Bit late on this stuff, but I haven’t killed off this thing yet.

First, old first round stuff from nearly three weeks ago.

UMP 28.64
PS 28.05
Falala 20.94
MoDem 7.62
PCF 4.41
LCR 3.84
FN 3.05
Greenies 2.93
DVG 0.51
UMP+DVD: 49.58%
Abstention: 78.21%

The “UMP” etiquette helped Robinet quite a bit, especially considering the guy had no name recognition whatsoever or almost. Falala increased a bit from 2007, but not as much as I would’ve predicted in the first place.

Runoff stuff. Robinet wins 52.49 vs. 47.51 for Quenard. Abstention was 75.84. Seems like some good transfers from Falala to Robinet, seems a bit better than the Falala-Dutreil transfers in 2007.

Some stuff on local by-elections mentioned in my other post

Mézières Centre-Ouest (Ardennes)

DVG: 52.81
Indie-DVD-MoDem: 21.35
UMP: 18.62
Greenie: 4.74
FN: 2.47

DVG 65.88
Indie 34.12

Cagnes-sur-Mer Centre (Alpes-Maritimes)

UMP: 43.04%
PCF: 24.92%
DVD: 13.50%
DVD: 8.65%
FN: 9.89%

UMP 60.9
PCF 39.1

Grasse-Nord (Alpes-Maritimes)

UMP 52.88
DVG 22.10
PS 20.9
NC/Ecolo 4.12
UMP 58.4
DVG 41.6

Saint-Martin-Vésubie (Alpes-Maritimes)

UMP 78.46
PS 12.20
PCF 4.5
FN 2.68
Fascist (Idenditaires, a politically correct way to refer to white supremacists and racist xenophobes) 2.16

Allauch (Bouches-du-Rhone)

PS 59.87
UMP 16.82
PCF 6.57
DVD 5.26
FN 4.36
Greenie 3.21

PS 77
UMP 23

Berre L’Etang (Bouches-du-Rhone)

Mario Martinet (PS): 56.56%
Gérald Autechaud (PCF): 19.12%
Ange Venterelli (UMP): 15.55%
Gérald Gérin (FN): 8.76%

PS 100.0% in runoff. PCF dropped out.

Chateauroux-Centre (Indre)

UMP 30.02
PS 20.20
DVD 11.77
Indie 9.62
DVD 7
NPA 6.27
PCF 6.07
Greens 4.78
MoDem 4.28

UMP 53.47
PS 46.53

Aurillac-4 (Cantal)

DVD 53.60 / 57.10
PS 46.40 / 42.90

PRG incumbent, became surprise Senator in September.

Saint-Flour-Sud (Cantal)

DVG 50.54 / 53.18
UMP 49.46 / 46.82

Massively (70+) UMP in 2004.

The Cantal results are interesting. Aurillac is an industrial and secular area, as opposed to a conservative and Catholic department. In the middle of old RadSoc land, all Aurillac cantons were held by the left since 1994, and a few of those never elected a rightie. Saint-Flour-Sud is composed of part of Saint-Flour but also very conservative agricultural areas to the south of the canton. Saint-Flour itself remains a relatively conservative city, though there is a sizable left-wing electorate, as in every urban core. So, to say the least, surprising stuff here. A few explanations could be attempted. The PS winner in Saint-Flour is not a nobody in the canton - he’s the mayor of a rural commune, Villedieu. He was “running mate” to the PS Senatorial candidate in September. Rural voters are known to be close to their elected officials. Also, the dynamics of a by-election in rural land. Rural electorates are known to be volatile in by-elections (see Eure-et-Loir). In Aurillac-4, it is highly possible that Jacques Mezard, the PRG incumbent, had a personal vote and the by-election is the logical effect of his departure. We will have to wait until 2010 for Saint-Flour-Sud to confirm that it is a swing canton, and 2014 for Aurillac-4. In the meantime.

