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Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Updating the Blog Roll
Posted by DavidNYCI've added links to three swing-state focused political blogs in the blog roll to the right:
CO: Colorado Luis
OR/WA: Ridenbaugh Press
PA: Fester's Place
I also added a new site under the "Swing State Activism" section, the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network. I'd love to be able to add blogs & activism sites for all of the swing states, so if you have any suggestions, please post them in the comments.
Posted at 02:47 AM in Site News | Technorati
Comments
Here is an update on Pennsylvania; the state went thoroughly Democraic last night with large margins of victory in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh)and Philadelphia. In addition the Democrats got their act together and swept the state-wide judicial races, reversing the results of the 2001 election where the Republicans wiped the floor against the Democrats.
I am going to speak more about Allegheny County because that is where I am knowledgeable. The biggest cause of the victory here was that the Democratic candidates were able to capture a high proportion of the Democratic voters who came out. The county has a 2.15(D) to 1(R) ratio. There was very little net bleed-off in registered voters. Areas that tend to vote Democratic but voted GOP in 1999 came back to the fold and came back with convincing margins. Nothing too special here, just a unified party.
Now this means a couple of things for the election next year. First the Democrats of Southwestern PA have an acknowledged and unchallenged leader in Dan Onorato so this should help the organizing and message component of the GOTV. Secondly, and I think more importantly, by taking Roddey out, the Democrats are taken out the GOP local money man. This should convince a lot of donors to again swing their donations to the Democrats and give them a massive money edge.
Posted by: fester at November 5, 2003 08:00 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment
First, thanks for the inclusion in the blog roll, second a couple of words about the Northwest results from last night (not much noted nationally).
There was nothing of note in Oregon (the one important election concerned setting up a utility district at Portland - the proposal failed). But there were a few developments in Washington. The King County Council (Seattle area) has been close split between Republicans and Democrats; on Tuesday, a Democrat took over a seat held by Republicans for a couple of decades in SE King County; the area is a swing region. Over in Spokane, on the other hand, the new mayor is the Republican state Senate majority leader, though partisan issues didn't seem to be much of a factor. (Spokane major is a nonpartisan office.)
One other note - in stringently non-swing Idaho, a Democratic state legislator shocked everyone by defeating two well-established Republicans in the non-partisan race for mayor. He topped the 50% needed to avoid a runoff, leading to some questioning today about a Democratic resurgence. There probably isn't any, but the talk is running around.
Posted by: Randy Stapilus at November 5, 2003 04:49 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment
I will be hosting Guest Blogs from Favel Stoda of the Screen Actors Guild who has taken vacation time to go to new mexico.
Her first posting is up now at http://www.schadelmann.com and it's great!
Posted by: Greg Dewar at October 25, 2004 11:18 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment