Election Night!

[emmagrant01]

[9:00 pm] WTF Arizona? You passed an amendment making English the official language? *shakes old home state by the shoulders* So far, no incumbent Democrats in the House have lost, and the Dems have picked up a few seats. Three Dem Senate seats picked up so far, out of at least six needed. Ack, Orin Hatch is re-elected. But mwahaha, Rick Santorum is out!!!

[9:40 pm] Lieberman's victory as an independent says a lot, I think. He couldn't have won without Republicans defecting, and he won without the liberal end of the Democratic party, which implies that voters are shifting back to the center, IMO. CNN says the Dems need 3 more seats to control the Senate and 11 9 more seats to control the House. I want a female Speaker! Lots of Democratic governors, wow. Come on Webb in VA!

[9:55] Shuler wins a house seat in NC for the Dems -- but he's incredibly conservative for a Democrat. When it comes to the 3Gs, he's practically a Republican. It disturbs me that the Democrats have had to shift so much to the center to be electable. It's been coming, I know, and it's how the Republicans have been winning in the last decade. I know I'm way to the left of 99% of Americans, and that someone who agrees with me is pretty much unelectable. Still, it's nice to have the party I consider most reasonable doing so well tonight. And w00t, Foley's seat goes to the Dems!

[10:07 pm] Apparently MSNBC is calling the House for the Democrats. CNN still says there's one seat to go. And CNN has just said the House has gone to the Democrats!! And wow, we have our first female Speaker ever! OMG!!! And wow, my old district in Arizona went Democratic! That seat used to be Jim Kolbe's, one of the only openly gay Republicans in the House. And apparently he refused to endorse the Republican candidate, LOL. He was one of the only Republicans I ever voted for. Well, him and John McCain. :-)

[12:15 am] House is firmly Democratic. Senate is currently 49 R to 48 D, with 3 hotly contested seats to go. We may not know how those will go for quite a while. Most of the races in Texas went to the Republicans, but my Democratic state representative won by a huge margin, which is so awesome! And wow, Arizona defeated the gay marriage ban! Good for you!!!

So I realize these results aren't so much a vote for the Democrats as it was a vote against Bush and the Republicans. And now it will be time for the Democrats to step up and get something done. And I have to admit I'm looking forward to hearing what Bush has to say. Anyone else remember Dana Carvey's skit on SNL back in 1990, as Bush Sr after the midterms, where this same thing basically happened? "Message received: you're pissed!"

Comments

[asylumangel.livejournal.com]

Where are you getting status on arizona results at? =o

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

CNN. Grrr.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

But mwahaha, Rick Santorum is out!!!

*dusts hands*

All in a day's work. ;)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yes! Such good news!

[greyandgrey.livejournal.com]

*dances* I can't express how relieved/excited I am about the PA vote - mostly because the damned state screwed up my registration and caused me to miss the absentee deadline... *grumbles*

BUT YAY! Santorum is OUT!!!!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

God, I hated that homophobic misogynist fucker. Good riddance.

[likeafox.livejournal.com]

Just letting you know, Ohio seems to be going kind of fantastically blue. First democrat for governer in 12 years, and it looks like we're picking up a senate seat too. Aside from just picking up those offices, this definitely adds to Ohio's chance of going blue in 2008.

:D

[likeafox.livejournal.com]

and by governer I clearly meant governor... the excitement is getting to my spelling abilities. ;)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I see lots of folks on my flist posting about the election, if it makes you feel any better! :-D

[angelofmercy.livejournal.com]

Have you heard anything about the gubernatorial race for our fair state?

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Predictable. With 21% of precincts reporting, CNN says:

Perry: 41%
Bell: 29%
Strayhorn: 18%
Friedman: 11%

[carvedwood.livejournal.com]

You seen this site? (http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Bwahahaha! Love it!

[mijan.livejournal.com]

There is hope for America. Not much, considering the monkey in the Oval Office has two years left to wreak further havoc, but... still... there's hope.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

With the Congress going blue, I have hope. :-)

[glorfindelghost.livejournal.com]

Help out an interested but confused Brit? What are we waiting on: Montana, Missouri and Virginia are the key seats, yeah? (since apparently Tennessee is staying red?).

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I think we're waiting on polls to close in the west still, and for votes to be counted in the midwest. They've been saying Indiana and Kentucky were really important states for the House. The Virginia Senate race is a very important one, and so far it's too close to call. *bites nails*

[glorfindelghost.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Democrats have taken control of the House...that deserves some sort of lethargic dance of joy...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

CNN says that need 5 seats yet...

[letmypidgeonsgo.livejournal.com]

msnbc is now declaring the house is shifting! woooooo hooooooo! ::dances::

and i am so cracked up seeing how many people took time to post their jubilation over santorum's being ousted!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Wow, CNN hasn't gone there yet. But I think it's inevitable at this point, which is just amazing. :-D

[http://users.livejournal.com/_theduchess/]

Every time you say "dems" it makes me think of the way an affected englishman might say "dames," which is a really amusing way to think of Democrats.

but yeah, more power to us. Democrats, hooray!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yes, yay for us! :-)

[lafiammatabella.livejournal.com]

I was watching the Daily Show coverage just now and they said, "Rick Santorum has been raptured to a better place." A little light shined on his picture and he disappeared amid holy type music. I was cracking up. Good riddance!
Too bad we cannot rid ourselves of the evil red plague in Texas.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Bwahaha! It's nice to be in a little blue bit of Texas, but sometimes it's still depressing.