Renaud Dutreil, initially a rising star in the UMP and since March 2008 an epic failure in politics, has resigned to move to the United States to work for LVMH. At first elected in the Aisne, he carpetbagged to the Marne (in Reims) in 2007 with the city of Reims in mind. But in March 2008, he was defeated by the first round in Reims by the local UMP dissident Catherine Vautrin and the subsequent Socialist winner, Adeline Hazan. He has thus decided to leave politics and leaves his new constituency, Marne-1, which is entirely composed of a fraction of the city of Reims, vacant. A by-election will be held December 7 and 14.

In 2007, he defeated the UMP incumbent Francis Falala for the UMP nomination and ended a very, very long family dynasty control on the constituency. Francis Falala had suceeded his father, deputy and former Mayor of Reims, in 2002. His father had held the seat under the various Gaullist party names since ‘67. Falala tried in vain to stage a dissident candidacy against Dutreil but lost by the first round. He has since fallen out with the local UMP machine and they even ran a candidate against him in his canton in March (though that UMP paper candidate was trounced by Falala).

The 2007 results:
UMP 38.84
PS 23.93
Falala 17.34
MoDem 7.77
PCF 3.17
Greenies 2.93
FN 2.48
LCR 2.11
LO 0.65, Div 0.54, MNR 0.24

Dutreil beat the PS 54-46. Falala’s voters did not split massively for Dutreil. Do note that abstention was nearly 50% in both rounds.

Falala is running again, and the UMP has decided on a paper candidate. The 2007 PS candidate, who has since become a high-ranking member of the PS administration in Reims, is running again, as is a PS dissident. Apart from those four, there is a Greenie, a Commie, a Trot, a MoDem, and a FN.

Should be interesting, definitely. Falala is the one with the best name recognition on the right, since Robinet seems like a random name taken out of a hat by the local UMP (which, btw, loves to lose elections. Kinda like the Illinois GOP). A Falala/PS runoff is definitely a possibility, and I think in that scenario, the right’s victory would be quite comfortable, moreso than a Robinet/PS. If the UMP candidate (Robinet) loses, then the Vautrin leadership in the local UMP machine will need to face serious scrutiny.

Also being held tomorrow are a few cantonal by-elections.

Mézières Centre-Ouest (Ardennes): December 7-14, 2008

2008 Results
DVG 24.39
UMP 20.30
Indie 17.35
Greens 15.92
PCF 8.48
MoDem 5.69
FN 5.60
MRC 2.27

DVG 60.47
UMP 39.53

Cagnes-sur-Mer Centre (Alpes-Maritimes): December 7-14, 2008

2004 Results
UMP 45.26
FN 22.40
PS 15.71
Ecologist 4.66
DVD 4.19
DVD 2.53
PCF 2.82
MNR 1.33

UMP 70.70
FN 29.30

Grasse-Nord (Alpes-Maritimes): December 7-14, 2008

2004 Results
UMP 36.05
PS 31.03
FN 19.29
PCF 4.56
Ecologist 3.70
EXG 2.51
DVD 1.49
EXG 1.36

UMP 43.20
PS 40.81
FN 15.98

Saint-Martin-Vésubie (Alpes-Maritimes): December 7-14, 2008

2004 Results
UMP 60.02
DVD 30.14
FN 7.05
PCF 2.80
Epic fail.

Grasse-Nord is probably the only one that will be remotely interesting, though Mézières Centre-Ouest could be fun too, especially because that left-wing Indie is running again. Saint-Martin-Vésubie will be hilarious just to watch the ownage of the opposition.

After all, I did look like a fool with my stupid UMP prediction in Gironde, and a very big foolish hack at that too. I should have read more into the leftie leaning of MoDem voters in this part of the world.

Anyways. Deluga won, and by a quite impressive margin (much larger than the last time he won, in ‘97), but it remains a by-election with sub-5o turnout and it’s wise not to go all crazy over these results. Turnout was slightly up from 38% in the first round to 43% this time, and those new voters went heavily for the Socialist. Deluga won with 54.3%, against 45.7% for Foulon. The MoDem voters likely split heavily for Deluga. I assume he also won MoDem voters in the 2007 runoff, or at worst lost them narrowly.

The Gironde prefecture remains a total joke, so there’s obviously little chance that communal data will ever be known.