Nate Silver’s take:
Franklin County is now almost fully reported, and O’Connor had pulled into a 200-vote overall advantage. But almost all the outstanding vote is in Delaware County, and that has favored Balderson so far. We still aren’t sure of where the outstanding precincts are in Delaware. And provisional ballot could even come into play. Still, you’d rather be Balderson.
orald
4049
O’Conner did not appear to expand the electorate.
This is still a good sign for Dems. Dont like celebrating losses, but this is a good sign for November
Cook PVI in the district is R+7.
Prop A in Missouri – which would’ve made Missouri a right to work state – is going down 67-33. Huge result.
None
4055
Been at work all day! Sorry! I’ll admit that seeing all the candidates listed willynilly on the ballot frightened the hell out of me. I’m still fairly new to the city but I’ve noticed that we have some interesting candidates for Senate. Like this guy:
I support the Armed Forces of the United States and their principles,. and strategic vision pursuant to General Douglas MacArthur’s, “Reminiscences.” Specifically:
North Korea- Kick Jung’s Ass with 30,000 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles. China - Kick Xi Jinping’s Ass, by Blockading, then Conquering China by firing the necessary number of Tomahawk Cruise Missiles to destroy all Nuclear Targets, all Air Defense Targets, all Military Targets including each and every Chinese ship, submarine and airplane launched from a safe distance with a goal of no loss of American Life and with no US ground troops used until after China’s Unconditional Surrender.
Goodness.
Oghier
4057
Yep. Voting against Bob McCulloch and Prop A were the reasons I showed up at the polls today. I wasn’t too concerned about Claire McCaskill winning her primary ;)
So glad to see McCulloch out. It’s hard to convey how much of a self-righteous asshole he is, if you don’t see him interviewed very often.
LMN8R
4058
Don’t forget about the ever-present Goodspaceguy.
While WA is all voter-by-mail and many people (including me) didn’t put their ballots in the mailbox until today, the early returns are still usually pretty accurate - it shows Maria Cantwell easily soaring to victory, with Hutchenson way behind in 2nd place. All of the others had very low counts.
Even The Stranger - a super liberal free Seattle newspaper - endorsed Cantwell instead of any of the other candidates, though some of the Dem candidates seemed to have strong backgrounds.
That’s the “right to work” one right?
I’ve seen arguments from some I respect that “Democrats need to earn Green Party voters votes.” I don’t know about that.
To wit:
Yes, this is why I think every bit of effort spent on third parties and third party candidates is, well, stoopid.
Yeah, I don’t think either party should work on the Green Party vote. Just let it be, it is what it is.
Harry Enten also makes a good point: there are a significant number of Green Party voters who are not on the left–they’re angry disaffected Republicans, or on that side of the spectrum.
And for the percentage where it’s liberals or lefties refusing to vote for Democrats, well, those folks are unreachable. If the specter of trying to keep one party from throwing toddlers in cages can’t make you stop your protest vote, then nothing is going to do that. Just move on.
Kris Kobach, of voter suppression flameout fame, somehow ran to the right of disgraced governor Sam Brownback (whose famous tax cuts and trickle-down policies bankrupted the state and effectively ended any remaining argument about the efficacy of supply side economics) in Kansas…and apparently has won the GOP nomination there. He’s up 191 votes as that sucker heads to a recount.
Now, that’s either really bad news or really good news, depending on if you’re a glass half full/empty person.
It’s bad news in this sense: someone as galactically stupid as Kobach shouldn’t be on a ballot for dog catcher. He makes Sharron Angle and Rick Santorum look like Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. And him on the ballot as the major party nominee in Kansas for Governor is disastrous news for the Sunflower State.
On the other hand…there’s a really, really solid chance that this is good news, that Kansas voters won’t shoot themselves in the foot again on a numbskull like Kobach. Laura Kelly, the Democratic nominee is suitably centrist for a state like this and might even be favored. It’s always dangerous cheering the fact that the other party picked the worst possible candidate – see Trump, obviously – but in a lot more cases (Angle in Nevada, O’Donnell in Delaware, Akin in Missouri, Mourdock in Indiana) it works out pretty good. High risk, high reward potential, I guess.
How much worse is Kobach than Brownback in practice?
He doesn’t need to be worse. He can be Brownback, and that’s bad enough. Brownback left office in Kansas with an approval rating statewide in the low 20s.
