Virginia 2009 Megathread

[ROBERTBYRD]

Reston isn't included in James Moran's district for nothing, you know.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

State Sen. Edd Houck (D) is not ruling out a post in the McDonnell administration:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/06/AR2009110604009_pf.html

Democrats had better hope like hell that he doesn't take the job.

[Senator North Carolina Yankee]

State Sen. Edd Houck (D) is not ruling out a post in the McDonnell administration:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/06/AR2009110604009_pf.html

Democrats had better hope like hell that he doesn't take the job.

Whats the margin of the Democratic Majority in the Senate? I expected that we would either see some kind of appointment or a party switch in the STate Senate based on the results, but I am wasn't sure of the margine of the control.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

State Sen. Edd Houck (D) is not ruling out a post in the McDonnell administration:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/06/AR2009110604009_pf.html

Democrats had better hope like hell that he doesn't take the job.

Whats the margin of the Democratic Majority in the Senate? I expected that we would either see some kind of appointment or a party switch in the STate Senate based on the results, but I am wasn't sure of the margine of the control.

21-19 for the Democrats, with two impending Republican vacancies. Democrats have a shot at Cuccinelli's seat. The Senate was not up this year, luckily for the Democrats.

[MODU]

it's the wrong lesson to interpret the election as "never nominate a blue dog again" -- that's just stupid

^^^^

Thank you for using your brain.  People outside of Virginia need to remember that the state is moderate-to-conservative in their political ideology.  Unlike San Fran, where you can run a generic hard liberal and win by a wide margin, attempting that in Virginia will result in defeat.  Deeds loss, among other things, was more due to his extensive negative campaign.  While at first it gave him a bump in the polls, the continuing bashing of McDonnell over the single topic led to voter fatique as well as leading to doubts about Deeds (thinking he was a one-trick pony).  It had nothing to do with him being a blue dog.  That was actually a strong asset for him, and why he beat Moran and McAuliffe.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Villanueva wins securing the 6th net House of Delegates pickup for the Republicans:

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/11/villanueva-declared-winner-21st-district-race

[JohnnyLongtorso]

VPAP posted maps of the election results by state legislative district:

House (McDonnell won 75/100 districts)
Senate (McDonnell won 29/40 districts)

Had Republicans fielded candidates in the 2nd and 4th and gotten stronger candidates in the 10th, 41st, 87th, and 99th, they could have easily made a double-digit pickup in the House.