Special state legislative elections thread (see OP for results/upcoming races)

[smoltchanov]

Great news. Republicans need more office holders in New England.

For this to happen they must run more moderate candidates. Are they ready for it?

[smoltchanov]

There was also another Democratic pickup in the New Hampshire House.

Incidentally, AFAIK,  Democratic candidate there was former moderate-to-liberal Republican and Republicans ran a far-right O'Brien-type winger there...

[smoltchanov]

It's still not good news for Democrats in the state that Republicans now have 33 in the House. Massachusetts Dems should have motivated voters for the seat seeing at how successful they were with their GOTV effort last Fall. Orrall is quite Conservative, even for the standards of a Massachusetts Republican.

Turnout in New Bedford was abysmal. In addition - it seems to me that voters in many parts of US, are of anti-incumbent mood now. In Republican-dominated New Hampshire they vote Democratic in one special after another (the only exception was - well, an exception, with "nonstandard" Republican candidate), in heavily Democratic-dominated (and scandal-plagued, mostly - with Democratic officeholders) they seem to inclined to "punish" them at least a little. Possibly - combination of both...

[smoltchanov]

The 169th district is inside Philadelphia; and was held by a long term GOP incumbent.

The Lehigh Valley seat was won by Obama 50-48, but the GOP just got 60% there.

That doesn't mean that Obama can't win it again in November)))

[smoltchanov]

This was apparently a big upset. The Independent candidate said he had no regrets. Any chance he runs again in 2014? The Dem already said she'll be back for a rematch.

If he does, either he or the Dem will win. 16,000 votes were cast in this district in the last off-year election so I'm guessing that the 24-year-old R nurse won't be able to get enough to win even if the Dems split their votes cleanly down the middle.

That's not something I'd say is for sure, since this is the type of district that voted for Brown and Baker. Seats like this have a tendency to stay in Republican hands, at least until the inevitable retirement happens.

Republican here is a Paulite, and, according to some sources, social conservative too. There are rather few legislative districts in Massachusetts where such positions are winning formula