Polls close soon in Kentucky, so get your popcorn ready. Not only are we looking at the 14th Senate district (previewed above), but also the 96th House district in rural northeastern Kentucky, which was vacated by Democrat Robin Webb when she was elected to the state Senate a few months ago (in another Beshear-orchestrated Senate pickup). Democrat Barry Webb faces Republican Jill York. Democrats control the state House by a comfortable 64-35 right now, so the stakes are lower here.
Between all that and the Massachusetts Senate election, if you’re still bored, you can also check out a special in one of Arkansas’s few Republican-held state Senate seats (Dems are up 27-7), the 4th. Sharon Trusty resigned, leaving Democrat John Burnett and Republican Michael Lamoureux to fight it out in rural NW Arkansas. (H/t jameswv.) And tonight is also the Birmingham mayoral special election, to replace Larry Langford, who resigned after getting caught taking bribes. The 13-person field includes pastor Jody Trautwein (famous for his small role in Bruno) and the now-deceased Ernie Dunn. (This race is expected to go to a runoff.)
If you have any other results links that you’d like to share, please let us know in the comments.
KY results: Kentucky SoS | Lexington Herald-Leader | AR results: Arkansas SoS
8:05 pm: Haydon did win Nelson County, 3,840 to 2,982, but his 858-vote margin wasn’t enough to balance the rest. Higdon won Taylor, 2,612 to 1,396. Total result is 11,327 to 8,881 to Hidgon, a 2,446 vote margin and a 56-44 spread.
7:58 pm: Higdon has declared victory, and Haydon is conceding. This is a bit of a bummer, given the financial backing that Haydon enjoyed. As a small silver lining, perhaps Democrats will have a shot at picking up Higdon’s soon-to-be-vacant House seat.
7:45 pm: Still waiting on the last two counties in SD-14, but we’ve already lost HD-96. Republican Jill York beats Democrat Barry Webb 2,545 to 1,663, which is a 60-40 spread.
7:25 pm: Higdon also wins small Washington County by a narrow margin, 1,331 to 1,054.
7:20 pm: Now we have results from Marion County, the most Dem-friendly county but also Higdon’s home turf. Higdon wins there too by a wide margin, 2,860 to 1,405. Haydon is going to need to clean up in his own home turf (Nelson County) to pull this out.
7:15 pm: Looks like we’ve gotten some results from one county, via the Lexington newspaper (I’ve added the link). Higdon (R) takes small and conservative Mercer County, 1,542 to 1,186 votes.
7 pm: This being central Kentucky, looks like they’re taking an extended bourbon break. We’ll keep you posted.
http://www.arelections.org/ind…
I know it doesn’t matter too much, but how is the district? What are the candidates’ fundraising statuses?
It may include election results later but right now, it does not. Still, it has interesting information on the race.
http://www.boston.com/news/pol…
I’m still waiting on Houston Mayor, Controller, and City Council (still 4 of 5 at larges to be decided)
Does anyone have a map of this district? My grandmother lived a good part of her life in Bardstown, KY which is mentioned in the newspaper article on the race. I’d be interested to see how deep my ties are to this district.
and I can’t find anywhere else for Kentucky election results. The individual counties either don’t have election sites, or have crappy sites that haven’t been updated in a long time.
Dang that was hard…
Webb said he expects his campaign will spend $55,000 to $65,000. He already has contributed about $12,000 to it from his own pocket.
York said her campaign will spend about $20,000. She has contributed about $10,000 to it.
unless Haydon can win the remaining two counties with a 2,100+ vote margin.
http://bluegrasspolitics.blogi…
Seriously… WTF?
Let’s hope MA-Sen is a bit more exciting.
with a 24 percent turnout it seems like the repubs were really determined to vote while the dems not so much. At least, if this race was supposed to be competative and then it wasn’t… that’d be my guess. Or maybe gamlbing just isn’t all that popular in Kentucky. Who knows, maybe the churches there are really active or something.
nah… if Dems can’t win a district with a 65/29 registration edge, they won’t win a district with a 49/48 registration edge
Democrats who actually vote for Democrats are unmotivated. And a giant chunk of Kentucky Democrats don’t vote for Democrats who aren’t running unopposed.
Not to mention that people are probably a bit burnt out on elections. Like in the 96th, which was a 50/50 registration split, held by a Dem, and went 60/40 Rep.
But don’t worry, we’ll all be saved in 3 years by the Obama GOTV machine. Ha. 😉
n/t
So apparently the winners in Birmingham’s mayoral race (the biggest city in Alabama!) are:
“With 159 of 160 precincts tallied, Cooper had 40.1 percent to Bell’s 25.1 percent. Smitherman ranked third with 18.8 percent.”
source: http://blog.al.com/birmingham-…
That’s apparently Patrick Cooper and William Bell. I have no idea whose these people are. As for Carole Smitherman, all I knew about her was stuff from the Wikipedia, but stuff I’d seen and liked BEFORE the race, like:
But I could understand how that might not be the best profile ever for Birmingham’s mayor in 2010, but still…respect.
So SSP help me out….let’s go deep, which factions lined up behind which candidates?
Oh well. Here’s some good news to cheer everyone up:
Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) is getting primaried from the right. No, it’s not some crazy teabagging perennial candidate. It’s a state senator.
Googling his name turned up this unsavory comment from the man. He compared a gender identity discrimination law to one encouraging bestiality.
Er..so in a race btw 2 non-incumbent local pols, the GOP nationalized the race by tying the Dem to Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, folks he’s probably never met. The Dem focused on local issues but in the end, the GOP held on. Well, if that works elsewhere across the country in purple-ish to reddish seats, Dems may have difficulty knocking off GOP incumbents or even taking over some open seats. Tsk…tsk..tsk…not.good!