Some cool news out of Nebraska…Barack Obama has won the 2nd District centered in Omaha an will be awarded one of Nebraska’s five Electoral Votes. That brings his total up to 365, with Missouri still in the toss-up category. The maximum total Obama could get is now 376 Electoral Votes. Not too shabby.
In other news, Frank Kratovil has defeated Club-for-Growth candidate Andy Harris in Maryland’s First District. And Tom Perriello has defeated the anti-Muslim bigot Virgil Goode in Virginia’s Fifth District. Kratovil is tough prosecutor that will caucus with the Blue Dogs. Perriello is likely to give us happier results.
In sadder news, Darcy Burner has lost her attempt to unseat Dave Reichert in Washington’s Eighth District. Burner would have been a great progressive pickup.
There are still some outstanding races, including Charlie Brown’s nailbiter in California’s Fourth District, Mark Begich and Ethan Berkowitz’s races in Alaska, and Al Franken’s race in Minnesota.
I feel sick about Darcy Burner. She was the cream of the crop. And her opponent unworthy of the position.
Yeah, and her house burned down in the middle of the campaign. It’s a real shame.
I hope there is no hint of suspicious circumstances with the fire?
None that I know of. Her son awoke his parents during the night saying there was smoke in his bedroom. Apparently a faulty night light or lamp cord.
But it was at a crucial time in her campaign and had to be devastating. They got out in their night clothes with nothing else salvaged.
Er, um. “awakened his parents”
The Stupid is still out there.
That is not the only sad news. They are saying now the DNC organizers who implemented the 50 state strategy are being let go.
http://firedoglake.com/2008/11/07/50-state-strategy-being-killed-by-letting-the-organizers-go/
As a foreigner I can’t chase them with any credibility, but hey, can anyone here start a campaign of e-mails and phone calls to DNC members about the looming disaster of this decision?
No confirmation yet, so not quite time to panic. As far as people being let go after campaigns, there’s always some of that. I remember rumors last summer that H. Clinton intended to get rid of Dean et al after she took over.
It would be terrible to break up such a powerful group of people. On the other hand, the Greens would sure appreciate the help. And that might be the next step in the evolution of U.S. politics.
They do have to be paid. Maybe it’s a money decision and not a policy one.
Charlie Brown is competitive in California?
Where was Snoopy running? 🙂
I too am very saddened about Darcy Burner’s loss. In an election this close, the dishonesty of the Seattle Times probably played a significant role. It’s a tragedy for democracy when that kind of skullduggery can have so much influence on the outcome of elections.
We still have something to hope for in Ohio’s 15th district, where the race between Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy and Republican Steve Stivers is now in recount. According to a blog entry in the Columbus Dispatch (warning: notorious Republican rag), Stivers presently has a lead of 393 votes, out of about 290,000 votes cast. They’re now counting late-arriving absentee votes and provisional ballots — the Kilroy campaign says that there are still about 27,000 of these to be counted, and that they are likely to swing her way, so we may get another win here. They keep counting absentee votes that arrive as late as Nov. 14th (as long as they were postmarked by Election Day), so this is going to take a while.
This isn’t the first time Kilroy has been in this situation. In 2006, she nearly unseated incumbent Deborah Pryce (who is not running for re-election this year) in a recount process where she came up about 1000 votes short, out of about 220,000 votes. In that recount, the addition of late absentee votes and provisional ballots added about 2,000 votes to Kilroy’s total; so there is good reason to be optimistic that she’ll catch up this time.
I got email today saying that a Kilroy Counts Votes Committee has been set up, a PAC that is accepting donations at the ActBlue page. It says that Stivers has hired a team of lawyers to “watch” the locations where absentee and provisional ballots are being counted, presumably to raise as many challenges as they can. So they’re asking for help to confront the challenges. Since it’s a separate PAC, any donations do not count towards the $2,300 limit for the campaign.
I know we’re all relieved that the election is over, and you’ve probably had enough of people wheedling you for money. But the process won’t be over for a while in a number of places (OH-15, CA-04, the Senate races in Georgia, Minnesota and Alaska …). OH-15 is my district, and I’ve never been represented by a Democrat in the House, ever in my life. The election has felt great so far, and it will feel even greater if we can get in a few more wins.
I have your same miserable record on congress critters, although we lived near Cleveland long ago and had what I recall to be a very good Republican congressman–Seiberling.
Have y’all seen/heard will.i.am’s new Obama victory video/song yet? It’s really good. Catchy tune. Thumbs up!
Very sad news indeed.
What’s the word on the Martin-Chambliss runoff election? Can Martin send that fuck home for good?
And does anyone have a snail mail address for the Martin campaign? I want to send them a check. A paper check with my name and address on it. Big enough to appear in the reports. I want Chambliss to know I personally sent him an anvil. And I’m going to write on it:
This Is For Max
Jim’s snail mail at Martin For Senate
Expecting clean elections throughout the country isn’t realistic nowadays. Read the following and tell me if you think there’s no reason to suspect that the fishy smell coming out of Alaska has nothing to do with fish.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6644