REPUBLICANS TAKE MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNORSHIP: Coakley Conceds Gov. Race To Charlie Baker.
Archive for 2014
November 5, 2014
AT AMAZON, picture-perfect gifts for photographers.
Plus, the Holiday Toy List.
REPUBLICAN DAN SULLIVAN leading in Alaska Senate race. “Sullivan leads Begich by 49 percent to 45 percent with 100 percent of precincts reporting. The Associated Press has not called the race, and Begich has not conceded.”
THE HILL: Democrats Sift Through The Debris.
Related: Cruz: ‘The era of Obama lawlessness is over.’ Well, that might be a tad optimistic.
UPDATE: Roll Call:McConnell, Boehner, Pelosi and Reid Invited to White House. Will McConnell say “I won?” No. Unlike Obama, he’s an experienced politician.
But what the GOP needs to start doing is sending bills to Obama that he won’t want to sign, but that it will be unpopular for him to oppose.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Democrats Sink to Pre–Great Depression Levels in State Legislatures. Obama thought he’d be the next FDR. Instead. . . .
Related: The Emerging Republican Supermajority. Don’t get cocky, kid. And listen to what your voters are saying. Obama didn’t do that.
POINTS AND FIGURES: The State of Illinois Has Hope, and Needs Change.
RAND PAUL: Let DC Legalize Marijuana.
REMINDER: Still on sale for $1.99 on Kindle: Richard Ben Cramer’s What It Takes: The Way to the White House. Just sayin’ . . . .
WHEN RECRIMINATIONS STRIKE: Harry Reid’s top man tears apart the White House. “As he looks toward his final two years, Obama is looking toward a Congress with few friends, and many enemies, on both sides of the aisle.” Well, that’s the wages of “I won” arrogance.
HARD TO SEE THIS AS GOOD NEWS FOR HILLARY: Republicans now have every congressional seat for Arkansas for the first time in 141 years.
HEH.
ASHE SCHOW: Meet The New Women Of The GOP.
BRYAN PRESTON: Bloodbath.
The Republicans easily picked up the six U.S. Senate seats that they needed to take control. The GOP candidates picked up West Virginia, Iowa, Colorado, Arkansas, South Dakota, Montana and North Carolina. They needed six; that’s seven. And we don’t know what will happen yet in Louisiana and Alaska. The Republicans could take both. If they do, that exceeds even the most optimistic projections. I had it at +7 for weeks. They beat the spread.
The misery for Democrats by no means ends in the Senate. The Republicans increased their margin in the U.S. House by about 10 seats.
And they wrested three governorships away from Democrats in deep blue states. Republican Bruce Rauner defeated incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn in Illinois, 50-46. Martha Coakley turned in another dismal performance in Massachusetts, losing to Republican Charlie Baker. And in probably the most shocking result of the night, Maryland elected just its second Republican governor since the 1970s. Larry Hogan defeated Gov. Martin O’Malley’s chosen successor, easily, 52-46.
It goes without saying that Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland are not generally considered to be battleground states. But now they are. The Republicans also held serve in Maine. Republicans came close to winning Senate seats in New Hampshire and Virginia.
As Obama noted a couple of weeks ago, he, and his policies, were on the ballot.
Meanwhile, a cautionary note from Roger Simon: Hooray for the Wave: Now Forget It. “Too bad there’s no time to celebrate. We almost lost our country. There’s no time to lose getting it back.”
BYRON YORK: The 2014 election story, Kentucky and West Virginia edition: Coal. Guns. Freedom.
In the Kentucky Senate race, Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaign boiled the issues down to three words in what is destined to become a classic bumper sticker: “Coal. Guns. Freedom.”
Now that McConnell has won re-election — the race was called the moment the polls closed — his Senate neighbor to the east, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, essentially confirmed the bumper sticker’s analysis of the race.
Of course, guns and freedom are important. But the Obama administration’s policy on coal — commonly referred to as the “war on coal” in places including Kentucky and West Virginia — sank Democratic hopes in those states, Manchin told MSNBC on election night. The states have lost thousands of high-paying jobs, Manchin said, and voters there blame President Obama, who once vowed to destroy the coal industry.
“They believe the president has doubled down on them,” Manchin told MSNBC. “It just doesn’t make sense that we have to fight so hard against our own government, against our own administration.” Certainly the voters in Kentucky agreed; in exit polls, 62 percent said they were dissatisfied with the Obama administration.
With reason.
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: Wendy Davis Was The Face Of ‘War On Women’ Politics. How’d That Go?
YEAH, HER CAMPAIGNING DIDN’T BEAR A LOT OF FRUIT: Rand Paul Says McConnell Victory A Defeat For Hillary Clinton. And look at how things went in Arkansas.
ABC NEWS: Hogan takes win to become Maryland’s next governor. Maryland.
UPDATE: Republican Paul LePage defeats Dem challenger in Maine Gov. race.
November 4, 2014
FOX, NPR CALL NORTH CAROLINA FOR THOM TILLIS.
Fox also calls it for Joni Ernst. GOP at +7 in the Senate. Joe Trippi on Fox: “It doesn’t get much wavier than this.”
UPDATE: Fox calls Massachusetts Governor’s race for Republican Charlie Baker.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Scott Brown concedes in New Hampshire, but it was a lot closer than expected.
MORE: Fox has called Florida for Rick Scott.
NBC CALLS ILLINOIS GOVERNOR’S RACE FOR Republican Bruce Rauner. Wave!
AT AMAZON, it’s the Electronics Holiday Gift Guide.
THAT PLAYED-OUT WAR-ON-WOMEN STUFF DIDN’T WORK: Wendy Davis didn’t even win Texas women. And Cory Gardner beat Sen. Mark Udall, who got the nickname “Mark Uterus” from all of his abortion-talk.
FOX CALLS THE WISCONSIN GOVERNOR’S RACE FOR SCOTT WALKER.
UPDATE: Perdue wins in Georgia without a runoff. CBS calls Kansas Senate race for Roberts. Dems’ chance of a Senate majority now not even theoretical.
So is it a wave yet?
ANOTHER UPDATE: Heh.
Tweet of the Day: This is how @barackobama feels this evening pic.twitter.com/eWnF7O19X5 — … http://t.co/gtqpnqgcZ1 #tcot #hewitt #pjm
— Ed Driscoll (@EdDriscoll) November 5, 2014
JEAN SHAHEEN HOLDS OFF SCOTT BROWN. People will make fun of him, but who else could have made this race so close? He might have run, and he forced the Dems to work hard, spend big, to defend what should have been a safe incumbency.
UPDATE: Well, now Brown’s pulled back into the lead and isn’t conceding. Stay tuned.