*Official Election 2005 Results Thread*

[afleitch]

Don't know if it's been mentioned, but the incumbent intelligent design supporters have been voted out of the Dover Area School Board. A small victory, but a victory none the less.

[Democratic Hawk]

By, this thread took some reading

Dave

[AuH2O]

OK, Arnold is in trouble. Who cares. Personally, I think Commando alone is reason to vote for him, but if CA voters disagree, it's not a big deal.

Republicans don't need to score major victories... they just need to hold the line. That's how it works when you're a majority. I see no evidence Democrats are any stronger now then they have been in the last 5 years.

Dems will add some Governorships in '06, but won't retake either House of Congress-- the status quo will win there as well. Considering Bush's troubles, such an outcome is a loss for Democrats.

[Moooooo]

Personally I think it was a good night for the Democrats and some of the conservative bloggers agree.  I think we have the momentum heading into 2006 and the political breeze is at our backs. Will we win back the house and senate?  No, but we could make small gains in the senate and decent gains in the house.  Ill take that.  Especially heading into 2008 when it looks like Democrats will have an advantage in the Senate seats up for grabs. Here is what David Wissing had to say:

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[Democratic Hawk]

Personally I think it was a good night for the Democrats and some of the conservative bloggers agree

I agree. Kaine and Corzine had better margins of victory that had been anticipated

Dave

[TheresNoMoney]

I was not expecting Kaine to win by nearly 6% or Corzine to win by 9%!

[minionofmidas]

Damn, I was hoping for some comment from Carl Hayden in this thread.
Oh well, not to be...Ah hey, 1 out of 3's not bad.
What's the NY result? The last figure mentioned is with 10% counted.

[MissCatholic]

this thread is unbelievable.

i have consumed two hot chocolate donuts, a yogurt, a banana, two cups of coffee and a cigarette read every post and its 9.31 NOW. oh my 1 hr 21mins unbelievable.

but great results last night. Warner must be really giving Allen nightmares now. So its Warner 1 Allen 0.

Edmonton lost last night but i dont feel to disappointed. I wonder how Arnold is sleeping at the moment - take a good long hot shower. thanks for mobilizing the democratic base arnold.

[True Democrat]

Damn, I was hoping for some comment from Carl Hayden in this thread.
Oh well, not to be...Ah hey, 1 out of 3's not bad.
What's the NY result? The last figure mentioned is with 10% counted.

NY Times says Bloomberg got 59% or so.

[minionofmidas]

