Election: What Is Your Take...

[guacamole]

Red took a hard hard thumping in Illinois, which is probably to be expected. The other big news in the Great Lakes region were the governorships.

[Mountain Man]

With a little luck Nutsy Nancy Pelosi will be elected Speaker and walking around again with her over-sized gavel.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32854[/ATTACH]

Luck? I thought the Speakership was hers for the taking. Is there anybody else seriously in the running?

[rogue06]

Luck? I thought the Speakership was hers for the taking. Is there anybody else seriously in the running?

"They" expect that there will finally be a serious contender(s) arising for the first time.

[Mountain Man]

I was pretty happy to see Ohio go solidly red. Issue 1, which would have given Ohio the most lenient drug laws in the country, also went down in flames with 63% against, much to my relief ("But we would have saved so much money not prosecuting and jailing 'small time' offenders!" Yeah, and would those "savings" have gone back into my pocket? Didn't think so. ). Too bad about Sherrod Brown. We almost got him. Maybe next time.

[rogue06]

The big race here in Georgia was for governor but it looks like it's going to stay red with Abrams hoping to get close enough to force a run-off. Down in Florida the closely watched governor's race went to the Republicans and it seems likely that in the Senate Democrat incumbent, Bill Nelson^[1], is going to lose to the Republican and former governor Rick Scott (that will be 3 Republican pick ups in the Senate). This is interesting considering how many pundits saw Florida going blue after the hundreds of thousands of refugees from Puerto Rico that came there after the horrific hurricanes would tip the balance.










1. Who several months ago declared that if he were to lose it would be due to Russian collusion.

[rogue06]

Remember what I said:

I say the Republicans pick up two or three seats in the Senate, and they lose the House by about five seats...

Looks like I was pretty close...

I was less sure but predicted pretty much the same

Normally, or more accurately, historically-speaking -- without Trump in the mix -- the party out of power, especially after a close and tumultuous presidential election should be taking the House with a 4 to 6 seat majority and gain 1 maybe 2 in the Senate. With Trump in the mix...


So I guess it's

Bt we were off-the-mark with the House. The Democrats did decidedly better.

[Mountain Man]

Not a lot of trolls in the Breitbart comment section, and the few that are there seem unenthusiastic. They're claiming a big win but are acting like they got punched in the gut.

[seer]

Bt we were off-the-mark with the House. The Democrats did decidedly better.

Really? I think they are only 8 over the majority at this point.

[oxmixmudd]

Really? I think they are only 8 over the majority at this point.

many races yet undeclared, 23 by the last check. If it goes as the rest has gone, they'll be up by 12-15 when its all over.

I am VERY glad to see that there will be push back against Trump when he goes off the rails. The GOP has been too yellow to stand up and push back, so we need this scenario. That said, with a fence around him to keep him under control, a person in office that is not a conformist has the potential to be a good thing. But without the fence around him to keep his more destructive impulses under control it has been a disaster with the potential to go even worse places. I don't know which element was the scariest, Trumps penchant for lying and self glorification at the expense of others, or the GOP's willingness to give him free reign even when he was headed down roads that historically have never been good.

OTOH, I'm not sure full control (Senate/House) by the Democrats would have been a good thing. The hostile environment Trump has fostered and others on both sides have yielded to and fed would have caused them to over-rebound and there would have been no check on their more destructive impulses. All-in-all, this is, I believe, a much better place than we have been the last two years.



Jim

[seer]

many races yet undeclared, 23 by the last check. If it goes as the rest has gone, they'll be up by 12-15 when its all over.

Possible

All-in-all, this is, I believe, a much better place than we have been the last two years.

Jim

My main concern is and has been federal judges. We are in a better position now...

[Mountain Man]

The GOP has been too yellow to stand up and push back...

The GOP sat on their hands when they had all the power. The lines might have shifted in the House, but I don't think the status quo has actually changed. I suspect it's going to be business as usual.

[carpedm9587]

many races yet undeclared, 23 by the last check. If it goes as the rest has gone, they'll be up by 12-15 when its all over.

I am VERY glad to see that there will be push back against Trump when he goes off the rails. The GOP has been too yellow to stand up and push back, so we need this scenario. That said, with a fence around him to keep him under control, a person in office that is not a conformist has the potential to be a good thing. But without the fence around him to keep his more destructive impulses under control it has been a disaster with the potential to go even worse places. I don't know which element was the scariest, Trumps penchant for lying and self glorification at the expense of others, or the GOP's willingness to give him free reign even when he was headed down roads that historically have never been good.

OTOH, I'm not sure full control (Senate/House) by the Democrats would have been a good thing. The hostile environment Trump has fostered and others on both sides have yielded to and fed would have caused them to over-rebound and there would have been no check on their more destructive impulses. All-in-all, this is, I believe, a much better place than we have been the last two years.

Jim

The Senate would have been nice if only to put a stop the massive swing of the judiciary to the right. But it was always a long shot. In 2020, the foot is in the other shoe, with Reps defending 25 seats and Dems defending 8 (if I remember the numbers correctly). There's a better chance for a shift then. My hope is that everything doesn't OVER correct and we end up back where we were in 2008.

[Cow Poke]

I was pretty happy to see Ohio go solidly red. Issue 1, which would have given Ohio the most lenient drug laws in the country, also went down in flames with 63% against, much to my relief ("But we would have saved so much money not prosecuting and jailing 'small time' offenders!" Yeah, and would those "savings" have gone back into my pocket? Didn't think so. ). Too bad about Sherrod Brown. We almost got him. Maybe next time.

Ohio and Florida will be crucial to the 2020 race.

[Littlejoe]

The Senate would have been nice if only to put a stop the massive swing of the judiciary to the right. But it was always a long shot. In 2020, the foot is in the other shoe, with Reps defending 25 seats and Dems defending 8 (if I remember the numbers correctly). There's a better chance for a shift then. My hope is that everything doesn't OVER correct and we end up back where we were in 2008.

Here in Texas, Ted Cruz fairly narrowly staved off challenger Robert O'Rourke. Last I heard the margin won by was around 200k votes in over 8 million votes cast. O'Rourke already has his eye on John Cornyn's seat 2 years from now. Cornyn has supposedly indicated he will not run again, so it will be O'Rourke with all his name recognition vs. probably a no name Rep. candidate. I strongly dislike O'Rourke. Not just because of his platform but his lies about not taking ANY PAC money, when a check on the FEC site clearly shows millions of dollars coming from at least one PAC called ACTBlue, which the FEC site also designates as a PAC. In El Paso when on the City Council he represent the area and voted for condeming or using emiment domain to force barrio residents he represented out...meanwhile, the developer proposing this was O'Rourkes Father in law.

[Cow Poke]

Here in Texas, Ted Cruz fairly narrowly staved off challenger Robert O'Rourke. Last I heard the margin won by was around 200k votes in over 8 million votes cast. O'Rourke already has his eye on John Cornyn's seat 2 years from now. Cornyn has supposedly indicated he will not run again, so it will be O'Rourke with all his name recognition vs. probably a no name Rep. candidate. I strongly dislike O'Rourke. Not just because of his platform but his lies about not taking ANY PAC money, when a check on the FEC site clearly shows millions of dollars coming from at least one PAC called ACTBlue, which the FEC site also designates as a PAC. In El Paso when on the City Council he represent the area and voted for condeming or using emiment domain to force barrio residents he represented out...meanwhile, the developer proposing this was O'Rourkes Father in law.

He gives my wife the creeps -- I think he's weird, but she seems to really have a problem with him.

(but, then again, she married me)