A review of the results finds that were it not for the efforts of our candidates and the DCCC, it could have been even worse.DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen • Sugar-coating the election results, moments after saying that “there is no sugar coating the election results.” He may be right about that counterfactual; however, “it coulda been worse” isn’t much consolation to the 60-some legislators who lost their seats. source (via • follow)
the election is over. Sharron Angle narrowly lost her bid to unseat Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada. But Jon Ralston has unearthed a few last bits of trivia about her campaign, including who played Reid in debate prep, the code used by staff to warn of media presence, and Angle’s complicated feelings on dictatorships. Oh, how we miss the election. source
I am at a loss for words to describe this new development.Phil Bailey, director of the South Carolina State Senate Democratic Caucus • In reaction to Alvin Greene’s proclamation that he’s “seriously considering” running for President in 2012. After a surprise win in the Democratic primary earlier this year, Greene gave a bunch of interesting interviews, but lost by 34 points in the general. Donna Warren, president of the consulting firm that handled Greene’s recent failed Senate bid, reacted to the news: “Was he kidding you? Oh, wow, he didn’t tell us about that.” source (via • follow)
Obama’s been getting railed upon from all corners for a while now, but we have to admit that he seemed to handle his party’s lack of success yesterday fairly well today. He had a measured response to the questions he got at his press conference today, and didn’t get angry or testy at any point. Which for fans of the president is heartening. Also heartening is this site which has been all over our Facebook today. “What the fuck has Obama done so far?” A lot. A defensive measure so solid that you’d think that the site was produced by Obama’s staff, until you realize that the word “fuck” is right there in the URL. source
Dear Rand Paul: Congratulations. Sincerely. You ran a better campaign than your opponent, and eventually you got past your gaffes to win in Kentucky without much trouble at all. While you’ll remain controversial to many for your small-government-heavy views, you didn’t win tonight in spite of your views. You won because you beat your opponent (see: Aqua Buddah). Sure, we had our beefs with some of your views, but as the campaign worked towards the end, we found ourselves actually respecting you a little. The way your campaign handled the head-stomper proved you’re past the point of gaffes. So, tonight, as the left accepts its fate, we’ll see more candidates lose. But let it be on the record that Rand Paul earned his victory tonight. source
Just as the conditions promising at least a pretty bad Democratic year have been with us for some time, the uncertainty has been with us all along as well, like a virus with an exceptionally long latency period; on Tuesday, we’ll see which of the polls it has infected.FiveThirtyEight guy Nate Silver • Offering a key piece of final analysis that we should probably take into the elections today. While the polls have largely remained consistent about how many seats the Democrats will lose and the Republicans will gain, it’s good to keep at least a little bit of perspective no matter how you lean. Remember, back in 1994 the analysts were relatively consistent too, but in the end, the Republicans did way better than most of them expected – by a long shot. No matter the case, you should probably get out there and vote your heart out for both the ballot measures and the candidates – unless you live in DC and know the results of every election already. We’ll have lots of key results from our non-existent glass-enclosed nerve center at a late-night coffee shop in Dupont Circle tomorrow night. source (via)
In this clip, Sarah Palin charges ABC affiliates in Alaska with “corruption,” claiming that they “conspired to make up stories about Joe Miller.” According to her, reporters at a recent Miller rally attempted to find a child molester in the crowd in order to discredit Miller and his supporters. A tape of has been released, and Palin “can’t wait until it busts out all over the nation.” source
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If ya can’t beat ‘em, drown ‘em in fake candidates. After defeating Lisa Murkowski in the primary, Joe Miller was a shoe-in to be the next Senator from Alaska. But then Murkowski announced a write-in campaign, and started gaining traction in the polls. So, Miller supporters did what any rational base would do: they flooded the list of write-in candidates (provided to voters at the polls) with as many names as possible, so that Murkowski’s name would be harder to spot. The effort, which originated on Andrew Breitbart’s “Big Government” blog, worked, and now there are over 100 “official” write-in candidates (many of them readers of “Big Government”). This race just gets better and better. source
Everybody knows that the California Governor’s race is really, really expensive. Meg Whitman has dropped $162 million so far on her bid, with Jerry Brown spending an only-modest-by-comparison $25.5 million. However, Whitman’s spending (including $22 million this month alone) hasn’t been able to buy her a lead in the polls. The latest Public Policy Poll has Brown leading by 11 points, 53-42. This made us wonder: how much has each candidate spent for each percentage point they hold in the polls? The results were somewhat lopsided:
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