The races for Barack Obama’s former Senate seat was (is?) as tight as many predicted.
Kirk was trailing Giannoulias early this evening as the Chicago and Cook County vote were posted. Giannoulias’s lead eroded as collar county and downstate votes began to arrive. Television news is now projecting a Mark Kirk (R) win for the 6 year term in the Illinois Senate race; The LA Times has also posted a projected Kirk win.
Still waiting to see whether Brady or Quinn win the race for Governor. I suspect Quinn will win.
I wonder if anyone will call for a recount?
Kirk’s an interesting guy, and a reminder of how local politic struggles are. While he’s a republican, he got a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood and an “F” from the NRA. If he were running in West Virgina he’d be to the left of the democrat.
Meanwhile, Prop 23 thankfully went down to defeat — the Koch brothers’ millions notwithstanding.
Yep. Kirk is in Lake County, where I grew up. He was the Congress. Rep for a district that is mostly well off, and a mix of liberals and conservatives. Before I went to bed, it looked like Dold beat Seals in the contest to fill Kirk’s seat. That contest was also close.
The only two close contests on my ballot were Kirk-Giannoulias and Brady-Quinn. (Or at least I didn’t anticipate any of races for county board would be close. I’ll check the paper– who knows? Maybe I’ll turn out to be wrong.)
Meanwhile, the impossible happened in Pennsylvania-for Democrats who want to spin this election as not as bad for them as it seems, two words suffice to obliterate those arguments:
Pat Toomey.
When he was seeking the nomination against then former Democrat Arlen Specter, before Arlen Specter returned to the Democrat party, ever pundit and there grandmother was saying “Toomey can’t win and the right wing extremists are going to cost the GOP a moderate seat”. Arlen Specter of course was no moderate, but a liberal more at home in the mainstream of the Democrat party, if not it’s left. But when the GOP “alienated” him, it was declared that the race’s victory would be decided in the Democrat primary, with Specter now trying to win that. Those pundits were flat wrong. They said a Toomey victory was impossible, and they now have so much egg on their face they should see a doctor about some antibiotics for the inevitable salmonella infection.
Meanwhile California has proven that it is beyond help. At this point, we could sell it to China and maybe break even. And Hawaii is down-right off it’s rocker, throwing out their new Republican and sending back all the Democrats.
Oh, and here in Florida, hooray for Rubio! Hooray for Webster demolishing head of the Crazy Caucus, Grayson! Hooray for West defeating Klein! And the governor’s race has me on the edge of my seat nervous still…Oh, and I have to check on our amendments and my local house race…
Andrew_FL (Comment#58338)
“Meanwhile California has proven that it is beyond help”
..nothing a little sea level rise couldn’t take care of!
(I think some comedian said that once. lol) Someone also said; it’s great to live in California…if you are an orange.
liza (Comment#58341)-I don’t much care for that sort of humor. I also don’t like California Oranges, but I think the reason for that is obvious…
Sigh…Looks like Budd lost and my district, formerly represented by self described “fire-breathing liberal” (the title of his book!) Robert Wexler, is staying in Democrat hands. And the left wing bid to stop Republicans from redrawing the districts now has also succeeded, which is ridiculous.
BTW for everyone, my District is the one where elderly Democrats were to dumb to figure out a ballot and where Gore want to do a recount of only the blue counties to try and pick up enough votes to swing Florida his way. So I am used to us being the Electoral laughing stock of the Nation. But the fact that my area is responsible for delaying the Governor results…that just infuriates me.
The good news so far here:
Florida’s Campaign Finance Law is going down!
Voters have supported a Military Tax Credit!
Th Amendment to put land use regulation changes at the mercy of the whims of electorate has failed!
We’ve got the Ethics Watchdog referendum succeeding! (PBC is crazy corrupt…we have so many leaders in jail now.)
The Class Size Restrictions are going to be be eased!
The Bad News:
The NOW endorsed candidate has won Circuit Judge group 7.
It looks like the elevated millage rate for the school district has passed.
And of course, other things I already mentioned, good and bad. Lots of other details but this local stuff is probably boring the snot out of you guys already…
I thought that when there is a close statewide race in Illinois there is a mandatory delay to assess whether all the downstate votes have been counted in order to see how many more votes need to be found in Cook County. So there will likely be some time before Quinn wins.
