drsmooth wrote:Was turnout low in VA (too lazy to figure it out myself)?

voter ID laws are fun

Ken Cuccinelli's concession speech was interesting. He said that his race and the results send a clear message to DC and the nation about America's values and what it wants from its leaders. As it was a blow to the tea party, it also seems rather clear that in a state that *is* red, not blue and only purple when bad candidates are available, the message is one of moderation, which Cuccinelli seems to be unable to comprehend. Fact is that he lost in a races that historically would favor a party opposite of the presidency (been like 40 years since the governor elect has been the same as the sitting president), our strange one term rule would more or less made Cuccinelli the closest thing to an incumbent we can have, Loudoun county which is the VA home to the most rabid of the right went blue again (its not a "blue" place - I live there), and mostly the GOP has been shut out (no to Cuccinelli, no to Jackson who seemed a bit crazy, and undecided about the AG with Obenshain V Herring headed to recount where Obenshain seems to be essentially a clone of Cuccinelli). I think the message that Cuccinelli continues to fail to grasp is that "we" are not terribly interested in representation from the radical elements of any party, enough so the give the Libretarian > 7% of the vote and elect a Democrat who inspires no one past not being Cuccinelli & the Tea Party INC.

like I was told last night on facebook, people voted for obama, not obamacare!!

The Nightman Cometh wrote:This was republicans best chance to take a legislative branch in New Jersey, and they couldn't pull it off. Lot of incompetence from the GOP down here. We were expecting a much closer race, and the fact that it wasn't is on them.

That being said, the GOP window in NJ is closing as fast as the phillies window did. Also I am drunk. Victory!

We have the governor's office, which is the most powerful in the country, for four more years.

It was always going to be a huge lift to pick up seats. Between the NJEA and other outside groups, Democratic legislative candidates spent tens of millions more than GOP ones. Plus the district lines are terrible for us. GOP Senate candidates won 65,000 more votes than Democratic ones statewide, and we only ended up with 40% of the seats. All 16 Republican Senate candidates who won yesterday got at least 60% of the vote.

pacino wrote:

drsmooth wrote:Was turnout low in VA (too lazy to figure it out myself)?

voter ID laws are fun

It was probably voter ID laws and not the utter disgust of the Virginia electorate at their choices

thephan wrote:

I didn't realize how distraught Nathan Lane was over all of this.

jerseyhoya wrote:Plus the district lines are terrible for us. GOP Senate candidates won 65,000 more votes than Democratic ones statewide, and we only ended up with 40% of the seats.

sounds familiar

Insurers' Rates for ACA policies Higher in Red States; Red-state Republicans Outraged at Insurers in 'Free Markets' Exercising the Freedoms They Want Them to be Free to Freedomize (aka, John Barrasso, you are a complete fucking idiot)

Jonathan Tamari‏@JonathanTamari7m
RT @kkondik: NRCC sends out statement about Runyan retirement. So, officially, Crystal Ball moves NJ-3 from Safe Republican to Toss-up

jerseyhoya wrote:

The Nightman Cometh wrote:This was republicans best chance to take a legislative branch in New Jersey, and they couldn't pull it off. Lot of incompetence from the GOP down here. We were expecting a much closer race, and the fact that it wasn't is on them.

That being said, the GOP window in NJ is closing as fast as the phillies window did. Also I am drunk. Victory!

We have the governor's office, which is the most powerful in the country, for four more years.

It was always going to be a huge lift to pick up seats. Between the NJEA and other outside groups, Democratic legislative candidates spent tens of millions more than GOP ones. Plus the district lines are terrible for us. GOP Senate candidates won 65,000 more votes than Democratic ones statewide, and we only ended up with 40% of the seats. All 16 Republican Senate candidates who won yesterday got at least 60% of the vote.

Those district lines and money disparity are going to continue. The election environment is not going to be better for GOP senate and assembly races than this was, probably ever.

GOP has really bad footing for the next two elections, especially with Christie turning his efforts nationally sometime in 2015.

jerseyhoya wrote:

pacino wrote:

drsmooth wrote:Was turnout low in VA (too lazy to figure it out myself)?

voter ID laws are fun

It was probably voter ID laws and not the utter disgust of the Virginia electorate at their choices

republicans did their best:

Virginia Democrats have filed a federal lawsuit against Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and the state elections board, claiming tens of thousands of voters are at risk of being wrongly purged from voter rolls ahead of the state's gubernatorial election.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria.

The Democratic Party of Virginia accuses the officials of pressing forward with a plan to potentially purge 57,000 registered voters because an interstate database shows them registered in multiple states. But Democrats say the list is filled with errors and thousands could be wrongly disenfranchised.

http://www.wric.com/story/23587994/dems ... roll-purge

swishnicholson wrote:For everyone supposedly being so pissed off, it sure was a good day to be an incumbent in New Jersey, Republican or Democrat.

