What a wild ride. And for a “wave”, we saw some pretty weird results–seats flipping that we didn’t think possible, while also some seats that many of us thought would flip to the Democrats in a wave year staying Republican. What were the highlights of last night’s results for you? Obviously there are still some outstanding races; CNN is refusing to call 11 10 (they just called PA-08 for Pat Murphy!) House seats just yet, and there will likely be recounts in many key races, but we did see a lot to cheer about–and a few disappointments, too. I’ll run down some of mine.
Best:
• Watching John Hall (D), the upset shocker in NY-19, sing part of his victory speech! John Hall’s victory should be inspiring to us all.
• The Democratic landslide in New Hampshire: not only did Paul Hodes knock off Charlie Bass, but Carol Shea-Porter carried the day in NH-01. Go through all the major prognosticators–no one was expecting this one to flip, or even be close, including me. Her victory was simply the biggest surprise of the night. And to top it off, New Hampshire’s House and Senate just flipped to the Democrats. The AP reports that this is the first time since 1922 that the NH State House has been controlled by the Democrats.
• Netroots victories: Paul Hodes, Jon Tester, Jim Webb (at least, it seems), Joe Sestak, Jerry McNerney, Patrick Murphy, and Tim Walz all won their districts. The Burner-Reichert battle is still up in the air, Larry Kissell is down by under 500 votes with some ballots apparently still being counted (it’s unclear how many, and if it will be enough), Eric Massa barely lost (although he is not conceding yet), Linda Stender came within 1% of winning, Larry Grant got 45% to Bill Sali’s 50% in a district that gave around 69% of its vote to Bush in 2004, Dan Seals came within 6% in IL-10, and Gary Trauner is down by less than 1000 in Wyoming (CNN hasn’t made a call here yet, even though 100% of precincts are reporting). This outta shut down the braying right-wing media commentaries on the “netroots curse” for good.
• Yarmuth!
• A tip of the hat to the genius at the DCCC who made the call to intervene in PA-04 and KS-02 at the 23rd hour–it apparently paid off with shocking upsets by Democrats Jason Altmire and Nancy Boyda, respectively.
• IA-02! I still can’t believe that Dave Loebsack pulled off this stunner–this is second only to Carol Shea-Porter’s big win in New Hampshire in terms of shock factor. Chuck Todd said this one would flip only if the Democrats won more than 40 seats. Certainly this result disproves the idea of an even wave everywhere.
• MO-Sen: I’ve been so influenced by the culture of electoral defeat in the past 6 years that I purposefully kept my expectations low as far as McCaskill’s chances at knocking off Talent. This was a very sweet victory for our side, and a very demoralizing loss for the Republicans.
• Oh yeah–one of the sweetest victories for me was seeing Chris Murphy wallop Republican Nancy Johnson in CT-05. Somehow, in the least Democratic of the three Connecticut House seats contested this year, Johnson’s disgusting politics of fear and smear clearly backfired. This is one to cherish, and Murphy should be considered a major rising star for Connecticut Democrats.
Worst
• Ohio. Look, Ohio, I think it’s great that you got yourselves nice new Democratic Governor, and I thank you deeply for sending Sherrod Brown to the Senate. I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but where the heck was the supposed anti-Republican sentiment in the House races? I was hoping for big things in the 1st, 2nd, 15th, and heck, even the 12th district, but alas, Zack Space is the only Democratic pick-up in the Buckeye State this year. (Update: Let me make it clear here–I’m not expressing disappointment with the candidates and campaigns who ran tight races in Ohio. Rather, it’s very clear that Wulsin, Cranley and Kilroy did a good job. My sentiments were directed to the voters of these districts, who apparently did not want change as badly as I hoped they did.)
• So close, yet so far… It certainly sucks to see great challengers like Lois Murphy, Diane Farrell, and Patricia Madrid come up just barely short–although NM-01 still has a few ballots to count, so perhaps I shouldn’t speak so soon. On the bright side, if Joe Courtney’s 170-vote lead holds in CT-02, Chris Shays will be the only incumbent Republican House member left standing in New England.
All in all, it was a great night. And that night continues into the daytime, as the ballots are still being counted–and are about to be recounted–in close races across the country.
Especially IL-6. Tammy Duckworth, endorsed by both Chicago papers (yes, the Tribune endorsed a Democrat as Col. McCormick spun in his grave) was not endorsed by the VFW even though she:
(a) was the only veteran in the race and;
(b) lost both legs in Iraq.