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

But mwahaha, Rick Santorum is out!!!

And I helped! Wo0t!!

It's about time we got some good election news.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

That was good news, absolutely!

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Damn, this race is heating up but good. Hey Emma, we're trying to get rid of the Gover-Nator. Want him? *snicker*

I have a sinking feeling that he's gonna get re-elected. Shit, might as well give him my wallet now.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

How's it looking now? Are you going to get rid of him?

[cold-poet.livejournal.com]

*lives in AZ* The language prop doesn't faze me, we're focused on prop 107 - it would fully cement the ban on gay marriage, and eleminate anyone who isn't married, gay or straight, from sharing medical benifts and such.

It's losing, thank god.

[ambitions-bride.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD I AM FREAKING OUT ABOUT 107!!!

And I have NO ONE freaking out with me. I have been watching CNN like a hawk. It is (well was last I checked) so close.

AH ARIZONA!

[wook77.livejournal.com]

I swear I didn't vote for that amendment.

Also - I did vote for the dem that beat out the republican :).

BWEE ON SANTORUM being gone! I HATE THAT FUCKER. I seriously hate hate HATE that guy. Hopefully Casey is marginally better.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

Is there ANYONE with half a brain cell who doesn't hate him? I am beginning to wonder.

AWK!

[thorinsmistress.livejournal.com]

My home state of VA is just killing me!!!!! OMG...... Could we be so lucky as to get a Dem for VA?

PA is so lucky to get rid of Rick.

I am just cringing!!!!!

Re: AWK!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It would be very cool if Webb won!

[vichan.livejournal.com]

OHIO'S TURNING BLUE!!!!!!!

*shimmy shimmy*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yay! :-)

[florahart]

For entertainment value, it's sort of worth flipping back and forth between MSNBC and Fox News.

MSNBC: Wow! Neat! Look at all this interesting stuff!
Fox News: *practically in tears*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

LOL! That's awesome!

South Dakota....

[thorinsmistress.livejournal.com]

And hopefully CNN's predictions for South Dakota's ban on abortion are on the mark as well.

Re: South Dakota....

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

God, I hope so. :-P

[zaph.livejournal.com]

Come on Webb in VA!

oh god are we trying. I'm kind of amazed it's even this close, but we might yet pull it out - almost all of the uncounted votes at this point are from areas that will almost certainly go for Webb. It's down to 5000 votes! (this site (http://sbe.virginiainteractive.org/index.htm) is much more useful than any of the networks for the VA senate race - it's also click-refreshingly addictive :)

(but they still passed the horrible homophobic amendment to our Constitution. At least my county voted 71% against it :)

It disturbs me that the Democrats have had to shift so much to the center to be electable.

this is the thing that makes me truly sad. I'm so far to the left of even the Democratic party now that while I prefer them to Republicans, I'm not really ready to break out the champagne. I want liberals in my House.

Although it looks like the committees will be chaired by more left-leaning Democrats, which will be nice.

(And GO, South Dakota! Yay for the sanity to vote to save freedom of choice!)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It looks like that race is still very close. *bites nails*

I think it was inevitable that the Democrats would have to go to the center if they wanted to have a hope of gaining a majority again. It helps that the Republicans look like right wing loonies. Have a centrist party in power is still better than a loony right wing party in power. I hope. :-P

[starrysummer.livejournal.com]

Lieberman has gotten a LOT of Republican support in Connecticut, from what I can tell. My parents are fairly active in Republican politics around here, and they and their similarly-political friends have been really trying to drum up support for him. It's been such a weird race in that regard.

Of course, a Connecticut Republican and Democrat are pretty different from most of the rest of the country. Oh, our little northeastern pocket up here where the Republicans are to the left of Democrats in a lot of the rest of the country...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I imagine that a Connecticut Republican and a Texas Republican wouldn't agree on much! ;-)

[askani.livejournal.com]

um, what was the official language in az before?

and yeah, i dont know the difference between republican and democrat but if bush still has 2 years left, how will this election even help?

[please excuse the poor canadian who doesnt follow politics]

[blue-braces.livejournal.com]

No official language in AZ before. Just like the U.S. has no official language, despite every single legislative session introducing several "English Only" or "Official English" bills. AZ did pass an "English Only" referendum in 1988 but it was overturned by the Arizona State Supreme Court in 1998.

[acromantular.livejournal.com]

Whoo, the house is blue! The senate is looking frighteningly close, though.

Thankfully the AZ marriage ban is losing- is this going to be the first of its type to fail? I seem to remember that every time they've been on the ballot they've passed... if so, go AZ!

I'm pleasantly shocked that my home state of Indiana provided three new Democratic reps- including from my parents' district. An Indiana Democrat is probably still farther right than I am, but if it shifts the balance of power I'm all for it. Whoa.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

If the AZ marriage ban fails, it would be AWESOME.