Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Election 2013

For an off-year election this had some important "tend" style things going on.

In New Jersey what passes for a moderate Republican, Chris Christie, easily won re-election over the non-entity Barbra Buono. With 84% of the vote in Christie was ahead 60%-38%.

However a buzz kill for Christie's presidential hopes were in exit polls that showed he would lose New Jersey to Hillary Clinton.

In Virginia lunatic fringe candidate Republican Ken Cuccinelli lost the gubernatorial election to Democrat Terry McAuliffe by 47.5% to 45.9%. Libertarian Robert Sarvis managed 6.6%.

But more important than the governor's race was the race for lieutenant governor where certified lunatic Republican E.W. Jackson got trounced by Democrat Ralph Northam 55% to 45%.

So what's the key take away here? Cuccinelli was far more conservative than Christie and Jackson was much, much more conservative than even Cuccinelli. So, despite what the right wing lunatic fringe is saying, the more conservative you are, the more likely you are to get clobbered in the general election.

The Republican's might manage to hold Attorney General in Virginia as Mark Obershain leads Democrat Mark Herring 50.3% to 49.7%. This is sort of unfortunate as there isn't much to choose from between Cuccinelli and Obershain.

The only reason Jackson was on the ballot was the Virginia GOP went from a primary system to a convention. Jackson would never have won even a GOP primary. He's that loony toons.

In New York City, it wasn't even close. Bill DeBlasio is up by about 3-1. My concern with DeBlasio is all about finances. Personally I would have liked to see Mike Bloomberg made mayor for life.

The last election of note is in the Alabama 1st District where a Republican run-off is taking place for the seat of the resigning Republican Representative. Both candidates are conservative whack jobs but we're talking about Alabama here so it's all relative. Apparently the establishment Republican Bradley Byrne is going to defeat his Tea Party challenger by 52.5% to 47.5%.

All in all a really bad night for the Tea Party and that's a good thing.

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