Ain’t it funny what clout can do?
my list for pimping & predicting. I picked Hall as Primary winner, know the district and felt this was a definite go, especially after Sue Kelly crashed & burned during Foleygate. Macman” and I and a few others were very hot on this race actually.
I’d have to say my biggest cheers of the night went for McNerney, Casey beating Sanitarium,Webb,Hall,Hodes & Boyda,McCaskill and now Tester.
My biggest disappointments have to be Wulsin/Schmidt, Drake/Kellam,Bachmann/Wetterling, Musgrave/Paccione, Kuhl/Massa and Sali/Grant. Better luck next time.
Blackwell & Steele going down was also sweet.
I need to cut off receipt of Francine Busby e-mails.
According to the ABQ Tribune, we won’t see results until Friday.
I’m not very optimistic, there are very few election-day votes left — the rest are absentees and provisionals. And Wilson has won the absentees by 4000 so far.
But the provisionals… I have some hope still, but it is fading. Send good mojo to Madrid!
in OH-02 and OH-15 that votes are still being counted? Do Wulsin and Kilroy have a shot of reversing the current outcome?
was the millions and millions it sucked out of other races.
Some kind of dick-measuring contest, a personal crusade of Rahm’s, and it turns out, his is smaller.
Just think of all that money busted up into $100,000 chunks and spent in places like ID-01, NY-23, NC-08, and lots of other low-cost media markets. Tom Hayhurst came within 6 points in IN-03, with no national help. A sickening waste of resources, for a single high-cost race in a district that the Republicans had held for decades. Pah.
I’m not ready to be lectured by anyone about the Ohio 2nd. Having been busting my ass since April of 05 I’m pissed as hell. The netroots delivered. We delivered. I delivered.
The conventional wisdom from everyone, including the blogosphere, was that Wulsin didn’t have a chance in a general election. The 2nd was too conservative. That the only reason that Hackett did so well was because it was a special election and the Democratic base was super motivated. Well, we proved them wrong. Just not fucking wrong enough. She performed better than Hackett with the Hamilton County Dems putting all their resources in the 1st and the Warren County Dems putting using all their resources to help State Rep candidate Jeff Ruppert who’s running in the 3rd with Chema. Both lost big.
What the fuck happened in Ohio. The fucking beltway ditched us. The RNCC was hammering Vic with every race/gay/pelosi baiting mailer that they could think up. Don’t you think that would give you a clue that they were worried??? Meanwhile the DCCC was moaning about the high price of media buys while they poured cash for mailers into the 1st. Weep weep weep.
Even Early Money Yeast Emily’s list waited till the last fucking minute to do anything. Wulsin is an MD running against someone who’s major resume item is that she ran an Anti-Choice group that raised money off of Terry Schiavo. On no… well pass on that one. GAHH.
I’ve been a one man bad screaming for over a year now that we could beat Jean Schmidt and I was right but the beltway Rahm Emmanuel fucks were busy backing Tammy Duckworth and John Cranley.
Guess how much the DCCC said they would back Hackett if early on he pulled out of the Senate race and race for the House. ZERO. NADA. Not a mother fucking cent. They asked him to run against Schmidt but they pledged NO SUPPORT.
Now the window is closed. In the minority it will be very hard to gain any hooks against Schmidt. She can run her marathons and moan about abortion and collect a fat paycheck for doing nothing until her district is redrawn out of existence in 2010.
The RNCC drew a line in Ohio. The DCCC cut and run. That’s what happened.
OK, I’m done venting. Now to work on getting my life back.
Editor
Ohio 2nd blog
I strongly urge you to rephrase your rant about Ohio. We worked our asses off… every single damn one of us. John Cranley’s campaign did one hell of a job, don’t you dare say otherwise.
Why did we loose? I have no fucking idea… do you? Or do you just have complaints?
Beleive me… we all have complaints. Your slight annoyance pales in comparison to our sacrifice and our loss.
….you gotta tip your hat to the GOP survivors Chris Shays and Jim Gerlach, who everybody had left for dead months ago yet managed to hang on. Heather Wilson looks poised to join that group too.
For me, the worst news of the night was the one-point re-election of Governor Tim Pawlenty in Minnesota, made possible courtesy of Democrat Mike Hatch’s potty mouth and left-leaning Independence Party spoiler Peter Hutchinson. As if four years of Pawlenty isn’t bad enough for Minnesota, his stock just rose nationally, right in time for the Republican National Convention in his backyard in 2008.