography (and my browser at work won’t load the CNN maps), but it looks to me like in VA the only partially-reported counties are ones where Webb is way ahead – on the basis that precincts within each county vote homogeneously, this gives him the possibility of closing the gap. In the other two states, I’m wondering whether entirely unreported counties are more likely to be larger urban ones?
On cable They are showing close races in all 4 remaining senate seats, I am wondering what about absentee ballots and also early voting, has that figured in, does anyone know.
According to this page (last updated in 2004) Virginia doesn’t have early voting but does have absentee votes which are counted after the close of polls. I assume this is quite time consuming. A reference elsewhere says that it takes 10 hours in Ohio where they start early on election day. So unless there have been changes to the law in VA since the 2004 election, I’d guess absentee votes are not yet counted.
From Commonwealth of VA: Webb up by appr. 1,750 votes with 18 precincts still out. Appr max of 12,000 votes out by Kidspeak’s est.
is probably generous.
that there are 33,000 votes in Fairfax County left to be counted.
Automatic state-sponsored recount kicks in at 1/2 of 1% margin…the more Webb can get out of Fairfax, the better.
TN has been called for Corker 🙁 — meaning we need VA, MO and MT to take the Senate.
Any Republican Senators we can get indicted so Dem governors can appoint their replacements? 😉
An update 20 mins ago on CNN’s website shows 99% of Fairfax County precincts counted – about 315,000 votes. Can there be one precinct left with 30,000 votes? Previous experience suggests commentators don’t know what they are saying!
Thanks. We were estimating from what we could deduce from the rest of the state.
Fuckin’-A ditty bag!
Meet your two new Dem Congresscritters
Good news, ManE.
Also, some more great news from New Hampshire (unionleader.com):
AP’s Holly Ramer has put the Democratic triumph into perspective. Here’s a few excerpts from her story. “New Hampshire Democrats emerged from Tuesday’s elections more powerful than they’ve been in 94 years . . . Victories by (Lynch, Shea-Porter and Hodes) marked the first time since 1912 that Democrats were elected to three of the state’s top five seats. . . . Though Democrats have won five of the last six gubernatorial elections, Republicans have long dominated the congressional delegation and Legislature. . . . The last time Democrats controlled the state Senate was 1998, but their 13-11 advantage ended the next year with the death of Democratic Senate President Clesson Blaisdell. In the House, Democrats haven’t been in charge since 1922.
Looks like Patrick Murphy is currently up 51-49 with 78% reporting.
has Webb winning.
18 precincts out:
5 are from areas that gone for Allen.
3 are from places breaking even.
4 are from places overwhelming for Webb.(in Richmond)
6 are from places gone for Webb by a smaller margin.
4 more precincts in and Webb’s lead is down to 1,917 votes. (Monitoring VA Commonwealth Board of Elections website.)
But see my post above re VA absentee votes. Does anyone know anything more recent re the system in VA?
Saw it. Don’t know the answer. Could make a difference as things are so close. Anybody watching MO?
14 precincts still out
8 in areas breaking for Webb
4 in areas breaking for Allen
2 could go either way
Webb up by 525 votes.
13 precincts still out
7 in areas breaking for Webb
5 in areas breaking for Allen
1 could go either way
Richmond still has 4 precincts out. This is strong Webb country, so far. These are large precincts. Allen has only 1 large precincts still out.
Webb up by 1,725 Votes on Commonwealth website.
Webb up by close to 5,000 votes.
3 precincts just reported heavily for Webb.
10 still out
4 in areas breaking for Webb (almost certainly for Webb)
5 in areas breaking for Allen (Only 1 is a sizable precinct.)
1 could go either way (probably end up even)
See Chris’ update above.
CNN’s web site has McCaskill up by about 15,000 votes. Apparently the major urban areas are just weighing in.
but we’re supplying the info as we can get it.
From what I gather from the TV, the absentee ballots are part of the count we’re seeing. TV is always right. Isn’t it?
McCaskill up now in MO, according to CNN!