Comparing Governor's race with Presidential race... Bold is Kaine either more than ten points better, or worse than Kerry.
ACCOMACK COUNTY Dem +8.2
ALBEMARLE COUNTY Dem +10.7
ALLEGHANY COUNTY Dem +9.5
AMELIA COUNTY Dem +2.5
AMHERST COUNTY Dem +5.3
APPOMATTOX COUNTY Dem +6.6
ARLINGTON COUNTY Dem +6.6
AUGUSTA COUNTY Dem +9.5
BATH COUNTY Dem +8.8
BEDFORD COUNTY Dem +8.1
BLAND COUNTY Dem +7.4
BOTETOURT COUNTY Dem +9.0
BRUNSWICK COUNTY Dem +0.7 - one precinct missing though
BUCHANAN COUNTY Dem -2.3
BUCKINGHAM COUNTY Dem +1.6
CAMPBELL COUNTY Dem +7.0
CAROLINE COUNTY Dem +4.7
CARROLL COUNTY Dem +6.9
CHARLES CITY COUNTY Dem +6.4
CHARLOTTE COUNTY Dem +2.4
CHESTERFIELD COUNTY Dem +8.2
CLARKE COUNTY Dem +3.5
CRAIG COUNTY Dem +7.9
CULPEPER COUNTY Dem +2.9
CUMBERLAND COUNTY Dem +2.1
DICKENSON COUNTY Dem -2.9
DINWIDDIE COUNTY Dem +3.5
ESSEX COUNTY Dem +2.5
FAIRFAX COUNTY Dem +7.0
FAUQUIER COUNTY Dem +7.6
FLOYD COUNTY Dem +7.5
FLUVANNA COUNTY Dem +9.5
FRANKLIN COUNTY Dem +8.9
FREDERICK COUNTY Dem +2.7
GILES COUNTY Dem +8.7
GLOUCESTER COUNTY Dem +8.3
GOOCHLAND COUNTY Dem +7.8
GRAYSON COUNTY Dem +6.6
GREENE COUNTY Dem +8.8
GREENSVILLE COUNTY Dem -3.2
HALIFAX COUNTY Dem +1.4
HANOVER COUNTY Dem +8.2
HENRICO COUNTY Dem +8.0 - three precincts missing though
HENRY COUNTY Dem +8.9
HIGHLAND COUNTY Dem +5.3
ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY Dem +8.6
JAMES CITY COUNTY Dem +10.1 - two precincts missing though
KING & QUEEN COUNTY Dem +8.6
KING GEORGE COUNTY Dem +8.4
KING WILLIAM COUNTY Dem +7.3
LANCASTER COUNTY Dem +4.4
LEE COUNTY Dem -5.7
LOUDOUN COUNTY Dem +7.7
LOUISA COUNTY Dem +5.8
LUNENBURG COUNTY Dem -0.1
MADISON COUNTY Dem +5.5
MATHEWS COUNTY Dem +9.7
MECKLENBURG COUNTY Dem +1.5
MIDDLESEX COUNTY Dem +4.6
MONTGOMERY COUNTY Dem +10.5
NELSON COUNTY Dem +5.8
NEW KENT COUNTY Dem +9.7
NORTHAMPTON COUNTY Dem +9.6
NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY Dem +4.5
NOTTOWAY COUNTY Dem +6.2
ORANGE COUNTY Dem +6.7
PAGE COUNTY Dem +4.4
PATRICK COUNTY Dem +10.4
PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY Dem +3.9
POWHATAN COUNTY Dem +6.7
PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY Dem +2.7
PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY Dem +2.5
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY Dem +3.6
PULASKI COUNTY Dem +9.1
RAPPAHANNOCK COUNTY Dem +5.7
RICHMOND COUNTY Dem +2.3
ROANOKE COUNTY Dem +10.5
ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY Dem +6.6
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY Dem +7.3
RUSSELL COUNTY Dem -1.3
SCOTT COUNTY Dem -7.4
SHENANDOAH COUNTY Dem +2.2
SMYTH COUNTY Dem +3.2
SOUTHAMPTON COUNTY Dem +4.0
SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY Dem +7.2
STAFFORD COUNTY Dem +6.2
SURRY COUNTY Dem +5.2
SUSSEX COUNTY Dem -1.2
TAZEWELL COUNTY Dem -0.3
WARREN COUNTY Dem +3.4
WASHINGTON COUNTY Dem +2.2
WESTMORELAND COUNTY Dem +3.2
WISE COUNTY Dem -2.3
WYTHE COUNTY Dem +6.8
YORK COUNTY Dem +10.0
ALEXANDRIA CITY Dem +5.1
BEDFORD CITY Dem +8.1
BRISTOL CITY Dem +2.1
BUENA VISTA CITY Dem +12.7
CHARLOTTESVILLE CITY Dem +7.6
CHESAPEAKE CITY Dem +8.2
COLONIAL HEIGHTS CITY Dem +4.4
COVINGTON CITY Dem +10.2
DANVILLE CITY Dem +3.9
EMPORIA CITY Dem -7.6
FAIRFAX CITY Dem +6.0
FALLS CHURCH CITY Dem +7.8
FRANKLIN CITY Dem +3.8
FREDERICKSBURG CITY Dem +6.6
GALAX CITY Dem +7.7
HAMPTON CITY Dem +6.4
HARRISONBURG CITY Dem +7.3
HOPEWELL CITY Dem +0.1
LEXINGTON CITY Dem +7.6
LYNCHBURG CITY Dem +6.4
MANASSAS CITY Dem +3.1
MANASSAS PARK CITY Dem +0.7
MARTINSVILLE CITY Dem +8.3
NEWPORT NEWS CITY Dem +5.4
NORFOLK CITY Dem +4.3
NORTON CITY Dem -3.3
PETERSBURG CITY Dem -0.6 - one precinct missing though
POQUOSON CITY Dem +12.2
PORTSMOUTH CITY Dem +4.7
RADFORD CITY Dem +7.8
RICHMOND CITY Dem +5.7 - one precinct missing though
ROANOKE CITY Dem +9.4
SALEM CITY Dem +10.1
STAUNTON CITY Dem +10.2
SUFFOLK CITY Dem +6.6
VIRGINIA BEACH CITY Dem +8.6
WAYNESBORO CITY Dem +9.4
WILLIAMSBURG CITY Dem +9.2
WINCHESTER CITY Dem +2.6

[Moooooo]

By the way, gays may have 'lost' last night in Texas, but they won big in Maine.

AUGUSTA, Maine --Maine voters decided Tuesday to keep the state's gay rights law on the books, making Maine the last New England state to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.

With returns from 84 percent of the state's 634 precincts, votes supporting the gay rights law were ahead 55 percent to 45 percent over those seeking to overturn the law that was approved by the Legislature. The count was 189,535 to 153,674.

