US Politics November 2017

VA DELEGATES COUNT: 48D, 47R. 5 seats to decide control:
#HD27 (Chesterfield): Del. Robinson (R) up by 129 votes.
#HD28 (F'burg): Thomas (R) up by 86.
#HD40 (Fairfax): Tanner (D) up by 68.
#HD68 (Richmond): Adams (D) up by 316.
#HD94 (Newport News): Del. Yancey (R) up by 12.

The race for Utah #3rd was less then 110 votes. The Democratic contender loosing 42% to the Republican winner's 43%. UTAH! And the Republican was a verrry popular mayor, quite moderate.

those numbers don't seem to be correct.

Indeed. Looks like it was 58/27, more or less, which makes more sense.

the cited numbers were the difference in salt lake county, not the state.

Ah. Thanks for the correction! Still ... good for SLC.

https://www.google.com/amp/minnesota.cbslocal.com/2017/11/07/st-paul-mayor-race-results/amp/

This is a big deal - in a race with 5 top spots filled with DFL peeps - guy who ran on frank discussion of systematic racism beats more likely electable solid dem guy who promised to add 50 cops.

and a fuckin banker

i'm pleased with my electoral power tonite

Another way to score tonight’s election results: the candidates whom Obama campaigned for won; the candidates whom Trump backed (but didn’t campaign for) lost.

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) November 8, 2017

Idg JiC's VA delegate count up there. If the Dems win the two seats they're leading they'll have 50 seats, and if the GOP picks up the three seats they're leading they will... also have 50? Is that right?

And then the Lt. Gov breaks any ties.

(Wait, not sure if that if that's just in the state senate.)

Bluhhhhhggghh Seattle on track to elect the shitty prosecutor slash handpicked successor of the child rapist mayor

re: Alabama

It's not that Roy Moore has overwhelming support. It's that "reasonable" republicans would prefer to stay home rather than vote for Doug Jones. So it will be small base (AL dems) vs. diminished base (AL gop).

hd68 just declared for dem, so they need 1 for 50, or 2 for control

i don't think the lt gov breaks ties though

Yeah, I was wrong. He does that in the VA state senate.

AMAZING pic.twitter.com/zS67j3zYl7

— Aaron Horwitz (@AaronTheH) November 8, 2017

JUST IN: Democrats win full control of Washington state government with key state Senate victory https://t.co/NuY327Shq8 pic.twitter.com/I1b9Nt3Fxd

— The Hill (@thehill) November 8, 2017

the tweet seems to be newer than the linked story, which is yet undeclared as to victor, tho

Election results in WA take weeks to certify because of vote by mail, but the “late liberal” phenomenon in the greater Seattle area means that votes counted after Election Day pretty reliably trend towards the more progressive candidates. A Democrat with a lead on Election Day is going to win.

When asked about Bob Marshall, Danica Roem said “I don't attack my constituents. Bob is my constituent now.”

She has more grace and composure than I will ever have. #virginia #DanicaRoem

— Nicholas Trevino (@BlyTarbell) November 8, 2017

: O

Dems!@RalphNortham can’t even begin victory speech bc pro sanctuary cities activists are heckling him. pic.twitter.com/tNfBxdlNTr

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) November 8, 2017

Confirmed wins for DSA members: Carter, Pappas, Sipress, Singh Perez, Scott, Prizio, Decker, Ewen-Campen, Gloe, Farmer, and Rader.

— process truster (@LarryWebsite) November 8, 2017

And @Billings_DSA member Denise Joy won her race for City Council Ward 3!

— Billings DSA (@Billings_DSA) November 8, 2017

Aw rats, Grant lost his race in Seattle.

http://m.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Connely-Durkan-grabs-lead-for-Mayor-Mosqueda-12339465.php

Interesting choice of words here:

The apparent victories by Durkan and Mosqueda mark a win for mainstream progressive Democrats and a big defeat for the city's noisy, political left. The Stranger endorsed both Moon and Grant.

I think I read that if there is a tie in the Virginia legislature then some sort of a power-sharing arrangement comes into play. Ironically, in the past a split has apparently worked out really well for both parties, which are forced to cooperate and therefore produce more results.

