BMGf's 2006 Mid-term Election Coverage Thread

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Mccaskill Ahead.

EDIT : Or not. CNN had her ahead for a short moment, but not anymore.

 

[Fig]

AP gives Mccaskill ahead again.The State of Missouri has fewer votes in. No clue what's up. When Virginia did the same earlier, their numbers were wrong.

EDIT : Fox backs up the MSNBC and CNN numbers. So don't anyone call this a liberal media conspiracy. Unless you'd like to do it just to be an annoying git. Then go ahead.

EDIT : State of Missouri has fallen in line with everyone else. DEMOCRATS LEAD IN MISSOURI.

 

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General Update

Webb is now up 8000 in Virginia. Most of the votes left to come in are from Fairfax and Fairfax county, both heavily Democrat so far.

McCaskill has a 36 000 lead in Missouri with 89% of precinct in. CNN might call that one soon.

Tester is still ahead on Burn, but I'm not sure on that one - the remaining vote seems at a glance to favor Burn.

 

[The Big Al]

Missouri falls to the lib'rul hordes. *couldn't resist*

Governor's caucus also goes Dem.

 

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And lo and behold, CNN did call MO for the Dems.

EDIT : If the CNN numbers are accurate for VA, the dems MIGHT be closing in to the 0.5% lead that would put us out of auto-recount range, meaning the Reps have to actually ask for it.

EDIT II : On the Montana side, the Reps are catching up. They have a fair shot at that one still.

 

[The Big Al]

Tallent conceding might have something to do with that as well. Virginia shows Webb ahead by almost 12,000 votes. That's within the recount treshold if Allen demands it. But it'll be interesting, the Democrat would be going into a recount ahead with a Democrat as Secretary of State.

Montana too close to call at the moment.

EDIT: I know GM has been talking about how the liberals will go nuts but I doubt that. Many socially conservitive Democrats have been elected to the House. They've been saying it's a return to old school politics in which the parties are a lot more diverse.

FYI, the "vote master" of electoral vote predicted a 235-200 House in favor of the Dems. He also predicted a 49-49-2 House with 2 tossups.

EDIT 2: Minimum wage and banning Gay Marriage pass in all states proposed. Stem Cells get a yes vote in Missouri and banning abortions failed in South Dakota.

 

[The Dude]

That was a sly trick that Planned Parenthood pulled in South Dakota.
Clever of them not to take the bait.
If there is any justice in the world, Conrad Burns will lose.
And, yay for the arse-headed Initiative 933 here in Washington failing! Also yay for failure of abolition of estate taxes for the super-rich. Eat that, Frank Blethen (owner of Seattle Times, biggest booster of the anti-estate tax cause)!

 

[Mozz]

Why are you against the abolition of the estate tax?

 

[The Big Al]

Because it's presence affects a very few but it's removal would hurt everyone. Care to tell me where you will get the money we'd lose from the budget if it were gone?

Democrats continue to lead in both Virginia and Montana. Granted, it's not huge, but I think the Democrats, Independants, and even some Republicans have given Bush a huge message of how he's run this country.

 

[Mozz]

Because it's presence affects a very few but it's removal would hurt everyone. Care to tell me where you will get the money we'd lose from the budget if it were gone?

That's an awful reason to keep a tax, you do realize that, right?

*Why should we continue to tax X?
*Well, where are we going to get the money, then?

God forbid we try to reduce the budget

 

[The Big Al]

Eh...why not reduce the budget and keep the tax. Like I said, it doesn't affect the vast majority of Americans.

How do you think Bush will handle this. He has basically said up to the closing of the early polls the Republicans would hold both houses. Rove even said they'd pick up seats. He'll have a press conference this afternoon.

 

[Mozz]

Eh...why not reduce the budget and keep the tax. Like I said, it doesn't affect the vast majority of Americans.

How do you think Bush will handle this. He has basically said up to the closing of the early polls the Republicans would hold both houses. Rove even said they'd pick up seats. He'll have a press conference this afternoon.

Someone who has 1 billion in the bank should have the same rights to distribute their wealth as someone with 1 hundred.

As far as Bush's press conference goes, expect no big news, just disappointment but "looking forward to working together" and all that shit.

 

[Zeta]

How do you think Bush will handle this.

Realistically? He'll make some empty statements about Americans working together despite differing views and then proceed like nothing happened, judging from his track record.

Someone who has 1 billion in the bank should have the same rights to distribute their wealth as someone with 1 hundred.

And taking a certain percentage over a flat tax means just that - you'll always have X% of your money to spend.

 

[Trip]

Well, that's amusing.

I was hoping to wake up and see "Winner" next to Jim Webb's name.

If the remaining four precincts don't give Webb about two tenths of a percent, this gets a recount.

In Montana, Tester is up (barely) but with only 88% reporting.

This could definitely swing either way at this point. I'm excited.

- Trip

 

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At this point Montana looks like a R-win. The remaining districts are all leaning R so far, except Meagher which has given us nothing to date, but with less than two thousand inhabitants in the state overall, I expect at most 500 votes from there total - not enough to swing the game either way really.

At this point, the Democrats HAVE to narrow down the Republican lead in Billings. If the Republican keep the current percentage margin in all remaining districts, and the voter counts in the uncounted precincts is similar to that in the counted precincts of those districts, Reps are looking to pick up nearly 3000 more votes than the Dems in those remaining districts - enough to swing the vote their way.

 

[Trip]

I'm keeping up hope though. I REALLY don't like Conrad Burns, at all. He's done and said some things that just make me want to find a blunt object and beat him with it. (Telling firefighters battling a forest fire they're doing a "piss poor" job?)

Really, the race has come down to Burns and Allen, two people I wanted to see kicked out most. I really have my fingers crossed that both get what's coming to them.

Really, I wasn't even envisioning this being so close. My gut feeling said Chafee would keep his seat in RI. I liked Chafee, but I'm not complaining.

- Trip

 

[The Big Al]

If the house races have shown anything, urban centers are favoring Democrats. But I'm still watching this race.

 

[Fig]

Billings seems to be voting Republican so far.

 

[The Big Al]

Don't forget that it's the entire county. You could use polls from western Oakland County and say it's a Republican county but it's usually blue after you include the eastern cities. Unfortunately we don't know where this 36% of the vote is coming from in the county. Are they from Billings proper or from surrounding communities. It's like with Virginia early on. Allen was ahead but the northern areas hadn't been counted yet. Keep watching that county and see what it does.

They're talking recount in Virginia but the difference is a little high to expect a switch, especially with just about all the votes counted.

EDIT: Checking the county by county results Tester seems to do better in the more populated counties. Again, we'll see.

 

[Fig]

Yeah, VA going R would be unlikely at this point, though not impossible.

Yellowstone is in at 96%, and the Democrats might have managed to save the day there - now the Republicans have to increase their lead in Gallatin, or hope LOTS of votes come in for them in that last 4% of Yellowstone Precincts.

EDIT : Gallatin is in, and the Democrats are still hanging on tooth and nail to their lead. It'd take a pretty big swing in the last 4% of Yellowstone, combined with a major republican advantage in Meagher, to give them Montana now.

Either way, recounts in both are practically certain.