An in-depth PR analysis of the Tennessee Senate race between Ford (Dem) and Corker (Rep) shows a whole bunch of the state not yet counted. Polling place problems meant after-hours voting in Nashville and Knoxville, while Shelby County (Memphis), Ford’s home and the biggest county in the state, is uncounted. So don’t call it Repug yet.
Despite reports giving the Florida governor’s race to Crist-Crossing Charlie (Rep-Closet), there are still some significant counties to be reported. First, Democrat Jim Davis has won in South Florida’s Palm Beach and Miami-Dade — and nearby St. Lucie is still unreported. Beyond that, south-central counties Manatee and Sarasota are also uncounted, and they are near Davis’s home base.
On the other hand, several panhandle counties, which are in a later time zone, have yet to report. You would expect this area of the state, which is made up of military bases, latter-day spring break destinations, and what used to be called “land” but is now “real estate” (thanks, Talking Heads) to go for Crist. However, this is also the area where Crist left the president and his brother, the current governor, waiting at the dance yesterday, much to their chagrin.
You know if W was willing to appear in this area, it goes without saying it is very Republican-friendly. How much umbrage is taken on the president’s behalf is about to be seen.
UPDATE: Still waiting on the panhandle, but Crist won Sarasota County big and lost St. Lucie small so it’s looking like he’s our next governor. For awhile, until he’s enveloped in scandal. I give him 12 months.
Former Florida Senator Ron Klein appears to be beating the pants off 25-year plus incumbent freakozoid Clay Shaw. That’s one more Dem on the U.S. House side for Florida. It was probably my last-minute $20 donation that clinched it.
Tampa’s Kathy Castor makes it two pick-ups on the Dem side for Florida, but Jon’s favorite (not) Republican incumbent Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has more than two-thirds of the vote, and Joe Negron, for whom voters must select “Mark Foley” on the ballot has 49% to Democrat Tim Mahoney’s 48%.
Closer to home, Democratic State Dist. 27 Rep. Joyce Cusack is holding off rich-boy Republican David Hood for her seat in Tallahassee. Go Rep. Q!
NEW YORK (CNN) …[F]ormer “first daughter” Chelsea Clinton… turned up shortly after 6 a.m. at her polling site on West 20th Street — in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan — only to be told her name was not in the voter registration books there, a voting official said.
It turned out the registration book for her district had been mistakenly sent to the wrong location, said New York City Board of Elections Executive Director John Ravitz.
She filed an affidavit vote — a paper ballot that allows election workers to confirm that a voter is properly registered after their vote is cast. If the voter is not registered, the vote is not accepted.
If you didn’t know he was kidding…
In one of the most stunning November surprises in recent memory, the Republican Party today declared its unequivocal support for a constitutional amendment legalizing same-sex massage…
“This constitutional amendment defines massage as a rub-down between a man and a man, one of whom may or may not be selling crystal meth,” Mr. Rove said.
The same-sex massage amendment was not the only Hail Mary pass thrown by a Republican on Election Day, as Virginia senate candidate George Allen attempted to close the gender gap in his race by announcing that he was a woman.
Mr. Allen, who did not know he was Jewish until earlier this year, said he made a similar discovery about his gender on the eve of the midterm election.
“When I discovered that I was a woman after all of these years of believing I was a man, all I could think was, ‘Oy,'” Mr. Allen said.
They just never get tired of this crap, do they?
True Believer Texas Gov. Rick Perry got all fired up during a service with the Right Rev. John Hagee in San Antonio Sunday. So fired up, he threw all non-Christians under the bus, ala Katherine Harris.
Gov. Rick Perry, after a God and country sermon attended by dozens of political candidates Sunday, said that he agreed with the minister that non-Christians will be condemned to hell…
“If you live your life and don’t confess your sins to God almighty through the authority of Christ and his blood, I’m going to say this very plainly, you’re going straight to hell with a nonstop ticket,” Mr. Hagee said during a service interspersed with religious and patriotic videos…
[Perry] said that he believes in the inerrancy of the Bible and that those who don’t accept Jesus as their savior will go to hell…
He added: “Before we get into Buddha and all the others, I get a little confused there. But the fact is that we live in a pluralistic world but our faith is real personal. And my Christian faith teaches that the way is through Jesus Christ.”