A couple of thoughts:

1) Both for the sake of morale and for the sake of practical gain, I am so glad we and Dems on the whole focused so much energy on state and local races. Those matter, and those wins further cut through the all-or-nothing illusion of high profile races. So much focus on the news right now about VA and NJ, which is fine, but I haven't heard or read many things getting to the nitty-gritty gains of the VA state legislature or Washington state, or even Georgia, all of which are pretty impressive and potentially very, very important.

2) I'm glad asshole Trump is not in the thread title. I think that made all the difference yesterday.

Yay for Democrat Kathy Tran, first Vietnamese-American ever elected to Va. House of Delegates.

The ilx-factor

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/07/northam-wins-virginia-election-democrats-infighting-215802

Politico headline on article: The Democratic Circular Firing Squad Dodges a Bullet

I don't even know what to say about that article, which starts

"Democrats tried pretty hard to lose the Virginia gubernatorial election. Yet they managed to win anyway"

I mean .. they tried hard to lose? By contesting tons of races that would have been handed to Republicans in previous cycles? By getting everybody on board so that the defeated primary candidate was criss-crossing the state busting his ass to get Northam a win? What does a state Democratic party have to do to convince pundits that maybe it knows what it's doing? Or is it just too easy for political writers to reach for "Democratic political operations are incompetent, if they lose they blew it, if they won it's despite themselves."

Yeah, fuck that perspective. Dems turned out in force and voted for Dems, there's not a lot of hand wringing to be wrought from those results.

There's a reason why Charles Pierce calls Politico Tiger Beat On The Potomac

Hmm, when white people become a minority in America, will minorities still be called minorities?

they will be called "the people on the other side of the gates"

starting to feel like the main message for Dems from now until 2020 should be targeted exclusively at young people and be something like "hey assholes, you actually have to vote"

and yeah that article is garbage - VA leans Dem, and there's an Republican president sitting at like 37% approval right now. if Gillespie had won, *that* would have been significant. of course I don't wanna understate how important yesterday was, especially in terms of whether or not "double down on Trump" is gonna be a viable strategy in 2018. as mentioned a zillion times in these threads these GOP assholes aren't gonna do a single meaningful thing to rebuke the idiot in charge of their party until they actually start losing elections. so, good job everyone

xp health care, health care, health care. as per Josh's post upthread:

The most encouraging thing I read about the VA election is that exit polls had health care at 60% the most important voter issue. And that's in a race where health care for all purposes was not even really debated. Which means the voters saw through the noise, which further bodes poorly for the GOP in 2018.

Separately, a Politico story that says it all, and shouldn't surprise you in the least.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/08/donald-trump-johnstown-pennsylvania-supporters-215800

other thing is that VA was at the center of a literal Nazi rally so I imagine that probably got a few more people off the couch

that's a good point and (being from VA) my anecdotal evidence is "definitely"

During his major address to the South Korean National Assembly, President Trump invoked his Bedminster golf club. Trump was complimenting South Korea and at one point talked about Korean golfers being some of the best on earth.

And then the President said this: “In fact, and you know what I’m going to say, the Women’s US Open was held this year at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and it just happened to be won by a great Korean golfer.”

destroy all golf clubs imo

Build social housing on every golf course

god, that Johnstown article

“We’ve been trying to reach out to him to say, ‘Hey, remember us? We need help here,’” he told me. “That’s my only frustration. I’d just like to tell Trump, ‘Hello? We’re still here. We’re ready for you.’”

imo golf courses should be changed to a mixture of public parks/social housing and natural grassland prairie

put some buffalo in your back yard, it's good

I mean the level of cognitive dissonance on display is just depressing, you point out how Trump hasn't done jack shit to help nor made good on any of his campaign promises and you just get this

“But I like him,” Frear reiterated. “Because he does what he says.”

I'm so tired of stories about die-hard Trump voters. Who gives a shit? You want a minority, there's your minority. The shittiest, stupidest minority.

Trump should compromise and get them more coal jobs and more opioids.

what sports are going to be left for these guys to watch at the end of this? hockey? lacrosse?

still waiting for the longform pieces about the people who did not vote for Trump but I won't hold my breath

These idiots are the forgotten people for a reason.