Continues Live Blog #1

Tom Roberson

Texas is showing 4 possible Republican pickups in TX-17 where Chet Edwards is losing to Bill Flores, TX-23, TX-25 where Lloyd Doggett is losing to Donna Campbell, and TX-27.

Virginia is still showing 4 possible Republican pickups. Indiana is showing 4 pickups in districts 3, 4, 8, and 9. Georgia is showing  4 possible pickups in districts 2, 7, 8, and 12.

Nikki Haley holding a slim lead in South Carolina governor's race.

J.R. Dunn

With Feingold out, it's tomorrow the world. Feingold personally defined the leftward pole of the Senate. His defeat alone yanks Congress several degrees tot he right.

Tom Roberson

Returns are showing Republicans headed towards an historic night as several prominent Democrats are defeated. At this point, I think it's safe to say that the Democrats who manage to win will be much more focused on working with the Republican House majority to get the economy restarted as they continue to distance themselves from the Obama Administration's inept leadership. This will also have the effect of making Senate RINOs such as Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins much more conservative as they witness the shifting of political winds. In fact, Olympia Snowe is already sounding much more conservative. President Obama's tactic of pointing fingers at an obstructionist Republican House will be a total failure. I look for the Democrat infighting to begin and a serious push to dump Obama from the 2012 Democrat ticket.
  Jason McNew
I went to the polls here in rural Adams County PA late this afternoon.  My township (Menallen) contains roughly 3000 inhabitants, approximatley 2250 of which are of voting age.  We vote with paper ballots here, and I was ballot #745.  That's over 30% turnout, before the evening rush, and not including early or absentee ballots.  Our township building is basically in a forrest, and the line was out the door.  The mood was as somber as a funeral. 
There are no liberals, in places where people finance thier tractors but pay cash for thier cars.


My old friend Mo Brooks is leading in the AL-05 House race to represent the Huntsville area. This is the seat Parker Griffith won as a Democrat, then switched to the Republican party to unsuccessfully defend in the primary.


J.R. Dunn
 

 

C. Edmund Wright:

From NC GOP HQ: festive mood, but NC congressional challengers not doing so well. Looks like only Elmers has a chance to unseat an incumbent Democrat in this state -- in NC 2.  Shuler is ahead again as is Kissell. Price and Miller have gerrymandered districts and their margins are much lower but they will likely win.  Very poor campaign run by Richard Burr for Senate hurt everyone else. Burr will win but he had zero coattails with his awful campaign. 

 

Jeffrey Folks

More good news from conservative Tennessee! With somewhere between 40 and 50% of the vote counted in the 9 congressional districts, Republicans are well ahead in 8 districts. Rep. Jim Cooper may be the only Democrat to survive the carnage. Assuming the GOP takes control the statehouse, as seems likely, Republicans will control congressional redistricting following the 2010 census. Maybe we can rid Congress of Cooper as well in 2012

 

Jason McNew

I watch MSNBC on a fairly regular basis, but being subjected to Olberman, Maddow, Matthews, and Schultz all at the same time is causing my frontal lobe to liquefy.  They are waxing apocalyptic over the victory of Rand Paul in Kentucky.  Oh, the horror of Rand Paul potentially fighting Congress, from raising the national debt ceiling beyond 14,100,000,00,000,000 dollars.

 

Tom Roberson

In Ohio, looks like a net Republican pickup of 4 seats. How nutty does Dennis Kucinich have to get before Ohio voters dump him?

Kentucky looks to reelect all of it's House incumbents. Kansas is solidly Republican, while Virginia is showing a Republican pickup of 3 seats with the fourth seat in VA-11 too close to call. Rick Berg has a solid lead over Earl Pomeroy in North Dakaota. 

 

Rick Moran

It looks like an atom bomb went off in the south for the dems. Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina are all seeing significant GOP gains. The lower midwest isn't looking much better with Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee also seeing  several Democratic incumbents going down to defeat.

On the other hand, the Democrats aren't doing half badly in blue states like Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. This argues against realignment and indicates more of a return to the kind of 50-50 country we've basically been since 2000. Results out west might skew that notion a bit but unless we see some surprises in California, Washington, Oregon, I think the table has been set for 2012 with the electoral college once again up for grabs and the eventual winner squeaking through.

 

Tom Roberson

In Louisiana's District 2 race, Joseph Cao is losing to Cedric Richmond. Cao was the lone Republican to vote for ObamaCare and was shocked that Obama endorsed Richmond. LA-02 is a heavily black district, and Cao's victory came about with the arrest and conviction of incumbent Democrat William "Cold Cash" Jefferson. So much for your naive faith is bipartisanship.

Looks like RINO Secretary of State Jay Dardenne will win the lieutenant governor's race.

Michigan Republicans are doing very well. John Dingell is losing in MI-15 to Rob Steele, and districts 1, 2, 3, and 7 look to go Republican.