Perry challenger Kinky Friedman had another take on it.
“He doesn’t think very differently from the Taliban, does he?” independent Kinky Friedman said.
Mr. Friedman, a Jew, said Mr. Perry’s comment “hits pretty close to home.”
“Being obsessed with who’s going to heaven and who’s going to hell is kind of a pathetic waste of time,” he said.
Amen, Kinky. Can I get a witness?
The Class of ’94 might be only a memory after tomorrow, if some remaining Newt Gingrich Contractors with America get the boot. They are:
John Hostettler in Indiana, a leading voice for social conservatives who was among six House Republicans to vote against authorizing force in Iraq in 2002. He is all but certain to lose to Democrat Brad Ellsworth, a county sheriff, in the district dubbed the “bloody eighth” for it’s razor-thin election victories.
Steve Chabot in Ohio, a lawyer from Cincinnati who is considered somewhat of a maverick in the party despite his conservative voting record. He faces a spirited challenge from John Cranley, a Cincinnati city councilman who failed to unseat Chabot in a challenge six years ago.
Barbara Cubin in Wyoming, a fifth-generation resident of the state and a conservative who champions its mining and agriculture industries. Wyoming hasn’t elected a Democrat to Congress since 1976, and Cubin’s race against Democrat Gary Trauner, a businessman, only recently became competitive.
Gil Gutknecht in Minnesota, who has an occasional independent streak. In the late 1990s, he concluded that Gingrich as speaker had been “a disappointment to everybody” and that the GOP revolution had been exaggerated. Democrat Tim Walz, a high school teacher, is challenging him.
Charles Bass in New Hampshire, a moderate who has focused on the environment and opposed the Bush administration’s proposal to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He is in a rematch with Democrat Paul Hodes, a lawyer who ran against Bass in 2004.
J.D. Hayworth in Arizona, a fierce critic of illegal immigration who advocates strong U.S. borders. He opposed the president’s proposal for an expanded guest-worker program until border controls are improved. Former state Sen. Harry Mitchell, a Democrat, is trying to unseat him.
Two of Newt’s disciplines are already gone — Bob Ney from Ohio and our own Mark Foley from Florida. Thank God and Greyhound.
Never has it been more important for Republicans to vote partisan than this year. In race after race, Candidate A has resigned in shame and been replaced by Candidate B, but Candidate A’s name is still on the ballot.
If this were happening to Democrats, we’d have a problem. Democrats tend to actually pay attention when voting so if a ballot read, say, “Mark Foley,” we might flinch from touching the corresponding grimy spot on the screen. But Republicans don’t read the names anyway. They just look for the little “R” that follows, and viola!
This quality will be especially handy in these races:
Texas U.S. House District 22 – Voters will need to overlook the “Tom DeLay” part and write in another Repug instead.
Florida U.S House District 16 – Rebooblicans will need to steel themselves to ignore the name “Mark Foley,” relying on the “R” to supply them with Joe Negron.
Ohio U.S. House District 18 – Remember Ohioans, it’s not really Bob Ney, who plead guilty to conspiracy charges in the Jack Abramoff case too recently to be replaced on the ballot. C’mon, you can do it! Vote Ney!
Florida House Dist. 102 – Ralph Arza, though released from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Facility in Miami on felony charges of interfering with a witness – specifically by calling his house in a drunken tirade and calling him a “nigger” and a “bitch” – won’t be up for re-election after all. It will be Arza’s name on the ballot but his votes will go to Eduardo Gonzalez.
Don’t let the names fool you, voters. Just look for the “R” on the label, and we can almost guarantee you’ll get exactly what you’re expecting.
Did I miss one? Leave a comment if there’s a similar race in your area.
What if you planned a Kentucky MAGA event and only heard crickets? Previously, announcing Freedom Fest turned on the money spigots. Kid Rock was planned as headliner, But organizer Eric Deters was a whiner: The […]