Glad to see AC show it's capable of turning someone out though.

Really shocked about AC. Glad the city has finally had enough of Langford. He's cost the city millions. The guy actually sued the city while mayor. You know things here are bad here when they elect an openly-gay, white Republican.

where is richmondPhan? He is my go to guy for all things VA politics.

The Nightman Cometh wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

The Nightman Cometh wrote:This was republicans best chance to take a legislative branch in New Jersey, and they couldn't pull it off. Lot of incompetence from the GOP down here. We were expecting a much closer race, and the fact that it wasn't is on them.

That being said, the GOP window in NJ is closing as fast as the phillies window did. Also I am drunk. Victory!

We have the governor's office, which is the most powerful in the country, for four more years.

It was always going to be a huge lift to pick up seats. Between the NJEA and other outside groups, Democratic legislative candidates spent tens of millions more than GOP ones. Plus the district lines are terrible for us. GOP Senate candidates won 65,000 more votes than Democratic ones statewide, and we only ended up with 40% of the seats. All 16 Republican Senate candidates who won yesterday got at least 60% of the vote.

Those district lines and money disparity are going to continue. The election environment is not going to be better for GOP senate and assembly races than this was, probably ever.

GOP has really bad footing for the next two elections, especially with Christie turning his efforts nationally sometime in 2015.

But it's not like we're going to lose any of our seats. The map is stuck. The Democrats designed it that way. I wasn't objecting to you saying this was the best chance Republicans had to take a branch of government, but your part about that being the GOP's fault.

td11 wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

pacino wrote:

drsmooth wrote:Was turnout low in VA (too lazy to figure it out myself)?

voter ID laws are fun

It was probably voter ID laws and not the utter disgust of the Virginia electorate at their choices

republicans did their best:

Virginia Democrats have filed a federal lawsuit against Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and the state elections board, claiming tens of thousands of voters are at risk of being wrongly purged from voter rolls ahead of the state's gubernatorial election.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria.

The Democratic Party of Virginia accuses the officials of pressing forward with a plan to potentially purge 57,000 registered voters because an interstate database shows them registered in multiple states. But Democrats say the list is filled with errors and thousands could be wrongly disenfranchised.

http://www.wric.com/story/23587994/dems ... roll-purge

Keeping voter rolls up to date is standard and important, and trumping it up like what they did is voter suppression is embarrassing. They only eliminated people who had registered to vote in another state after their last time casting a ballot in Virginia. In the rare case a person was incorrectly pushed off, they could just cast a provisional ballot, but the vast majority of people have moved out of the state.

The AG race is all about provisional ballots now. Recount will follow. With some luck a result will be called about Thanksgiving with certification for Christmas.

From the Post-

Cuccinelli never inched away from his political roots, insisting to the end that his campaign should be read as a referendum on Obama, big government, cronyism and the health care law.

I still marvel at the stupidity of going down with the ship with this mindset and augemented public statements.

jerseyhoya wrote:Keeping voter rolls up to date is standard and important, and trumping it up like what they did is voter suppression is embarrassing. They only eliminated people who had registered to vote in another state after their last time casting a ballot in Virginia. In the rare case a person was incorrectly pushed off, they could just cast a provisional ballot, but the vast majority of people have moved out of the state.

At least two Virginia voter registrars postponed removing names from voter rolls until after the election. Lawrence Haake III, Chesterfield County general registrar, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that of the 2,200 voters’ names he was told to purge, he found more than 170 mistakes among approximately 1,000 listed voters. Haake said the data mistakenly included voters whose most recent voter registration took place in Virginia.

http://washingtoninformer.com/news/2013 ... lls-purge/

170+ out of 1000 seems like a lot of errors. and most of the registrars were probably not as conscientious as this guy and just went with the ruling. in any case, you know as well as i do that most people who are told their names are off the voter roll ain't gonna bother sending in a provisional ballot for local elections.

but the main point remains that both candidates were absolutely terrible.

thephan wrote:From the Post-

Cuccinelli never inched away from his political roots, insisting to the end that his campaign should be read as a referendum on Obama, big government, cronyism and the health care law.

I still marvel at the stupidity of going down with the ship with this mindset and augemented public statements.

I don't know about that (although I could just be misunderstanding what you are saying). One of the things I cannot stand about [most] politicians is their maddening habit of changing their philosophy or position on issues to suit the crowd to which they are speaking. Now Cuccinelli is clearly a nut but I have to give him props for being who he is throughout the process. I would like to think that if I ever decide to run for a higher office I will not bend my core values just because I am losing.