Democratic McCaskill
819,942 49%
Republican Talent
(Incumbent)
804,392 48%
81% reporting
I just got back from the party — the cities are starting to come in — as usual, last. The McCaskill team believes things are going as expected and hopeful it will be enough.
I hope so. For a while there both VA and MO were looking bleak, but I’m hopeful now. I think Tester has MT, done deal.
This is a typical pattern in Missouri. The rural areas, which are Republican, come in early. So the Republican ALWAYS is ahead most of the night.
The Dem has to do “well enough” in the rural area to hold on, and then needs to carry the cities. That’s what’s happening tonight. Hopefully she did well enough. But, it’s going to be close.
MSNBC now saying the House will be Dems +34 seats, MoE +/- 6.
Got to get some sleep now. I’ll be sleeping with my fingers crossed for MO and VA.
Good night, and good luck!
Good to here from you, Mary. Is KC going to do it for McCaskill? Is St L in?
Last ballots were just delivered to St. Louis County BOE headquarters within the last half hour. They are still counting. 56% counted so far and McCaskill has a 10% edge over Talent.
KC is just coming in now and is going for McCaskill. I know the south side of St. Louis City is in but I don’t know about the North Side.
Someone said that some of SW Missouri is still out — that’s a Republican stronghold.
Amendment 2 is 50-50 with 85% reporting — but again, the cities aren’t all in.
Does KC and North StL have enough votes to overcome SW MO?
Now they say that all of St. Louis City is counted but not St. Louis County (a bit unusual). Here’s what they are saying:
KC votes came in and she’s 50,000 ahead of Talent there which is better than normal.
In St. Louis County she’s doing better than Jean Carnahan did in 2002. Talent only beat Carnahan by about 20,000 votes. And Carnahan beat him by 15,000 votes in the County. They expect McCaskill to do better.
It’s Jasper County that’s not in and I’m not sure what the story is down there. It will tilt heavily toward Talent.
Clay County is not in — suburban KC county. She should do well there. If she does really well in Clay County and St. Louis County she should do it. There shouldn’t be enough votes in Jasper County to overcome.
is causing me to chew off my fingernails! Not sure if I told you before, but thank you for all your hard work for the campaign maryb!
Thanks Manny. I’m glad I worked hard for her.
No kidding. I’m as finger-nail-less as a dissenter to Bush’s “extreme” interrogation tactics, too.
Isn’t it too early for her to declare. Up 25K with 15% of precincts (those SW precincts where they’ve reported really high fundie turnout).
there aren’t enough votes in Jasper County to counter them.
We’ll see if Talent concedes.
Claire is taking the podium now and she looks REALLY happy.
Are Maries and Polk counties very large, and if so which way will they go?
Talent seems to be conceding — admits the efforts fell short.
what happy news to go to bed with.
There is hope yet.
Polk Co, population 26,000.
Maries, pop. under 9,000
Small, rural largely counties of largely German descent. Probably Catholic and Lutheran.
They are interviewing Claire and she says she talked to Talent. That must be why she came on and declared victory.
OMG — SHE WON!
Have your feet touched the ground yet?
When are you moving to DC to work in McCaskill’s office? And then, K Street?
Kidspeak says she’s so pleased. Missouri isn’t Missouri without a good, strong Democratic Senator. (Rita once lived next door to Gov. John Dalton.)
Thanks! She squeaked out a victory but it’s enough that it’s clear she won!
She ran a really smart campaign. She spent almost the ENTIRE campaign in rural Missouri and not the cities. She knew she wouldn’t win rural Missouri — but she had to cut into Talent’s numbers there. And she did.
LOL — I’m not moving to Washington.
That’s the Dean approach. Go talk to everyone and challenge every voter.
Now, Webb & Tester go our way and we can tell JoeMo to Git Go.
WooHoo!!! All is not lost this day and much has been won. :>)
I need to stop crying …
cry!! you deserve it!!!
What a day! When Talent conceded and I realized there wasn’t going to be any post election disputes … it was like a load dropped off.