J.R. Dunn
 

I am of two minds concerning the Senate. Witth the GOP old guard being what it is, a majority would likely result in them unpacking their purple togas and spending their time grooming their pet ocelots and awarding each other earmarks. As it is, they will remain hungry and need to work harder to please an aroused public in light of 2012. They will also need to listen to the new TP cadre, which might not otherwise be the case. So don't feel too bad about the Senate.

 

Tom Roberson

Incumbent Democrat Gerry Connolly leads Keith Fimian by less than 700 votes in VA-11 with 98% of the precincts reporting.

Calling NC-02 for Renee Ellmers over Bob Etheridge with 97% reporting.

 

Tom Roberson

In Ohio, calling districts 1, 6, 15, 16, and 18 as Republican pickups.

My friend Mo Brooks wins AL-05.

J.R. Dunn:

By the way, it seems that station KTVA has chosen this quiet news period to dump two of the producers involved in "Phonegate". The reason why is uncertain -- these people are mere vicitms of the evil Andrew Breitbart, who used his mind-rays to hypnotize them into saying things about Joe Miller that they really didn't mean. Or is it because they're  too dumb to figure out how to hang up a phone? 
        
Erin Bonsteel:

Thomas Lifson

Nevada officials announce a "power failure" at a polling place near Las Vegas, and delays in Elko. Looks like they are figuring how to steal the election for Harry.

 

C. Edmund Wright:

More from NC GOP: no one knows here they've called NC 2 for Elmers over Etheridge, the "star" of that infamous youtube assault on the young questioner.  The NC GOP is working to take the House seats in 2 years with a huge sweep in the NC House and Senate, which they've gotten. Frankly, NC and W. Virginia are the GOP embarrassments in my estimation, opting out of the 48 state Tea party movement. When PA is red for congress, no excuse for NC not to be.  

Speaking of PA, Toomey is now ahead and so is Kirk in Illinois. Those would be huge. And Spratt goes down in SC by 10. That is huge too. 

Thomas Lifson

The Republican State Leadership Council emails:
 

Maine Republicans have flipped the state senate from Democrat to Republican control, marking the 11th state legislative chamber to do so. 

The others are:

NH House

NH Senate

IN House [already controlled Senate]

PA House [already controlled Senate]

NC House

NC Senate

AL House

AL Senate

MI House [already controlled Senate]

OH House [already controlled Senate]

 

Tom Roberson

Still early, but newcomer Ruth McClung leads incumbent Democrat Raul Grijalva in AZ-07. Paul Gosar leading Ann Kirkpatrick in AZ-01 with 50% reporting.

Looks like Harry has figured out how to steal it. Harry the Hat is leading Sharron Angle by 40 K with 11% reporting. Election reform should be job #1.

J.R. Dunn
 

The Ellmer victory is one of those grace notes that raises politics above the level of rats fighting ina bucket.

Etheridge is, of course, the clown who in a burst of sheer paranoia assaulted a college kid who dared question him without addressing him as "Your Lordship". No pol in this country more deserved a public thrashing. All the same, no chance was given to Renee Ellmers, a professional nurse of considerable presence and charm. Tomorrow, the legacy media will be crowing Christine O'D's defeat, and little mention will be made of Ellmers,who willbe around a long time and go very far. They insist on making the same mistakes, over and over again.

 

Tom Roberson

Dino Rossi leads Patty Murray in the Washington Senate Race. Dave Reichert looks set to win reelection in WA-08. Reichert was the lead investigator on the Green River Killer case, and served as Sheriff of King County.

For a minute there, Carly Fiorino was leading Barbara Boxer, even though Fox has called the race for Boxer. Meg Whitman will score a lucky break if she loses to Jerry Brown. California is a disaster waiting to happen, and better to let it happen to Brown. Hopefully, the voters of CA-13 will dump Pete Stark. Oh what am I thinking? This is California. Let 'em drive off the cliff.

You think John Boehner isn't thankful and humbled?


Larrey Anderson
 

I just heard John Boehner's speech on the election results. I have been a Boehner basher for a long time. But I have to admit that this was, by far, the best speech I have ever heard from the (likely) next Speaker of the House.

Boehner's emotional presentation, as he reflected on his struggles as a small businessman, sounded an awful lot like a "come to Jesus" moment.  Maybe soon to be speaker Boehner has finally figured out that politics is about more than going along to get along and eating "crap sandwiches." I sure hope so.

America needs you John. No more "crap sandwiches." Good old American Philly cheese stakes please.

Don't let us down.

 

Tom Roberson

Looks like the Chicago machine will be busy tonight. Close senate race and close governor's race. Remember, Norm Coleman won on election night, but lost the recount in court.

Ruth McClung is behind in AZ-07, but keeping it close. Dino Rossi still competitive in Washington.

Ike Skelton picked off in Missouri.

Thomas Lifson

This concludes our election night converage. Thank you to all our contributors for your input and insights.