The vote "reaffirms the basic values that are intrinsic in Maine," said Gov. John Baldacci, who signed the law earlier this year before it was put on hold by the pending referendum. "Mainers don't like discrimination ... if it happens to one person it happens to all of us."

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, calls the outcome "a much-needed victory in our national movement" after a string of losses in other states on gay marriage issues. "We needed to show we can win."

Paul Madore of the Maine Grassroots Coalition, which wanted to repeal the law, did not immediately return a phone message. But the pro-repeal side, hoping for a turnaround as votes were counted in small towns, refused to throw in the towel even as the other side claimed victory.

The issue, which was put to a statewide vote for the third time since 1998, pitted a coalition of mainstream religious and business groups and politicians against a network of Christian church groups that viewed gay rights as an assault on traditional marriage.

Tuesday's vote was a referendum on the law, enacted earlier this year, to amend the Maine Human Rights Act by making discrimination illegal in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and education based on sexual orientation.

[minionofmidas]

Damn, I was hoping for some comment from Carl Hayden in this thread.
Oh well, not to be...Ah hey, 1 out of 3's not bad.
What's the NY result? The last figure mentioned is with 10% counted.

NY Times says Bloomberg got 59% or so.

Yeah, I read that too...there seem to be no official data anywhere though...I was looking for local breakup.

[MODU]

No one can deny that Kaine was much more popular than Kerry.  hehehe

[minionofmidas]

Well, here's by Borough. Hey, Ferrer won the Bronx.

[Blank Slate]

OK, Arnold is in trouble. Who cares. Personally, I think Commando alone is reason to vote for him, but if CA voters disagree, it's not a big deal.

Republicans don't need to score major victories... they just need to hold the line. That's how it works when you're a majority. I see no evidence Democrats are any stronger now then they have been in the last 5 years.

Dems will add some Governorships in '06, but won't retake either House of Congress-- the status quo will win there as well. Considering Bush's troubles, such an outcome is a loss for Democrats.

You obviously haven't examined all the results across the country?  Including the mayor's race in St. Paul, MN & Asheville, NC.  (Okay, I might concede your point a tiny bit in regards to the results in San Diego, CA). 

As far as I'm concern, I have a feeling that Governor Arnold will not run for a second term, and well he probably shouldn't from yesterday's outcome.  Hollywood will probably not welcome him back very well, either. 

Don't forget as well that Democrats picked up seats in both the Virginia House of Delegates and the New Jersey Assembly.

And Republicans better not crow, yet, about the VERY CLOSE wins in the Virginia Lt. Governor and especially in the Attorney General race.  This is the latest results posted on the Attorney General's race in Virginia with 99.91% of the vote counted (from WDBI in Roanoke, VA):

McDonnell (R)        966,275  50%
Deeds (D)              962,812  49%

That's a difference of only 3463 votes, and unlike last night, before I went to bed, when Deeds was behind by about 9000 votes that kind of deficit could be overcome by enough votes still outstanding being counted in the Arlington County, Fairfax County and in the City of Richmond, which I suspect is where many of those votes not counted are from.  And of course this closeness if it holds will lead to I do believe an automatic recount. 

[TheresNoMoney]

The VA results page has the AG race at:

McDonnell 969,174
Deeds       967,156

with 99.88% of precincts counted. I'm not sure what the deal is with the absentee ballots.

[minionofmidas]

McDonnell will be ahead on 100.0% of precincts, but yeah, automatic recount to follow. (So Carl might actually pull through on 2 out of 3 yet.)

[mddem2004]

Personally I think it was a good night for the Democrats and some of the conservative bloggers agree.  I think we have the momentum heading into 2006 and the political breeze is at our backs. Will we win back the house and senate?  No, but we could make small gains in the senate and decent gains in the house.  Ill take that.  Especially heading into 2008 when it looks like Democrats will have an advantage in the Senate seats up for grabs. Here is what David Wissing had to say:

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On the point of whether 2006 will be a dud like 2002 was for the Dems in light of these very similar victories in 2001, one very important point must be made I think.

If you will recall in the fall of 2002 the Republicans shamelessly politicized the question of use of force in Iraq by calling for the vote to give Bush the authorization. I recall the likes of Andy Card saying "you dont introduce new products (ie War) in August". It became a campaign issue whether you would support Bush in a post 9-11 world and our troops in the field in Afghanistan or not (unlike his father who in 1990 had a similar vote put off until after the mid term elections so the question would not be politcized). It consumed all other issues and drowned the Democrats domestic message.

I doubt in 2006 we'll hear much "On To Bagdad" talk from their side...

