So I’m here at the Bellevue Westin, waiting for King County to actually report some results, and I read on the Seattle Times front page that “Burner goes home, volunteers wait.” Which was a bit of a surprise to me, as she’s sitting right behind me:
Huh. Unless Darcy actually lives at the Westin, I think the Times got this story wrong.
ABC, CBS and CNN have called the governor’s race for Chris Gregoire.
Four years ago I cut my teeth as a blogger defending the legitimacy of Gov. Gregoire’s election from the mean spirited and misleading attacks of Stefan Sharkansky and the (un)SoundPolitics crowd, and while she ultimately won at the polls and won in the courts, she lost in the court of public opinion. So had Dino Rossi won this rematch, largely on the strength of the lies spread during the election contest, Stefan would have won and I would have lost.
Yeah, I know… I’ve once again personalized an election, but hell, if that’s what it takes to motivate me, that’s my business. I’ll post some more cogent commentary tommorrow, but for the moment all I know is that I kicked Stefan’s ass, and that’s a sweet victory in itself.
Hmm, it seems Darcy Burner is ahead of incumbent Republican Dave Reichert 53.13% to 46.87% as of 10:31 pm.
Burner leads in the “fake America” King County portion of the district, while Reichert holds a lead in the smaller but much more “real America” Pierce County portion.
So at 10:20 pm, the official Secretary of State election web site has Gov. Chris Gregoire ahead of challenger Dino Rossi by 51.75% to 48.25%. You can track things at the vote.wa.gov website yourself if you wish.
I’ve just returned from the Democratic Party ballroom at the Vancouver Hilton, a festive and at times weepy scene. The crowd roared when Obama was declared the winner, and watched his speech with rapt attention. People I didn’t know were hugging me.
One kind of strange thing was that the Republicans were in a nearby ballroom, and I noticed several police officers standing in the corridor in between. Fortunately I saw no signs of Republican depravity that would necessitate police involvement.
A couple of 17th LD Legislative races in Clark County bear mentioning. In the race to succeed disgraced Republican Jim Dunn, R-Vancouver, who was stripped of his committee assignments by Republican leadership after making a denigrating remark to a staffer, Democrat Tim Probst is cruising to an easy victory with nearly 57% of the vote. So add one for Frank Chopp’s uber-majority.
In a nail-biter, Democratic challenger David Carrier is ahead of incumbent Republican state senator Don Benton by a scant 50.11% to 49.78%. That’s a tough lead to hold on to if the daily totals break for Republicans, as they tend to do, but Carrier is still in contention and is to be commended as a newcomer for his fine effort. It’s not over and I sure hope Carrier hangs on somehow.
Get used to it.
Brian Baird BFF Chris Shays loses to new and better Democrat Jim Himes.
No more “bi-partisan” trips to Iraq.
Sad.
“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
It’s over. CA, OR and WA alone take Obama to 277.
“President Barack Obama.” Get used to it, righties.
Obama is leading McCain 175 electoral votes to 70. And McCain’s home state of Arizona is “too close to call.” Kick ass.
I know it’s early, but so far McCain is kicking Obama’s ass, 16 electoral votes to 3. It’s a landslide.
UPDATE:
Oops.. spoke too soon. A bunch of polls just closed, and now Obama leads 77 to 34. What a relief.
UPDATE, UPDATE:
We’re watching CNN, but MSNBC has called Pennsylvania for Obama, which really puts a knife through McCain’s electoral strategy.
Bill Bennett says Howard Dean was correct about the 50 state strategy.
Hey.
THIS POST WAS UPDATED AT 3:50pm
The Public Disclosure Commission sent a letter to the Washington State Democrats today letting them know the Commission will investigate the Democrats’ complaint alleging that Republican candidates Dino Rossi, Rob McKenna, and Douglas Sutherland (for Governor, Attorney General, and Commissioner of Public Lands respectively) received illegal contributions from GOP media firm Media Plus.
Media Plus secures ad time on credit which allows its clients–political candidates in this case–to run ads without paying first. It’s a pretty sweet set up for campaigns, which typically don’t have much cash on hand in the final days of a race. The Media Plus deal conceivably allows the Republicans to get on TV when they don’t have the money on hand to pay for it. For example, according to Rossi’s most recent campaign finance filing, he was $203,030.83 in the red, yet he had $700,000 worth in media buys running during the last week of the campaign. (Rep. Dave Reichert, who also uses Media Plus, appeared to be getting ad time without the cash to cover it as well.)
The Democrats contend that the advance amounts to a contribution. Rossi did over $6.5 million in business with Media Plus. McKenna did nearly $800,000 in business. And Sutherland did about $320,000.
Let me repeat the first line of this post: The Public Disclosure Commission sent a letter to the Washington State Democrats today.
That said, the early exit polls that seem to be making the rounds have Obama up 4 in PA, up 2 in Virginia, up 1 in Florida and Ohio, and down 2 in North Carolina. It’s pretty meaningless, yes, but there’s really not much else to report right now, so what the hell.
FYI, I’ll start blogging live from the Montlake Ale House at around 4PM.
Looks like turnout is heavy in Clark County. Which was already known because of mail in voting, but it sounds like people are coming out in large numbers to do things like get ballots because they have moved. From The Columbian:
“There were people showing up before 7,” said Elinor Perlich, an election worker manning a drop-box at Image Elementary School in northeast Vancouver.
Many of the 33 drop-box locations reported having to empty ballot boxes into plastic totes, filled with hundreds of ballots coming in on Election Day. Many voters who have moved since the last election headed to the Elections Office at 1408 Franklin St. to pick up fresh ballots.
“Our line’s getting longer and longer here,” county elections Supervisor Tim Likness said shortly before noon.
Not quite the same as standing in line to vote, but clearly the enthusiasm is there. The weather down here has been chilly but while doing errands for part of the day I never got rained on.
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!