“Andrew_FL (Comment#58342) November 3rd, 2010 at 8:00 am
liza (Comment#58341)-I don’t much care for that sort of humor…
Well since I am California born and raised I can say it.
George
Actually, that sort of did happened, but the time table is not what it used to be. 🙂
Watching number for “fraction reported” most of the Cook County votes came in quickly, but precincts were delayed.
As you know, historically, ballot hold ups involve poll workers storing ballots in their trunks, closest, or having to dry them out after accidentally dropping them in the lack. So far, we have not heard any similarly creative reasons for delays.
A few of the precincts could have supplied good excuses for delays. For example, Homewood precincts polling places were closed while cordoned off during a robbery in the nearby bank.
http://www.southtownstar.com/news/2860362,110310polllockdown.article
Despite closing during the bank robbery, that precinct closed voting on time.
But 7 Cook county precincts did delay closing;
http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=2007153&spid=
But those votes may not have been as heavily Dem. as most of Cook County because they were in the suburbs:
However even these have been resolved by now with seven suburban Cook County polls ordered to remain open an additional hour.
The polling places ordered to remain open until 8 p.m. include Niles 29, Northfield 25, 66, and 67 and Proviso 95, 53, and 46.
Other than reports of a one or two drunk polling judges, and I think 1 assault by a polling judge, polling seemed to go smoothly in Cook County.
I have not yet read of any lost ballots in DuPage. I think you may be aware that historically, ballots sometimes also vanished in heavily Republican DuPage, and would be “found”, sometimes counterbalancing the heavily Democrat Cook County ballots.
I think the Gov’s race should be entering the “absentee ballot” stage.
I googled to read about absentee ballots in the gov’s race:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/11/absentee-ballots-governor-quinn-brady.html
Andrew_FL,
“The Class Size Restrictions are going to be be eased!”
I don’t think so. Needed 60%, got 55%. The existing restrictions will last for at least the next two years. When Floridians discover that it adds ~$1 – $2 billion to the the state deficit, it will come up for another vote.
Hey! It’s Illinois… Kirk had the bigger bag of cash when it came to buying off the election crooks
Do those stats include the dead voters or those who voted more than once?
Kalifornia, RIP.
MikeC– News reports indicate Mark Kirk had a small amount more cash. The difference was very little by %.
Slimething– Almost everyone in Illinois voted for Senator twice. Totally legal this time around. 🙂
The odd thing is it appears some did not vote for the same candidate to finish Obama’s term and to fill upcoming 6 year term! So, for a brief time, Kirk had overtaken Giannoulias on the 6 year term, but still trailed when taking the remainder of Obama’s term.
Winning both races means Kirk will have more seniority than other incoming Senators (and he’ll also vote on legislation during the lame duck session.)
SteveF (Comment#58360)-Evidently you are more up on the details of how Florida amends its Constitution than I am.
Now that I here it needed 60%…that it went down is really disappointing…
Andrew_FL,
“Evidently you are more up on the details of how Florida amends its Constitution than I am.”
One of the (few) advantages of being old and having voted on lots of Florida amendments.
I listened to Mr. Obama’s statement. Absolutely unrepentant. As with most ideologs, he will change nothing. At least he will be able to scold everybody for 30 years (a la Jimmy Carter) starting in January 2013.
Just a question from a puzzled foreigner. I hear persistent reports that Obama actually cut your taxes, without telling you. Is that true?
Since apparently nobody noticed (that was the point – inducing you to spend it rather than save it), I’m asking if someone can dig up their tax receipts, compare the revenue/tax ratio for this year and the previous one, and confirm or infirm the rumour. Hey, experimental method!
toto–
I see you are not an American.
Do you know the way American taxes work? Everyone knows how much they paid in federal, state income taxes and real estate every year. We are all legally obligated to file income tax forms each year. It’s possible to not know how much you paid in social security, sales tax, gas tax or assorted fees, but Obama didn’t cut those!
Toto–
To read more, I think the NYT is discussing the “Making Work Pay” tax credit. This cut exists and people know about it.