[ag]

OK, NJ has some kind of weird assembly election system, where each party has 2 candidates and there's a runoff with the top 2. We won't know much until the runoff in a month, then.

Actually, if I remember it right, NJ election system is a bit different: indeed, each party has 2 candidates in each district, but the reason is that each voter gets two votes and each district elects to members. I might be wrong on details , but there is no run-off and we don't have to wait.

In fact, the (almost) final results (according to Star-Ledger) seem to be that the Democratic 47-33 seat majority will become either a 48-32 or 49-31: 2 Dem seats went Rep, 3 Rep seats went Dem and in 1 Rep seat Dems still hope for an absentee ballot turnaround.

Actually, apparently the Dem victories happened in Republican-leaning districts. In contrast, the Republicans ousted 2 Dems that were viewed as surprise winners last time in a normally solidly Rep district, so that these are more of a return to normal service. So Dems are quite happy. As the Assembly majority leader noted, before election it has been the largest majority they had since 1979, and now it grew even more.  Likewise, Rep leader seems to be unhappy about the outcome.

[AuH2O]

Oh, thanks.



Final point: there is an intrinsic flaw in the Democrats current approach, one that victimized Boris Yeltsin, among others. Their campaigns are totally devoid of real ideas, and mainly criticize Republican failings (often perceived versus real).

The problem with this strategy is that, once in power, voters expect results. Without ideas, it's pretty hard to produce results through anything other than dumb luck (i.e. the economy happens to be growing, and the media covers it as such rather than sayings its bad when it is, in fact, solid).

Now, this is the case with the national party, not necessarily state and local officials (though NJ Democrats are not only insanely corrupt but totally worthless on policy as well). For 2006, when there are a lot of races going on, national message will matter... in 2005 it was mutually non-existent for empirically obvious reasons.

If the Democratic plan is to attack Bush in place of proposing real, workable ideas (and workable is key-- mostly Democrats propose even greater spending), they will lose in 2006.

[Moooooo]

If the Democratic plan is to attack Bush in place of proposing real, workable ideas (and workable is key-- mostly Democrats propose even greater spending), they will lose in 2006.

Lose as in... Lose seats?  Or lose as in fail to capitalize on an opportunity to make big gains?

Regardless of your answer I agree the Democrats need a clear and nationally unified message in 2006 if they plan on making gains.

[The Duke]

Actually I had read it. The point is that these judges would likely lean Republican in a Democratic state.

So Fabian Nunez will be picking people like Janice Brown?  You obviously didn't read the proposition, or simply don't wish to accurately represent it.

[Democratic Hawk]

Final point: there is an intrinsic flaw in the Democrats current approach, one that victimized Boris Yeltsin, among others. Their campaigns are totally devoid of real ideas, and mainly criticize Republican failings (often perceived versus real).

If the Democratic plan is to attack Bush in place of proposing real, workable ideas (and workable is key-- mostly Democrats propose even greater spending), they will lose in 2006.

I'm minded to agree with that

Even if, and it's a big if, the Democrats do win control of Congress in 2006, without a coherent (moderate-cum-liberal-cum populist) agenda, they'll be back out on their arses in 2008. It is simply not good enough for Democrats to fight and win elections on the back of popular discontent with Bush and the GOP.

The problem is for Democrats is that even if they do with a majority in the House, it's unlikely they'd have the numbers to push through any strong liberal agenda. For the Democrats to gain control, they'll need a stronger 'Blue Dog' contingent. They can't rely on the same level of ideological cohesion as the GOP [the Gypsy Moths are virtually, if not already, extinct]. In the Senate, however, it's possible for them to have liberal/populist majority of sorts

I'm more confident of Democrats making more significant progress in the 36 gubnatorial races

Dave

[Virginian87]

If the Democratic plan is to attack Bush in place of proposing real, workable ideas (and workable is key-- mostly Democrats propose even greater spending), they will lose in 2006.

Lose as in... Lose seats?  Or lose as in fail to capitalize on an opportunity to make big gains?

Regardless of your answer I agree the Democrats need a clear and nationally unified message in 2006 if they plan on making gains.

As do I.  Offering new ideas is the only way we can hope to regain control of Congress next year.  But I must tell the Republican Virginians here: Kilgore had no bright ideas either.  At least Kaine wants to continue Warner's excellent transportation and education policies.  

Now maybe we'll get the funding to implement the TransDominion Express and Southeast Corridor rail projects to Southside and Southwest Virginia.  Hopefully we can emulate the excellent transportation system in North Carolina

[Democratic Hawk]

But I must tell the Republican Virginians here: Kilgore had no bright ideas either.  At least Kaine wants to continue Warner's excellent transportation and education policies.  

Which, in no small part, is why Kaine won

Dave