It is interesting to see the actual results. Inside the DC bubble it seems shocking. I am curious if this is shocking or if my world is just so colored that we are truly out of touch. All politics being local, I cannot believe how close Warner and Gilespie is. Say what you want about deficiencies of parties, but Mark Warner truly is a guy who works across the isle to govern. Heck, I would say that in a good portion of the country that he would be a left leaning republican candidate possibly viewed as too moderate, but too far to the right for anyone looking for a liberal.

Maybe this bit sums up the situation:

How bad was it for Democrats? Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican facing a 20-count indictment won in New York and another known for outbursts of rage and killing a beagle, Mike Bost, won a seat in President Barack Obama's home state of Illinois that had been Democratic for 70 years.

Down in Tennessee, Rep. Scott DesJarlais' past infidelities and pushing of abortion on a mistress continued to not matter to voters, who handed him a landslide victory.

pacino wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:This is crazier than 2010 I think

what does it really change

it gives capable leaders like Mitch McConnell, finally, the opportunity to put the caliber of their statecraft on display

two-thirds of voters in Mount Penn and Lower Alsace voted yes, but since the bulk of no votes was in Mount Penn, the merger can't take place. They were led astray by some last-minute flyers that were handed out door-to-door by the Berks Republican Party chief.

All the newly minted right-of-center public servants need do now & over the next 2 years is accelerate job creation, economic growth, stock market performance, health care cost moderation, measures to support working mothers and immigration reform progress from current trend rates.

I can't imagine anything that will slow their march

drsmooth wrote:All the newly minted right-of-center public servants need do now & over the next 2 years is accelerate job creation, stock market performance, health care cost moderation, measures to support working mothers and immigration reform progress from current trend rates.

I can't imagine anything that will slow their march

Lol

thephan wrote:It is interesting to see the actual results. Inside the DC bubble it seems shocking. I am curious if this is shocking or if my world is just so colored that we are truly out of touch. All politics being local, I cannot believe how close Warner and Gilespie is. Say what you want about deficiencies of parties, but Mark Warner truly is a guy who works across the isle to govern. Heck, I would say that in a good portion of the country that he would be a left leaning republican candidate possibly viewed as too moderate, but too far to the right for anyone looking for a liberal.

Maybe this bit sums up the situation:

How bad was it for Democrats? Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican facing a 20-count indictment won in New York and another known for outbursts of rage and killing a beagle, Mike Bost, won a seat in President Barack Obama's home state of Illinois that had been Democratic for 70 years.

Down in Tennessee, Rep. Scott DesJarlais' past infidelities and pushing of abortion on a mistress continued to not matter to voters, who handed him a landslide victory.

This stuff is really gross.

all 16 PA congressional incumbents won. three were unopposed.

pacino wrote:all 16 PA congressional incumbents won. three were unopposed.

Jerseyhoya wrote:Biggest GOP House majority since before the Great Depression

which as we know was of inestimable benefit to our nation

The Walker-Christie ticket should be a formidable vote-harvesting combine

So, the GOP has incredibly low approval ratings and they won in a landslide. Someone explain non sarcastically please.

It's too bad we can't have viable third party candidates capable of winning elections in this country...maybe if money didn't have a place in politics the two dominant political party machines would be rendered obsolete. The same shit seems to happen every two years...people get fed up and vote out the party in control of Congress. Two years later and what do you know? The American people are fed up and vote in the party that they voted out just two years prior. And still nothing gets done...Congress sits on it's collective ass with a 3% approval rating and continually get paid to do jack.

people like their individual congressperson, despite hating CONGRESS. they like their local republican because they're a REAL republican, despite hating republicans in general. There were a lot of simply uncontested races in the House, and money wins.

People in Florida were overwhelmingly for the amendment to allow medical marijuana until money came in and ads were blasted to get it below 60% approval. some of these ads were hilarious to listen to this morning.

Soren wrote:So, the GOP has incredibly low approval ratings and they won in a landslide. Someone explain non sarcastically please.

what pac said plus voting districts and it being absolutely impossible to keep or gain ground in a president's second midterm.

Pretty amazing night for the Rs.

Can't believe the Ds blew HD 74 here in PA. Maxwell lost to Lewis, somehow. That was supposed to be an easy win for the Dems, they even had Coatesville in there and managed to lose.

There are 19,760 registered Democrats, or 51 percent; 12,500 registered Republicans, or 33 percent; and 6,189 registered as other parties, or 16 percent.

Soren wrote:So, the GOP has incredibly low approval ratings and they won in a landslide. Someone explain non sarcastically please.

Republicans hung together in saying no to everything, even if it was things they wanted or helped the country. They didn't want President Obama to look like some bipartisan leader and basically made sure so little happened in the past six years and pinned it on the White House. Throw in some fear and make them hate the other guys more than you, you win.

thephan wrote:It is interesting to see the actual results. Inside the DC bubble it seems shocking. I am curious if this is shocking or if my world is just so colored that we are truly out of touch. All politics being local, I cannot believe how close Warner and Gilespie is.

It shouldn't be shocking except for a few races. Democrats were hard-pressed to get a good turnout given the level of dissatisfaction with Obama and congressional Dem leadership.

As for the VA Senate race, it's fairly surprising, but it's important to note that this is two years in a row where the top statewide Republican candidate outperformed the average poll numbers by a substantial margin while the Democratic's final numbers remained entirely in line with his poll numbers. Something's going on there in the modeling. In 2013, pundits wrote it off as the "likely Sarvis" voters flipping to Cucinelli, but now I'm not so sure. And this year it's can't possibly just be that every single undecided voter broke Gillespie... that's just not ever going to happen.

when Sprint lays off another few thousand people and/or moves what's left of its HQ out of state, Kansans are going to dance on their own ashes