Why? After the past six years and all your hard work on this campaign, you’ve earned your tears of joy. We’re dancing with the kitties, we’re so happy for you.
I am SO happy!
They just interviewed her and she said that she was pretty sure of victory once she saw the numbers from Greene County (Springfield — Roy Blunt/John Ashcroft country) and St. Charles County. If Talent couldn’t devastate her in those counties — she knew she had it. But of course she had to wait for the cities to come in and confirm it.
YEEHAA!!
This Fairfax County page says absentee votes “are counted on Election Day in the Central Absentee Precinct” by optical scanning machines.
The precinct-level results for Fairfax County show that two of three Absentee Precincts are counted. Random inspection of other VA counties shows that absentee votes have mostly been counted already.
I’m joining Kidspeak in calling it for Webb, subject to recount.
MSNBC carrying it — will try to summarize…
Damn, she needs to be taller, can barely see her over the signs…
“The great state of Missouri has spoken.”
Thanked volunteers for enthusiasm and hard work — thanked staff — “dramatically underpaid and severely overworked”. lol Claiming victory — Keith and Tweety seem confused at perceived “lack of protocol” (then again, there was no protocol in 2000 when Bush declared victory then let the SCOTUS confirm it)…
Keith: What if she’s wrong?
Tweety: referred to “Dewey Beats Truman” headline
Keith: down to one Senate seat, MT — Tester has significant advantage (51-45)
Dem: 237
Rep: 198
Republicans under 200 members? WOW!!!
Need to find out what the (bleep) is going on with AZ…everyone seems to have written that off into the Repub column… 🙁
idiot Kyl took it easily… 🙁
It’s up to my homies in MO and the friendly folk of MT…come on, make me smile… 🙂
particularly based on exit polls…
But I don’t know enough about relative size and demographics of uncounted counties to be sure…
Jim lost, according to the AZ SOS
542,392 52.7% – Kyl (Wingnut)
453,702 44.1% – Pederson (DLC)
blech…
MSNBC CALLS MISSOURI FOR MCCASKILL!!!
TALENT CONCEDES!!!!
It’s so close I can taste it…
I doubt we’ll see a concession any time soon for VA…
Allen still hasn’t conceded the Civil War.
Thought I’d be in bed 2 or 3 hours ago, thinking up reasons why winning the House and getting 48 in the Senate was a Good Thing. Now looks like at least a 40-seat pickup in the House, and CNN just called MO for McCaskill! We have 49 Senate seats in the bag and are ahead in the remaining 2. If I wasn’t hardened by living in Cubbyland I’d probably have expired by now.
Talent just conceded to McCaskill! Two to go and we’re ahead in both.
someone pinch me! I’m not sure I can handle all of these wins! It’s been far too long but well worth it
<pinch>You are NOT dreaming!
you being here makes it all the better, I’m glad to see you back in bloglandia. As soon as this election is over the policy harping begins again and with it the activism. You are truly an inspiration.
Truly better watching this election with you all. And Chris — I admit to being wrong too. I thought our process was too corrupt to allow Dems to win. Happy to be wrong. Never happier.
Yeah, it’s nice to have you around again. Don’t desert us again 😉
I’ll second that!
I am so excited I can’t sleep.
Me either!
I almost can’t believe how well this all worked out. (Oh, and I have shoe pictures for you…)
🙂
I think that’s why I don’t want to go to sleep. I’m afraid I’ll wake up tomorrow and it won’t be real.
Shoe pictures? PsiFighter’s shoes? 🙂
Hey! I’ve been off writing and you shoe fetishists are at it again. Where’s the picture, anyway. I’m just curious, that’s all.
It’s three a.m.
The beer is gone.
What is going on in Montana? I wanna go to sleep.
Give Montana another 30-45 minutes. I’m very lucky in that I went out for a six pack at 1:30 and avoided your beer issue. Hang in.
But Boston, it’s good news for a change. You can’t go to sleep now…
I ain’t goin’ no where. . .