The NYTimes article you like discusses reductions in withholding which is not the same as reductions in taxes. (Though, in this case, the reduction in withholding is an attempt to keep withholding more in line with taxes owed.)
You can read about the “Making Work Pay” and its effect on withholding here:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204447,00.html
If you want to know the difference between the taxes withheld and the taxes you actually owe someone will probably be glad to explain it to you.
Toto–
Here is more info:
http://www.taxgirl.com/calculating-the-making-work-pay-credit/
toto… the other way he cut our taxes was to obliterate the economy… thus we made less on average and therefore paid less taxes on the smaller amount of income
on the other hand, I personally did very well during the recession… but I also know how to live my life in a manner consistent with reducing my tax burden… something legalized by our Supreme Court many years ago
I proudly exercised my right not to vote again this cycle. The system to change to the right direction in my view will take much more than votes. It will take a change in the way the majority of our intellectuals think and/or the voters finally realizing where the current and totally irresponsible direction will lead us.
The Repubs were repudiated in 2008 and now the Dems in 2010. I would hope that the voters may be slowly realizing where the problem(s) lay.
What I found refreshing was to hear a few Repubs stating that the election was against the Dems and not for the Repubs and that the Repubs had deserved their repudiation in 2008.
What I find depressing as a libertarian is the mantra I hear from both sides, and the MSM particularly, that the government must now compromise to pass laws to “fix” our problems. Now if they had rephrased this to say nullify laws that were already passed ostensibly to “fix” problems I would be much more optimistic.
Toto your right. I mean, Obama did jack up the tax on cigarettes but that doesn’t count as a tax according to him. He did pass some tax cuts but they are crap because they are hard to qualify for. A lot of them are for businesses of 20 people or less.
Shoosh/Toto–
The “Making Pay Credit” isn’t that hard to qualify for. I think the larger reason people don’t consider the “Making Work Pay” credit a “cut” is that in 2008 we got the equivalent “cut” in a form of the (Bush) Rebate, which was larger. (See levels here: http://www.mahalo.com/bush-tax-rebate-2008 )
So, now for the Obama tax “reduction” applied to an individual with no childrend:
* 2008: You get the bush “rebate” ($600 for individuals with incomes of up to $75,000 a year ).
* 2009/2010: You get the smaller “Obmama credit” (“a refundable tax credit of up to $400 for working individuals”, ) .
Since, the Obmana “credit” is smaller than the “Bush rebate”, the net effect is that you pay $200 more in taxes under Bush than Obama.
The wording of the New York Times article would make people who don’t understand the difference between withholding and taxes paid (like non-US citizens and possibly readers of the NYT), or people who are stupid enough to think that you should forget to consider the tax structure the year before Obama “cut” taxes when deciding whether the “Obama cut” is really a “cut”.
The reason American (other than the New York Times writers, Obama’s supporters) think that Obama did not cut taxes is that these people know Obama did not cut taxes. The reason Foreigners (and possibly some readers of the New York Times) think Obama cut taxes is because the New York Times writes misleading articles (whether they do so on purpose or owing to lack of brain cells I do not know.)
Dr shooshmoon (Comment#58814) November 5th, 2010 at 6:50 am
It’s not the big companies like GM that employ the most people, it’s the small businesses.
Kenneth Fritsch,
I don’t find any of it depressing. Facing reality is something that voters are generally unwilling to do, and politicians (acting much like crack dealers) usually do their very best to facilitate that unwillingness. The encouraging thing is that a few politicians have begun to say that deficits at 1/3 of the Federal budget are not sustainable, and have even raised the prospect of (gasp!) reducing entitlement benefits. Experience has shown that when either national party has exclusive control, spending always balloons relative to taxes. So long as government control remains divided, there is some prospect for true compromise… like substantial cuts in entitlements, farm supports, and military spending linked to some increases in taxes. Each side needs the other for political cover… they need someone to blame for the “unjustified” changes so they are not crucified by their respective “bases”. We will see if Mr. Obama has it in him to compromise on funding of his sacred cows; the only discouraging thing post election is that I put the odds of this are not more than 50:50.
SteveF
Yes!!!!