Not ’til we win. . .
‘Sides, I want to hear more about these shoe fetish things. I’ve missed something in these months.
You’ll have to wait till tomorrow, cuz I’m going to bed… 🙂
Just heard on Kos that they have called for re-count in Yellowstone County, and that results are not going to be in until tomorrow. So we’ll have to celebrate tomorrow. Night.
there’s always somethin, isn’t there?
I’m off to bed too. Happy Election Night all!
should go shopping for razors O:-P
Heh. I was told it was some sort of Samson-type thing…can’t cut any hair for fear of losing the elections. 🙂
with baseball. But hey, whatever works.
If someone had told me a few months ago that absolute GOP rule would be broken this November, I would have laughed. There are times that I am glad that I am overly skeptical and cautious, and other times when I’m glad to be proven wrong. House for shizzle, and maybe the Senate (if the latter happens, I’ll be reminded by my wife that she predicted it and that I poo-poo’ed her prognistication).
It’s a start. At least there’s a ledge to stand on now.
pessimist, I’m elated to be proven wrong tonight. If the Senate falls I don’t think my pretty little mind can handle it all at once!
CNN has had 100% of precincts reporting in every county for some time now, but the main page shows 99%. Anybody else called this race yet?
it’s because the “liberal” media is waiting for ‘macaca’ to concede before they call it. There is probably going to be recounts. Gotta luv doublestandards. Not.
Yeah, that’s kinda what I figured, too. Undoubtedly a recount, but what with the FBI looking at Allen campaign dirty tricks he might not want to stick his head out too far and prolong the attention.
Maybe it’s bedtime. That damn “2 undecided” could still be there when the sun comes up.
GODDAMN!
I just can’t imagine any better Christmas present than THIS! First good news in SIX F*CKING YEARS! I feel like a huge load has been lifted off my little froggie shoulders.
I might just have to stay up ALL NIGHT and CELEBRATE! Bottoms UP!!!
Ribbett! Ribbett! Ribbett! Ribbett! Ribbett! Ribbett! Ribbett! Ribbett! Ribbett! Ribbett! Ribbett!
And Ribbett from the Detroit crowd! Ain’t this fun!
Yep it’s fun fun fun! I can’t believe that the Senate might even go our way, and even if it’s 50-50 that’s GREAT news! Who is to say that the reds will always vote along party lines? We can HOPE can’t we?
The last Virginia recount was finalized on Dec 22. Lets hope we aint waitin on no christmas presents like that this time
According to someone I saw talking on CNN International about an hour ago (who, for a change, actually seemed informed on the subject), the last recount in a statewide race in Virginia involved an initial margin of something over 300 votes. The recount changed the result by 37 votes in favour of the initial winner. Seems unlikely that an 11,000-vote lead will disappear.
has woken up W yet? You ain’t seen pouting yet, folks.
over at my blog earlier – I want to see the other baby crying now
Me, too, Manny!
You got your wish, my man! He’s going be stomping and whining and throwing a right jolly fit.
And what were those “secret insider polls” that Turd Blossom was so smug about?
Who knows? Once again, it’s painfully obvious what a lying sack of …. Turd Blossoms he is. A least W got one thing right.
Dear lord Montana is slow. I’m on my last beer and I have to wake up sometime soon, so bed is in order. Should I make a new thread, or is everybody cool with this one?
probably be good, I promise to behave! O:)
Anything! Please don’t behave.
*koff* *koff* *bullsh*
bout to crack another clebratory beer here.
Meet all you nightowls on the next one!
in Yellowstone County — unsure if it’s due to this race or something local, but counting was shut down, to resume in the morning.
Might want to post a panda pic and start a new thread in the AM — I’m finally heading to bed. Ah, heck, I’ll do it for ya:
Nighty night…
Way too cute. That picture should be illegal.
New thread a good idea as this one is long. Wish I could have celebratory beers, too, but I’m trying not to drink on weeknights to spare my liver and lose weight…
New thread up. Somebody else will be awake soon. I hate Montana.